Rats!


Gretchen
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I recently found out that my parent's house has a few *ahem* visitors. I was able to convince them to set traps, but they don't want to do anything else (like poison) because they are afraid the dog will eat it.

Anyone have any advice for getting rid of them? (if this is in the wrong forum, mods feel free to move it)

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I have 6 snakes you can borrow... :)

If it's just one or two mice, you can set rat traps down. If it's a bigger problem than that, hiring out the job is the best way to deal with it. The damage rats can do to your house can be extensive, not counting the disease they can possibly transmit.

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At the old place, we had mice. Turns out they were grabbing peaches and then sneaking into the garage to eat them. We fixed the grate to the garage, did poison, which apparently worked but we only found like 2 dead mice. I think if you can find where they are coming in from, you will solve the majority of the problem.

Also, they have poison traps that are encased in big plastic boxes so other animals can't get to the poison.

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Their doberman doesn't like cats.

I'll talk to them about calling an exterminator, but I have a sneaking suspicion they will not want to because it can be pricy. Perhaps if I remind them that treatment for the bubonic plague is even more expensive...

By the way, they first saw rats in November. They didn't tell me about this when I visited for Christmas, and it was only when I asked what that noise was that I found out that they have *guests*. So maybe they arn't bothered by them?

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If they aren't bothered by RATS... there might be more going on than you think. I hope their home isn't a candidate to be on 'Hoarders'. I also hope that they aren't losing their cognitive functions.

They're your parents, and you know them best, but could this be a sign of some kind of mental instability?

If possible, pay for the exterminator services yourself. We just completed a bi-monthly maintenance service from a pest control company for about $40 every two months. It's not that bad. It might be more for setting more traps, etc., but if you have to, just do it for them.

No human being should have to (or choose to) live in a house that has rats... ever.

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Okay, so it sounds like there are two different conversations happening here. Is it mice, or is it rats? Mice are harder to keep out -- they only need about a 1/4-inch space in order to get in. They can also hide in smaller places. Rats set up nests. They can get in through a 1/2-inch space when they're young, and then hide and grow in your house. We had to kill a rat recently. We, uh, still haven't found it. I heard it getting in just before we left for Christmas (like at 1am the night before we left), and it had free reign while we were gone. We found its nest, just in putting things away, and then set out poison/bait. It took the poison back to its nest, and we haven't seen it since. Oh, and it abandoned its nest and moved before it took the poison. But it's been 2-3 months, and there's no nasty smell. My husband took the entire basement apart hunting for it, but nothing. We figure it ended up between the ceiling and floor. Mice are easier to deal with, but they also tend to be more ubiquitous -- for every 1 you see, there's probably at least 10 more that you haven't seen. Based on personal experience, I don't recommend glue traps. They're inhumane and gross. Mice get stuck on them, and they're struggling to escape. My husband came down one morning and found one that had been trapped on it overnight, including with its mouth stuck to the glue, and was still trying to move. He ended up having to kill the mouse himself (2x4 and a hammer) to put it out of its misery. If you're going to trap them, do it humanely, please.

We have African Soft Fur rats. They're my pets. ;)

Do they get along well with your pythons? ;)

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I spent a summer as a tech for Orkin. Back then I would have said that glue boards would be the best option for the OP's needs, but as Wingers points out, they can have their own issues (we were told that the shock of being glued down usually induced a heart attack in the mice; but I was what we called a "start tech"--only did the initial visit to a new customer--so I never saw the first-hand evidence that the above was one of those lies we tell ourselves to feel better about our jobs--kind of like that line about fish not having any feeling in their mouths. But I digress). We NEVER used poison, for liability reasons (it is very effective, though, with the caveat that you can't control where the little beasties might die or what child or animal might find the bodies before you do).

A couple years ago I was living in my in-laws' basement when their food storage room got infested with mice. We used a combined poison and bait station approach, the latter in areas where kids were likely to frequent. Poison was more effective, but as I recall we did get three or four using a bait station like this one, baited with peanut butter, cheese, and a few bread scraps. The nice thing is that the rats/mice will be trapped alive and unharmed, and you can take them out to the country and set them free, if you're humanely inclined (and if the law so permits). The stations are also reusable--you only need to buy one or two.

(Oh, don't fall for the advertising line about how many rats/mice a bait station can hold. Rats and mice are generally solitary creatures--they'll know if there are other animals in the bait station, and if there are, they'll avoid it. You'll need to empty the station every time you catch something.)

Edited by Just_A_Guy
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We NEVER used poison, for liability reasons (it is very effective, though, with the caveat that you can't control where the little beasties might die or what child or animal might find the bodies before you do).

