Why not make a pet-proof rat poison station?

[Crossy]

Like many of us (even those not in the sticks) we have a problem with rats. They tend not to come in the house but they have had a go at the car wiring (luckily not much real damage) and one died in the pickup aircon (not a nice job).

 

The solution is what Wifey calls rat-food.

 

Of course, we also have pets (dogs and chickens) which we don't want to get at the nasty stuff.

 

Enter this Sunday afternoon project.

 

You will need:-

• 2 pieces of cheap 2" PVC pipe about 20cm long.
• 1 2" PVC tee (the thin drain type is fine)
• Some 1/2" ply or something similar (MDF may be OK)
• A 50mm x M4 bolt and nut
• A hole saw and power drill
• Hacksaw

 

Instructions

• From the ply or MDF use the hole saw to cut two negative holes which will just fit inside your pipe.
• Slice two 1cm or so bits off one of the "holes".
• Stick the bolt through the other hole and put the nut on.

 

So you end up with these bits.

 

 

 

 

[Crossy]

Glue the slices into the ends of the tubes, I used UHU.

 

 

These will stop the rat food escaping up the tubes to where pets can get at it. 

 

Assemble, make sure the stoppers are at the bottom of the tubes when the tee is upright. The stoppers are at the end of the tube next to the tee. No need to glue the pipe into the tee.

 

[Crossy]

Install in a rat run area, I wedged ours with a concrete block.

 

 

Add bait through the tee and drop the bung in.

 

 

Relax and wait for Roland to have a snack. RIP Roland Rat.

 

[Crossy]

This is the stuff Madam recommends, you can see why she calls it rat-food. I think she believes they die happy.

 

[colinneil]

21 minutes ago, Crossy said:

This is the stuff Madam recommends, you can see why she calls it rat-food. I think she believes they die happy.

 

 Better put your glasses on, check whats in your dinner mate.????

[Crossy]

1 minute ago, colinneil said:

 Better put your glasses on, check whats in your dinner mate.????

I wondered what those pink bits in the somtam were .....

[grollies]

These work quite well

 

[Crossy]

3 minutes ago, grollies said:

These work quite well

Indeed they do, but you then have a live rat to deal with. I don't particularly like killing things directly and just letting them go doesn't really help reduce the population. They also manage one rat at a time, fine if you only have a few.

[Snow Leopard]

The trap way.

 

https://vimeo.com/user86264647/review/304749323/cc9e22f98f

 

 

[giddyup]

It doesn't cut the rat population, but found that mothballs scattered in the ceiling has stopped all the pattering of tiny feet at night. Before they were having a party up there every night.

[Sophon]

Quote

Like many of us (even those not in the sticks) we have a problem with rats. They tend not to come in the house but they have had a go at the car wiring (luckily not much real damage) and one died in the pickup aircon (not a nice job).

I do live in the sticks, but we have no problems with rats as our 15 adopted street dogs make short work of any rat or mouse stupid enough to come near our house or pick-up. On the flip side, two of our puppies did completely demolish the 4wd switch and electrical harness for the pick-up (cost >10k Baht to replace), so maybe the rats would have been cheaper ????

 

The two vandals

 

 

Sophon

[Crossy]

1 minute ago, giddyup said:

It doesn't cut the rat population, but found that mothballs scattered in the ceiling has stopped all the pattering of tiny feet at night. Before they were having a party up there every night.

Yeah, mothballs are very good at discouraging all sorts of stuff (and probably moths too), we put them in the knick-knak cupboards to keep the jinjoks out.

 

[giddyup]

4 minutes ago, Snow Leopard said:

The trap way.

 

https://vimeo.com/user86264647/review/304749323/cc9e22f98f

 

 

These do the same thing.

[giddyup]

2 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Yeah, mothballs are very good at discouraging all sorts of stuff (and probably moths too), we put them in the knick-knak cupboards to keep the jinjoks out.

 

They say that they aren't the healthiest thing to have anywhere you might breathe the fumes, but never had another rat in the roof since I started using them.

[Snow Leopard]

2 minutes ago, giddyup said:

These do the same thing.

Rats are pretty smart. 

[Snow Leopard]

6 minutes ago, giddyup said:

It doesn't cut the rat population, but found that mothballs scattered in the ceiling has stopped all the pattering of tiny feet at night. Before they were having a party up there every night.

Where did you pick that trick up from?

[giddyup]

Just now, Snow Leopard said:

Rats are pretty smart. 

Not when it comes to food. I caught about 20 using the same traps over a couple of months when I had rats in the roof cavity, but now use mothballs and no more rats.

[giddyup]

1 minute ago, Snow Leopard said:

Where did you pick that trick up from?

Not sure, read it somewhere I think. I was a little dubious at first but can now vouch that they do work. I guess rats (and other creatures) just don't like the smell.

[Crossy]

4 minutes ago, giddyup said:

They say that they aren't the healthiest thing to have anywhere you might breathe the fumes, but never had another rat in the roof since I started using them.

Indeed, naphthalene fact sheet.

 

1322.pdf

 

 

[Snow Leopard]

1 minute ago, giddyup said:

Not sure, read it somewhere I think. I was a little dubious at first but can now vouch that they do work. I guess rats (and other creatures) just don't like the smell.

