Rats!

[SADShooter]

Man From Snowy River/"The most cunning mob that ever crossed the kitchen counter.../Man From Snowy River.

We have rats in our apartment. Devious rats with an almost otherworldly intelligence. Our own baited traps and food sealing have had no effect. 2 bags of tortillas, in 2 layers of heavy-gauge plastic bags, mangled. Small appliance electrical cord, chewed. Droppings, everywhere.

Apartment office may do soething next week. I'd like some peace of mind sooner. We're going to clean (more) thoroughly, seal food items in plastic storage tubs, but what practical steps can we take to get rid of the *%#@$s?

Signed,

Rodent-raving, wishing we had a cat to go with the dog.

[grampster]

If you don't have any kids or pets put out a nice welcome bowl of antifreeze liberaly dosed with sugar.  Be prepared for the smell of dead rat, though.

[Sindawe]

We used to use this stuff to good effect when we had problems with squirrels getting into the HVAC system at a former employers.

http://www.critter-repellent.com/rat/rat-problems.php

[roo_ster]

De-con or one of the similar rat bait/poisons.  The poisons they use have a tendency to drive the dying rats toward water (& hopefully AWAY from your apt).

They work great for the winters, when the rats get in the attic/drywall spaces of our house.  It always drives them off.

[BobR]

I just got rid of a mouse problem using an electronic mouse trap/killer. I was skeptical at first, but it did work. The nice thing is the mouse died right there. He didn't have to eat a poison and then crawl to die in some inaccessable place, where the odor of his demise would waft through the house.

The big selling point is the "safe and humane" action. For me it was the prospect of sending a jolt of electricty through the body of the night time raider.

While a little more expensive than others, it can last a long time, is no danger to pets (except maybe pet rats, or other similiar sized pet rodents), and you only need to batteries in it every now and then.



http://www.improvementscatalog.com/home/improvements/72861-Electronic-Rat-Trap.html

bob

[grampster]

BobR,  But when the mouse enters the electrified trap, is there not an automatic appeal to the death sentence  being applied?  How long does the mouse have to be on death row before the courts ratify the sentence?

[SADShooter]

Rodent judge, jury and executioner in one battery-operated box. I like that!

[mhdishere]

I wish I'd found something like that when I had mouse problems a few months ago.  The trap had to go in a place where I wouldn't be able to monitor it, so the mouse would have been there a while before I got to it.  I either wanted something that would definitely kill the mouse outright or would capture it unharmed.  Call me a softy, but I won't torture any animal, so I won't use glue traps and I've seen enough live mice in spring traps with broken backs that I don't like those either.  As it was I bought a humane trap, of course once I used that I would have felt silly drowning it in the toilet so I released it in the woods a mile or so from home.

[charby]

I used to rent a house in the country and when the mice made a mad dash for the house when the crops were comming out of the fields I used to sit in my lazy boy watching TV with my pellet gun and snipe the little mammals as they ran along the baseboards. Never tried this with rats but my crossman pumpmaster will dispatch rabbits with one shot.

Charby

[SADShooter]

The latest:

It isn't rats after all, but mice. The mouse glue traps didn't work...but the Victor spring traps do. (Reason in a moment).

Last night, we sealed up all food, cleaned the counters, and set traps around the second tortilla bag. Within ten minutes of lights out, THWACK! Clean up mess. Fifteen minutes later, THWACK! Clean uup mess, good night's sleep.

According to some of my wife's (animal research) co-workers, rodents can smell human scent on a trap if you touch it bare-handed. Two latex gloves later, two dead mice.

Nothing new this morning.

The war rages on, but we've one a battle.

SADShooter

[grampster]

I was gonna tell you to wear gloves when you set the trap.  I see you beat me to the punch.  Same thing with mole traps.  Wear gloves when setting the trap.