Hey Kim!
Those of us (no names, please) who have just discovered suspicious droppings on the steps to the (California) basement really appreciate your OT post! Thanks so much for the tip!

Kay

Happy to help, Kay. And, when you find a GOOD product, put out by a GOOD company who delivers GOOD service, you need to support them. Good luck! Kim

Call us crazy but we use Hav-A-Hart traps and transport the little varmints down the road where there are no houses and release them. These are roof rats, not Norway rats, and are rather cute. (I know, we're bleeding heart tree huggers.....)

Ingrid

Thanks for the info--I got one last year--I put mine out six nights in a row, caught six rats--then the thing stopped working. Should have kept the receipt. Maybe I will buy another. The people in the back pour birdseed out by the pound and have untrimmed trash palms--so rats are a constant problem. Sigh. At least the coyotes get some.

What do you use for bait? I had good luck with walnuts.

Peanut butter. When I worked at the beach, the blamed rats ate (and nested in) the Cocoa Mulch; ate the bagged bird seed; organic fertilizers and all the fruit in the nursery as well as surrounding gardens. We just used plain old rat traps and baited them with the cheapest pepperoni sticks available from any convenience store. Just like ketchup and mustard, they NEVER deteriorate and no self respecting ant or roach will touch them. The pepperoni sticks were cocaine to the rats and remained effective indefinitely. REALLY makes you want to eat one, doesn't it? Kim

Ingrid, I have never seen a rat around my house, but if I did I think I would use a humane trap like you recommend. After all, it's not the rat's fault. They just want to survive like everyone else:)
Maude

Thanks for the post Kim and the feeding tips.

I need to get one, I know we used to contribute our share of them, but now they make trails heading to the neighbors bird feeders. Grrrrr.

We haul off everything we trap armadillos, raccoons, squirrels, etc. My husband laughs and says they probably beat us back home.

We have a snake. He takes care of business. If we get more than one in the yard we take it over to the field. We don't want snake babies. Mary

You're welcome, Kippy. Shop around as you'll find a wide variation in pricing for them. They really DO work! Kim

I WISH we had a King Snake.

We have, instead, plagues of rats, which came in our direction as the old avocado and orange orchards disappeared.

I'm pretty forgiving about varmints, but I will not tolerate rats.
They eat plants. They LOVE my epiphyllums. They get into dog food, if they can (they can't, here) and THEY CARRY DISEASE.

Leptospirosis, for one -- my dogs are vaccinated for that -- but I am not. And there are other possibilities.

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCMV), a viral infectious disease, is transmitted through the saliva and urine of rats. Some individuals experience long-term effects of lymphocytic choriomeningitis ....

Bubonic Plague;
Hantavirus;
Murine typhus;
A variety of filth diseases;
Arenavirus (a type of hemorrhagic fever);
All this, along with fleas and ticks spreading a whole variety of other pathogens.

So, no. I don't save rats.
There will be rats long after I am gone from the earth. There is no scarcity of them, and I am happy to use Rat-Zappers.

Jeri

In addition to disease issues, rat urine in the house stinks to high heaven. We had no rats until I put an under the sink trash bin in the kitchen. BIG HAIRY MISTAKE. They have eaten holes in the cupboards (I see now why old time cupboards for staples had tin linings...), they have eaten the wires until my dish washer no longer works at ALL, and the wires to the oven and now I have no broiler function. ... ... ...

Once upon a time I used the Hav-A-Hart and baited it with peanut butter and transported all the meeces up to the local county park. Then we moved and I discovered rats. I have yet to get one in a trap, but I DID get a new trash bin - metal, with good lid, and the rats are gone. The smell remains. I'd have to gut the kitchen out to the rafters and studs to completely eradicate the smell, and I can't afford to do that.

There is no love in my heart for rodentia...

Nor, in MINE. Besides all of the aforementioned, they EAT EVERYTHING. These were successfully budded eyes of a rather difficult to propagate rose I accomplished earlier this spring. They were beautifully leaved out until two nights ago. They eat my seedlings to the ground. They strip the fruit trees. They eat my pollinated rose hips. They eat all the branches from the Italian Cypress trees and nest anywhere they find suitable conditions. They attract coyotes and SNAKES as they ARE their food source. Neither of which I relish thoughts of sharing too close contact with. Hunting them drives my Toy Fox Terrors into frenzies and I fear one of them is going to catch one of the vermin. The dogs are fully covered by all their shots, but the thoughts of one of my critters crawling up in my lap and wanting to snuggle after gnawing on a filthy rat just sucks the "snuggle" right out of me!

Catch and release just makes them someone elses' problem, until they make their way back to MY place. I had a customer at the beach who trapped tree squirrels and painted fluorescent green and orange stripes down their backs with spray paint, then drove them many miles up into Topanga State Park to release them. I know, completely illegal, but he was being "kind". In less than a week, he had two squirrels with fluorescent green and orange stripes in his yard, eating his fruit. They DO come "home". Kim

A few days back, Katie caught a gopher. (I made Clay pick it up and take it out.) For a couple of subsequent days, I called her "Little Gopher-Breath."