I Googled it. Naphthalene is the active ingredient that causes the smell. I visited a Rentokil site and they say it doesn't work. No surprise that they would say that then is there? ????

 

Some Giddyup balls in the roof space and some Crossy drain pipes around. I will give it a go. Failing that I still have my trusty air rifle. 

[Crossy]

Whilst this thread is primarily about the poison solution, alternative routes are very welcome.

 

One disadvantage of poison is that sometimes the beasties go and die somewhere

a. Near the house

b. Inaccessible.

 

The smell of dead rat is most pervasive ????

 

[Lacessit]

An interesting thread, thanks. Have had something chew a hole in the firewall insulation of my Vios. I'll try Crossy's construction.

[jak2002003]

Its better to discourage them... ie, having nothing on your property to attract them.  

 

1.  Do food available to them (store food in rat proof containers out of reach)

It amazes me that people complain they have rats but have bowls of cat / dog food laying about in the garden, bid bags split open and bit of leftover food around.

2.  Don't have places for them to nest.  So keep your garden tidy.  Nothing for them to hide under or use as shelter. 

3.  Get a dog / cat.  Train the dog to kill / chase the rats if it does not do it by instinct.

I have 2 chihuahua dogs who are great ratters.

 

That's about it.  If you already have rats, like in your roof space they will gradually go away over several weeks if there is nothing for them to eat.  If you keep chickens don't have chicken feed out al the time and never feed the wild birds and have seeds spill on the ground.

 

I would use traps over poison if there was a problem.  Poison, apart from being quite cruel and suffering way to die (yes I know they are only rats), is dangerous to other animals.

 

I poisoned rat / mouse will usually crawl away and die away from the place you put down the poison.  Then another animal may eat the dead rat.

 

This is what happened to my oldest dog who had the habit of eating any dead frog, bird, rat It found if I was not quick enough to spot it.  Neighbour had poisoned rats a few day earlier and one was found half eaten in my yard after my dog died a few days earlier.  

 

 

 

 

[Artisi]

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

I wondered what those pink bits in the somtam were .....

Not small prawns? 

[Crossy]

2 minutes ago, Artisi said:

Not small prawns? 

Hopefully ????

 

[eyecatcher]

52 minutes ago, giddyup said:

Not sure, read it somewhere I think. I was a little dubious at first but can now vouch that they do work. I guess rats (and other creatures) just don't like the smell.

Must admit I hate the smell aswell, but that could be due to the fact that i collect mine from the gents urinal.

[Bredbury Blue]

1 hour ago, grollies said:

These work quite well

 

They do indeed.

 

We bait ours with banana. Field rats eat banana. We had this confirmed once when a rat got in to our kitchen 2 nights on the run and of the goodies there it only ate ...yep bananas.

 

We tend to get rats in our ceiling only during the rainy season. With the traps we catch them very quickly, sometimes within minutes of setting them. We catch and release - release is miles from home and we just hope they're not 'homing rats' ????. We once caught a female which gave birth to all its litter in the trap - unpleasant. We offered the rats we catch to a thai friend who keeps eagles and owls but he didn't want - gets offered too many he said.

 

Had a terrible smell in the Fortuner not long ago coming from the aircon we thought. Wife took it to a car shop who knew instantly it was rats nesting in the filter - half a dozen aircon fried/dried baby rats were in the back of the dashboard / ac...took a while to get rid of that smell.

 

Rats are a constant problem running around in the ceiling we have EVERY year for a few weeks. Currently we have one that comes up an unused drain pipe intended for the washing machine in the kitchen - we put plastic cups (plural) over to cap the pipe but the rat was chewing through so now we have a heavy duty glass (like a pint glass) capping the drain pipe - problem solved.

 

[Artisi]

Worth having a good read on google, seems moth balls are a lot nastier for all concerned than I was aware of. Not something that I've ever made much use of but certainly reviewing further use around the house. 

[worgeordie]

1 hour ago, giddyup said:

Not sure, read it somewhere I think. I was a little dubious at first but can now vouch that they do work. I guess rats (and other creatures) just don't like the smell.

I tried putting the moth balls up in the ceiling to deter the rats,

a week later i looked ,and they had eaten most of them,tried

the sticky pads,worked ok,but if you caught a big one,and not

fully on the pad the rat would drag it about and make a right

mess,so i got a cat,no more rats in the roof in the rainy season.

 

Had the cat 2 .5 years she caught a lot of rats ,even bringing live

ones in the house,a few weeks ago i suspect she got eaten by

a Python,but the other day we found a little kitten running 

about on the road,and she's in good nick,got her injections

and looks like she's going to be a good hunter,told my daughter

who was very distressed about the first cat,that the kitten is

a reincarnation. 

regards worgeordie

[giddyup]

2 hours ago, worgeordie said:

I tried putting the moth balls up in the ceiling to deter the rats,

a week later i looked ,and they had eaten most of them

 

They worked for me, never heard another rat in the roof since I scattered them about. I certainly would never use the sticky traps, besides being unnecessarily cruel, how do you dispose of a live rat stuck to a piece of paper?