Now this is dedication

[Nicepix 5,650]

 

Customer called me out to this. He thinks it is something gnawing its way in. I reckon it was something trapped in the bin gnawing its way out. The droppings are rat sized, but more cream or beige coloured than normal. However, there are foil containers of cat food that haven't been rinsed out properly so that could have tainted the scat.

[budgie123 163]

This is an increasing problem I see quite regularly.

Holes most commonly where the top hinges are when bins are place tight to walls or fences as if the rat some how find access to this area and chew through.

Also some as this one where rat looks to have been trapped in and has chewed out.

[DIDO.1 22,851]

Agreed its something I'm seeing quite often. 

[Nicepix 5,650]

I have just finished reviewing the trail-cam footage from 72 hours on this site. It wasn't made easy due to the really windy and rainy conditions that caused many false camera activations.

The back story is that the customer who I have sold a double rat and double mouse trap to a couple of years ago phoned up about the damaged wheelie bin. His rat trap had been continually set off without captures and the bait having been nicked. Inside they had scurrying in various cupboards. On checking the mouse box I found one of the traps had been set off and one long dead dead mulot (wood mouse) inside.  The trap hadn't been checked in at least a week. There were signs of obvious mouse activity in two cupboards.

I was a bit sceptical about trail-cams but for £42 I though that I could justify one by charging for its usage on jobs like this. I serviced and re-set both the customers traps and sold them another double mouse trap plus a loan of a Mk. IV springer in a home made cage that I put in their shed, away from any pets. I reckon that the rat that did the damage to the wheelie bin got in by climbing up to a empty window frame in the shed and jumped across to the open bin. The trail cam was sited to watch the double rat box that had kept being set off. It was mouse city! And once the mice had set the traps off without being caught a rat took the opportunity to walk right through the trap box mopping up any bait the mice had left behind.

The mouse traps have accounted for a couple of mice indoors and not been touched for the last two days / nights, but outside the mouse party starts every dusk. Unfortunately the rat hasn't sample my Mk IV welcome pack yet, but it can be left as long as it takes.

[edge007 11]

This is Squirrels mate not Rats !!

[Nicepix 5,650]

I considered that. but we only have red squirrels here and the customer has never seen one in his garden or nearby. He's been here ten years almost.  The trail-cam footage shows wood mice, known as mulots over here, and adult rats. I've been away for a fortnight and during that time he sent an email with a photo of a new hole under his shed. Definitely a rat.

[the monkey 339]

Every wheelie bin near me has a hole in it from grey squirrels

[Nicepix 5,650]

The rat has avoided both traps, one box trap baited with cod liver oil and Frolicks dog biscuits. The trouble with this one is that the endless stream of mice keep setting the trap off despite it being set on top of a plastic box about a foot off the ground. The Yanks call them deer mice and they can't have jump. Th second trap is a tunnel made from  one centimetre mesh over a Mk. IV Springer. I poured cod liver oil over the grooves of the decking board that the trap is standing on and put the trap outside near to the dustbin where it had made a new hole under the shed.

Now it has moved indoors.

 

A large dog and a cat sleep in this room. I've now put a third trap in a cupboard under the stairs, a Mk. IV Springer in a plastic tool box with wet cat food under the treadle as I suspect that the occupiers aren't securing the food source as I had suggested to them. It is obviously finding food so it doesn't need to go into a trap.

They've trapped about twenty mice, indoors and out in the last few weeks, but ratty is still at large. The occupier has had quite a few rats in the double trap box since I sold it to him a couple of years ago, but not this one.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 15, 2020 by Nicepix

[Rabid 1,936]

Sounds like they need to stop feeding that cat, it sounds like it’s not earning it’s keep

[Arry 22,980]

Recon you use a bit of that grey bin for bait they seem to like eating it Lol. Joking aside is that grey bin made of a fairly soft type of plastic? could it be they just like gnawing on because of its texture. It looks to me that they are not gnawing to get in or out but sitting on top and just gnawing for the sake of it. What do you recon? Atb.

Or is that bin a wheelie bin that has a lid?

Cheers Arry

[Nicepix 5,650]

The bin looks like it has been gnawed from the inside. I'm guessing that a rat got in and the lid was shut on it. There is no damage to the outside of the lid.

The trail-cam imagery has only showed a single rat and loads of wood mice and there are no red squirrels in the area that the customer knows of. They haven't been in touch so I'm hoping that the rat has run into the break-back trap. If it had gone into the live catch one they would need me to come round and shoot it. It isn't an ongoing job of mine. I sold them some mouse and rat traps a couple of years ago when I was doing some mole trapping and they phoned for some more but I needed to be sure what problem they had so I loaned them the trail-cam and then supplied more traps. I've also loaned them a couple of mine.

I'm going round to tomorrow to collect the trail-cam so I'll know more then.

[wilbur foxhound 480]

On 18/01/2020 at 16:32, Nicepix said:

The bin looks like it has been gnawed from the inside. I'm guessing that a rat got in and the lid was shut on it. There is no damage to the outside of the lid.

The trail-cam imagery has only showed a single rat and loads of wood mice and there are no red squirrels in the area that the customer knows of. They haven't been in touch so I'm hoping that the rat has run into the break-back trap. If it had gone into the live catch one they would need me to come round and shoot it. It isn't an ongoing job of mine. I sold them some mouse and rat traps a couple of years ago when I was doing some mole trapping and they phoned for some more but I needed to be sure what problem they had so I loaned them the trail-cam and then supplied more traps. I've also loaned them a couple of mine.

I'm going round to tomorrow to collect the trail-cam so I'll know more then.

What was it then,my money’s on edge being right

[Nicepix 5,650]

The only species recorded on the trail-cam are mice, rats and a cat. The rat has moved indoors but whilst it has been running around the living room every night it hasn't gone into any of the traps. They can't have been putting foodstuffs away properly at night.

To be honest I've given up on them. The latest text I got was asking how he could change the batteries in the trail-cam. The battery compartment is staring him in the face when he opens the cover to switch it on and off! But, of course he hasn't been switching it on and off hence him needing new batteries. The thing has been running in his living room day and night.

I'm going to pick up the traps I loaned them and the trail-cam at the weekend and then I'll leave them to it.