We have an old fire, never used in there, and I'd noticed the dog snuffling round it extremely interested and jokingly said to Mr Boo "Bet there's a rat behind there". Well it bloody backfired on me, as apparently there is, Mr Boo saw it scuttle back in there when he did a late night forage for food (hubby I mean, not the rat, though no doubt that's what it was doing as well!) I know (well now I do) that it was eating the dog's left over food, so that will be picked up before i go to bed each night, there's nothing else (food wise) it can get to.
Would a humane trap work? About a tenner on Ebay. Reluctant to put poison down as a) im a softy, don't want to actually kill it, and b) scared the dog will eat the poison instead. What do I put in there? The trap I mean? Chocolate?
Mr Boo says that once it's gone, he'll rip the fire out and board up the hole.
Please help me, I shudder each time I think about it :-(
There's poison down- its been put down the back of the fridge where the little git has been taking it's bedding from! You'll be pleased to hear Ratter that the rat man used some of that poison you recommended.
Mr Boo and I are going to get some traps as well at the weekend.
DT...I must admit that this thread is a lengthy one to read through and as a result I by-passed your link; which I have now found and read with interest.
In fact there are a lot of recipes for cooking rats and mice. This is another example:-
B00..Please forgive me, if you think that I am being too light hearted about your problem. If I thought there was a rat in my house I would find it difficult to hide my fear; even if I were wearing my brown corduroy trousers.
Really Ratter? It only takes a couple of days for the stuff to work? Can you her the hopefulness in my voice here? lol
Ron - I may be northern, and as such will normally consume owt I can get mi sweaty mitts on, but even I balk at poison infested rat, so no more recipes, please xxx
The prisoners of war in Japanese camps caught and ate rats, but they were desperate. Don't think there is any need now unless, of course we want to get rid of the huge population of rats. Shooting them is more humane really but then I hate rats, mice, snakes, spiders, earwigs, woodlice. EEuch!!
Boo, I said a "few" days not a "couple" that is wishful thinking lol
couple = 2
few = more than 2
Modern poisons dont do very much in the first 48 hours, if the rat became ill so soon it would not go back to the food and take more. The poison being nearly ineffective for 48 hours means the rat will continue to feed from this new food source, thereby taking a large dose. I would say that generally speaking your rat will dead in 4 days, depending how good your pest controller is. if you think your rat is gone, just put a biscuit on the floor near his home over night or sprinkle a bit of flour around and look for foot prints the next day.
Can't do that Ratter- the biscuit will be gone before I can blink- remember the dog? lol Plus putting flour down is useless too, for the same reason, the dog's permanently there.
OK B00 ...No more recipes from me, I promise. Furthermore, if I had read carefully through this thread, I would have observed that tamborine had given to you the last link which I provided. (see Page 5.)