"You Dirty Rat......."

[seeitrun2006]

Wharf rats are very big!

Where I grew up in rural north GA we lived about 2000 ft. from a railroad track near what's called a "switch track". Trains had to stop there and wait for another train to pass before proceeding down the track. Some times the train could set 2 hours of more waiting for the other train.

When freight trains came in from places like southern Alabama, Mississippi those critters would stay in the box cars until they set on the switch track. The rats would then jump off and head to the nearest food source. OUR HOUSE! The only way my dad could kill them was with a .22 rifle.

Those suckers chewed thru the drain line leading to the washing machine. The drain line to the kitchen sink. Chewed thru our basement door. In some areas they have been known to get into a baby bed and bite babies because they could smell the milk from when the baby was fed. YECCH!

My wife and I lived in an area near a field for 11 years. We always got field mice usually after the first freeze. We would have last least 3 or 4 mice every season. Notice I said mice not RATS!

Those trains were responsible for setting the woods on fire behind our house all the time. Mainly during the summer. Sparks coming from the wheel axel on the box cars would fly into the dry brush and the rest is history.

Hope you do not see that rat again!

 

[washernut]

I had SOMETHING in my house this last fall. All I know was it was furry and had a long skinny tail. I know this because it went skittering along a drain pipe over my head one evening when I was in the basement doing laundry. I had been hearing something in the attic scurrying around at night but immediately thought chipmunk or squirrel. But that was not the case. I went to the local hardware and purchased these little packets of green pellets. The instructions said to just toss them around in different places throughout the house. Since I also have dogs myself I was not nuts about the idea of throwing poison all over the house for the dogs to get into. So, I threw them in places the dogs couldn't go. ie...attic, basement, under the sinks, behind the washer/dryer. I specifically put a packet where I had seen the thing that night on the top of the foundation between the foundation and the floor of the house. The next day I went and looked and every packet but one was gone. The thing about this stuff is they carry it back to wherever they live or nest. That way everybody gets a taste. From what I understand they get very thirsty and go outside to find a water source just before they die. Therefore you don't have a smelly dead whatever in your house.

 

[scott55405]

What's the difference really between a mouse and a rat anyway. I think rats are maybe bigger, but other than that I don't know if I saw them side by side I'd know a difference.

I only ever saw a rat once that I know of, on the street. It was a very large brown thing that had crawled up out of a storm drain. I assume it eventually went back from whence it came. I used to see raccoons in Minneapolis once in a while that I think came from the same place.

 

[sudsmaster]

Maggie,

I suggest you visit your local Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH) and pick up a "Hav-a-Hart" live trap. If the rat is as big as a cat, you probably should get the one with raccons on the box. It's about 2 feet long and 1 foot tall. This model is about $60. There is also a "squirrel size" version for about $30, as I recall. That one might do also, depending on the rat.

These traps are easy to set, once you get the hang of it. You just put the bait on a little platform, and it's connected via a rod to a trip that lowers the entrance door rather securely. If you're home when the rat is caught, you'll probably hear the clatter. What you do with the rat once it's in the trap is up to you. Personally I'd probably kill it because it will be very difficult to trap it twice.

You need to do something because it's even possible you have more than one rat - a couple - and you know what kind of trouble that means!

 

[maggie~hamilton]

Thx for the suggestion Sudsy, but I am gonna try the "little green pills" first. The idea of having to dispatch a trapped rat back to its maker is a bit more than this big city sissy can wrap his mind around.

 

[sudsmaster]

OK, Maggie, but like the others said, if you poison the rat, make sure the dogs don't get into the poison, and also that you find the body!

If you do go the live trap route, you could probably call LA's Animal Control dept and they will show up and take the critter(s) off your hands, and they should return the trap to you sans rat. This is part of why you pay taxes.

