Furry Animals - an invasion - and struggling with life!

spirit

In the cold weather a few weeks ago I noticed that holes appeared in a couple of places under the fence near my chicken run.

I nipped down to my local countrystore (where i get some of my chicken supplies). the lady I spoke to was very knowledgeable on the life and loves of the local rat population :T

I bought an inexpensive rat box and poison to put in it. She said as I think one poster above mentioned, that in some areas rats are resistant to some poisons and you need to get one which works in your location. I suppose it took almost a week before the blighters went in the box, and then they seemed to be eating the bait for another week or so. I've not had to top up the bait now for about 3 weeks, but do check it every morning anyway.

The rat will take the bait back to the nest and die there so you don't have to deal with dead bodies. I couldn't deal with them, or wouldn't want to anyway and I wouldn't want my 3 (useless at rat catching) cats to bring them indoors. the cats used to bring in voles in my last house.

On a chicken forum I go on, someone there has the snappy traps for mice and puts peanut butter on chocolate to trap them.

lostinrates

The best mouse bait i have used is nutella.

A_Phoenix_of_Tangerine

Poison is a pretty unethical way to kill unwanted creatures, IMO. It causes the animal massive internal bleeding, and causes a lot of suffering for the animal before it eventually dies.

Before I knew how the poison works I used to somehow think it preferable to traps due to requiring less involvement, but at least with traps death for the poor critter should be pretty instantaneous. I know that sometimes human-aided eradication is the only way to level a serious infestation, but I think it's important that compassion and animal welfare also comes into the plan of action, wherever possible? As others have said, putting poison down can also soon cause the deaths of other non-target species of animal, as the poison enters the food chain. Not really something to be used piecemeal.

At the end of the day, this does sound like a big infestation of which you and / or the landowners ought to be looking at differently (i.e. tackling the causes of this boon in population (lack of predators / abundant available food sources, etc etc etc) if the infestation is not to perpetually repeat itself).

lostinrates

A_Phoenix_of_Tangerine wrote: »

Poison is a pretty unethical way to kill unwanted creatures, IMO. It causes the animal massive internal bleeding, and causes a lot of suffering for the animal before it eventually dies.

Before I knew how the poison works I used to somehow think it preferable to traps due to requiring less involvement, but at least with traps death for the poor critter should be pretty instantaneous. I know that sometimes human-aided eradication is the only way to level a serious infestation, but I think it's important that compassion and animal welfare also comes into the plan of action, wherever possible? As others have said, putting poison down can also soon cause the deaths of other non-target species of animal, as the poison enters the food chain. Not really something to be used piecemeal.

At the end of the day, this does sound like a big infestation of which you and / or the landowners ought to be looking at differently (i.e. tackling the causes of this boon in population (lack of predators / abundant available food sources, etc etc etc) if the infestation is not to perpetually repeat itself).

In my situation the rats are next to my chickens, If i do not kill the rats quickly my birds are at risk. Traps plentiful enough to tackle this outbreak would be extortionate, and so it must be poison i am afraid .

Also, rats are incredibly intelligent, and learn very quickly to avoid traps.

Fwiw i don't like leaving poison aout becUse of the seconadry poison risk, but i am afraid sometimes one is fighting a war. Fwiw, i am also hapoy to shoot the things, but i am afraid my aim might leave them suffering far more, for longer.

Callie22

Regardless of whether it's a private estate or where it is, your landlord still has a responsibility to provide a decent level of accommodation which would include that the house is as pest free as possible. If the estate/your landlord won't help then you should contact the Tenancy Relation's Officer at your local council, who can get Environmental Health involved and force your landlord to make a bit more of an effort. This might annoy him/them and you might find yourself looking for somewhere to live at the end of your contract, but if they won't do anything then do you want to stay there anyway?

