How to keep rodents out?

[Heavenly Scent]

I have rodents trying to dig near the foundation of our house this fall trying to make their way in before winter. Any ideas on what would discouage this. I have pets so poisons are not an option.

Tracy

[Snooze]

Seal up any holes into the crawl space or foundation, use a fine wire net over vents. Have you considered using bait stations? Properly used, a dog or cat wouldn't be able to get at the bait.

-S

[Tightwad]

You will have to use "poisons or traps. Stopping up holes will just result in them digging out the stuffing or digging under or around it or close by.

If it is Gophers: Gopher poison is put down in the holes. Dog's don't care much for the corn or the smell of the poison. It will get the rats, chipmunks and just about anything else. If your dog does dig due to the scent of the animal you will have to deal with it.

[DrLith]

Threaten to replace your lazy, lounge-about, freeloading pets with a few Jack Russell terriers if they don't step up to the plate.

Of course, then you might have to worry about Jack Russells digging at the foundation trying to get in.

[omi]

What if a dog or cat eats the poisoned rodent?

Olin

[Bert Byfield]

The dog or cat dies. Once I had a cat that almost died, but recovered and was only made deaf by the poison.

[Lar]

10 lb. animal would have to totally consume 9-18 rats or 22-44 mice. A 25 lb. animal would need to consume 22-45 rats or 56-112 mice.

[Snooze]

That seems really odd, extremely odd, to the point where frankly I have strong doubts. One of the more common rat baits is Bromadiolone. A rodent would have to have been marinated in it before it would cause a problem for a cat/dog.

For example a 1 ounce tomcat brand all-weather block bat contains 0.005%, that means 1 block has 0.005 ounce of poison, or 141.748 mg. According to world health organization, Bromadiolone, a typical lethal dose for a rat is

1.25mg/kg. A norway rat weighs about 0.5 kg, so a lethal dose is 0.75mg, or about 150mg of bait. About 0.005% of the bait.

Typical lethal dose (ld50) for a dog is 10mg/kg, and 25mg/kg for a cat. Any dog that weighs more then 14 kg or a cat weight more then 3kg isn't likely to suffer fatal effects, even if eats the entire block of bait. Or it would have to eat a pile of dead rats.

Given all this it's highly unlikely. a pet is going to die from accidentally eating some bait.

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