 

[maggie~hamilton]

L A Animal Control

is in a state of chronic chaos and crisis. I have a very dear friend who used to be their front-line P.R. person. She, under the intense stress of the job, eventually buckled under the pressure and left. The staff turnover there is great, and the present director is very unpopular. The LAAC as a whole is a constant and highly visible target of the animal rights groups (PETA etc.) because of the high euthanasia rate. But, as I found out from my friend, that's really a double-edged sword; and indeed that was one of the issues that were the most stressful. No one there wants to kill any animal but they are so overwhelmed with unwanted pets and strays that they have no choice. They could not build a shelter large enough to accommodate all the sad-fate animals that eventually find their way there.

If only more people listened to Bob Barker and Betty White, bless their animal-loving hearts.......

 

[sudsmaster]

Maggie,

I understand, but I doubt that anyone at LAAC would be all that stressed about euthanizing a big rat. Maybe someone at PETA would, though, one never knows.

Fortunately all the rats I've seen around here are of the smallish variety - about 2-3 times the size of a field mouse. One of my cats hunts them avidly, but he was sleeping on the job this spring so I had to set some rat traps (the old fashioned bail type) inside a fenced off area where I saw the rats coming and going at will. Got about three of them. They all went into the compost pile. Dust to dust, or so they say.

 

[launderess]

Rodents Cannot Vomit

Frequently rats and mice will die from eating food that was off and made them sick, but since they cannot upchuck, they choke on the sutff and die. It is the reason why rats in particular are quite choosy about the foods they eat, and will nibble a bit of any new food and wait to see if it makes them ill or not.

A old timer told us kids a story about how he and his brother dispatched a rat in their kitchen as children. Apparently they mixed up a dish of god only knows what, and placed it near the range. Well the next day the plate was empty and they found the rodent behind the range, swollen almost twice it's size.

There was a plant which was used as a rodentcide because it caused a vomiting reaction, which of course the rodent could not do, so it would die. Rationale was that since humans and pets could vomit, it was safe to use around the home as opposed to other types of bait.

Personally wouldn't set foot in a home where I knew a rat had taken up residence. If I saw one in my house, you'd find me outside sitting on my luggage wating to go home to mother's. Only to return under my own power upon certified notice that the varmit or varmits were gone. Have seen horror stories of people in NYC apartments living with hordes of rats on news reports.

L.

 

[goprog]

Can't belch, can't pass gas, can't upchuck - humans are
definately a higher form of life....

 

[washernut]

I really wasn't interested in the rats welfare after the vet told me that a large rat can kill a small dog. Since I have two small dogs both of which would just think it's a new squeak toy I knew it had to go asap.

 

[maggie~hamilton]

LAAC

It's not that I think they would hestitate to kill the rat, but the time it would take them to get around to coming by for it.

Used to be, when you would call to report road kill they'd be there in a jif but no longer. I saw a poor dead kitty up on San Vicente, a major boulevard near my apartment. Called Animal Control and it was not until several days later that the corpse finally disappeared. And, at that, I am not sure LAAC was who retrived it.

 

[sudsmaster]

Baiting a Rat Trap

The problem with peanut butter is that the rat can gently lick off the stuff without necessarily setting off the trap.

I've used a raw almond wedged under the bait hook on a bail-type rat trap, with good results.

PS- Maggie, you'd better do something soon. Laundress will never attend one of your candlelight suppers unless your home is certified to be rat-free.

 

[polkanut]

My grandmother was vehement about rat control. Once, as a small girl (6-7yrs. old), they had problems with rats in the chicken coop on the farm. Her brother Elmer, had the "bright" idea to have my grandma chase them out of the coop, and he would shoot them with a .22 rifle as they came out. What he didn't tell her was that he was going to lock her in there. Well, grandma started screaming for help. When my great-grandma got ahold of Uncle Elmer, he wasn't able to sit for at least a month, if not longer. Until her dying day, whenever you mentioned the word rat, she would just about go berserk, no kidding. Grandma passed away 2yrs. ago @ 102. Can't say I blamed her at all.

 

[maggie~hamilton]

Update...

See photo.

