Preparedness for when

NewShadow

Wire wool (brilo pads) in the hole - they can't chew through, and yo don't have poison in your kitchen.

There's also the long standing but variable suggestion -they only go where they find food. Keep all your food sealed away in tubs, and clean up any spills and crumbs - less likely to attract scavengers.

Oh, last suggestion - a home isn't a home without a cat I have no mouse/rat issues.

GreyQueen

:heartpuls Oh, you lovely positive lot, I'm having a cuppa and a wee cry right now. Thank you so much for all your kindness, this really the best place online in the whole wide world. (((((hugs to you all)))

Been busily allotmenteering today as will be away with the folks for Easter weekend so have to get cracking on prepping the ground ready to put the spuds in. Have also taken all the remaining leeks up and have just spent over an hour in the kitchen prepping and freezing them. I did it like this because otherwise I wouldn't be able to get through them all before they went all wooden and 'orrible, which they do in late spring.

Besides, I have to finish graining that soil and get the spuds in. Due to crop rotation issues, I shall be having several small spud patches again this year instead of one larger one, same as I did in 2015.

I didn't find any slugs to threaten with Cold Steel - the Great Slug War of 2013 put the fear of Me in to the gastropods* - but I did find a very bright green soil dwelling caterpillar. So I put it on the bird table so the feathered fiends can snack on that.

Don'tcha just love organic pest control?:rotfl:

* Every time I write that, it nearly comes out as gastropub, and I can't even blame a spellchecker for it.

[Deleted User]

I like GASTROPUBS too GQ!!!

curiousralphy

jk0 wrote: »

Washing up last night I heard the familiar gnawing sound again coming from the bottom of the cupboard to the right of my cooker. This is in a different run of units to where the previous one got in. I put a mouse trap in there and went to bed.

This morning I've had the plinths off and swept & mopped up the poo. I think last night's rat came up through the hole where the gas pipe for the cooker comes up. I can see that I filled all the gaps between floor & wall with expanding foam about 11 years ago, but I guess he has chewed through it.

I've been to Robert Dyas to buy three bait stations and distributed them round the kitchen. Is there anything else I can do?

Pine nuts in the trap worked wonders for us, they love those things.

Karmacat

Aw, GQ, you're a star, here's sending even more positive vibes, and dodgy hugs too.

No allotment here, but another hour spent in the garden - started clearing the weeds and overgrowth of the last untouched quadrant (two years!) Whether its to sell, or to plant up crops because of the apocalypse its got to be done.

cbrown372

jk0 wrote: »

Washing up last night I heard the familiar gnawing sound again coming from the bottom of the cupboard to the right of my cooker. This is in a different run of units to where the previous one got in. I put a mouse trap in there and went to bed.

This morning I've had the plinths off and swept & mopped up the poo. I think last night's rat came up through the hole where the gas pipe for the cooker comes up. I can see that I filled all the gaps between floor & wall with expanding foam about 11 years ago, but I guess he has chewed through it.

I've been to Robert Dyas to buy three bait stations and distributed them round the kitchen. Is there anything else I can do?

Chocolate is a favourite with rats. Had them come in along a pipe and into a cupboard where I had a stash of Terry's chocolate oranges :eek: It chewed through a couple of shelves to get up to the shelf where they were.

Positive vibes heading your way GQ.

GreyQueen

cbrown372 wrote: »

Chocolate is a favourite with rats. Had them come in along a pipe and into a cupboard where I had a stash of Terry's chocolate oranges :eek: It chewed through a couple of shelves to get up to the shelf where they were.

Positive vibes heading your way GQ.

Thank you.

We succesfully baited a mousetrap one time (it'd ignored cheese) with an Elizabeth Sh@w choc mint crisp thingy left over from Crimble. This was a mouse which had eaten through a heavy-duty plastic container to get at a small cellophane sachet of curry powder. I've also known mice to eat those sachets of plant food you get with bouquets of flowers. And pillows. And designer handbags (neither of the latter were mine).

Rodents are extraordinarily destructive pests, unfortunately.

I have heard mouse and rat traps mentioned among useful preps to have. And cats, always gotta have a cat or two. My Nan was wooed for many years by an old cat who'd leave presents of various items on her back step. Presumably in his small cat-mind demonstrating his prowess would win him admittance to the home.

His kills were; a squirrel, several rats, an English partridge, a pheasant, several mice, several pigeons, a weasel, a mole, a young rabbit and the fatty rind off someone's boiled bacon joint.

After Nan's own cat passed, he successfully moved in and lived out his days as a house cat.

jk0

Crikey those rats must have good noses CBrown. Maybe I should put a few Maltesers in the bait station?

I must admit my kitchen cupboards had a few crumbs under them. It's from my homemade wholemeal bread, which I slice on the cupboard the rat was chewing. I'd guess that fitted kitchens make this problem worse. It must be five years since I removed the plinths. Also today I had to unchain my cooker from the wall to get it out, which also must be about five years since I've done it.

I'm wondering if ratty climbed up the waste pipes from my washing machine and dishwasher above the grating outside, and swam through the U-bend.

GreyQueen

I once spoke to a lady who'd found a ratty in her WC bowl. And another who'd come f-2-f with one in her pantry. They were both remarkably collected, considering. Calmer than I think I would have been in their shoes.

You see rats around the allotments pretty much every visit. I particularly like to see them being carried away from me in the mouth of one of the many neighbourhood cats who regard the lotties as their extended territory.:D

jk0

OMG, these flaming creatures!

I just found a slug crawling up the (outside of the) water supply pipe in my downstairs loo. Still, that solves the mystery of how they get in.