Rats

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grip

Forager
Nov 30, 2009
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here and there
Get the local terrier lads in for a few sessions if they're any good that will dent their numbers for a while at least. then a few well placed tunnel traps will help keep the numbers in check.
 
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Corso

Full Member
Aug 13, 2007
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Get the local terrier lads in for a few sessions if they're any good that will dent their numbers for a while at least. then a few well placed tunnel traps will help keep the numbers in check.

Or get a cat

I've one that's a real ratter

only issue is you often end up with a present or two...
 

Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
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Thanks for that - about half the price of a Kania and a fifth of the price of the Goodnature A18.

Out of stock at the moment but will make enquiries. :)

According to the Forestry Commission, trapping and warfarin poisoning are the most effective ways of controlling squirrels. However, if I lay bait for a week, I can usually shoot between 6 or 15 squirrel in a morning - I would have difficulty achieving that with traps and I won't put poison down. It is worth noting that the FC state that any greys taken out in winter will have been replaced by summer!

See: https://www.forestry.gov.uk/PDF/fcpn004.pdf/$FILE/fcpn004.pdf

Apologies for the 'off-topic' tangent :)
 

Nice65

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Apr 16, 2009
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I’ve just discovered I’ve been working in the garage, in semi dark conditions, that my cupboards and drawers are full of droppings, some very fresh. Many are white. the local pest controller thinks the rat is eating plaster or chomping on the white brickwork of the garage, definitely something white, though we can’t see any sign of it. But it’s definitely eating white stuff. On pulling out all my wire wool, a huge drawerful, it seems it’s been used as bedding, rusted with pee. This is where the fresh turds are too. All my toolboxes and out in the open tools must have been covered in rat pee and I’ve been using them without seeing the problem until today getting out an old set of drum sanders. Once I started looking in with a torch I could see we’ve got a very busy chap in there. Not an infestation, just a chancer or maybe a male and female. Yuck, I’ve probably been wiping my face, touching my mouth, doorhandles etc without realising I had rat pee on me. Not good at all, and it’s going to take some overalls and gloves to get things clean again. Firstly, the rat(s) must die. Secondly, I need to put some sort of seal on the bottom of the garage door, the dogs are telling me this is where the rat is getting in. I need a rubber door seal I think. We’ve been here 8 yrs with nothing bar woodworm, so this little ratty is a bit of an opportunist and just using the place as a crashpad so far.

The guy I had round today, a local bloke with an excellent reputation and even a tv interview to his name, explained to me about poisons. Firstly, don’t be lazy and not continue topping up the bait trap when you see they’ve eaten it all, keep it full, or the rat will get ill, then be bait shy. Secondly, his toxins are far more effective than over the counter stuff you can get. Part of the reason for highly coloured poison is in those white droppings I mentioned. The rat will pass the colour of what it’s eaten in its droppings so you’ll know if you’re getting the culprit.

He’s set 3 fen traps in the garage without disturbing anything in the run, bar the bedding material, which has been removed. He’s hoping that no bed and disturbance might cause the rat to look about the place a bit and perhaps want a smidge of peanut butter for tea along with a busted neck. For instance, the packets of bird food in there haven’t been touched, full bags of peanuts, seeds, fat balls etc, he reckons the rat is simply following a pheromone trail to the drawer with the wire wool perhaps prepping a nest site and is sourcing food elsewhere.

It’s driving my Jack Russell and Patterdale mad, I ought to just lock those two in there for the night really, but I’m fairly sure we’d be getting an angry call from the neighbours in the middle of the night. :D
 
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Woody girl

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Mar 31, 2018
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Funny this topic should come up right now. Last week I heard a lot of scrabbling in my loft at night. Thought was probably rats or mice. Sounded like sherman tanks up there! Got my neighbour to put a trap up there. About 9.30 tonight there was a commotion and a half above my head I almost fell out of my chair! Called neighbour and he came round to look and we got a little mouse!
The river is canoe paradise at the moment so I asked him to haul my inflatable canoe down too which he kindly did... only to find mousy has knawed a massive hole in the gunnel. Totally unrepairable. Realy topped off my grumpy day! Its put out for the binmen now....a cuppa is not gonna cut it tonight! Where is that bottle of southern comfort? :aargh:
 
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Nice65

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Sorry, but...:lmao::lmao::lmao:

Slug a chug of Southern Comfort. If it’s any consolation, I lost the rear seats of my car to mice a few years ago, couldn’t sell it without replacing them so had to run it into the ground and scrap it.

Years ago we had what we thought was a rat or squirrel. We never caught the bugger and he wandered off with our rat trap too, possibly attached to the poor thing. So we tried a squirrel cage trap. Night after night, loads of noise, but the bait was disappearing without the trap springing.

