Flour & cement powder rat poison - queries (2025 Update)

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Gas Bag 15 years ago

I've recently come across some articles that mention you can make your own "non-toxic" rat/mouse posion by making a 50:50 mixture of regular/ corn flour and cement powder. They eat the mixture, then go in search of water. Once they drink some water....game over. I have a few specific questions, in relation to this D.I.Y. rat poison.

- How effective is this mixture at killing rats and/or mice?

- Assuming you place this mixture indoors (e.g. in the roof space), will this poison ONLY take effect once the rodent goes outside for a drink of water? The reason being, I'd want to avoid at-all-costs having Ratty "snuff it" in my roof space, then having the most God- awful smell to contend with a few days later.

- Is there anything that can be added to this mixture that would make it extremely enticing to rats and/or mice? e.g. Powdered parmesan cheese, sugar, salt, a little soy/fish sauce, some type of finely chopped meat (raw or cooked)? I am just taking a wild guess here, as I don't know what would attract them.

- Most of all, would tile grouting powder, used for bathroom tiling, work just as well as cement powder in this D.I.Y. mixture?

I really would appreciate some advice. Thanks.

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willshak 15 years ago

Keeps them clean and free of burrs, ticks, and fleas. Keeps them from getting killed by cars, dogs, or cat haters, or being carried away by hawks.

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jellybean stonerfish 15 years ago

Why would you keep your cats locked up inside?

Animal cruelty.

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jamesgangnc 15 years ago

Never heard that one. But any bait poison runs the risk of the animal dying somewhere in your house. In 99% of the cases the carcase just dries up. Or flys find it and it gets eaten by maggots.

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Frank 15 years ago

I agree. You take a chance with poison baits in the house. After getting one bad stink a couple of years ago from a poisoned mouse, I now use traps only.

I don't know about flour/cement but rats do not have a throwing up reflex and once they eat something, it has to pass through their digestive system where it may kill them.

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Brooklyn1 15 years ago

If you have rodents in your attic then you are very remiss in sealing their entry to your house... believe it or not it is quite easy to eliminate entryways. Seal your house and if rodents are still present set traps... they obviously have free roam of your entire house because rodents cannot live without food and water... also eliminate their access to your food... you are definitely feeding those critters or they'd not be there.

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Harry K 15 years ago

Yep. I find that D-Con works wonders and the animals don't smell for some reason. I keep a bait box with it in the basement and find and occasional dead mouse - never smelled one for many a year now.

The 'flour/cement' is an oldy home recipe. Just as enticing to pets as it is to rodents. Needs to be in places the pets can't get to just like any commercial poison.

Harry K

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LSMFT 15 years ago

An overdose of vitamin D will kill them, use that.

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ransley 15 years ago

Then if it worked why wouldnt someone be selling it. My dogs wont eat cement I dont think a rat will. I use poison inside, traps are a pain. The smell of a dead mose is gone in a week and so are all the mice. With traps its a constant battle you dont know if you ever win. Do both, traps and poison

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Bob Villa 15 years ago

Maybe it's D-CONcrete in it dat kills 'em!

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Colbyt 15 years ago

A quick snap of the neck seems more humane to me.

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Billy 15 years ago

I've thought about it, but the little rat keeps running away ;O)

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jellybean stonerfish 15 years ago

Time to bring the cats back into the thread....

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Caesar Romano 15 years ago

On Wed, 26 Jan 2011 19:53:37 -0500, aemeijers wrote Re Re: Flour & cement powder rat poison - queries:

Well said.

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Harry K 15 years ago

Being "humane" is the reason I will never, ever use a 'glue trap' again. One time was enough to turn my stomach.

Harry K

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The Daring Dufas 15 years ago

You should see what a rat trap does to a mouse. The look on the face of the little mouse conveys extreme surprise and shocked disbelief after the bar crushes its little backside. The last ultrasonic squeak of WTF in mouse-speak is frozen in its tiny countenance forever or until it is consumed by other smaller vermin or it desiccates and eventually turns to dust. :-)

TDD

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Gas Bag 15 years ago

Quite a lot of replies, but I am hoping someone can actually respond specifically to my queries. Where I may place a flour/cement mix, there would be no other animals, only rats or mice. Totally sealing up the roofspace 100% is not a viable option at the moment.

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Brooklyn1 15 years ago

Why not?

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Bob Villa 15 years ago

What about mine..."D'CONcrete is whot make it work mon!"

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invalid unparseable 15 years ago

People who put house cats out can't possibly care about their pets any more than people who put their five year olds out to play on the freeway. Domesticated cats are not ferral, they have very few outdoor survival skills if any. Most folks who are annoyed by their neighbors pet cats will shoot them. .177 pellet guns make no noise and leave no identifying traces.. more cats die from gun shot than from any other cause. Anyone who puts a house cat out because they think they are harming a sentient creature by keeping it indoors is a pinhead with a lower IQ than any cat. And cats don't smell, not unless they are ill. Exuding no odor is just one way how nature made felines one of the best hunters on the planet, which is why they also bury their waste, the only animal that does. Naturally the lazy bastards that don't regularly clean the cat box are who smell, not the cat. Humans smell... and I'm positive if I ever visited your terlits I'd about die from the stench.

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Billy 15 years ago

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God, where to begin?

(1) Citation other than your backside, please. Can you name a study supporting this view?

(2) Learn spelling and meaning of word before you use it. Feral (F-E-R-A-L): in a wild state, esp. after escape from captivity or domestication : a feral cat. Domesticated cats are not feral by definition.

(3) The leading causes of death in cats: Feline diabetes, AIDS, and Kidney failure.

(4) People will let a cat out, because that is where the cat wants to be. I'm sure with exercise, you could grow up to be a pin-head yourself.

(5) "Exuding no odor is just one way how nature made felines one of the best hunters on the planet."- Citation please to support this statement.

Cats have scent glands along the tail, on each side of their head, on their lips, base of their tail, chin, near their sex organs, and between their front paws. They use these glands to scent mark their territory. When the cat rubs you, he is marking you with his scent, claiming you as "his." Too, he is picking up your scent. Cats rub up against furniture or doorways for the same reason - to mark the item as "his". (Urine spraying is also a territorial marking, by the way.)

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