A sad year for the mouses

6 days later ...
My one regret was not being able to trap it, then I would know of its demise, I must be losing my touch :(
But it had certainly consumed enough bromadiolone, over the last few days, to do it harm.

The last couple of days, there has been no sign of it, its not been using the hole that it had taken over from the mice,
I'd lightly covered in in leaves, had it been still alive, it would have either pushed them to the side, or taken them for nesting material.
And the mice are back. ( I've caught a couple in the traps)

This morning I found it ( a male) dead, not to far from the feeders.
 
Cobra said:
6 days later ...
My one regret was not being able to trap it, then I would know of its demise, I must be losing my touch :(
But it had certainly consumed enough bromadiolone, over the last few days, to do it harm.

The last couple of days, there has been no sign of it, its not been using the hole that it had taken over from the mice,
I'd lightly covered in in leaves, had it been still alive, it would have either pushed them to the side, or taken them for nesting material.
And the mice are back. ( I've caught a couple in the traps)

This morning I found it ( a male) dead, not to far from the feeders.
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Interesting you found a dead one. I’ve poisoned a fair few in my garden while I was poultry keeping. They always took up residence under my various sheds where it was impractical to dig or trap them but I never saw a body.
 
sphexx said:
Interesting you found a dead one. I’ve poisoned a fair few in my garden while I was poultry keeping. They always took up residence under my various sheds where it was impractical to dig or trap them but I never saw a body.
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Even in very large commercial premises I rarely found a dead one either, well that is a handful, compared to the 100's that died.

Happy to post a picture as proof :D
 
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Cobra said:
Even in very large commercial premises I rarely found a dead one either, well that is a handful, compared to the 100's that died.

Happy to post a picture as proof :D
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Yeah, I’m not doubting you. Sick animals have a tendency to return ‘home’ anyway or in this case stay in their burrows when sick or maybe killed by the other rats.
 
That was an interesting thread, glad you got the bugger, I used to shoot them with an air riffle as others in the thread.
 
Dale. said:
Pesky things, glad you got him.
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Cheers Dale :)
The preventive measures are staying down for awhile. Just in case he wasn't the only one, but as I posted above, I'm pretty sure it was.

Sitting outside a bit earlier, I saw the ground cover plants move, I thought FFS! not again, grabbing something heavy I went for a look,
It was broad daylight and a Hedgehog ( I'm pretty sure its not one I've seen before) was picking off insects from the plants.
From there he ( he was walking on tip toe so little doubt it was a he) wandered over to the fern bed and continued his feast.

It was pretty obvious where he was going to go next, so I put a few meal worms down, that area, as treat, and he totally ignored them.
So I'm pretty sure its not a regular of mine.
 
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Fuji Dave said:
Glad you got him Chris,
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So am I Dave, so am I (y)

Fuji Dave said:
when I was a young boy our neighbour put down some poison to kill some rats in his garden. Sadly he seriously screwed up as cats and birds had some of it and died.
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The modern 2nd generation anticoagulants wont do that, but of course many years ago, there were far worse thing available "Over the counter" :(
 
Fuji Dave said:
one being cymag which stuck the fear of god right up me.
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That was very effective, but banned a long time ago, it was replaced by phostoxin.
There is a cure for Cymag, but not for phostoxin :(
 
That's a cracker Robin (y)(y)
 
Saw a rat in my garden yesterday. Can't use old fashioned rat traps any more due to small children. So have put a vertical paving slab to block where it was getting in, and some poison blocks in the rat run between the garage and the fence.
 
Craikeybaby said:
Saw a rat in my garden yesterday. Can't use old fashioned rat traps any more due to small children. So have put a vertical paving slab to block where it was getting in, and some poison blocks in the rat run between the garage and the fence.
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When we had a few rats I got one of these(or something very similar) -

www.ebay.co.uk

RAT TRAP BAIT BOX SNAP TRAP NO POISON SOLUTION SAFER THAN RAT POISON | eBay

Just Snap Trap or Snap Trap and box. For use in areas where you do not want to use poison. USING POISON CAN CAUSE HARM TO OTHER WILDLIFE INCLUDING OWLS, CATS AND BIRDS DUE TO SECONDARY POISONING. Bait Box designed to hold this specific Snap Trap in place (inside the box).
www.ebay.co.uk

- because we did not want to use poison due to possible effects on wildlife.

I made a tunnel out of bricks at each entry point to reduce the chance of a cat putting its paw in and getting trapped and to exclude the hedgehog. It worked very well, at least for the young rats, and caught seven.