Early one morning there was a proper racket going on up there, so I gently hoisted Snippy, our Jack Russell up through the loft hatch. All hell broke loose, the dog went crazy dashing about. My wife’s twenty something lad had come home in the early hours after a typical night of getting completely trolleyed, and shot out of his bedroom in his underpants shouting, “Mum, if that’s a squirrel it’s a ******* huge one”. Earliest I ever saw the bloke up in the morning :D
 
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Woody girl

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Thanks Nice65! I was realy upset as I'd saved for two years for that canoe and and I got it in a sale last October. It's never been in the river. Ah well what can you do about it. I was realy looking forward to a dabble in the river with it too! I've had a good cry about it and at least I got my revenge on mousey. Warning to all mice... Don't Mess With The Woody Girls Canoe!
 
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Robson Valley

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Nov 24, 2014
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I hate to see boats of any sort damaged (beyond repair = really?)

Too bad that old fashoined cathode ray tube televisions are extinct.
There was a 30,000VDC anode rat trap in each one (HAHAHAHAHAHA zzzzzaaaaappppp!!!!!)
 

Woody girl

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Yes absolutely beyond repair. Such a shame. I'm hating putting that much plastic in the bin too. I'd planned to have it for the rest of my natural . If mousey had only nibbled through the Base where there was an inch wide circular hole i could have saved it but the hole was over a foot long and about a foot wide all over the top of the gunnel so impossible to mend except proffessionaly and that would have cost more than the thing was worth.
Those little critters sure can do a lot of damage !
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
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According to the Forestry Commission, trapping and warfarin poisoning are the most effective ways of controlling squirrels. However, if I lay bait for a week, I can usually shoot between 6 or 15 squirrel in a morning - I would have difficulty achieving that with traps and I won't put poison down. It is worth noting that the FC state that any greys taken out in winter will have been replaced by summer!

See: https://www.forestry.gov.uk/PDF/fcpn004.pdf/$FILE/fcpn004.pdf

Apologies for the 'off-topic' tangent :)
Yeah. 6 squirrels a day is less than the legal hunting limits of 8 per day here. And those limits were designed to ensure sustainability, not control. I suspect to have any real affect you’d need every hunter (and a lot of hunters at that)taking double that number for a sustained period.
 

Nice65

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Apr 16, 2009
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Thanks Nice65! I was realy upset as I'd saved for two years for that canoe and and I got it in a sale last October. It's never been in the river. Ah well what can you do about it. I was realy looking forward to a dabble in the river with it too! I've had a good cry about it and at least I got my revenge on mousey. Warning to all mice... Don't Mess With The Woody Girls Canoe!

That’s bad news really, I’m sorry to hear you never even got out in it. If you have house insurance now’s the time to use it.

Mice are terribly destructive, they’ve ruined masses of our stuff over the years. The car seats were the most expensive, it was hundreds to get them replaced. Even if things aren’t too badly damaged, there’s still the hygiene issue with anything that’s been rodent piddled upon.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
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Snakes die here. It's too cold and wet
Yes absolutely beyond repair. Such a shame. I'm hating putting that much plastic in the bin too. I'd planned to have it for the rest of my natural . If mousey had only nibbled through the Base where there was an inch wide circular hole i could have saved it but the hole was over a foot long and about a foot wide all over the top of the gunnel so impossible to mend except proffessionaly and that would have cost more than the thing was worth.
Those little critters sure can do a lot of damage !

Are you a member on Song of the Paddle ?
http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/

Pretty much anything is repairable. Might not look brilliant, but it can be very sound. I think I'd post a thread on there and see what folks suggest before I tossed the canoe out. There are a lot of very capable people over there.

M
 

Tony

White bear (Admin)
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Apr 16, 2003
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Thanks for the all the input, shot 5 of them yesterday. We'll get hold of some more traps as well.
For those that have suggested getting a dog and cats, Err, no. Already have a dog and cats, lovely, but no.
 

Woody girl

Full Member
Mar 31, 2018
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Snakes die here. It's too cold and wet


Are you a member on Song of
Paddle ?
http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/

Pretty much anything is repairable. Might not look brilliant, but it can be very sound. I think I'd post a thread on there and see what folks suggest before I tossed the canoe out. There are a lot of very capable people over there.

M
The damage was far more than I stated. Spray deck was almost gone all the stretchy cords were nibbled through. One of the inflation valves was nibbled right up to the edge of it. A total mess! I'very been cleaning up all the bits of plastic and mouse droppings this morning. Bin men came 8.30 am and it's gone now.
I may just get a cheap replacement if I can find one, I'd always dreamed of having a proper canadian canoe. But I have nowhere to store it no car to transport it and it's something I only do now and then so not realy worth having one.
Some things are not meant to be. I can still go down to the river and watch and marvel at the experts playing on the wier.
 
The damage was far more than I stated. Spray deck was almost gone all the stretchy cords were nibbled through. One of the inflation valves was nibbled right up to the edge of it. A total mess! I'very been cleaning up all the bits of plastic and mouse droppings this morning. Bin men came 8.30 am and it's gone now.
I may just get a cheap replacement if I can find one, I'd always dreamed of having a proper canadian canoe. But I have nowhere to store it no car to transport it and it's something I only do now and then so not realy worth having one.
Some things are not meant to be. I can still go down to the river and watch and marvel at the experts playing on the wier.

This means they are bloody hungry! So poison is the way to start
 

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