As ICKY as I think Dead Gophers are, the thought of her triumphantly bringing in a dead RAT is far worse. And she and her sister are fast enough and agile enough, and sufficiently prey-driven to do just that. (As are your little terriers.)

Jeri

I am laughing with tears in my eyes, Jeri, over "little gopher breath"! The Terrors are retired brood "mothers". You know how they keep their "nests" clean by eating the puppy poop. They ALSO keep the front walled garden (their run) clean by aggressively going after Beau's (the Chihuahua) poop. They RELISH it! You would think I never feed them. No matter how quickly I pick it up, they FIND it and bring it in the house to savor later. They resent my taking it away from them and resist my efforts to keep it out of the house. That's how Paddy got to be "Poopie". THAT makes my skin crawl. Chewing rodents is much worse! Kim

Kim -- I am told that Adolf's Meat Tenderizer will cure that problem.

(And thank God, none of my current trio has it.)

And yes -- eating rodents IS worse, in un-counted ways.

Now, lacking further gophers, she is turning her attention to lizards. And I don't want her to do THAT, either, because lizards eat a lot of things I DON'T want in the garden ...

They eat flies and crickets, slugs and snails and anything else along that line that they can snap up -- so I consider them valuable garden helpers, and entertaining as a bonus.

Jeri

Adolph's Meat Tenderizer? Really?! Just how long am I supposed to let them "marinate" in it? The vet finds nothing wrong with either and nothing else has slowed that habit down.

The terrors chase lizards, birds, flies, bees...anything that moves. Towhees have made a nest in a large Xanadu philodendron I use on an inverted pot to mask the gas meter. They've learned by charging that tall pot, they can cause a real ruckus, and they LOVE it! Kim

On their food. :-)

Jeri

Hi Kim: Thanks for the info. about rat traps. Planting mint in a bottom-cut-off pot, to stop mint from being invasive, is very effective here.

I put pots (bottom-off) into the ground in many places next to the foundation of the house... no more rats to disturb my roses.

Mint raises the estrogen level in humans, decrease testosterone level. Mint helps to curb that "mustache" in menopausal women, plus helps with weight loss. Mint also screws up the hormones in rats, so they don't reproduce.

When I first moved here we put sods on the ground, and I planted lots of mints. No rats to screw up my sods (grass-carpet). Then I killed my mints, and the rats dug tunnels and screwed up my lawn ... zig-zag lines all over the lawn!

This past year I planted mint again, inside buckets (bottom cut off) ... my lawn is perfect !! No roses are eaten either.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to naturally get rid of mice

I think I'm tempted to get a bunch of little Terriers! My guys can open a gopher hole, but can't catch them.

Rats - I know we have roof rats in the barn. But they are very very sneaky. Only way I know we have them is that over the past two years I have found 2 babies drowned in horse water buckets - they must have fallen from above. BIG babies! Yuck.

Thanks to this thread, I'm going to buy a Victor Electronic Rat Trap and find a nice strategic place in the barn, and see what I get.

I've been sitting here in rapt fascination, mesmerized by this dicussion . . . The things one can learn simply by visiting this forum are LIMITLESS -- utterly.

I've just added Adolf's to my grocery list (I kid you not).

Thanks, Strawberry. I love mint, but it's too hot and arid here for it to grow, except for well watered pots. There are ACRES of ivy used on over irrigated hill sides which foster them. There are ACRES of wild vegetation which is county/city/state owned and NEVER maintained which foster them. There are many citrus and other fruit trees all over which foster them. They're like the gophers and moles which inhabit these mountains. EVERYWHERE. My best tactic is to trap them close to the house and make them "finally useful" under some deserving rose bush.

Think twice about the terrors, Harmony. "The Stalker", who stalks ME everywhere I go, is also the "Great White Hunter". She proved it this morning by snagging the baby Towhee before I could stop her. I guess to "punish me" for taking it away from her, she then snagged the Chihuahua "evidence" before I could pick it up. She's feeling quite satisfied with herself right now. Of course, she wants to snuggle, but it's still a bit too creepy for me to think of that at the moment. I know, I'm a wuss! If anyone finds the information about how much and how often to feed them the tenderizer, please share. I'd love to stop this practice with them both, but at 6 and 8 pounds, I'm rather concerned about giving them anything which might cause any issues. They're small enough to over dose too easily.

Keep moving the trap around, Harmony. Once I no longer get any action in one spot, I put it a few yards away and fry another one. Dang! I keep this up and I may never have to buy any fertilizer again! Kim

Just sprinkle a light dusting of it on their food. It does help.

Yeah -- Isn't it a shame about Mint? I have tried and tried to grow it, but it always turns up its toes and dies. Same thing here with violets which are likewise invasive elsewhere.

No, the only things that are invasive here are Morning Glory, Passion Vine, and Bermuda Grass. I guess prickly pear cactus would be, but I'm not giving it the opportunity. (We DID manage to kill the ivy. Thank God.)

Jeri