With regard to your uni work, do you have a pastoral/personal tutor that you can talk to? They might be able to offer you some advice. Also most universities have a free counselling service so it might be worth taking advantage of that, whilst you're there - they might be able to offer you some help with coping with anxiety/stress/workload.

alyth

the factor has been up again this afternoon, checking out for further signs of infestation, not just in my cottage but all around - lostinrates is correct in that there is a lot of movement going on at the farm just now, feed coming in, cows being moved, fields being ploughed, so whether that's had something to do with the rats I don't know.

The mouse in my cottage seems to have been a one off last night - the traps are still set and that's 24 hours of nothing. The workmen have been next door for seven weeks now, so whether that's got anything to do with the rats and mice I don't know - perhaps they moved for peace and quiet in here.

I do have a uni counselling service, I'm back there tomorrow and it's something I have considered using previously. Being a more mature student I put a huge amount of pressure on myself, my workload is absolutely manageable, I'm weeks ahead of myself with regards to essays, I managed to get another one done this afternoon, and I have a fairly good support network with friends, work colleagues and on-line support from a anxiety support group. No money worries, off to China again in June for three weeks, the pressure to excel only ever comes from myself.

At times I just struggle, like a lot of people - I absolutely hate asking for help and I'm extremely proud of being able to do everything for myself, it's quite possibly a combination of things over the last few days that made me upset last night. Thank you for all your posts.

Frith

I live miles from anywhere and have never had mice or rats on that scale! I do sympathise with the dead body handling thing. I can dispose of the mice but get the dead rats out of the traps with a stick then carry them away at arm's length on a spade. (Never knew what to do with the mouse corpses but ended up flicking them on the wood burning stove when it was going well!)

I've had mice in the airing cupboard, looking up at me when I open the kitchen drawer, walking past me nonchalantly when I've been reading in bed, looking up at me when I've been in the bath and on the loo...

The rats have all been in the garden, thank goodness.

I got them under control by putting a massive rat trap in the compost bin (would have killed a cat so didn't dare leave it in the open). Eventually I had to get rid of the compost bin because it was encouraging them. Couldn't put poison outside because of the cats and next door's dogs.

The old cat catches the occasional mouse and leaves me a nice bit of spleen in the porch...

I went all out on the mice inside and had at least 4 traps at any time and little bowls of poison all over the place - in the airing cupboard, behind the bath panel, under the kitchen sink.

It's pretty much done the trick!

Sister has also had trouble with mice. She's not usually squeamish but lost the plot a bit where a mouse in the kitchen fell through the hob of her oven and ran round in circles under the rings!

Rentokil are good (have a friend who works there) but they will only set traps and poison the same as you would and charge you for the priviledge.

Callie22

alyth wrote: »

I do have a uni counselling service, I'm back there tomorrow and it's something I have considered using previously. Being a more mature student I put a huge amount of pressure on myself, my workload is absolutely manageable, I'm weeks ahead of myself with regards to essays, I managed to get another one done this afternoon, and I have a fairly good support network with friends, work colleagues and on-line support from a anxiety support group. No money worries, off to China again in June for three weeks, the pressure to excel only ever comes from myself.

At times I just struggle, like a lot of people - I absolutely hate asking for help and I'm extremely proud of being able to do everything for myself, it's quite possibly a combination of things over the last few days that made me upset last night. Thank you for all your posts.

It's hard - I know that as I mature student I felt that I really had to achieve 'more' as so many people doubt you, and you're really aware of the opportunities that you get when you're in the academic environment - much more so than the 'younger' students. But you have to enjoy it too, I know I often had to remind myself of that! It is easy to get overwhelmed though, so you shouldn't worry about asking for help:) Just getting through uni at all is a massive achievement!

pearl123

OP - if you haven't alreay called The Councils Pest Control Department then do so first thing tomorrow. You are seriously risking your health.

Google rat and disease to how serious the consquences could be. Laying down traps is not going to be sufficent with the extent of your infestation.

Sambucus_Nigra

We live in the sticks with a canal at the end of the garden and again, never anything like this. OP - I'd be exactly the same with the eugh factor. Not a situation I'd relish either. I'd be calling the Environmental Health though - as the estate owner is obviously not controlling them properly.