The only "rat" I allow on my railroad is this one:
It is a OO scale model of a British Rail class 26 Diesel-Electric, made by Heljan and nicknamed "MacRat" for its service in Scotland.
At this point, I'm thinking of various ways to put this critter across a 120 volt line. A pair of parallel wires might do it, at least #14. If there's a tunnel access that she uses, perhaps you could use some screen wire or other metal mesh, set up in two sections with one side of the 120 going to each.
You may need to make special provisions to power this. Do NOT put it on a Ground Fault circuit, because mankind's attempt to keep people from electrocuting themselves in the bathtub might sense the distress of the rat and shut off.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Duckdogger,could you post a picture of the Rats New Home? How big is Rambo Rat layout?
I hate Rust
Re the many suggestions for peanut butter, the current poison de jour is "peanut butter flavored". Gives a new slant to peanut butter allergic reactions. Who tests these products to see if animals like them? I understand black licorice didn't do too well with rats).
Re things that go boom, I decided to pass on the The smoke bombs that gave off sulfuric acid fumes. Looked too much like a stick of dynamite and the product warnings made me think it might not play well on the 5 o'clock news in case it got out of hand and laid waste to part of the neighborhood.
And the point of it giving off "intense heat" didn't sound real smart as the bench work is wood. Better leave those for the next time the mountain lions throw a kegger in the pool.
At this stage I am not that concerned about the smell. I just want the filthy, flea ridden pest gone so I can get on with track laying in the staging area directly below the rat resort and birthing arena. Once cured, the foam should contain most of the smell.
Speaking of Loony Tunes, does Acme make a rat catcher?
YoHo1975 A couple years ago, at my cottage in rural wisconsin, I was cleaning up and found a juice pitcher with used motoroil from a generator in it. It had been sitting there more than 10 years. I noticed some glop in it, so I poured some out. Out came 4 mice that had been in there 4 years. fairly preserved like dinosaurs at the La Brea Tar pits. Grossest thing I've ever seen.
Hmmm. I had a mortar pan I use for changing the oil in my truck (4 gals) and left it in the garage for a couple weeks. I came up with 2 mice, a vole, and a toad. I felt bad for the toad. Maybe theres something about the oil.
I can also attest to the awful stench of a rodent corpse, and its excrements too. I drive my truck all the time for work, but own a camero too. I had let it set for a few years and decided I should try driving it for a bit. It happened to start raining and I turned on the air to the windshield. First came the smell, quickly followed by turds, insulation (wee stained), and some other parts in my face. The little fuzzy turd built his nest in the ductwork, actually he was a she and what I smelled was poor jr.
I'd lend you my dogs but your benchwork wouldn't handle the funny one. My jack russell would snap that mouse up in a heartbeat if it was visable, otherwise she would dig it out. That could be bad, but not as bad as my mastiff. He saw a chipmunk once and gave chase until the fuzzball went under some leaves. He proceeded to jump up and down with his front end trying to squish it, then raked his claws across it several times. You need to understand that this dog is 190lbs, is very fast and agile, and can excavate dirt like a backhoe. Poor thing didn't stand a chance. My wifes cats would be worthless, unless you grab them by the tail and use them to beat the mouse to death. Hmmm, mental note....
Lets see, 4th of July is coming up. That means all the stores should be loading up on creative items for varmin control. I would recommend starting small first, and NO ROMAN CANDLES!!!!
Have you tried a mouse trap baited with peanut butter???
Sure works on field mice that seem to forget that they're supposed to stay in the field. Nice, simple, quick.
'Course there's always the possiblity that you could have a kangaroo rat that's regaling her friends with stories about hilarious attempts to do her in.
BTW, I'll second what others have said about rodent corpses raising an unholy stink. Seems a friend of ours had a barrel she stored in a shed, but left the bung hole open and the barrel upright. No fewer than 7 mice took shelter in it only to discover to their horror that they couldn't get out.
Andre
These type of threads reminds me of the loony toons cartoons. Grown men trying to defeat a mouse/rat. Funny stuff.
Springfield PA
duckdoggerI'm also considering "Great Stuff", the expanding foam you apply around windows. No blood or blunt force trauma, just a rat preserved for the ages in foam.I can reach the "birthing room" she dug in the styrofoam wall of the tunnel and unload a can quickly. Fast acting and has a tenacious grip like my mother-in-law's fudge. Think, cement but with sugar.
I'm also considering "Great Stuff", the expanding foam you apply around windows. No blood or blunt force trauma, just a rat preserved for the ages in foam.
I can reach the "birthing room" she dug in the styrofoam wall of the tunnel and unload a can quickly. Fast acting and has a tenacious grip like my mother-in-law's fudge. Think, cement but with sugar.
The bad part is, foam is porous...the smell will still escape.
Robert Beaty
The Laughing Hippie
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The CF-7...a waste of a perfectly good F-unit!
Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the
end of your tunnel, Was just a freight train coming
your way. -Metallica, No Leaf Clover
duckdogger Elevated to a higher poison level product this morning, one that addresses any concerns about warfarin resistant rats. Added ethyl glycol in a jar lid so she could wash down the peanut butter flavored poison and hopefully destroy her kidneys in the process. Next I try my mother-in-law's potato salad. Making a large skewer from a long 1 X 3, duct tape (where would modern man be without it?), and #8 finishing nails. Down side is part of the tunnel mightl require some cosmetic re-work. Stupid snap traps failed to release last night as rat-momma was stacking rocks on them. Where is American quality when you need it? I have become entertainment for the folks at ACE hardware. When I come in they want rat vs man updates. One suggested I start a blog.
