Rodent ID - Mouse or Rat?

cadman

Fish Haid said:

Resinhead said:

Nice car. Wanna sell it?

No.

Better than the rats eating it. 

AC Man

My son sold a old race car he had. When he started it up for the buyer, rats came running out from under it followed by the nest catching on fire under the hood. His fire extinguisher was flat and the water hose didn't reach. Pretty dam funny looking back on it.

Fish
I'd be worried about breathing the exhaust from the shop vac.

Resinhead

Saltygatorvet said:

Resinhead said:

Nice car. Wanna sell it?

I have a 31 if your interested 

Ready to restore or already done? Pics?

Fish Haid

I am keeping my Model A to make it into a Rat Rod.

Another forum I frequent - http://www.ahooga.com/wwwboard/j-index.shtml

treemanjohn

Fish Haid said:

I am keeping my Model A to make it into a Rat Rod.

Another forum I frequent - http://www.ahooga.com/wwwboard/j-index.shtml

You definitely have half of that rat rod covered in full

Fish Haid

Traps have been non-productive for 2 weeks now.  However, yesterday I noticed that one of the poison bait blocks was gone from one location in the loft.

AC Man

My retired buddy was hired as a handyman to set all types of traps in a neighbors house. Two story. They (rats) avoided all of them and he gave up. Lol

AaronCannon

Put some out with out setting the trap, wait a couple days and then set.

cadman

Also, get new traps. Don't keep reusing the old ones. 

Fletch

Again. Neophobic is the term when it comes to roof rats. Place the traps and wait a while (I waited two weeks) before baiting them.

Fletch

And if you're going to place rat poison chunks, do a little research on the active poison. Warfarin and a few of the other older poisons require multiple feedings and Norway rats especially are becoming immune to them. Some of the newer, 2nd generation poisons work with one feeding.

Fish Haid

Poison is the green blocks they sell at Lowes.  I forget what it is.

stc1993

That's what I buy too.  It must work.  I haven't seen any in a while.

Fish Haid

SUCCESS!!!  I finally got Big Mamma!  She went for the trap, but din't get caught.  Looks like the trap snapped her in the head and she died.  Wasn't more than a foot from the trap.  Easily twice the size of all the others.  I think I also found her new nest - inside a rolled-up carpet in loft.  I see lots of fresh poop near the carpet.  Bummer that I have to toss that brand new carpet, but I'm sure it stinks and I'll never use it now.  I'll try to post these pics, but photo posting here hasn't worked for me lately.

www.hells-canyon.com/Rat1.JPG

www.hells-canyon.com/Rat3.JPG

Fish Haid

Well, no action for a few weeks.  I have traps out, but let the bait get moldy.  Then yesterday, I noticed a bunch of fresh turds.  These are in the loft, right on the spot where I got Big Mama.  There are traps and poison bait right in that spot, but no takers.  Odd that there are so many turds right there - it is in an open area on floor of loft.  Why would one (or more) rats sit in that open spot long enough to leave so many turds?  Maybe sitting there for long periods trying to decide whether to take the bait?  Still plenty of acorns around for them to eat.

I was thinking of covering the traps with a single layer of toilet paper.  Maybe that will cause them to be less shy?  Or, put carboard box over trap with hole cut inside.  I freshened up the peanut butter bait last night, but no luck.  Maybe I'll add some Hershey's syrup?

Saltygatorvet

Could the turds be dropping from above?

Fish Haid

Saltygatorvet said:

Could the turds be dropping from above?

Hmm....?   Maybe spread some fluorescent dye powder, then track them?