We had a large mouse show up dead in our basement a month or two ago. We were still hunting the rat I mentioned above, when my five-year-old daughter picked up a puzzle board one morning (before I was awake, but after her father had left for work), and was startled to find a dead mouse underneath it. She gasped, but that was it. She has been aware that we've had pest problems, and we've shown her some of the other ones, so she knows what they look like. She calmly came upstairs and told me she'd found a mouse and hadn't touched it, but that it needed cleaning up. I was so proud of her -- I would have screamed, initially, just from the unexpected shock. My two-year-old, on the other hand, I wouldn't trust to leave it alone. :)

A couple years ago I was living in my in-laws' basement when their food storage room got infested with mice. We used a combined poison and bait station approach, the latter in areas where kids were likely to frequent. Poison was more effective, but as I recall we did get three or four using a bait station like this one, baited with peanut butter, cheese, and a few bread scraps. The nice thing is that the rats/mice will be trapped alive and unharmed, and you can take them out to the country and set them free, if you're humanely inclined (and if the law so permits). The stations are also reusable--you only need to buy one or two.

For mice, we've used poison, but inside a housing mechanism, like this one. I don't know why they use the word "rat" in the title of this product, though. The idea behind it is that it keeps the poison contained from kids and pets, but allows the mice to get in, nibble at the poison, and leave again. There's no way a rat could get in, unless it was still a very juvenile one -- they're way too big.

The one that we use the most, however, is this one. We stick peanut butter in the back, and when the mouse crawls in, the traps snaps up and kills it instantly. Husband takes the trap outside and disposes of the rodent in the garbage, and then we re-use the trap. It keeps the mouse inside so that kids and pets can't access it, and queasy stomachs don't have to see it.

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We had a large mouse show up dead in our basement a month or two ago. We were still hunting the rat I mentioned above, when my five-year-old daughter picked up a puzzle board one morning (before I was awake, but after her father had left for work), and was startled to find a dead mouse underneath it. She gasped, but that was it. She has been aware that we've had pest problems, and we've shown her some of the other ones, so she knows what they look like. She calmly came upstairs and told me she'd found a mouse and hadn't touched it, but that it needed cleaning up. I was so proud of her -- I would have screamed, initially, just from the unexpected shock. My two-year-old, on the other hand, I wouldn't trust to leave it alone. :)

Yeah, our then-three-year-old was very enamored of Cinderella when we were going through the Great Mouse Infestation of '11. One morning shortly after Christmas (where she had gotten a little Cinderella playset complete with Jaques and Gus), Just_A_Girl and I heard our little one saying "Oh! A little mouse! You can be my friend." We figured she was playing with her new toys but didn't really look. Then we heard "I think I will give you a kiss!" and turned around to behold the cuteness--just in time to see her holding a dead mouse, by the tail, drawing her face ever closer . . .

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The mom and dad are my pets. Their children are pet food. :o

That sounds sad, but it makes sense.

When I was a kid, my cousin had four white mice as pets. Her older brother had a snake for a pet. Basically, she did anything he wanted, under threat of her pets becoming lunch.

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Yeah, our then-three-year-old was very enamored of Cinderella when we were going through the Great Mouse Infestation of '11. One morning shortly after Christmas (where she had gotten a little Cinderella playset complete with Jaques and Gus), Just_A_Girl and I heard our little one saying "Oh! A little mouse! You can be my friend." We figured she was playing with her new toys but didn't really look. Then we heard "I think I will give you a kiss!" and turned around to behold the cuteness--just in time to see her holding a dead mouse, by the tail, drawing her face ever closer . . .

When we very first had mice, I picked her up to show one to her as it scuttled around the kitchen counter one day, terrified because we were there, but not wanting to make the dash to safety (unfortunately, it wasn't anywhere near a trap). But I held her so she could see it, and see that they were nothing scary. I explained that most people get startled when they see a mouse, and that mice are dirty and carry diseases, so she shouldn't ever touch one -- dead or alive* -- but that she didn't need to be scared of them. It seems to have worked.

But this story also reminds me of when she started "playing" Minecraft with her dad. She was sitting on his lap one day, and I turned around with a quizzical look when I heard her say, "It's okay, little baby zombie! We'll find your mommy and daddy! Daddy, look at the zombie...isn't it so cuuuute??"

*Obviously pets would be an exception here, but since I don't plan to ever keep rodents as pets, I didn't make this distinction to her.

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Like, a few drops of essential oil, or what?

Our garage was super infested, so bad we wouldn't go in there. we saterated them with pure extract the threw them in, like everywhere...we probobly over did out of being paranoid, but we didnt care. They left. No joke. makeing a huge nest. they left simply from the pepermint. Traps didn't get rid of them cuz there were too many, but the pepermint worked. We got rid of just about everything in that garage, after they were gone. (thank goodness they never came in the house!! )

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That sounds sad, but it makes sense.

It's the initial reaction - including my kids - until they see the rows of rat/mice poison in the grocery store. Their rats live in a rat condo complete with chew toys and spinning wheels and healthy food and clean water for at least 6 months before they walk the plank. And then they give themselves over to the cycle of life... other rats/mice get poisoned and thrown in the trash.

When I was a kid, my cousin had four white mice as pets. Her older brother had a snake for a pet. Basically, she did anything he wanted, under threat of her pets becoming lunch.

Ooooh! LOL. Yeah, my pets live in a separate condo just to make sure the kids don't accidentally pick them to walk the plank. Their kids sometimes look exactly like them!

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