Rat-proof cat food dispenser?

[Dave Liquorice]

She maybe incompetent in your eyes but at least she is catching them by stealth and her own teeth and claws. Lets see you catch something without a trap...

[Andrew Gabriel]

Perhaps you could fool her by chasing the tin of wiskers supermeat around the house for an hour or so before eventually opening it and feeding her?

[dennis]

I'm doing too well ATM. I put out a humane rat trap and so far I have caught two rats, a squirrel, a wood pigeon and two sparrows. I just wish the birds would stop eating my bait.

[Adrian C]

Same here,

I recently trapped two adult field mice in humane traps wandering around our kitchen on the way to the pasta. They were let out in the wilds of the road next to us (where they can find a good curry instead), and I de-baited and washed the poo'ed traps leaving them to dry in the sun.

Came back to reinstall the traps inside out house, and found that one of the now baitless traps had caught another mouse from outside. But this one was tiny, obviously now scared and with it's back to me (when opening the front door of the trap). It didn't understand the deal - "ye only enter the restaurant if ye are sure that dinner will be served here..."

Quietly I trotted up the alley way to another release point (great chinese) and reopened the front door. A little snout followed by head and a couple of paws popped out. This baby mouse was just too cute for words, and it and I each stood transfixed looking at one other for a good minute.

Then it had gone. My only friend ;-(........

Someone offered a straight jacket here recently. Is it still available?

[Rod]

Was expecting to read:

"Two game wardens, seven hunters, and a cow."

[Mark]

Try explaining that to madam

[Owain]

But that's only about 33% edible.

Owain

[geoff]

You mean you sentenced the poor buggers to death by starvation?

It was quite a surprise to me to discover that once domesticated, they have little idea how to fend for themselves in nature and many of them die

[Andy Hall]

Traps are getting very sophisticated these days :-)

[Dave N.]

Well at last we seem to be getting somewhere...

With rat scarers plugged in around the house and emptying the cat food bowl at night, I took a look under the kitchen unit over the weekend. At last, after nearly 2 weeks, the rats have eaten the bait - so hopefully it'll not be too long until they're all gone.

Many thanks!

Dave N.

[<me9]

Apart from the smell which *will* get worse once they are deceased.

[Dave N.]

3 weeks later - the saga continues, but we're hopefully winning...

Looking at the droppings, most of the rats seemed pretty small. I also found a cunningly concealed small hole right in a corner behind a water pipe in the area under the kitchen units where most activity has been observed - I think they could have used this to get under the floor (or maybe that's how they got in). There were a few big droppings and gnaw marks indicating at least one large one.

I plugged the hole using masses of filler and the rat activity in the kitchen seemed to reduce noticeably, so that probably means some have been isolated below the floor (I also plugged a hole in the under- stair cupboard floor that could have been used by a rat to get back in again). In the last week we have had 4 dead rats appear, all small, some of these probably dragged by the cat, and I killed another that the cat managed to back into a corner. I think the bait is killing them or at least weakening them so the cat can catch up with them now.

The local council operates a subsidised pest control service - the pest control man took a good look around the area for entry points below floor from outside and concluded the house and my neighbours' houses should be rat-proof (although there are a few small holes that could be used by mice). He said I was basically going the right way about getting rid of the rats but also recommended getting a few traps since the rats were mostly juveniles and probably weren't too wise to traps yet. I got a couple of snap traps and put them, baited with chocolate, against the wall under the kitchen units, but without a result yet. In the meantime the big one had started building a nest with cotton wool under the cooker (lovely smell when we turned the oven on!) and one night when we had inadvertently shut it in the dining room it managed to dig a hole through the lath and plaster wall and get into the under-stair cupboard (I chased it out and filled the hole PDQ). Nice!

Last night, in a scene reminiscent of Fawlty Towers, I finally cornered the (hopefully not "a") big one behind the fridge and dispatched it with a piece of wood (the neighbours heard the sound!). No obvious rat activity this morning, but not quite sure the saga's over yet...

[Paul Kelly]

In message , Dave N. writes

(Snip)

One thing they hate is wire wool put where you might use filler.

Bait has the odd affect of attracting slugs but it does work quite well.

They hate activity so a lot of noise on the floor and above their heads is quite good.

One experienced man said that the old timers would fill the holes with broken glass but no one did that anymore.

You should see the gnaw marks in the wood on the bottom of the outhouse to kitchen door here.