Barrie...

You need a feral cat or 2...

I have 2 that I befriended and have now taken in and they have kept the rodent population down and out of sight...inside my garage, palm houses and away from my rhody's etc...

Palmettoman Z6-Ajax, On

Large rat trap with peanut butter (The kind that snaps their necks). Thats what I have been using for my nice little fuzzy tailed tree rats that keep digging in my stuff. Works very well.

Hi Barrie;

Move to Alberta. 🙂 🙂 🙂

The cold weather keeps the BC rats from crossing the mountains and the rat patrol keeps them from crossing the Saskatchewan border.

Then all you have to worry about is the cold killing them. 😥 😥

That is a pity that the little b*** is killing your plants. What about rat poison? I'd be tempted to get a CO2 pellet gun, set out something edible as bait and fill the little rodent with holes. 😈

Allen

Did someone say rat? Yummm...

PALMETTOMAN ... you're right. There are very few feral cats around here. There was one a few years ago but haven't seen it since.

Laaz ... Indeed I have and continue to use big rat traps with peanut butter. I've caught many this way (two together in a single trap once!) but this bugger is one gene smarter I guess. I did reload the trap with an almond wedged into the trip mechanism. I'll see how this works, if not I've got plan B, C, and D ready. Stay tuned for pics! 😀

Allen ... No way Jose! Alberta is OK for short visit but the ocean is where I belong. I've got a pellet rifle but I'd have to stay up late night (a few beer) waiting in the dark ... a bad combo. Poison is a last resort since you never know where it'll die (in your attic maybe) or if someone's pet gets ahold of it and is inadvertantly poisoned.

Cali-wanna-b ... I do like the snake idea but my wife would scream blue murder!

I knew a Chinese guy who ate rats in China back in the 1940's. Nah ... times where tough then, no so tough now for him to do that again. 😆

Cheers, Barrie.

Cali,
Kinda off the tree thing, but 6-7 years ago, before my second kid was born. I was huge into reptiles. I heard from a friend that had another friend that lived on a farm just outside the town I lived in, tell the story about how mice and rats were eating all his grain that he fed the cattle with. The mice & rats had becaome too much for him to handle and was costing him huge $$.
I asked if he was afraid of BIG snakes. He said no. I advised going to the pet store and buying a Ball Python and putting it out there for a couple months in the Summer.
Ball Pythons are EXTREMELLY nice snakes and I have never been biten by one. They eat, eat & eat and are very inexpensive at pet stores ($50). I told him as long as there is a food source out there he will stay in the barn.
A few lears later I stopped by the farm and asked the guy. Instead of telling me, he showed me. He took me out to his barn and showed me where the snake was sleeping and said that, thats his spot (kinda like a cat's perch). He said he lays up there until he is hungry and then gets some rats and goes back up there. He said he has him out there for May, June July, August and then brings him in and it has helped out both in the mice treatment and also he likes it because it's really neat that he can tell people.

Cool story Wes! I have heard of farmers around here using Black Rat snakes for just such a purpose. They are a native snake here and will stay as long as the food is there then leave. I have a 5' Ball Python and a 6' Brazilian Rainbow boa. They are both very docile and eat alot of rats. In a sick way I love watching them eat, I HATE RATS!!! I had a rat jump onto and off of my back in a basement once, I screamed like a little school girl. 😳

Craig, which of your two snakes is that a picture of?

Wes, great story...but

and then brings him in

😯
So are we talking about a bunch of bachelors here? 😆 😆

Barrie, you were concerned about poison that a rat would crawl away somewhere to die and ROT.
I pulled out my box of "Riddex Bloks" made by Wilson, 450g "domestic application" $10.35 at hardware store.
"kills rats and mice". Toxic to fish (and wildlife generally).
They actually dry up (eeeewwww nevertheless) and there's no smell.

I've got a dog (that I want to protect) so Bloks are placed in areas inaccessible to pets,
i.e. along a garage wall where, say, a freezer prevents a dog from going behind it,
or under some scrap lumber/wood along a wall (where rodents prefer to travel).
Maybe behind some bricks in your GH?

Put it along a wall near where their poop is found.
Worked for me for the mice in the garage.
Barb

The Brazilian, can you post a pic for the group cause I would like them to see how BEAUTIFUL of a snake that is.
I never had a Brazilian, but I had a few Columbian Red Tail and LOVED them. What a GORGOUS snake those are too.
Before I had my second son, I kept some of the rattlers. I will post them in the "Off Topic" forum.

Snakes are out of the equation here for various reasons.
I did set out a nice buffet of rat bait today ... table for one ... no tip required ... all you can eat.
This was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back ... another casualty, Dioon spinulosum seedling.

Cheers, Barrie.

OMG BARRIE!!!!!!
YEEEEEEA, after that Spinulosum, I would drop an A-BOMB on that thing.
WOW, how disappointing!

You bet. I'd set out at night with a 22 & blast those rodents. The plants are toxic, they shouldn't be alive after eating just a small amount.

Hell if had that problem with my Encephalartos I would be blowing the crap out of anything within 50 ft...

I wish it was that simple guys. I'd love to shoot me a rat or two like I did when I was a kid. Like I said, the WAR IS ON and operation "Buffet Dinner" is in full swing.

Cheers, Barrie.

PS. Laaz, I like the gif. too bad it won't work for me in real life 😆

Barrie my wife gets pissed when I shoot or rat trap the squirrel's... I just tell her too bad, they are not going to destroy all I work for. I have a crossman pump pistol that does a very nice job of dropping them quickly...

Worth it's weight in gold... http://www.airgundepot.com/1377c.html Then again, I might have to check this baby out... http://www.airgundepot.com/walther-nighthawk-air-pistol.html