32 chunks of poison = totally gross question

But only when they eat it. When they do dig into hoarded winter stores, then they may well die. But until that time, they will eat outside the hoard and their population will thrive and grow.

I think you're wise here, Foxtrapper. Plus, I worry about this stuff seeping into our ground water. Even with d-con, the larger pellets get carried off and stashed.

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The SAFE for pets water bucket rat/mouse trap. I've used it - it works!

I put a 2X4 board as a ramp for the critters to climb to the top of the bucket.
On line, some have said to use anti-freeze, but that's bad for pets.

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Last year, we filled a plastic garbage can with water in the barns, smeared some peanut butter in the underside of the lid - which the rats has consideratley chewed holes into already - and we caught 27 rats in a week...

Well, Ive fought this fight before with rats. I fought them for months in the house, killing them one at a time. They just kept coming. Fed them a whole tub of TomCat and 2 bars of Just One Bite. Lights out. Haven't seen one since and it's been about 2 years. I believe that they left a bunch in their holes and any new ones moving in are eating it.

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I rigged up a mouse trap before using a 5 gallon bucket 1/3 filled with water attached to a 30 mile fence charger. The ground was a metal strap about 2/3 up the bucket. The positive was a 2" brass disc smeared with peanut butter above that a couple of inches. A 1x6 was the ramp.
Got about a dozen mice. Not really that effective but I think a rat got in there because it was mostly destroyed one morning. Probably got nailed from the fence charger and was bouncing around in the bucket.
Good experiment.

I had heard that you need to put water out for the little buggers if you use poison. Don't know why or how that works, but I can put the poison out and it disappears...I don't find dead mice unless I give them water too. Maybe if there's water they will eat and drink where they find the bait?

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Lori

I believe it's actually a lot worse. One of those two is a lot worse for other critters eating the dead mouse anyway..

Or do what we did...adopted an adult dog, who just happened to be very smart and we trained him to kill MICE AND RATS (he bludgeons them when he catches them). Then, we adopted two outdoor cats, who we didn't have to train. They are mother/daughter hunting machines, sweet, affectionate, but vicious killers. I avoid using poison here.

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If you wrap wire around the bait (some have holes) and attach the wire to something solid, the bait won't be dragged off.

All the contention... Let them take it. Don't let them take it.


Both work and you have to do both IMHO. The most effective method is like the op did. They discovered the mother load of food! Took it home and fed the children.


The only thing I'd suggest is getting more and keeping them in place.

Like Minelson, I too work at a vet hospital and can tell you this is just not true. Most rodent poisons have properties that destroy red blood cells. The animal basically dies from massive internal hemorrhaging. This goes for the pets and other wildlife who eat the toxic flesh of the poisoned rodents.

We have a constant pack rat problem in this area, too. Last time I put out the D-Con granules (generally make it only in outside storage sheds) they disappeared overnight, too. I try that route only rarely since I'm afraid critters like owls, hawks, bobcats could see ill or dying rodents staggering around in the open and get a damaging or lethal dose themselves by normal predation, not to mention by any rare outside housecat. My normal control method is to use our four Havahart traps, setting them baited with bread around outside house edges when droppings and nesting activity start appearing. Being held in one of those traps allows a nice clean head-shot with a pellet gun and creates a carcass that can be pitched out in the scrub that won't harm any scavenging wildlife. I've found Ace Hardware has occasional sales for "any one item under $30 half-price" that covers the smallish Havaharts for right under $15 cost. Those things are extremely useful in several sizes (I consider them a prep item, too) and indestructible for small rodents. (For a boar raccoon for example, maybe not so much! lol)

Thank you everyone for all the good tips and comments. We did not find the 32 bait bars yesterday. The boys searched the crawlspace in one section where we thought they might have a nest. Under our house is a night-mare to search since the heat ducts take up the space plus there is not much head room.

