Getting rid of a rat

[Mary Fisher]

A Ratzapper.

Do a Google. Expensive but worth it.

Mary

[nightjar]

Their job is to tell you where the quarry is, not to catch it themselves.

Colin Bignell

[The Natural Philosopher]

12 bore.

[The Natural Philosopher]

12 bore leaves less to clean up.

[Andy Dingley]

Arsenic isn't toxic to rats. You'd have to load them with enough of it to give them metal fatigue before it started poisoning them.

This is an animal that has spent 60 million years living on shit. It's enormously tolerant to anything. An accumulative poison like arsenic will polish off a human fairly shortly, but rats can excrete it and it won't do much more than annoy them.

Besides which, if you do for for the poison route (and you really hate hedgehogs and slug-eating birds) then _please_ use the real stuff and place it in proper fixed-down boxes with narrow entries.

One of my christmas cards was built from a musical (sic) Xmas card, a candle, string and a rat trap

card, but they're still hard to get a rat to sit in front of. OK for narrow runs maybe, but not much use in the garden.

I'd shoot them.

Generally though, my only rat problems are when a cat brings one in and lets it loose for some indoor rat-coursing.

-- Do whales have krillfiles ?

[BillR]

Poison .... places where farmers go, e.g. Scats, have lots of good stuff.

[Paul C. Dickie]

In article , Clive Summerfield writes

NI3

[Andy Dingley]

My parents have always had Setters, of varying hue. I don't recall one of them that could hunt or retrieve.

They live near a pheasant hatchery, so the lanes are often full of the little flying hippies (bright plumage, hang around in woodlands, permanently stoned). Walking their Gordon Setter at night we'd often surprise one out of a hedge. Dog and bird would then stare at each other in equal bewilderment, until the bird managed to outwit it. "What do I do with this ?", you could see it thinking. "Will it be my friend ? It doesn't _look_ like a postman, or a car. Probably best not to bark at it then. Yes, Master will come along and sort it out for me."

[Abdullah Eyles]

My sister had one in her garden, it was blatant enough to eat from the chicken feeder during the day so the plan was:

Connect a long cable from a switch in the house to a metal plate underneath the feeder and the live to the feeder itself... (of course insulated from one another) Plan was to throw the switch when Ronald was on the plate, with his front feet on the feeder.

After a little time, he came... wait... wait... NOW!

What did we learn? Rats are good insulators!!! just ate his fill and went away again!!!

[Clive Summerfield]

Scrumpy is our first Gordon (just short of 4 months old), but we've had 7 Irish Setters as well. I would sum the breeds up as "affectionate, faithful, lively and totally and utterly gormless". Certtainly of no use wrt hunting. Response to wildlife of all forms appears to be "I wonder if it wants to play with me?".

Oh well, not going to risk poison with pets and children around, so it looks like the petrol and spade approach.

Cheers Clive

[Andy Dingley]

Their currrent Setter is an Irish red & white. Probably one of the smarter ones. The Gordon was definitely the doziest. It traipsed around with an air of infinite sadness all day "If only they'd sit still and stop being so _confusing_, I might work out what was going on"

-- Do whales have krillfiles ?

[Andy Dingley]

Silenced Theoben. I've got 7 pellets, rapid loading and I ought to get 3 or 4 before the rest notice and scarper. Saves noise, gun cleaning and wasting shells too.

-- Do whales have krillfiles ?

[enuff]

And you can tweak the power easily on them... who? when? ...never...

[Paul Mc Cann]

Trouble is they are not that easily spotted.

( If I could jut correct the original poster . The likelyhood is he hasn't got one rat but a whole lot of the buggers.)

We find a few cats around the place works wonders.

One year I laid poison to beat the band. It kept disappearing and I kept replacing it.

The following summer when searching for something in the workshop I came across a load of it which had been brought back for the family. Hadn't been touched to all appearances.

They aren't particularly fond of humans so you may find that something is drawing them to your premises. Bird feeders are notorious for doing this, as is waste food left around., or, as in our case, the outlet from the sink used by the waste disposal or the septic tank ( shudder)

Paul Mc Cann

[Mary Fisher]

That's where the Ratzapper scores. No poison, no spring traps. No petrol.

Mary

[Huge]

Since it sprays vapourised rat all over the place, I think not. Even my .410 causes a certain amount of spatter.

[Huge]

Too big. Use a .410.

[Andy Dingley]

Wouldn't a Ratzapper also have a risk to children ?

-- Do whales have krillfiles ?

[PoP]

If you have a US air force base in the vicinity it might be worth an anonymous phone call to say that you've just seen bin laden go under your shed. But it's probably best to make that call about 50 miles from home as the ordnance from a B52 could cause a new feature in your back garden which you will need to climb down into.

Alternatively, tell them that there are some UK soldiers practicing in your back garden. The US warthogs will be along shortly for a bit of target practice.

PoP

Sending email to my published email address isn't guaranteed to reach me.

[Andy Dingley]

We're trying to make it die, not just dye it.

Enough NI3 to make a hole in it is likely to go off spontaneously.

-- Do whales have krillfiles ?