Dave
 
I saw the rat again yesterday morning, two of the poison blocks had gone, and a new one went within a few hours. Haven't seen the rat since.
 
Craikeybaby said:
I saw the rat again yesterday morning, two of the poison blocks had gone, and a new one went within a few hours. Haven't seen the rat since.
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I thread the poison blocks on wire so they can’t carry them off and possibly leave where other wildlife can find them. If I know where their burrow is (eg under a shed) I poke the wire + blocks down, anchored to something.
 
As Richard say' you really should anchor them down,
one way or another, as they are likely to carry the blocks off and stash them "for later"
 
Cobra said:
As Richard say' you really should anchor them down,
one way or another, as they are likely to carry the blocks off and stash them "for later"
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Indeed. I’ve had them rolling eggs away to stash them. Haven’t seen them doing it, must be quite tricky but I know they were rats.
 
We had scratching noises coming from our loft. We assumed it was birds but after blocking a few gaps, the noises continued.
Checking the loft showed trails of droppings. Using t'internet, we established that we didn't really know what the dropping were from. The droppings were similar to rat droppings but were too small.
I left a few of the usual spring traps up there but didn't catch anything, then left a different type of trap which caught one. They were young rats.
We got an exterminator in who traced their route. They (the rats) were able to leave the sewer junction (man-hole) in my back garden through a small hole in the mortar that joined the earthworks. They were able to follow a small channel to the walls of the house (created by rainwater draining from my patio) and then climb up the wall cavity to the loft. Only the young rats were small enough to make the trip. They cannot be eradicated from the sewer, so remaking the mortar joints gave us a cure (ensuring no rats were visiting at the time).
 
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Cluster said:
We got an exterminator in who traced their route. They (the rats) were able to leave the sewer junction (man-hole) in my back garden through a small hole in the mortar that joined the earthworks
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Its amazing the routes they find to gain access, and its always worth consulting a professional pestie if you are stuck for
answers, generally they have seen it all.
 
I've just had to call the Council pest control in. A few years ago one of our neighbours got some chickens and then three more did - hence a real explosion in rat numbers. They been with us and our neighbours for several years now. Last year we just sat and watched as young rats climbed up our pea plants in broad daylight and removed the pods! B******s!

There's obviously at least one living in the roof space above me in my office. No idea how it gets in or out because there's no access as far as I can see.
 
jerry12953 said:
No idea how it gets in or out because there's no access as far as I can see.
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I assume you have cavity walls? whether they are "filled or not" rats are every adapt at using these as highways.
Solid walls, they can and will climb the walls and enter under a tile, rather like squirrels.
 
jerry12953 said:
Could be the latter......it's a converted garage with solid walls.
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I take it that means its a single storey? easy enough, especially if you have shrubbery or a tree very close to the walls?.
 
jerry12953 said:
Damn clever little critters! We console ourselves with the knowledge that they're nice clean country rats here!
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They certainly are clever!
And yes generally very clean critters too.
I hope they get it, before it causes any damage to pipes or wiring ect up there.
 
RedRobin said:
I have often heard said, by pet rat owners, that rats are fastidiously clean and super intelligent.
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I had a pet one years ago, it would often wander around house, talking of Christmas, I caught it with its head in a glass of alcohol.
Obviously some had been consumed. Its tough controlling 2 legs when you have had too much.
Can you imagine what its like trying to control 4?
It fell off the back of the settee, thankfully forward onto a pile of cushions, no harm done, but I bet that was one hell of a hangover :D
 
My daughter had pet rats when she was younger. They were wonderful pets; clever, affectionate and playful. They even managed to win over my mother who had her generation's inbuilt prejudice against them!
 
jerry12953 said:
Don't get me started on the hamster stories.....please........ :LOL:
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Oh go on :D
My kids had a pair of russian hamsters, damn things were escape artist, we ended up floating the cage in the bath
at night so we knew where they were, That said the dog was always good at sniffing them out
 
sphexx said:
I’ve never kept them but by all accounts they make good pets.
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And good entertainment. The partner of a friend of mine kept rats in a large glass tank - with living quarters and things to climb one etc. It made a great 'television' for a border terrier that would sit and watch them all day long. :LOL:
 
All this talk of pet rats...............

It reminded of one day when I did volunteer work in a PDSA surgery.............now bearing in mind this was over 50years ago I cannot recall the exact circumstances of why the vets accept the request. A young woman came in over 23 white rats and requested that they be put down, I think I recall that something along the lines of that they were a family group and she knew (possibly tried) that they could not be re-homed as group....hence the request.

Bit sad really because they were a friendly and a tad endearing :(
 
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