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Mice eating their babies??

Yeah, I'm still not over it guys, just really trying to keep my mind off of it.

It is still here and still ripping big holes in the screen wire and lids on the other tubs of rats that are left.

We started moving things around in the house and found holes in the walls at the floorboards going from room to room.

Yes is HUGE, and def. a rat! My brother is coming today with very large rat traps.
We don't have a gun so yeah I got the shovel.

I took a hot glue gun and put 3 layers of wire screen on all the tubs yesterday, it's all I could think of to do for now.

I just don't understand WHY this crazy evil wild rat came in our house just to kill my colony, but yes I did have to put down about 12 of them and 8 being my breeders.

And no that rat would put a hurtin' on any cat any day!

Needless to say it kinda ruined all my excitement and joy about Layla and my birthday!


Amanda
 
Haha Amanda (I still like the name Josey better),

I had the same problem (I live on an acre+ of land) big field rats were getting in and they were robbing me blind. I was running out of rat food so fast! They were carting it off and hiding it other places...sigh. They weren't killing my colonies (although I did worry about diseases), because they can't get though the tubs I showed you up in my previous post and they can't chew though the wire on the rat racks. Screen netting is not any kind of help you need a fence grade netting.

After trapping a few and even pulling one down from the rafters by the tail, and getting an exterminator (waste of money..the rats got smart)..I found the point of entry and put up some fence grade netting over it screwed the sucker down and and put plumber foam on the edges and inside the foam I have rat poison. I haven't had a problem with rats since. :)

But I do have some blocks/wheels of rat poison scattered thoughout the basement that have peanut butter in the centers (don't want them to just lick it off).
 
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I personally wouldn't deal with the "Have a heart traps". But Deb's idea sounds great. Get some poison.

As for why the wild rat would do this: It's sadly nature. This big male rat smells a bunch of other rats with babies that aren't of his blood. It's his instinct to destroy another males offspring to make sure it's his genes that carry on. As for killing the other female rats I'm sure they were scared, and combative, but their attacks meant nothing against this guy. The poor domestic rats were doomed from the start.
 
dturner100 said:
I personally wouldn't deal with the "Have a heart traps". But Deb's idea sounds great. Get some poison.
Click to expand...

I disagree with the poison because rodents tend to hoard things like food and you may never know what else could get into the collected poison. The problem with poison if the rat dies in a wall or somewhere not easily accessed for removal of the carcass which will inevitably be ripe by the time you find it. With the have a heart you can kill it and dispose of it without finding it by the stench of a long dead critter.
 
DAND said:
I disagree with the poison because rodents tend to hoard things like food and you may never know what else could get into the collected poison. The problem with poison if the rat dies in a wall or somewhere not easily accessed for removal of the carcass which will inevitably be ripe by the time you find it. With the have a heart you can kill it and dispose of it without finding it by the stench of a long dead critter.
Click to expand...

Yep, they hoard..and feed it to their babies, or the other rats outside find their hoards and the issues are resolved before they become issues. Anything outside that gets into a rats nest to eat the hoard, imo, doesn't belong in my house anyway..so I am not actually worried about that.

But you are right, sometimes they die some where inaccessible..then I just spray odor neutralizer and wait it out.:reddevil:
 
DAND said:
Hit a place like tractor supply and pick up a have a heart trap and use some peanut butter. Put it along the baseboard where you have noticed previous activity and that'll be the best way to catch the evil one.
Click to expand...

Yeah we were told to check at the tractor supply store, we asked at walmart and they don't carry rat traps, crazy huh?! :censored:

And my mom says to def. use peanut butter.

Amanda
 
deborahbroadus said:
Haha Amanda (I still like the name Josey better),

I had the same problem (I live on an acre+ of land) big field rats were getting in and they were robbing me blind. I was running out of rat food so fast! They were carting it off and hiding it other places...sigh. They weren't killing my colonies (although I did worry about diseases), because they can't get though the tubs I showed you up in my previous post and they can't chew though the wire on the rat racks. Screen netting is not any kind of help you need a fence grade netting.

After trapping a few and even pulling one down from the rafters by the tail, and getting an exterminator (waste of money..the rats got smart)..I found the point of entry and put up some fence grade netting over it screwed the sucker down and and put plumber foam on the edges and inside the foam I have rat poison. I haven't had a problem with rats since. :)

But I do have some blocks/wheels of rat poison scattered thoughout the basement that have peanut butter in the centers (don't want them to just lick it off).
Click to expand...

Hey Deborah

Did you see the Video?

Yeah Josey is just a nickname it's the first username I used when I first started using a pc many many years ago and before I knew it family and friends started calling me Josey lol so it just kinda stuck I guess. And for Diann on the end it is my real middle name.

Humm all we have near by is a cow farm with alot of cows, horses, donkeys, ect.. no pigs though lol. And we are up in the mountains so it's not street or sewer rats.

It's pretty thick wire we are using for screen, we've never had any get out of it, just him about to get through it.
My bro is here now, he brought a big rat trap, so Imma set it asap.

We can't put out poison, we have ferrets, cats, inside dog (eats everything in site, nasty dog) a tegu that runs the house (used to anyway) ect.. so I'm afraid the rat would pack it off and hide it places for my pets to find..

It's not even bothering me that he is eating the food around here, it;s that he is murdering my tame rats.

I'm still highly upset that I had to put down 12 of mine because he ripped them up so bad. :censored:

Amanda
 
Next time you see him throw a 5 gallon bucket over him slide a piece of card board under the bottom and pick up and flip it around and take him outside and kill him!
 
There's a nearby abandoned lot that isn't cared for and is a rat magnet. Once a year or so, a rat makes its way down from there and decides to take up residence in our rock wall. One even was smart enough to find a way into the house and would pop up late at night in whatever room I was in just to say hi.

The trap we had the most success with is just a small live trap from the farm store. We put a small styro plate inside where it couldn't be reached from the outside, and on it were goodies like peanut butter/seeds/cat food. We've always quickly caught the rat, and since the city never comes to get them like they say they will, we give them their rat poison once we have them in there and then leave them to die. A bit cruel maybe, but I'm not touching them, and I sure don't want them to get loose to teach the other rats to steer clear of traps. Once dead, into a trash bag and into the garbage can.
 
MagickalMorphs said:
We've always quickly caught the rat, and since the city never comes to get them like they say they will, we give them their rat poison once we have them in there and then leave them to die.
Click to expand...

You're a lot nicer than me. The ones that have wandered into my no kill traps or feed buckets get to meet my hammer or the bottom of my boot.

I hate wild vermin in my house diseasing up my stuff.
 
Yeah I hate death, and I hate killing. But this one MUST die. I will not toss it back out alive. It forced me to kill 12 of my breeding colony and has holes in every room of the house. To top it off I'm pretty sure it has brought a friend along, cause I hear one in the bathroom now!

I need about 4 more traps, my brother brought one this evening, we have it set but now the rat is not even in that room now. I just seen it run from my dogs food dish grrrr.
 
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