We have 2 dogs and 2 cats and are feeding them extra food right now so they are not hungry enough to eat a rat but......that may be just wishful thinking since all four of them are pigs and would probably eat anything they find.......

Nothing ate or took any of the poison in the basement last night. The same Dcon is there plus the 2 Tom Cat solid chunks. So - it would seem that whatever took the 32 chunks last week is gone or dead?

What is bothering me is that fact that there is no nasty "dead" smell in the basement nor under the crawlspace areas. I opened all four crawlspace access holes and sniffed and it does not stink. That leads me to believe whatever ate it and died, did so some place else. Which.......might mean the rat also took the 32 chunks of bait outside the house too.

We are going to do a search outside today. Thank you.

I had a medium to large size rodent chewing up my plastic feed bucket trying to get to the goats grain. I got one of those green block baits(Tomcat) with a hole down the middle and wired it to the bucket handle. I also put several loose pieces under the building. It was consumed over several days and now no more chewing. All I found was some green tinged rodent droppings..which I carefully removed from around the goat stalls. I don't think a picky eater like a goat would eat them but I did not want to take a chance. I can use the pellets in my basement but won't put them anywhere else that rodents may move them into reach of my poultry. I do worry about secondary poisoning of the barn/wild cats(I don't own any cats and only one house dog)but poison works.

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You can still get the pellets. I bought two buckets of poison for a bad infestation of rats. They were gone the next day, and so were the rats.

There was info at the feed company as to which poisons affected dogs and cats through the dead animal. That worked fine.

Unfortunately, I bought another bucket at Big R. No information available there, and I lost my dog from eating rats.

Yes, I feel bad about the possible life loss of other animals from the bar bait, but when I finally used it at my place I simply had no other choice. I had tried everything else (except the Havahart traps, didn't know about them at the time), and the rats were literally eating my house! I had to repair wall paneling, insulation, pex lines (live in a mobile), plumbing hoses and plastic pipes, electrical, phone and internet wiring, etc. Plus I had to throw out over a thousand dollars worth of food prep they had destroyed. It was a total nightmare!

I figure that's why I got my place so cheap, lol, but I was naive and very anxious to get out of a horrible neighborhood where there were gang fights on my lawn, so I got stuck and had to do something. As far as I know, no other animals were poisoned because of it, and the neighbors nearest me said their rat population had gone down as well, so I think I did some good.

I will say, though, that I never had the stink or found any bodies either, so apparently they didn't die on my premises. Afterwards, however, the internet guy found a huge nest under the lowest, hardest to get to corner under my mobile, right under my kitchen. It was disgusting, ick, and almost unbelievabel the things that were in there! So be careful if you can, but the important thing is to get rid of them!

minelson, my guess is that whatever got the bait lives in a hole or tunnel, that that is where the bait is, and that is where the bodies are.

Notice any of those big blue bottle or green bottle flies around?

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Pack Rats are VERY destructive. When we had several cats at our place in NM, they really kept them down.

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All our pain and all our tears will be no more.....

We searched under another part of the house today but could not find anything. I also went around the whole house looking to see if there were any places that looked like a rat traveled in / out of there. But...nothing.

A man just bought an old shack just down the road from us. It is the closest house to us. He started to gut and repair the place and the people helping him reported HUGE HUGE HUGE rat nests in every wall and that when they took down one wall, they all had to RUN due to the smell and vapors of rat urine. They could not work in there for a week to let it air out. They said rats ran everywhere.

So - those rats must have come down the road and are here.

Nothing has eaten the fresh DCon pellets I set out and I set two of the Tom Cat chunks near it also and nothing has touched that yet either. My older boys had to leave for a job and will be back later in week so they will search under the house some more.

I am feeding the cats and dogs extra food in hopes they won't eat a rat if they find a dead body outside.

This is frustrating. Thanks for the tips.

Could be tree dwelling rats too. Do you have squirrels or chipmunks?

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Mahatma Gandhi


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