Polar

Roof rat. 
When we moved into our house 3 years ago it had sat vacant for over a year. They entered via the dryer pipe in the wall that was disconnected. During the remodel phase I had heard a few things in the walls, and in the attic, pawned it off as curly tail lizards as the house was filled with them. One night I went home to go to bed, was about midnight and swts wanted to stay to finish painting a cabinet. I just hopped in the shower when she called " theres something huge making a racket in the walls! " Knowing I wouldnt catch it I told her well address tomorrow. 
Fast forward to the night we were to sleep there for the first time. All of us, all 4 kids were down stairs eating dinner and one very similar in size that was posted darts across the floor. I was the only one to see it. To avoid causing panic I get up and it ran into a garbage bag that was on the floor. I grabbed it, took it outside and beat the **** out of it. Rat problem solved!
NOT! Now were are hearing them all  over. I run to wally world at now 3 am and buy sticky traps, and some rat traps. One of them runs into the bathroom, I hear a loud POP then it gets stuck on the sticky trap. Dead right!?!
NOPE! I grabbed a sword a had near by that my grandpa gave me. I went to stab it, and as soon as I did the lil bastage sprung to life, and jumped at me. I flew backwards, I may or may not have screamed like a girl.Knocking my 2 daughters down the stairs. He proceeded to retreat to a small hole in the wall that I had not gotten to patching, where he died causing a very nice aroma for a few weeks to where we had to bring in air purifiers, cutting open walls, etc etc. Fun stuff.
I the call an exterminator and he places traps all over. Now I have 2 , sorry 3 cats. One of which, who is the only one with claws is roughly 28 pounds. No sounds from traps for a few days, all the while we still HEAR at least one.
Sorry for the log story but its funny now.
The next night Im out back having a smoke and I see the big cat chasing one in the kitchen. He gets it jammed up behind the fridge. I thought, Hey I just bought a new pellet gun, thatll get him. I see him moving in between the fridge and the freshly refinished cabinets that swts just got dome doing. I take my shot. YES! I HIT HIM! He flies out at me again and I fire off a couple of more shots, 3 to be exact, right through the cabinets! The lil **** runs back up stairs to where now the dog is after him. The cats and the dog chase it back downstairs, bleeding from being shot, back  to the spot behind the fridge. At this point I say screw it, make a drink and go to bed.
At 2 am I am awakened by a large thud and a meow. I go down stairs and the big cat got him. And that was the last of our rats.

conchydong

I had one rat that was trap smart and didn't want to eat the poison bait either. The poison baits had a hole in them to slip over a pin in the plastic housing. I carefully pushed peanut butter into the hole until it was full and did not use the plastic bait housing. Sure enough it took the bait the first night I placed it and I never saw the rat again. Tricky little buggers to outsmart sometimes.

Fletch

Funny Polar. My experience was similar only they never got inside my house - only in the roof. They only use the roof as a place to nest and from what I learned, won't really chew on anything. But if you seal any inside, they will chew away in order to get out. After catching a handful and thinking I had them all, I sealed their access point - a hole through the soffit where power entered above the meter box. Wrong. They started entering through the dryer duct - mine's on the roof - and the vents for the fart fans in the bathrooms. So, I sealed those and then unsealed their original access point above the meter box. Only did this to ensure I didn't trap any inside. Tried picking them off with a pellet gun as they exited (usually right at dark) but they always came out running down the side of the house. So, I built an airsoft machine gun I found on youtube, rigged it to a Scuba tank and tried getting them that way. Think I might have hit one or two but they kept right on going. I'm sure the neighbors thought I was crazy by this point but I didn't care. I wanted them dead. The airsoft gun was fun but just too erratic with no accuracy. Ultimately, I had to pepper the attic with traps, wait two weeks and then started baiting. 

The airsoft machine gun:

How to Make an Airsoft Machine Gun from a Soda Bottle - YouTube

Gary S

That is cool. Might have to make one for the peacocks.

Fish Haid

Nothing in traps.  Bait not touched (2 kinds of poison bait, also peanut butter globs placed a few feet from traps).  No new turds.  Must have moved to different location close by.

Fish Haid

Update -

I did not touch traps since last post.  Still check every 3 days or so.  Been at least 25 days since I freshened bait (PB + Hersheys).  Bait looking moldy.  Was planning to get rid of traps because no signs of rats in long time.  No turds on the spot where they used to always be.

Anyhow - today I went up to loft and came face to face with Big Daddy! He was dead in one of the three traps in his old spot!  Same spot where I caught Mama!  I think I may have won.  You can see his balls sticking out under the butt.

stc1993

Good kill.

mindyabiness

You must be so proud.....have you contacted your taxidermist?

AC Man

Dead square in the neck. Perfect!

When dating my girlfriend now wife back in the 70's she thought she had mice at her parents house. I set 8 snap traps in the utility room. 

30 minutes later it was like a machine gun of traps going off. All dead in seconds

dave44

AC Man said:

Dead square in the neck. Perfect!

When dating my girlfriend now wife back in the 70's she thought she had mice at her parents house. I set 8 snap traps in the utility room. 

30 minutes later it was like a machine gun of traps going off. All dead in seconds

That was a good date.
   
  😂 

Gary S

And she cried out "My Hero" and the rest is history.

Fish Haid

Update:  Didn't see any evidence of rats in a few months.  Traps were still out and bait was getting moldy.  Had been meaning to pick them all up and put away. Then, noticed  some new droppings in the same old spot.  Generally smaller in size.  Rounded-up traps to clean and re-bait, and found that one had a freshly caught young rat.  Reset traps and caught one more.  This was 3-4 weeks ago.  No more since.

Soda Popinski

refresh the traps with peanut butter.   use gloves when handling the traps, if they smell you on them they won't come near them.  Also try the large glue boards and see what gets stuck to them.   Dab a little pb right in the center.