Let Battle Commence!

[melv16]

A 'king rat has gnawed through my shed floor to get at the bird seed.
Traps have been set and an air rifle is to be borrowed.
I'll get the little ***

[RATTER15]

Yes mazie. rats will take birds, especially young chicks in outdoor runs.

[mazie]

Thanks Ratters.. This was a hedge sparrow..quiet amazed me

[melv16]

Melv 4 Rats 0. There were two trapped this morning :-)

[scorpiojo]

Only 24 left now ;o)

[RATTER15]

and meanwhile another 3 litters have been added to the fold lol :-)

[scorpiojo]

;o)))

[RATTER15]

A female rat can mate as many as 500 times with various males during a six-hour period of receptivity—a state she experiences about 15 times per year. Thus a pair of brown rats can produce as many as 2,000 descendants in a year if left to breed unchecked. (A rat matures sexually at age three to four months.) An average rat's life span is two to three years, and to add to that a lot of the young females have now had litters of their own!! :-)

[melv16]

Thankyou for cheering me up, ratter and scorp:-)

[scorpiojo]

Always happy to help ;o)

[aelmpvw]

i'll be worried if the rat's score goes up from 0

[chokkie]

We get rats in our back garden occasionally. Freaks me out. And we've also had a little mouse in our garage, but he loved the peanut butter in the trap! Made a right mess of a very old sleeping bag which Mr. Chox used to cover some of his stuff in the garage!

[RATTER15]

I love to see rats about, just another part of our magnificent and diverse wildlife!

Thats not to say I want them in the house though!

[Togo]

melv I can understand your reluctance to put poison down, we felt the same. I had to eventually, it sorted the problem. Remember that rats do learn feeding and behavioural patterns from each other. So although you are managing to trap a few, the blighters have already passed on the habit of, seek food in melv's shed, to the next generation.

[melv16]

I'm going to leave it till the weekend, then if I'm still trapping them, I'll take the poison route.

[melv16]

After 24hrs the score remains, melv 4. Rats 0. Could this remain the final score, or could it go into extra time?

[RATTER15]

Have you killed the adults? I doubt it! and if you have only killed 4 youngsters, there are still the rest of that litter to worry about.

Rats arent stupid, if they see their own kind caught in a trap, they will very soon stay away from that trap.

Good luck whatever you do.

[melv16]

You're welcome, ratter.

[scorpiojo]

What's the score, melv?

[melv16]

The rats have been routed, scorp:-)

[scorpiojo]

Yay!