Discussion Board

I walked into my pumpkin (winter squash) patch last week and saw a couple of grey kittens hightailing it into to unkempt neighbours property.
When they ran straight up the concrete wall I realised they were gynormous rats.
I started poisoning the critters last tuesday. 5 bait stations.
So far I have replenished the bait stations every day since. I had hoped they would have died off by now but these vermin seem pretty tough..or theres a lot there.

DW picked up a pumpkin that had seperated from the plant. It had a hole eaten into the base and while it looked ok from the top was completely eaten out.

I don't like killing animals but I have declared war on this lot.

yeah. it's tough dealing w/ these unwelcome visitors! Hopefully, you'll drive them out sooner rather than later.....

here's my rat story.

gulp.

several pre-Dr McD years ago, I purchased gagoonda sized bags of DumDums and Smartees. It was late Oct - right before Halloween, and such stuff was on sale. I'm a teacher, and sometimes back then in pre enlightened days, it seemed a good idea to hand the kids a sweet treat. Call it bribery or reward or just blatant stupidity, it just happened sometimes. I apologize to everyone for that transgression.

We had a faculty meeting after school, and it was getting dusky when we left the building. I opened auto door, and saw a dum dum wrapper on car seat. Huh? Had left the bag unopened.... The huge bags of candy were on floor and covered w/ a coat to keep goodies hidden from snoopy young eyes.

I moved the coat, and was stunned to discover that the bags of candy had been violated. Virtually ALL of the dumdums had been opened and eaten - only sticks and wrappers remained. But it seems only one smartee had been sampled - one little cellophane sleeve had been unwrapped, and one candy was bitten in half. That was it!

They say you are what you eat, but it took almost a week to get that poor wandering rat out of the car. He was obviously not a dum dum, except ultimately in decisions regarding lodging. Didn't turn out so well for Ratso.

(We had evening conferences that week, and i drove home those nights w/ a flashlight aimed at my feet and a hockey stick close at hand just in case he wanted to get friendly.....)

Sorry you are dealing w/ these animals, Glenn. They are so clever - and so destructive. It feels awful to feel violated - and to know getting rid of the problem isn't going to be pleasant, either

Maybe leave a trail of dum dums leading to a deep dark woods somewhere?

I wouldn't fancy driving around with a rat for a passenger.
It has been a bad year for vermin. We had an infestation inside the ceiling space in our attic late last year..
Probably months of wet weather this spring/summer forced them indoors. I laid poison and never had anymore problems until the day before Christmas when an ungodly smell developed within the wall of the stairway in the passage.
I was told they go outside for water and die..well this one didn't. All we could do was put plenty of smellies around until the smell went about a week later.

Just checked yesterdays bait. It's all gone so I laid more.
Cost me about $35 in bait so far.

oh, so sorry, Glenn!

not a cool situation at all.

Yuk--don't like mice or rats! My husband sets traps for them. But what bothers my garden area are the gophers. My husband has huge traps and he gets them too! I hate to hurt them but can't have them in my garden!!

How in the world do rats/mice get in a car? They must be good at jumping or climbing up the tires....

I had rats in my truck, making nesting out of the stuffing of my seat and they came through the gear shift boot. I'd beat the heck out of my front seat before I got in to drive.

My first garden I was living at a rental house two doors down from a 7-11. Rats use to eat my cantaloupes

I hope the rat does go outside to die and not get into some corner. I had a neighbor who had mice real bad (so did we due to the age of the house) and mice crawled up in his lazboy to die and stink.

You're sure they weren't 'possums?

I'm sure on my account. I recognize the poo

I meant the ones climbing up the garden wall. It was the "ginormous" adjective that made me wonder. I had a pet possum when I was a kid and lots of people thought he was "the biggest darned rat" they'd ever seen. It's the tail, I guess.

i love possums! poor dumb misunderstood little buddies.

my little stowaway came through the engine. but by the time that chapter was over, he'd been allllllllllllllllllllll through the car. left his little calling card everywhere.

I love possums too. Darn it's been years since I saw any locally. They are out there.

I hate the thought of how many animals and how many insects I don't see any more.

I like possums too---but they are always getting run over on our back roads! I always feel so sorry for them.