Not true. Controlled studies (with volunteers from prisons) have been fed up to 25 grams of salt per day with no adverse effects - excess salt is simply excreted.
Salt does not CAUSE hypertension, it only exacerbates an existing condition. Six percent of the population suffers from hypertension and, of those, half have the kind that's made worse by excessive salt. For the 97% of the remaining population, enjoy as much salt as you like.
Not necessarily. While some cats won;t hunt anything, others can be be very good indeed at killing rats or even larger animals like rabbits and squirrels.
I've had some experience killing rats using the green warfarin blocks. You don't have to do anything special, just put them where the rats might go, like, in my case, near the garbage. They eat it alright and then go outside, maybe for air, I don't know, but they certainly don't stay indoors. Apparently it's a pretty horrible death (effectively suffocation) and the reason it works well for rats is that they can't vomit. It goes down and they can't get it up. That's also the reason why it's not too dangerous for people and pets who'll vomit if they ingest any serious amount. Same goes for children although I wouldn't like to test it on my grand kids. On second thoughts...
In my case the rats got into my garbage room and tore holes in the black plastic bags which in turn was because I thought I was being smart when I drilled large (1") holes around the base of my garbage cans so that the air pressure wouldn't prevent a new bag from hugging the walls of the can. After ingesting the warfarin the rats (I had about 4 over a couple of days) left the scene of the crime and died in the street outside a nearby apartment building from where they probably came in the first place. The janitor commented to me about their horrible death but I just pretended ignorance.
One of my baby sisters is a nurse and I know at one time she worked in neonatal intensive care on the little critters. Being a science geek I've always had an interest in medicine and I remember a story about physicians using Viagra on a newborn to bring down the infant's blood pressure, I don't remember if there were other effects but I thought it was interesting enough for the kid to have something to brag about when he grows up. ^_^
Oh, yeah. Sorry, I misunderstood. I often try to debunk the FDA's hysteria that anything over 1 gram (based on NO empirical studies) is bad. Really bad.
The thing you have to remember about Towser the wonder cat was he never made a dent in the rat population. They breed up to the food supply and a predator or even a bunch of predators will not keep up.
Thread will work, too, but peanut butter makes some damn fine "glue" for nuts, pieces of old lunch meat, etc. without futzing with threads. But you're right - anything that prevents them from taking a flying leap at the bait will work. I've caught a number of mice alive by the ends of their tails. They squeak like you wouldn't believe when they're caught that way. I found one of the "tail trapped" mice had dragged the trap several feet to his escape hole. I was surprised he didn't try to bite his tail off to escape. I actually took him and released him outside as a reward for his Herculean efforts. Most of the others have a look of surprise on their face when the trap hits them squarely across the neck.
Haven't seen mice in years since we got a Jack Russell Terrier and a Rat Terrier. The JRT should be renamed Jack Squirrel Hater because that's what she lives for and she's fast enough to catch them every now and then in the backyard off the leash. Goes right for the neck. She only got bloodied the first time she went after one. Now she's an expert and quick executioner. JRT's have been clocked killing over 200 rats per hour in severely infested barns. Grab at the neck, shake really hard with powerful shoulder and neck muscles and then it's on to the next victim. A cat would bat them around for hours.
The squirrels hate her and throw down all sorts of stuff from the trees when she's loose in the backyard. I just saw on Nature that zoologists believe that elephants kill lion cubs because lions sometimes kill elephant calves. It's strictly a revenge thing because, of course, they're vegetarians. Vengeful vegetarians. Huge vengeful vegetarians. (-:
I think this warm winter is going to result in some serious critter problems. I've already seen stink bugs, bats, carpenter bees and all sorts of winged and crawling bugs about. Today I saw a pretty big robin yanking an earthworm out of the ground that was so big it looked like a small snake. I went over to check and the robin hopped a way a few feet, waiting patiently until I walked away and then grabbing that sucker and flying off with it.
Once in the 100 year old home, leaky like a sieve, there was an 'abrupt' infestation of 12 rats! The last one must have been the tough old grizzled patriarch. That trap snapped squarely on its neck and only made it angry! It simply had 'difficulty' navigating with its new necklace. At least until I used the 5 lb sledge on it.
I had a roof rat with his tail stuck on a glue trap, the glue trap grabbed the dog bowl and the dog was chasing them around the living room until the rat ran under a table that caught the bowl and I shot him.
My best shot was hitting one on a dead run. Rolled his ass with one shot. All of that skeet shooting paid off.
Rat shot in my Colt Frontier Scout seems to be the right tool for the job. One reason the live trap works so well is you don't have that "dead rat fleas" problem. Take them outside alive and let them assume room temperature out there. I toss them in the river for the alligators.
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