OT: Danged Rats!

Invest in a bunch of standard rat traps, not just one or two. Place them baitside next to the wall. Both rats and mice like to move along next to the wall.

I find that if I take a piece of that plastic netting fruit and vegetables come in from the grocery store. Then place peanuts with peanut butter inside a little sack made from the netting and tape it down on the peddle of the trap. That way the rat must work and pull on the bait- gets em every time.
 
Be careful if you have pets with the poison. If your dog or cat gets the dead rat it will/could kill them at least a trip to the Vet and a big bill. Most of the time I poison, (mice no rats yet) I got two dogs so just be real careful. Also they do stink to high heaven when they die in the walls. Good Luck
 
Get some dynamite! Gets the little suckers every time- great for fishing too :)

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Hahaha. Be glad you aren't in Richmond, VA. I have never seen bigger rats anywhere in the world! You would swear they were large opossums! They sit in the dumpsters behind restaurants and are so big and fat, when you roll up on a couple when you are innocently taking out the trash, you start wondering if some capybaras have moved in. Good luck taking one out with a BB gun. I need to get a picture of them. Unfortunately after 6 hours of standing on my feet throwing out drunks after 8 hours of computer geekery, going home is usually my priority.

I would recommend a bobcat.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong Sandy, but if I kill all the golfers, they're gonna lock me up and throw away the key...
 
We can do that; we don't even have to have a reason. All right, let's do the same thing, but with gophers -!
 
License to kill gophers by the government of the United Nations. Man, free to kill gophers at will. To kill, you must know your enemy, and in this case my enemy is a varmint. And a varmint will never quit - ever. They're like the Viet Cong - Varmint Cong. So you have to fall back on superior intelligence and superior firepower. And that's all she wrote.
 
I have to laugh, because I've outsmarted even myself. My enemy, my foe, is an animal. In order to conquer the animal, I have to learn to think like an animal. And, whenever possible, to look like one. I've gotta get inside this guy's pelt and crawl around for a few days.
 
Tyrkon-- Just want to echo the statement about using caution with the remains. Rodents and their nests (middens) carry all sorts of horrible-nasties. We really have to watch that doing archeaology around these parts because of hanta virus. Good luck, my friend! :thumbup:

A girl needs a knife...
 
Thanks for all the great input guys and gals. I think I will start with prunning the heck out of our lemon tree. Give the little buggers less camoflauge. I do have some huge traps that I will put along the walls of our shed. Good thing the shed is away from the house.

And then the dynamite and C4. I'll use that when the neighbors throw another party. They'll never notice. :D
 
i like my cheapo 750 fps pellet gun. if you got 'em treed maybe even a pellet pistol. i regularly take out the bushy-tail rats in my yard when they start acting like my cherry tomatoes are nuts.
 
Kill the nasty buggers!used to have to hunt em occasionally in the chicken coupe when i was a kid. me and my trusty Daisy Model 1894, or Red Ryder which ever was handiest, but there tasty roasted on a stick

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I don't believe that it is illegal to kill any of the non-native rats in the U.S. Both the Black Rat (Rattus rattus) and the Norway Rat (Rattus norvegicus) are European species that as far as I know are not protected under any game or protected species laws. They are a "kill at will" species here in NJ.

That said I really like to avoid the use of rodenticides when possible. These are some extremely toxic substances that do a great job on kiling rats as well as other non-target species that ingest the poison directly or by eating dying or dead rats that have eaten the poison. If these little buggers are getting into your shop then they must have a way out into the wild. I would try rat traps (no not the S30V kind:p) with dry dog food and peanut butter. My dad used to wire the dogfood onto mouse traps so they really had to give a good tug that caused a killer snap of the trap. Some thin wire like they use to put pine cones on Christmas wreaths would work well. And please try to avoid those terrible glue traps. I dislike rats as much as the next guy or gal, but starving an animal to death is just inhumane.

Good luck with your situation Tyr. They can be pesky buggers.
 
I agree - poison can go badly wrong, if a dog or even a child gets ahold of it, heaven forbid.

I prefer 'natural selection' myself. Get a natural predator. Snakes are good too, but a little harder to control : )

A BB gun would be a lot of fun though, come to think of it.

What are they eating? Fruit in the trees? Make sure any and all possible food sources, like garbage, dog food, etc are secured.
 
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