rat problem

[Breezeblock]

Any update..............

 

yes still caught fa :confused1:i have my doubts whether there still there will need to fill holes in and see if they reappear

[Couldyajust]

Mix some plaster of Paris, flour and sugar and leave it where they can get at it, they eat it and get bunged up and die.

 

Think I will stick to the fenn traps, they give rats something a bit more serious than a sore rectum.

 

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1030&context=vpc14

Plaster/Cement and Rats

Boelter (1909) states that plaster of paris (calcium sulfate) mixed with sugar has long been recommended as a rat poison. This bait is placed near water. When the thirsty rat drinks, the plaster hardens in his intestinal tract and "literally stiffens him." Fitzwater (1990) fed caged rats (Rattus norvegicus) plaster of paris mixed 50% with their dry feed.

He also fed a mixture of portland cement in the same ratio to a second set of rats. After 14 days on these diets, there was no mortality in either test and the animals appeared perfectly healthy except for sore rectums due to their large bowel movements.

It is probably safe to assume the digestive fluids in the alimentary tract prevent these substances from hardening. Other suggestions along this line, such as dehydrated potatoes and bath sponge or cork pieces soaked in butter or bacon fat, can be presumed to be equally ineffective.

[Breezeblock]

filled in the holes and i have lifted the feeder up higher and the holes haven't been remade

[spudulike]

My holes still have the poison in them so all looks good my end:blushing:

[oldwoodcutter]

Plaster of paris,or portland cement was used by old rat catchers, but not in the way mentioned above.

As a boy i hung around with a rat catcher,and sometimes we were called to an infestation in a shed or house,where it was not obvious how the little devils were getting in or out,so he would lay what he called 'tracking powder'.

As they walked on the powder they left their footprints on the floor,and this is exactly where the traps would be laid the next day with deadly results.

I can see him now, when we got home, picking all the days dead rats up by their tails out the back of his van and casually tossing them into the tall nettles down the bottom of his little garden.