GAH!!! Rats!!!

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

If I had a big hairy......cat like that, I'd be a 'movie' star by now.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: LookingForABetterLife

The problem with those is they're hell on dogs ears. Dogs can hear in that range.

Don't have the heart to do that to my dogs.

Good thinking. Now it's time to look for plan B, whatever that will be.
Hope you find a solution.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Sounds like a self sustaining ecosystem that may just save you some loot!

Or....evolve into you being a crazy cat rancher!

Forget the cat. Get a good terrier....a trained rat dog like they use in the UK.

And if you guys think I'm kiddin' about these vermin...I found whole cow cubes (they're large diameter pelletized food on the engine block of the car). Here's the problem though; we don't store food of any type in the garage. The cow cubes are stored in the barn, and the barn is 1/4 of a MILE away from the house!!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Yeah, they like nesting in engine blocks.

We went on vacation and since I was due to move back in at college once we got back, my car was parked at my grandparents' place while we were all away. When we all got back, one of the little suckers had moved right in under my hood and nested. It had also chewed through every single vacuum tube in the process.

I don't think I'd ever quite seen either my grandfather or my dad quite so angry as they were the few hours they spent chasing that thing around in my engine block.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I feel your pain. No rats here but field mice up the yin yang and boy do they love car wires.
Had a huge nest. Those darn wires are soy or whatever now and rodents sure love them.

You know what worked, dryer sheets. I tied them all around inside. Not a single mouse since.

a reply to: JourneyAbout

Well, I wouldn't mind getting a terrier, but from what I've seen the terriers get rats in the ground. These rats don't live in the ground. They live everywhere BUT the ground. This is why they're called pack rats; they carry stuff from all over the place to build these massive nests (in cars, in attics, in impossible to get to places, etc.) Smartest vermin I've ever seen.

a reply to: FauxMulder

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
Smartest vermin I've ever seen.

Not Danny?

Oh and my grandparents kept barn cats around, but the barn cats do not go after pack rats by choice.

The cats do serve as a bit of deterrent in that the pack rats don't prefer nesting close to where they know the cats are, but the cats were very rarely caught going after them in any real way. They'd hunt squirrels first.

Can you not park over like several cases of D-Con or something? That is absolutely insane. For that kind of money I'd be out there popping them off with a .22 every time they scurried close to the driveway. I'd then leave the little corpses there as a warning.

Geez... My pocket hurts for you.

Edited to add - When the weather started getting colder here I turned on my defroster. Steam everywhere. Immediately thought my heater core was going. Pissed, I drove it to the dealership since it's still under warranty only to find out that mud daubers had started a nest in one of the litttle rubber vent tubes that run out underneath the car. Nature... What can you do?

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

I'd blast every one I could see...IF I could ever see one! You see, that's just it; you never see these vermin! They are masters at stealth and hiding.

My dogs have managed to catch and kill the last 4 of them we got. They can smell them, or hear them (or both) and they can systematically spook them out of their hidey hole and then chomp on them. Problem is, the dogs can't be everywhere, so I have to see signs of one in order to know where to tell the dogs to look. That ain't easy.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Here it's the damn squirrels. They have caused lots of damage to this house over the years. No matter how carefully we block and way in, they find a way to chew through a board or something. They even chewed through the stainless steel screen.

We went to live traps and relocating them 20 miles away. We tried shorter distances, but we had one with a growth on his leg that returned from 7 miles away. The damn things come back. We've got it under control after a few years of trapping them. Only one in the yard all last summer, and we hauled him off too.

No rats up here, just voles and shrews mostly. Easy to control with traps and a cat.

Growing up on a small farm with fruit orchards, we considered cats to be working animals. We did not feed them during the growing season, and they kept the rodents gone. Cat's have a purpose on a farm IMO.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

The plastic on newer vehicles including wiring
insulation is Soy based. Courtesy of the green fools.

We have the same issues with mice here.
They love to nest in the air filters, chew wiring
in areas you cannot easily see or reach etc.

You HAVE to use repellent in the engine compartment, etc.

Onion sack mesh makes a good cover for intakes.
Moth balls work well, but some can't handle the smell.
Balsam satchels hung in the engine area along with
Peppermint Spray work very well. Apply new treatment
every 30 days .

There are some heavy duty industrial repellents available online.

Merry Christmas! S&F

a reply to: FauxMulder

Ha!
What a riot!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I used to have a Jack Russel Terrier,a pet-a gentle dog,but If there was a rat within 100yards(or miles when she went walkabout) it wouldn't last long.
Metal things also wouldn't last long as she would chew the # outta them..I think that was her way of keeing sharp teeth.
Nice calm pet,but she would murder rats automatically,subconsciously almost.

Like Neo in the matrix when he finds out he's "the one."

But if you dont want a dog-why not just chuck a bag of snakes into the garage?
That could be a quick easy way to solve the problem maybe.

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

Want a dog? I've never NOT owned a dog! We have (2) now, down from (3). My beloved Lab passed away last year.

ETA - These rats are too big for a snake. I bring all the snakes I can find back to the property. They clean up on the mice, but the rats are about as big as an adult rabbit without the ears. Like I said, these are not the greasy sewer rats like in the city. These are like big ninja rats.

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

Snakes and birds of prey were the most reliable means of getting the pack rats.

My grandparents barn cats were scrap supplemented, so they mostly hunted for their dinner, and they were prodigious hunters. But they did not like going after pack rats. Caught plenty of the other kind though.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Your big bull snakes would be able to tackle them and just about any reasonable size snake would be able to empty a nest of young.