Author Topic: I Smell a Rat (Read 2916 times)

ThornyGardener · « **on:** June 10, 2009, 06:26:36 PM »

In March I found a rat living in my garage -- luckily just the one by the evidence, trapped inside in late fall. He got away.

But for the past month, when I step out on the decks in the morning to feed the koi, I smell that icky sweet musky rat odor I had smelled in the garage... right under the boards at the back door. (What GALL -- 700 sq ft of deck at it chooses the busiest spot to nest.) My decks hang over my koi pond so poisons and incendiary devices are out.

How do I get rid of it... or them?

Julles · « **Reply #1 on:** June 10, 2009, 08:18:19 PM »

I was sitting on the deck one day eating lunch, and movement caught the corner of my eye - it was two rats trekking across my deck, just like they owned it.

I put poison out for them. Have to be careful about that, though, so no cat or other animal (like my turtles) gets ahold of the dead rat and eats it, ingesting the poison.

Bullfrog · « **Reply #2 on:** June 11, 2009, 01:44:45 AM »

Play some Barry Manilow music non stop, the rats will leave.

aravenschild · « **Reply #3 on:** June 11, 2009, 04:03:55 AM »

If you can get it, use Red Devil Lye, just sprinkle around (wide enough that the rat has to walk through it, I use an old pizza pan) some bait (peanut butter works), but not on the bait. The rats won't eat it, but they walk through it to get to the bait, and will, after eatting clean their feet and ingest the lye. The good news is it will kill the rat, and if you cannot find the little corpse, don't worry. The lye will dry out the rat from the inside and it won't leave a smell of decaying rat.

Works great, just make sure your pets can't get to it.

Good luck,
aravenschild

Kittyzee · « **Reply #4 on:** June 11, 2009, 04:48:54 AM »

Get a cat...

My outside cats kill barn rats and keep the population way down.

jw · « **Reply #5 on:** June 11, 2009, 11:58:12 AM »

How about the old fashioned rat trap baited and put in a box of some sort so other critters can't get in?

jax · « **Reply #6 on:** June 11, 2009, 01:09:22 PM »

If I used Bullfrog's suggestion, I'd have to leave too.

Julles · « **Reply #7 on:** June 11, 2009, 04:31:08 PM »

Raven's Child - is lye what they put in rat poison? So, can I just buy lye, instead of the more expensive commercial rat poison?

aravenschild · « **Reply #8 on:** June 12, 2009, 10:27:52 AM »

Red Devil is a brand name, so I guess any lye will do, just be careful and don't get it on your skin..

I'm not sure if its the same as what is in rat poison, and I'm not sure of the rat poison you mention. I just know that the Red Devil lye method is something I learn from my father. I bought a house (fixer upper, had been empty and trashed for about six months before I took bought it) eight years ago that was thickly infested (I mean ankle deep

) with mice. We put an old pizza pan out, sprinkled the lye all over the pan and added peanut butter for bait in the middle. I didn't live in the house at the time, so I didn't have to worry about pets getting into it. Only had to replace the bait once, after a week no more mice and no smell......

as for get a cat,.......I have two toms and neither hunt, they are both too fat and lazy

. I have a small female (due to visit the vet) that doesn't hunt either, shes too busy tormenting the toms

. Its been my experience that the only cats that hunt are mamas nursing babies..

aravenschild

ThornyGardener · « **Reply #9 on:** June 12, 2009, 12:13:33 PM »

What happens to the koi if this poison gets in the pond? Animals do carry poisons around – I had the contents of 12 large boxes of D-Con disappear after I saw mice poo in the basement, only to be discovered a month later in the boxes of Christmas decorations. I assume what kills the critter, kills the koi.

I am like Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men for this rat. We have 'history.'

It was a warm day in early March and I carried the shop vac from the garage out to the deck to vacuum up melting snow that had accumulated on the koi pond winter cover. When I turned on the vac, foul water shot out between the lid and the base – my chest, face and hair was soaked. Thinking the filter had fallen off, I opened the lid and saw a 9” rat swimming. (No, that didn’t count the tail like a koi.) I slammed the lid shut. After 30 minutes of hollering expletives at the shop vac while assuming the rat had drowned inside, I rolled it to the side of the yard, lifted the lid, kicked it away from me and leapt back. The big shop vac was filled with rat poo. Filled. The paper filter had been eaten and was just a tiny flapping ring. I picked up a stick and poked in the massive poop pile for the rat (for all I knew there was a family in there). No rat(s).

Slowly, I turned my head to look at the vac hose back on the deck. I swear I heard the “da-dum da-dum da-dum” horror movie music begin. I gingerly picked up the hose and shook it. No rat. da-dum da-dum da-DUM… I separated the hose from the plastic tubes and shook. Nothing. da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM… I separated the two plastic tubes and shook. Nada. da-dum da-DUM da-DUM… I whapped one tube against the side of the deck. da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM… Then banged the other tube with all my strength SCREE SCREE SCREE SCREE and a 9” tail flopped out. I did what any red-blooded woman would do: I shrieked and dropped the tube. The rat did what any rat would do: he shot out the tube, ran around the pond, through the fence and disappeared. Meanwhile, I was left standing with rat feces all over my face and a few gallons of same heaped in my pachysandra.

