How...embarrasing.

HomeLAN

HomeLAN

New Member
Soooo, about every other year around this time, we have a rat to move into the crawlspace and attempt to homestead for the fall/winter. My normal reaction is to put out the D-con poison and let it do its thing - 4-5 days, no more rodent.

It's happened this year. My mother spent the night Sunday, and at 10 PM, she's yelling up the stairs that I need to get down to the basement. She heard the bastard rummaging in the ultility closet, which is where the access to the crawlspace is. She opened the door, and he was like, "Hi there!" Woke the kid up, freaked the wife out, it was just bad on a lot of levels.

Anyway, I went to the hardware store yesterday and picked up the D-con, but the guy at Ace convinced me to try a snap-trap set inside a cardboard box first. Bait it with peanut butter, and you've created a nice, dark spot which smells like peanut butter - heaven for a rat. This way, you don't deal with the wait time.

I did that last night, and heard it go off after dinner with my in-laws. Went down there, his body's still sticking out of the box, obviously alive, but his head's in the box. I go upstairs, wondering aloud the best way to finish him off. My father-in-law suggests drowning, but that requires a little more handling than I'd prefer. So, as I went to go find a long handled mallet, he goes downstairs. Decides to drown him without me, takes the box off, reaches down to grab him and - gets bit.

*Sigh*. So, I now have a mother who got to meet the rat in my house, and father-in-law who got bit by him (nobody else knows that), and the rat is still going. He apparently triggered the trap, avoided getting killed, ate the peanut butter, and split.

Screw it. The D-con goes out tonight.
 
Gone. I nailed those bastards by laying down a perimeter o' death around the house using diazinon at about 15 times the recommended strength. Now, if the dad-in-law avoids rabies and bubonic, we'll be in business. :rolleyes:
 
Me spouse's stepfather is a technician for Orkin, so we get loaded up on stuff every fall and spring. They have some blocks that we can just put out here and there, and the mice eat it. It causes tremendous thirst, and when they drink it then kills them. Usually that results in them dying somewhere besides inside the house, which is right groovy as well.

Or you could just get a pet black snake...

I would rather have the mice. Hell, I'd rather have Osama Bin Laden in the house as a snake. Me spouse feels the same about mice though.
 
HL, kinda wish for that Canadian health plan right about now, eh? Ya gotta give the old man props for having big brass ones. Personally, I'd have just stomped the bastard while his head was still in to box. I've had to do it a time or two with mice (and one squirrel) at the cottage. Snap traps are supposed to kill them on impact, but that's never been the case with me. Every single one I've used, the blighters still been squealing, or had a bit snipped off and bled to death, leaving a trail behind
 
Steve, did he go to the hospital to check for rabies? Shit, that sucks. I've only ever been bitten by a dog but I don't remember it, just have the scars to remind me. I'd freak out if I was bit by a rat on my hand no less.

We're having a problem this year too. Mice were first, we got them early with the glue traps. Now we're dealing with crickets (glue traps) and ants (baited peanut-butter smelling round thingies).

Those ant traps used to do the trick in like two days. They're still around after finding & baiting on Saturday. I'm starting to worry.
 
I actually screamed when I walked into the kitchen two nights ago, flipped the light on as I was walking in (bare feet) and almost stepped on one. It jumped towards me instead of away, the little bugger.

Alright, I have to stop talking about this. I'm getting the itchies.
 
No he didn't go get checked. He barely got snagged by one tooth, and he force bled it in an attempt to clean it out. We shall see.

As for buying a snake, that'd be a bigger problem for me. Only good snake is on a pair of boots.
 
Professur said:
HL, kinda wish for that Canadian health plan right about now, eh? Ya gotta give the old man props for having big brass ones. Personally, I'd have just stomped the bastard while his head was still in to box.
Click to expand...

I was barefoot. Thus my search for the mallet.
 
Yeah, I thought that might be the case. Climate differences and all. When I'm up at the cottage, heavy workboots are the norm, unless I'm headed for the lake.
 
Big, hairy black bastard, too. About 11 inches, without the tail. My mother keeps telling my wife she thought it was a cat at first, which freaks the spouse out every time. :D
 
Two things that I use for ants... salt and/or baby powder.

The salt won't kill the ants but it will get them to find a new home. Babypowder is like a wall against ants. They can't crawl over it or walk on it. Sticks to their little feet and they don't like that. I use the powder near my walls and the salt for under the patio. :)

Rats, like mice, are fun aren't they? Wild rats anyway. (I've had pet rats).

I have seen a variation on the rat-traps being sold around here. The edge of the snap-bar is wavy instead of straight and there's an indentation on the base to accomodate the extra..er...penetration of the snap-bar.

If peanutbutter doesn't work...try sliced cheese. You can squeeze it into the holes of the trigger-plate. Makes it harder to remove without triggering the trap.

Oh..last one. Drill a hole on the far edge of the platform. Tie a string to it and onto a wall or floor nail. Stops the little buggers from 'leaving a trail of blood' as Prof said :)
 
HomeLAN said:
Big, hairy black bastard, too. About 11 inches, without the tail. My mother keeps telling my wife she thought it was a cat at first, which freaks the spouse out every time. :D
Click to expand...

I may have said this but "Georgia's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. Any idea where he came from? Woods, sewer? I didn't think the "wild" was as close as that to you.

Marc, the blood trail is from them having bits snipped off and left in the trap. tying it down wouldn't achieve anything. The notch for the wire wouldn't achieve anything either, since you'd have had to cut the rat's head off for the wire to get there.

Never heard of salt having any effect on ants before. Slugs, yes. But that's the first time I've heard of ants.
 
Professur said:
The notch for the wire wouldn't achieve anything either, since you'd have had to cut the rat's head off for the wire to get there.
Click to expand...
Precisely.

...and I've had mice drag the whole trap with'em for a bit... 3' is the record pre-mortem.
 
The wilds are close enough. We have enough forested areas just within the neighborhood that they're around. Add in a plentiful food supply, and there you are.

It's not like we're alone. My Dad was a fanatic about pest control, and we still had a rat issue off and on while I grew up.
 
Yeah, HL, you've definitely got a great environment for food. I've never seen so many different plants, all the very same shade of green.
 
Poor in-law, let's hope he doesn't get to the point of those nasty injections around the belly button :sick:
 
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