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Posted by D Sherman [72.47.9.228] on Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 00:48:34 :
In Reply to: You want to kill pack rats? posted by Hank [74.62.17.50] on Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 00:09:48 :
I did that one summer when I had a vegetarian girlfriend visiting. Took each rat to the next valley over and dumped it at the trashy campsite in hopes that it would stay there. Figured it cost me about $10 in gas per rat. Otherwise I try to catch them in regular rat traps baited with corn chips well-jammed under the trigger so they have to pull at them to get them out, but if I'm around and hear or see them, I like the direct method. I can't sleep anyway when the rats are running around, so I might as well get up and go hunting.
I used to have a dog that would be up all night making more noise too trying to get the rats. Weird thing is this summer when there were no rats at all, but she was old and senile, she'd be up all night sometimes chasing ghost rats. She'd go to a place where rats used to be, look at it intently for a while, then go to another place where rats used to be and look there, then go back to the first place. Meanwhile she'd trip over things and sometimes get herself stuck in places she couldn't get out of. I really don't think she was smelling last year's rats. I think she was seeing the ghosts of them.
There's nothing to do in the winter, though, but put poison bars in the cabs of all the trucks and other enclosed places where only rats will go. If I leave traps out, I'll have a mummified rat in the spring, and more live ones that moved in after the first one got caught. Plus, one winter I accidentally left a rat trap set and in the spring there was an ermine in it, too far gone to use unfortunately. I don't want to kill them because they prey on rats.
So, yes I "have a heart", and I'd rather not kill anything that doesn't need killing, but where I live the pack rats are beyond rational toleration. The .22 is my preferred solution because it's sure, it's quick, and it won't accidentally kill any other animal.
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