Throughout this entire event, my dogs sat on the deck watching, bored, with their chins on their paws.

Later I discovered the rat had been thriving in the garage on a $100 bag of super-premium grass seed, drinking the water from the lotus and lily pots and quite comfortable in the roomy shop vac with its hose access. So as far as rats go, he was movie-star quality: chubby with clean glossy chestnut fur and pink feet, unlike the greasy sewer rats I’ve seen. (Pretty sure it’s a Norway.)

It ate through a brand new seine net, the handles of my tote bags, and my gardening gloves. I had to throw out the shopvac. This one rat has cost me several hundred dollars.

No Barry Manilow. No Hav-a-hart traps.

The rat must die.

tammie · « **Reply #10 on:** June 12, 2009, 12:34:09 PM »

Sorry. Love the story - I can relate!
Tammie

Julles · « **Reply #11 on:** June 12, 2009, 05:45:13 PM »

That is just the funniest darned story I've heard in a long time!!

I'm sure you didn't think so at the time, but, well, you tell it well, and it really got me laughing!

Bullfrog · « **Reply #12 on:** June 13, 2009, 01:52:31 AM »

I loved this post, great story.

jw · « **Reply #13 on:** June 13, 2009, 08:58:17 AM »

Always good to hear a good story like that especially when it happens to somebody other than me

LeeAnne151 · « **Reply #14 on:** June 15, 2009, 09:26:42 AM »

I would not use poison but I would use a kill trap. Rat poison can kill your dog/cat/child/wildlife whatever.

I have two neutered male cats and they killed two rats in the last six months. I about sh*t when I reached under the dining room table to pick up their toy rat when I was vacuuming and discovered it was a real one. I'm not afraid of rats or mice but I thought for the twenty minutes I had seen it under there out of the corner of my eye that it was their toy...

Thankfully the second one was left by the garbage can outside. They got two moles in the last month too. Good kitties.

AUTiger83 · « **Reply #15 on:** June 15, 2009, 08:07:52 PM »

OK, I have a rat story, too . . .

About 15 years ago, I was doing a major renovation on my 1920's house. I had the kitchen gutted and since I work slowly (REALLY slowly), I had taken the base cabinets to the spare bedroom and set up a "temporary kitchen" there, complete with sink, dishwasher, microwave, and fridge.

One night, I was sitting in the living room, watching TV. I heard dogfood crunching in the temporary kitchen. I looked down and saw my ancient Old English Sheepdog practically comatose at my feet. I snuck to the temp kitchen and flipped on the light and there was be the biggest rat I'd ever seen enjoying the dog's dry dog food. His body was a good 10 inches long and with that gross tail, he was at least 2 feet long.

He ran for the torn up kitchen and disappeared through a hole in the floor where new plumbing was to go.

I didn't want to poison him, because I was afraid he'd crawl up into my good plaster walls and die. And for those of you with ancient lathe and plaster walls, you know you'll do anything to avoid messing up a good one.

This nightly feeding at the dog food bowl, or chewing into plastic bins of dogfood or flour or pasta, went on for a couple of weeks with me totally grossed out.

One night, I'm asleep in bed, I wake up to this movement behind my head (NO, don't panic). He's crawling up the outside of a bathroom drainpipe inside the wall behind my headboard. Needless to say, I didn't go back to sleep. CONTINUED NEXT POST . . .

AUTiger83 · « **Reply #16 on:** June 15, 2009, 08:23:37 PM »

RAT STORY CONTINUED . . .

A few nights later, I was again watching TV with the half-dead oblivious dog at my feet and he WALKED THROUGH THE LIVING ROOM BETWEEN ME AND THE TV on his way from the torn up kitchen to the temporary kitchen. He gave me a "go to hell" look as he passed me.

OK, THIS MEANS WAR!!!!!

At this point, I didn't care where in the house he died. He just needed to die!

I couldn't put traps and poison in the house, since I was afraid my blind, deaf, and barely walking dog would get into it. But I had the basement and attic filled with rat poison mixed with peanut butter. I had large glue traps there. I had squirrel traps. I had the biggest snap close traps I could find.

He seemed immune to every effort.

Hurricane Andrew hit Miami (1992). We have a facility there that was badly damaged and I left Atlanta with a few hours notice and stayed there for six weeks working on getting the facility restored. I flew back to Atlanta, stayed overnight, and left for a three-week Mission trip. So I was gone from the house for 9 weeks (dog at my parents).

When I returned, NO RAT. Gone. Kaput! Good riddance. 10 years later, during some attic insulation work, I pulled up a batt of insulation and he was lying underneath. FLAT AS A PANCAKE. Just skin and bones left. I can honestly say I hope he suffered . . .

So the next time you have a critter, just be grateful he's not crawling thorugh the wall behind your head at night.