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Pack Rats
The reason I have a lot of rodents has nothing to do with how I take care of my land. I live on a 1200 square mile tract of BLM open range.
I can't use poison because I don't want to kill the cottontail, quail, deer, wild horses and numerous song birds, hawks and eagles.
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Pack Rats
I don't have any grain or food sources stored either. I just live in the high desert like Mark and these things live everywhere around here. They are opportunists and will come in out of the rain. (when it occurs) The point is that they will live inside as well as outside.
The car that has been infested is an offroad race car. It is not exactly air tight. It is being stored inside a barn that is not air tight either, so the rats get in there. I am building an new "tight" shop, but it won't be done for a couple of months. I don't want to clean it out because of the Bubonic Plague and Hantavirus potential that the fleas and feces in the nest will carry. This weekend, I am going to put an insect bomb in the car and that might make the place undesirable for the rats also.
If you read the thread about the undesirable neighbors, you might understand that I moved away from a pretty nice place with a nice shop because I had a neighbor that was a loud abusive jerk that was connected into the political structure and I was constantly being charged with this or that violation of zoning or covenants. It was a total pain. I am just trying to get a new shop built and get my life back to normal after a move a year ago. Finding a contractor to build the shop was another adventure.
Murf, my first design had no switch, but the rats would not go in to take the bait. They could either sense the 7000 volt potential or they got a slight jolt before being fully inside and decided to dine elsewhere. So, the switch was to make sure that they were in the middle of the kill zone. They would not even go in there before I grounded the power supply. At first I just wired it up floating and they would not go near it, but would eat the bait out of the passive tubes that I had placed around. Currently I have the trap sitting on a large metal plate that grounds the fence transformer and the rat walks up on the plate and into the copper lined PVC pipe to get to the bait. By the time he tugs (or pushes as of last night's design update) on the bait, the rat cannot get out without taking a lethal shot.
What I am trying to do is to reduce the "inside" population without having dead poisoned rats in places I cannot see. After I stop getting hits on my trap, I will switch over to poison baits for general control.
I was talking about this with a buddy and he is building up a copy of my trap, but he is going after squirels. He is using a neon light transformer and I suspect that he will literally fry the squirel in place. I did not want the liability of a lethal device, so I opted for an electric fence transformer that I know is powerful enough.
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Pack Rats
Just an update.
I have caught six or seven pack rats in total. I am no longer getting any hits on any of my traps or passive bait stations. So, I think that I wiped out the colony.
I dropped a fumigation bomb into the race car and re-covered it to kill any fleas and insect pests. It looks like they were using the expensive racing seat as a toilet, so I have some work to do there with enzyme cleaners.
I also sprayed around the open part of the barn and dropped a couple more fumigation bombs into the closed part of the barn. I haven't seen any live rats, spiders, or insects in the area since I finished my assault.
I am going to clean out the nest in the car this weekend if I get time. I will also lay down some of those waxy poison bars to kill scouts that might check out the sterilized area.
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Pack Rats
My buddies do gs have ate more than their share of rat poison. Infact one of them ate a whole package wrapper and all! No real lasting effects.
Bringing in a pack of coyote's will work.
All this talk about electricution is getting to me. Anyone remember that movie where the guy started eating the mice? Cooked em up right infront of their brothers and sisters?
I think Iowafun and you guys need to get together! He has snakes and you all have good food!
Man, I thought I had problems with hornets! Nothing compared with what youall are describing! The plague?? Geesh! Think good ole Wisconsin is looking pretty good again!
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Be careful with rat poison and dogs. We were at my sister in laws house last Christmas, and while we were there she had three dogs eat some after the kids found it behind some stuff outside. The vet couldn't save them and all the dogs died. She was terribly broken up over it.
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I don't have any dogs. I do have a pack of coyotes roaming the area. If they get into the rat poison...too bad. I don't actively hunt the coyotes, but they aren't domestic animals either.
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Pack Rats
We have coyotes too. If we didn't have dogs I'd set out a case of D-Con for the coyotes to enjoy.
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I hide my Dcon boxes under and behind large objects where the mice/rodents can go and the dogs can't. Glad I checked this posting again, I remember seeing a mouse in the shop earlier this week. I need to get more set out. They go through it like kids with candy.
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My SIL's D-CON was behind some stuff outside where the dogs couldn't get it. Unfortunately the kids who were visiting were playing and moved things around to where the dogs could get it.
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08-05-2005, 14:45 
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