I heard the trap in the kitchen go SNAP around midnight. I believe the rat was exterminated instantly, because by the time I got out there -- just a few seconds after hearing the trap go off -- it was already quite dead, and did not appear to have suffered. It actually looked rather peaceful and, well, hmm -- nonchalant. If one can be nonchalant in death, that is.

Note quarter for size reference. This one is much smaller than the one our friend Jorge and I saw. I think this one is a baby. Or maybe a teenager. The one I saw previously was about the size of a 6-week-old kitten, and the one our friend Jorge saw he described as "HUUUUUUGE." So I suspect we have a Rat Family surreptitiously cohabitating with us.

Yes.

{{{*Shudder*}}}

 

[tomturbomatic]

Its eyes coordinate so well with the color of your floor.

 

[maggie~hamilton]

"Haven't you heard, Blanche? We've got rats."

Loading…

upload.wikimedia.org

 

[maggie~hamilton]

I've called the pest control people, the exterminator is coming out this morning to retrieve the rat and set a new trap. The lady I talked to seemed to confirm that there's probably more than one.

When the exterminator called, I described the critter to the him and he said it does sound like a baby rat.

Check out this heartfelt message from a friend:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rodents, just like the rest of us, are just trying to live and get by as best they can. S/he didn't really do anything 'wrong' and I'm quite sure didn't deserve that horrible fate.

Next time, CRL, try an alternative, humane method. Here are a few links to humane solutions to your problem. Please have a look at them:

Loading…

www.abundantearth.com

Loading…

www.themousedepot.com

Loading…

www.beautifulbritain.co.uk

Loading…

glass.typepad.com

Perhaps next time there will be a happier ending. Good for you, good for them, good for everyone.

Peace & Love,

Randy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wrote back to him,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Randy, you know I am an animal lover as much as you are. However, when it comes to rats and other household pests I have to draw the line. Vermin carry disease and transmit filth. We have two dogs here. If one of them cornered a rat and it bit them and it had rabies, what then? Should I write off the loss and adopt the rat as a new pet?!

Besides, as I said, I am certain that the rat did not suffer. When the exterminator put out the traps, he showed me how powerful the spring is. It literally snapped a carrot in half. That much force will kill the rat instantly. People have this image of a poor rat stuck in a trap wriggling and writhing in agony for hours but that's not how it happens. It's instantaneous. Now, the horrible glue traps are a different matter and I would never, ever use that type.

I appreciate your tenderness and sensitivity but again, we have to make a distinction here. Sorry, but per the "humane trapping method," I'm not really inclined to catch a rat in a box and then drive 5 miles distant and release it. Besides, what would the rat then do? Right. Go into someone else's house. I doubt it would be a "Lassie Come Home" scenario.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then, right on cue, came the following from a friend who lives in Turkey:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ah, rats. Here in Istanbul with the enormous street cat population one only sees rats occasionally. But my girlfriend, renting a house in my old neighborhood, woke up to find she had been bitten on the jaw by something skittering away behind the bookcase. She's gotten all her rabies shots, found the hole, covered it with sheet metal, and gotten ready to go home to the States. She has to get the last shot today, because a rabies shot is 15 lira -- about $8 -- and $600 in the good old US of A. And they say Turkey is backward. But I have four cats and although I have seen my kittycats many times sitting intensely before a particular place in the wall, I've never seen a rat or mouse. Just a nose, all by itself, whiskers and all, lying out in the garden yesterday.

Ah, life in the Big City.

 

[toggleswitch]

M-I-C-K-E-Y ______ M-O-U-S- E

~Rodents, just like the rest of us, are just trying to live and get by as best they can.

And to that I say, you have the entire world in which to live. You are not on my lease and don't pay rent or utilities. So I'm evicting your @$$ from MY house. If you don't go when asked I'm just gonna have to KILL you. You've been warned. Now get out!

Glad to hear you are having the pest professionally and properly disposed-of. Avoids following scenario.

 

[toggleswitch]

Rats- Collect