HarveyH42

Damn! I think I found their home. Follow a small mouse sized one along the fence, went under the concrete slab. Tried flooding with water, but it must be a huge hole. Found some more holes under a walkway. Figure on filling them in with concrete, but pretty sure they'll just dig new holes. Might try some smoke bombs first, July 4th is coming up. Doubt it will kill them or chase them off, but might show me more holes to fill.

Anyway, looks like I've gone from invasion to infestation. Need to find a more aggressive solution to traps.

mneary

If their home is too small for your dog, you could safely feed them something yummy. Lots and lots of it.

jpanhalt

I love this thread. Don't let it die.

Have you thought of biological warfare? Probably illegal, but
Sialodacryoadenitis Virus (SDAV) sounds like a good prospect (
Sialodacryoadenitis Virus).

John

Hero999

The only problem is they might become immune to it, then what are you going to do?

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mashersmasher

i'm thinking microwave oven transformer with a few extra capacitors. no need to paint your shed if you place it right.

mashersmasher

RAT TRAP.JPG

here is a diagram of what i think is best

HarveyH42

Some amusing comments... I do have an old microwave, think the mechanical timer wore out... Virus is a bad idea, wouldn't want the dog getting it. Hope to spare the squirrels, as they are a great help with the oak trees.

I think there was once a two care detached garage on the slab, gone long before I bought the property. Anyway, spent the morning clearing the ground around the slab down to the dirt, about 2 feet wide. Dumped poison cubes down the holes. Should be able to see any new activity. Hopefully exposing the area around the holes and the drowning will convince them to move on. Worked out an idea for some covers to put over rat traps. Will need to set some out where the dog can get at them, so need to make sure he doesn't (they hurt). Going to keep the electric ones on the porch, seem to work well there, and keeps the rats out of the house.

Messed around with a wireless camera, but need better battery to supply it, going to add a solar panel. It's color and 3 lux, so it'll suck at night. Got some 100 mA white LEDs, figure three ought to light up things well enough. Streetlight in the alley might help too. Have to work out a wireless on/off switch to conserve battery power.

jpanhalt

I like the idea of poison, but I thought there was a problem with the other animals. Is the poison coumadin based? Many big city rats are relatively resistant to those.

As for the virus, in general such viruses are extremely species specific. The one I mentioned is perhaps not even a problem with mice, but I would need to confirm that. Your dog (and you) would be safe. All you need is one sick rat. My concern would be the legality of doing it. But, who knows. If a sick rat wanders into your back yard, are you supposed to stop it?

John

Sceadwian

I refuse to read all 6 pages of how to kill a rat so I'll just interject this; A rat is like any living creature, it needs food and shelter, you could create the worlds greatest mouse/rat trap, and as long as it had food and shelter you'd just keep making traps in a pointless cycle of death and smarter critters as nature adapts to man in the strangest of ways (Google Lyre Bird, awesome stuff) Remove it's possible places of shelter and food sources and it will either die or go away. You have to think smarter and sometimes smarter is simpler. Akams Razor and all carries true time and time again. If a perceived solution doesn't work, it may be the perception of the problem itself and not the 'root cause' (and the root cause of 100% of all wasted time)

Something in your environment precipitated a rat entering your little microcosm; Your solution; Placing something else in the environment to deter the nuisance. The only solution to said problem is to remove the reason the rat is there, not remove the rat itself.

I work in QC/QA and 90% of the work that I do is trying to explain to the end customer and my bosses this very same principle, the worst is when I have to talk to engineers reading prints and specs verbatim over and over again. A basic example is a part for Chrysler (glove box striker plate) that had corrosion and finish issues because the complex geometry allows solution to build up in a couple of key spots. We had hundreds of pounds and thousands of dollars in parts rejected for almost 8 months with their engineers QC/QA personal simply saying it was our fault, fix the problem give us good parts. It finally dawned on me they just needed to stamp a hole (already part of their process) in a couple of key areas to allows solution drainage, it eventually got forward to their engineers and the revised the part. We haven't had a single reject on 5-10 thousand pounds of parts in the last 4 years. The root cause was the part itself, we got stuck with several thousand dollars in rework expense for.

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HarveyH42

Sceadwian... The philosophy lesson does little to help in what is becoming a much greater concern.

Food source... This is Florida, and haven't seen a hard freeze in maybe 20 years now. Food is plentiful everywhere. Also live in the middle of town, more option I have no control over. Don't get me started on the dumbass next door, who leaves food out for any living thing.

Shelter... Working on that, but intend to keep my house standing. Considering a 2-wire electric fence to divert their roaming, perhaps kill a few. Figure on making it movable, so they can't get use to it.

Water... The rainy season is here, there will be standing water everywhere.

The only thing special about my property is that its reasonably safe and quiet. Dog stays in the house most of the time.

Guess what I really need is something to disturb the peace. Maybe a subwoofer mounted to the concrete slab they seem to be living under...

HarveyH42

Sceadwian... The philosophy lesson does little to help in what is becoming a much greater concern.

Food source... This is Florida, and haven't seen a hard freeze in maybe 20 years now. Food is plentiful everywhere. Also live in the middle of town, more option I have no control over. Don't get me started on the dumbass next door, who leaves food out for any living thing.

Shelter... Working on that, but intend to keep my house standing. Considering a 2-wire electric fence to divert their roaming, perhaps kill a few. Figure on making it movable, so they can't get use to it.

Water... The rainy season is here, there will be standing water everywhere.

The only thing special about my property is that its reasonably safe and quiet. Dog stays in the house most of the time.

Guess what I really need is something to disturb the peace. Maybe a subwoofer mounted to the concrete slab they seem to be living under...

Hero999

What's with the double posts?

I take it that it's the forum software playing up.

I thought you had abandonded the poison idea is it could kill your dog if he eats a rat that's taken the bait?

Perhaps you should invest in a ferret or at least borrowing one - they're supposed to be good at killing rats.

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HarveyH42

Yeah, weird things have been happening with my posts. I've lost a couple, and get the double warning almost every time, but definitely didn't click the button twice. Figured the new software is still getting settled in.

Not really worried about the dog eating poison rat, just the poison. I still have it and hate to waste. Anyway, I stuffed it down the hole far enough the dog shouldn't be able to get at it.

Guessing I won't see any activity for a few days, since I disturbed their home so badly. Maybe that's what I need to do, just keep shifting things around.

Diver300

Can you get hold of any dry ice (solid CO2) ?

Poke some down their holes and shovel some earth over the holes. They retreat further down the holes to get away from you and the CO2 is heavier than air and it flows down the holes and suffocates them.

Hero999

Or a CO2 fire extinguisher?

Better still use CO, connect a tube from your car exhaust to the nest hole and seal it off.

EDIT:
You can also get tablets that give off poison gas when disolved in water.

Be careful with the poison gas idea though, the next might have an opening to your house where you can't see so evacuate the building before you start.

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