Rats in trees

[Bedly 1]

I have the frustration of rats coming to my bird-table every evening. When I go out, they scarper across the rose-trellis into tall shrubs and disappear. They are gone before the dogs even see them, but they can't get them anyway. The poor old cat, who is well over 14, just sits under the bush watching the rats. I know I could poison them, but that seems cheating. Anybody got a tree terrier?

[Guest little_lloyd]

Give the tree a good old shake!!! An make sure the dogs are waiting at the bottom lol

[skycat 6,173]

Catapult?

[Ricky-N.p.p 0]

I know a few lads with terriers that in my opinion are monkeys

[mussells 0]

you need this little monkey,he climbs whatever needs climbing!!!!

[Simoman 110]

Bit difficult in thick shrubs. The dogs have plucked them from hawthorn hedges on sessions and earlier this year we ratted flight ponds that were surrounded by trees, the bolting rats tried to get up the branches but were knocked down with sticks.

[dogrun 2]

Use a smoker in the thick bushes start from the far end the small amount of fumes helps move then but to be honest its i think its the noise that freaks them !

its not ideal but it worked for me, and for the trees like little_lloyd said shake the buggers out

 

Hope it helps.

 

live trap is another option i think cheshire game supplies do a multi catch for about 40 ish quid.

Edited August 6, 2007 by dogrun

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Bedly; " Cheat ", mate. Cheat like hell. For ye Dogs sakes.

 

This is where people go off the rails, look. If ye take ye Dogs out to some farm where there's rats, it's actually a quite dangerous enviroment for them to be in, because the rats will have infested the ground, vegetation and waters with disease bearing organisms. But ye Dogs will only be exposed to that risk for a matter of few hours. Right?

 

But now ye have the situation where by ye Dogs are exposed to those same organisms, Weals Disease right down to 'Worms', on a daily basis. Every time ye let them out there. They're at constant risk then. So are You and ye family! What would ever compell Anyone to allow that situation to continue, just because they'd feel they weren't being " Hunters " if they didn't do something they could flash up photographs of on here?

 

I'd have flashed up a photograph. Only I can't seem to find it just now. So I'll explain it to ye instead. Get yeself an old car tyre. Lay it down by ye bird feeding station, between that and where the rats are going to and coming from. Pop a scrap of stone or wood under it so it leaves a two inch access gap.

 

Now buy yeself some DIFENACOUM based rat bait. It's one up from Warfarin but is still one of the least virrulent. It'll knock the rats over without posing any risk to ye Dogs worth worrying about. Ok? Read The Label! All of it. Put that inside the tyre. Then put a board on top of the tyre, so it covers the big hole, and weight it down with a couple of breeze blocks. Now ye have a practical and cost free Rat Baiting Station.

 

Give it a few nights, then have a look. If the bait's going, wait till the end of the week, then double the ammount ye'd first put in there. And so on. Get in the habit of looking out for dead or half dead rats and removing them. If there's any known source of water around, look there for them. Garden pond. Vessel. Anything like that. They 'always' try to make it to water once they've had a dose.

 

Beauty of the 'Tyre Trick' is that birds are a lot less likely to go in there, because they can't see a way out. Use standard Rat Boxes and they will, I assure ye, go into them. Ok?

 

There. Now I shall await the protests of my fellow Pesties for giving out 'Trade Secrets' and encouraging amateurs to have a go Sorry, but I percieve a critical situation there. Frankly, my first concern is the well being of a mans Dogs. Now, clear those f*cking things off your ground, mate

[ginga john 268]

Bedly; " Cheat ", mate. Cheat like hell. For ye Dogs sakes.

 

This is where people go off the rails, look. If ye take ye Dogs out to some farm where there's rats, it's actually a quite dangerous enviroment for them to be in, because the rats will have infested the ground, vegetation and waters with disease bearing organisms. But ye Dogs will only be exposed to that risk for a matter of few hours. Right?

 

But now ye have the situation where by ye Dogs are exposed to those same organisms, Weals Disease right down to 'Worms', on a daily basis. Every time ye let them out there. They're at constant risk then. So are You and ye family! What would ever compell Anyone to allow that situation to continue, just because they'd feel they weren't being " Hunters " if they didn't do something they could flash up photographs of on here?

 

I'd have flashed up a photograph. Only I can't seem to find it just now. So I'll explain it to ye instead. Get yeself an old car tyre. Lay it down by ye bird feeding station, between that and where the rats are going to and coming from. Pop a scrap of stone or wood under it so it leaves a two inch access gap.

 

Now buy yeself some DIFENACOUM based rat bait. It's one up from Warfarin but is still one of the least virrulent. It'll knock the rats over without posing any risk to ye Dogs worth worrying about. Ok? Read The Label! All of it. Put that inside the tyre. Then put a board on top of the tyre, so it covers the big hole, and weight it down with a couple of breeze blocks. Now ye have a practical and cost free Rat Baiting Station.

 

Give it a few nights, then have a look. If the bait's going, wait till the end of the week, then double the ammount ye'd first put in there. And so on. Get in the habit of looking out for dead or half dead rats and removing them. If there's any known source of water around, look there for them. Garden pond. Vessel. Anything like that. They 'always' try to make it to water once they've had a dose.

 

Beauty of the 'Tyre Trick' is that birds are a lot less likely to go in there, because they can't see a way out. Use standard Rat Boxes and they will, I assure ye, go into them. Ok?

 

There. Now I shall await the protests of my fellow Pesties for giving out 'Trade Secrets' and encouraging amateurs to have a go Sorry, but I percieve a critical situation there. Frankly, my first concern is the well being of a mans Dogs. Now, clear those f*cking things off your ground, mate

[martin 332]

If you have these....................

Then you need one of these...............

[Bedly 1]

Thanks everyone, especially Ditch. I'll try that tyre arrangement. I have to be careful with poison, as I also have 3 possums that feed there every night, and I certainly don't want to harm them. They are far too big to get to the tyre bait, though.

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Possums?!? That made me notice ye flag, mate! Australia, eh? Ok, well going on what ye described there, they might well be Rattus rattus. The Black Rat. Maybe you'd know them as " Roof Rats " ?

 

No matter. Same drill as described. Only get an orange or lemon and drizzel it's juice inside that tyre too

 

Do I take it possums will eat grain? Only most amateur use products come in grain form. Just ensure ye possums can't dig under there.

 

In case of unforseen disasters, the antidote to all modern, anti coagulent rodenticides is a shot of vitamin K1.

 

Anyway, let us know how ye get on

[Bedly 1]

These are brush-tail possums, and they are opportunist omnivores. They feed on rose-shoots too, and other garden plants and fruits, but they've found the left over bird grain to be an easy and regular meal. They are lovely animals, but can be a bit of a menace.

Most rats here, at least in domestic circumstances, and the Norway brown rat, but we also have some of the blacks; and we have native rats of different sorts, which are rodent rats which introduced themselves before Europeans arrived. Whatever they are, I can do without them. I'll set up a bait station at the weekend.

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

Dont know about your gun laws mate but sounds like the perfect opportunity for an air weapon .

[Stabs 3]

You need a bloody licence for an air rifle over here