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Vermin!!.......

Towpack

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Another visitor to the bird feeders today. We have at least 3, now -1. Tried conventional rat traps but they seem to "know" what they are and steer clear, wierd. A nicely placed .22 just behind the right ear will do. :violence-rapidfire:
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I had one mining out our compost bin, put 3 rat traps baited with peanut butter in it, and 3 in polytunnel. Completely ignored for a week.... added a lump of chocolate to each trap And caught one 2 days later.
No more digging a few weeks on, so hopefully just the one, but that’s rare they are usually in rabbles of 3-4.
Though about sitting at upstairs window with .22 or .177 airrifle or the 12 gauge if traps hadn’t worked , which they rarely do a small rats so clever
 
A mate of my Brother's, who's in professional vermin control, said to use some chocolate powder, which we did but to no avail.
I've just found a hole hidden in the rockery which looks freshly dug. The rockery is 2-3 ft higher than the rest of the garden so it's probably a labrynth under there, plus it's next to the concrete base for the green house. We had a rat's nest in the rockery years ago and ended up smoking them out with an old suck/blow vacuum cleaner and some smouldering oily rags. One entrance to the nest came up in next door neighbour's garden! When the rats came staggering out the neighbour dispatched them with a shovel.
 
We were plagued by a sudden influx of those tree rats. Had no success with rat traps with various baits.
Bought a squirrel trap with openings both ends, as they are reluctant to enter anything they can't see with a way out. Funny enough they loved the crunchy peanut butter, and within 2 days I had 4 trapped and dispatched. Several others just disappeared, maybe someone else had the same idea.
 
I've got one of those walk through traps setup for the rats but no luck so far. We get an occasional Grey Squirrel but it's not causing much of a problem, yet. We have a persistent cat, ferrule I think, that was terrorising the bird feeding station so I rigged up an electric fence on top of the trellis (a favourite stalking point of said cat) and also in the small gap beside the greenhouse where it used to lay in wait. Now it keeps it's distance :lol:
 
Electric eh ? Yeh, I can imagine dabbing a wet nose on that would be a strong deterrent.
The trap I have can have both ends open or one, and has been very successful at feral pigeon catching too.
There was an old girl ( sadly now deceased) whose pleasure was feeding these sodding things.
Flocks of em used to queue up on her roof and when she died, they transferred their attention to our feeders and tables, which attracted loads of finches, tits and occasional robins.
They disappeared when the pigeons descended, pretty much all day. They are so greedy, they were queuing up for the trap.
As a fox was a regular visitor, who did no harm, I kept it fed for weeks, leaving the carcasses under the hedge down the bottom, at night. Recycling ?
 
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Had one in the workshop here recently, plenty of evidence but couldn't find the perpetrator, or how he was getting in... . went in last weekend and turned the place upside down, needed some tidying anyway.. barsterd was living in an old sub-woofer that I hadn't bothered dumping.. ran out between my legs and helpfully made for his exit hole in under the corner bench.

Hole filled, rat evicted, no way in now, he can head back to the farm over the field where he came from. Workshop floor is now clear of hiding places for furries
 
This was the other evening when our Kelpie x Collie was outside:

Knew the dog was snorting more than a cocaine addict, got outside and she's got one mouse under the edge of the verandah slab in the gravel, and all you can see is a tail. Move rocks out the way one mouse caught after a few false starts. Remove dead mouse from dog

Go for piss and check little ute. Dog is fussing on the verandah. Lift cable drum. Dog runs off with Mouse number 2 caught. Bloody shovel is by the fence. Dog then disappears from where I last saw her, so go round the other way and don't find mouse with dog... Where is dead/dying mouse... Know where dog is but where is mouse, retrace dog route find mouse. Dead mouse #2.

Getting ready to go inside and dog is fussing by the barrel again, we've already had one mouse from under there, but the fuss is there's still one there.. lift up barrel mouse runs under shoes. Call dog over, have her block one side and lift all boots and shoes up... Where's the little shit gone. Under my flipflops. Dog gets #3 mouse, mouse meets shovel again and over the fence it goes dead. Well done dog....

She was so pleased with herself with that 10 minutes work.


Dog in Question (and yes, that is her bed - typical Kelpie, she likes being high up... quite a few friend's dogs sleep ON their kennel roof instead of in the kennel.)
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Rats are not that smart.....

We had a problem a year ago with them ..... they would even swim out to the island on the pond to kill ducklings or steal eggs.
Sniping with the .22 accounted for several but more were living under the summer house and decking that goes out over the pond .
I didn't like the idea of poison but the local pest guy said it was the only way so several bait stations were used and we cleared them ....

The other day I noticed some tell tale signs again so went to get the tub of poison to rebait the stations ........only to find the rats had got into the shed , eaten a hole in the tub and eaten all the poison ....
 
Spotted one by the bird feeder. Laid down a snap trap with Phil adel phia choc spread. Bugger couldnt resist. Caught him within 10 minutes. Actually saw him get his neck snapped.
 
They've been busy this week. Two in the traps (Spam for bait!) and just had these two on the rockery.

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We have IR lighting in the back garden for the security cameras so we can see the little buggers in total darkness so I bought a red spotlight for the gun sight which works a treat. I didn't actually know that they can't see red light.
 
Had 20mm of rain yesterday, so that pushed the mice out - dog got 5 last night in the end.
 
Seems to be a theme..... ;-)
The LC Gun Club ......
I've been snipping the buggers again with the .22 ..... also the grey tree rat version ....

Happened to see something the other evening I doubt I will again while laying in wait for Rowland.....

Our resident Barn Owl was happily hedge hopping across the garden then into the field when one of the buzzards we also feed literally knocked her out the air from above ....he didn't follow up and she just laid on the grass for a few seconds wings outspread before gathering herself up and flying off .....
 
I've seen Corvids mob and harass the Sparrow Hawks we get patrolling the fields near us but never heard of one Raptor attacking another. Maybe the Buzzard had young nearby and felt threatened.? We need Chris Packham to answer that one! Our old shed had a flat roof and we would just chuck dead mice or very small rats from the traps onto the roof and within a few minutes a Crow or Magpie would be away with it. Our new shed has a sloping roof so that's no longer an option plus the rats we're getting at the moment are too big. There's a really big one which keeps popping up, must be around 10" long body length. He's very wary but I'll have him!
 
Squirrel chewed through my vw high pressure petrol pipe, only just enough to break through the wall, so must have had a shock when petrol squirted out.
 
They've been busy again today. The old Weihrauch is certainly earning it's keep....
 

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