Wife put one of those sticky mouse traps in the storeroom the other day and caught a 12" guadar. (Western Brown snake) Just a baby but still deadly. So thats where the mice went.
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RATS ARE EATING MY PODS
- Thread starter nickk
- Start date
THAT'S IT!!! Send over that Western Brown snake to keep in Nickk's garden. That'll knock the crap out of those rats!
Not the most humane thing...but when we had a mouse problem we went to the pest control place and bought some large sticky type pads and placed them on the ground in our greenhouse. Took care of the little boogers. Glued their feet in place. 
Well, I think if we are talking humane, the only thing would be live trapping but that's just throwing your problems on someone else. Quick, clean (relatively) and painless. . . SHOOT 'EM!!!
I'm lucky we don't have a rat problem here. I don't think my neighbors (or the police) would appreciate me discharging a shotgun in the middle of the night.
I like mice and rats when they're kept as pets. They're adorable. But once they start ruining all of the hard work I've put in on my garden they need to learn how to serpentine.
Hmmm, you've got a little trouble with animals helping you as rats and mice work mostly at night. Chickens do kill mice, but need to get them in the day. My Crow kills mice and goes after rats, more trouble as does not work at night plus they brake almost everything Bite people from behind. fight cats, small dogs, kill almost any thing small and they can catch. Ducks as well eat mice and will try and eat small rats, but they also eat plants. Feret may help but are lots of work as well, have heard the mice and rats avoid where the feret pee. Birds of pray are not very good at keeping the numbers down so something to think about. Ducks, Geese, Chickens, and I'm sure more out do birds of pray as they will kill with out eating some of what they kill. Crows when kept well feed get bored and become insane killers and fighters. I've never seen many animals run that fast to get mice. Also they are very smart so will bate them to trap them. They also kill almost non stop for most things, but only kill a few ants a day. When Crow are not worried about food they try and interten them selves and picking on other animals is what seems to work for them. But they also pick on people as well. Like door bell sounds, surprice biting people, Talking behind your back, braking stuff. But I must say I've never had a better gard animal, or a worst pain. 
What about a gueana (spelling!) fowl? I know they are great guard birds, they make all kinds of noise when strangers are around. Would they kill/eat rats?
I tried sticky traps once and every morning there would be no mice,just a hair ball.
There were a lot of bald mice running around.
Switched to a covered mouse trap and caught a few of the bald guys.
They were hairless except for the fur on the top of their backs.
Mice with Mohawks.
There were a lot of bald mice running around.
Switched to a covered mouse trap and caught a few of the bald guys.
They were hairless except for the fur on the top of their backs.
Mice with Mohawks.
I should have said better to stay away from using animal as they are more work. Hmmm as for the Fowl they may work great but same trouble, they sleep at night I think. Turkeys I think may eat a few then you can eat them, Ducks are great for snalls & slugs but will eat some plants as well.. Mine ate my chili seedlings so I did not have chilies for one more month to worry about. Making a cage for the chilies to be in works great here for keeping the finch from biting up little chilies. May work the best for mice and rat as none should get in the cage to eat as long as cage is big in size with small gaps in the cage wire. I've never had a finch get in.
now thats a good idea.im gonna give that a try.
Oh the humanity...
It was something I read on Mother Earth News and tried.
It worked ,we just had too many mice.
It worked ,we just had too many mice.
It's pricey, but a scoped crossbow handles any and all pests silently and permanently. Use a rubber blunt to avoid pass-through. I use a longbow myself, but same principle. No one hears it, and pest dispatched permanently. And the ammo is re-usable for the next problem. The trick is to bait them in with something very, very tasty. Rats are espeically attracted to sweets and fats. Doughnuts are a good bait. Rats are also nocturnal in many cases, so you might need to use dusk hours to bait them in.
I worked in two places with rat infestations. One place, I used a Hitachi NR-83 nailer to waste a few of them running across the pallet assembly area. Next place, I just brought my bow to work and did a pre-dawn sweep-and-clear.
I worked in two places with rat infestations. One place, I used a Hitachi NR-83 nailer to waste a few of them running across the pallet assembly area. Next place, I just brought my bow to work and did a pre-dawn sweep-and-clear.
Nothing like a good old Wrist rocket slingshot.
Glass ball / beads break up when they hit something hard so there aren't as many problems about them bouncing back into a window.
Doesn't take long to get good at hitting stuff either.
I once knew a guy who would dig a hole and put table scraps out in front of the hole.
Set out a deck chair and cooler of beer at dusk and shoot rats with his wrist rocket until he got too buzzed to hit them anymore.
When he hit one it would get knocked into the hole and when he was done he'd just push the dirt back in the hole over the dead rats.
Killed rats and fertilized his garden at the same time.
He said after a while no rats would bother his backyard.
He thaught they could smell all the dead ones he had in the ground all over the place.
Glass ball / beads break up when they hit something hard so there aren't as many problems about them bouncing back into a window.
Doesn't take long to get good at hitting stuff either.
I once knew a guy who would dig a hole and put table scraps out in front of the hole.
Set out a deck chair and cooler of beer at dusk and shoot rats with his wrist rocket until he got too buzzed to hit them anymore.
When he hit one it would get knocked into the hole and when he was done he'd just push the dirt back in the hole over the dead rats.
Killed rats and fertilized his garden at the same time.
He said after a while no rats would bother his backyard.
He thaught they could smell all the dead ones he had in the ground all over the place.
The wrist rocket idea is a good one. Blowguns are pretty handy. Cold Steel sells a nice one!