Elevated to a higher poison level product this morning, one that addresses any concerns about warfarin resistant rats. Added ethyl glycol in a jar lid so she could wash down the peanut butter flavored poison and hopefully destroy her kidneys in the process.
Next I try my mother-in-law's potato salad.
Making a large skewer from a long 1 X 3, duct tape (where would modern man be without it?), and #8 finishing nails. Down side is part of the tunnel mightl require some cosmetic re-work.
Stupid snap traps failed to release last night as rat-momma was stacking rocks on them. Where is American quality when you need it?
I have become entertainment for the folks at ACE hardware. When I come in they want rat vs man updates. One suggested I start a blog.
jwhittenThe other day while I was doing my "car clinic", I noticed (was startled) by an enormous spider on the layout-- it was just the suddenness of it and his size that got me. I was gonna just sweep him off the layout to let him do his thing somewhere else. But he ran back into one of the buildings, which has a base and is mostly sealed, so I just said "what the heck" and let him stay. No idea if he's still there or not, but darn he was big (or maybe it was a she). Maybe if he hangs around long enough I can promote him to assistance superintendent or something...
You need to put up electric utility poles and train him to string the wires for them!
jwhitten selector Statistically, Randy, you are now within three feet of a spider. Maybe even a good sized one. Maybe even hairy! i can say with absolute certainty that I entombed two arachnids in my ground goop when I was layering it over the window screen base. -Crandell The other day while I was doing my "car clinic", I noticed (was startled) by an enormous spider on the layout-- it was just the suddenness of it and his size that got me. I was gonna just sweep him off the layout to let him do his thing somewhere else. But he ran back into one of the buildings, which has a base and is mostly sealed, so I just said "what the heck" and let him stay. No idea if he's still there or not, but darn he was big (or maybe it was a she). Maybe if he hangs around long enough I can promote him to assistance superintendent or something... John
selector Statistically, Randy, you are now within three feet of a spider. Maybe even a good sized one. Maybe even hairy! i can say with absolute certainty that I entombed two arachnids in my ground goop when I was layering it over the window screen base. -Crandell
Statistically, Randy, you are now within three feet of a spider. Maybe even a good sized one.
Maybe even hairy!
i can say with absolute certainty that I entombed two arachnids in my ground goop when I was layering it over the window screen base.
-Crandell
The other day while I was doing my "car clinic", I noticed (was startled) by an enormous spider on the layout-- it was just the suddenness of it and his size that got me. I was gonna just sweep him off the layout to let him do his thing somewhere else. But he ran back into one of the buildings, which has a base and is mostly sealed, so I just said "what the heck" and let him stay. No idea if he's still there or not, but darn he was big (or maybe it was a she). Maybe if he hangs around long enough I can promote him to assistance superintendent or something...
John
Just figure out how to charge him rent and you can make some extra money to support your habit, err hobby.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
cordon Set two Victor traps in the garage. Result was one dead rat and one missing trap. When we moved out we never found that trap!
Set two Victor traps in the garage. Result was one dead rat and one missing trap. When we moved out we never found that trap!
Be careful. They are taking captured traps to their secret lab in Ratsylvania. Rats in white lab coats are studying the traps, and figuring out how to re-size them and bait them to use against us.
Had one (or more) when we lived in VA. My theory is that it came in through the hole for the TV cable, then got so fat eating dog food that it couldn't get out again. It made a nest in the glass fiber insulation in the oven. Two cats and two dogs were absolutely no help at all. Finally had to use poison - found it dead under some papers in the living room.
selectorSteamFreak Or maybe just a mouse-oleum... Ha, ha!! You get a gold star.-Crandell
SteamFreak Or maybe just a mouse-oleum...
Or maybe just a mouse-oleum...
Ha, ha!! You get a gold star.
Thanks, but can I just take that award in cheese?
rrinker I just want to say thank you for taking this thread to a new page, that spider was creeping me out! --Randy
I just want to say thank you for taking this thread to a new page, that spider was creeping me out!
You know, owning a bird eating spider is no joke. When I was searching for that photo, I discovered you can buy them for $90 right here on the interwebz. They say the bite is no worse than a bee sting, but with 1" fangs I'd be more worried about being impaled. The one you described with the babies on its back was a Wolf spider.
Welcome back, Chip! Interesting choice of threads. I'd stay away from glue traps, especially with your -- ahem -- unpleasant history with adhesives.
Seriously, though, those glue traps are the worst. They were using them at a place of work about 10 years ago, and a co-worker was trying to rescue a little field mouse that was stuck in one, and the results were ghastly. A spring trap is much more humane, assuming it breaks the neck.
Nelson
Ex-Southern 385 Being Hoisted
I'm sure I am, but I can be at least 99.9% sure it's not one the size of my hand. We don;t get'em that big here, at least not indoors, unless someone's pet escaped. The little ones don't bother me, unless they happen to drop down from the ceiling right in front of my face. Any that dare come without a foot or so of the floor in daylight are taking their lives into their own 8 legs, especially if one of the cats is anywhere nearby. The one fairly large 'hairy' spider I saw around here, several years and many differnet dwellings ago, turned out on closer examination to not be hairy at all - all the spiderlings were clinging to it! I sacrificed a tupperware container for that so as to prevent as many of the little ones from escaping as possible. That was about the biggest spider I've ever seen indoors around here, the body was about the size of a dime. Most indoor spiders in these parts are smaller than a #5 coupler spring at the biggest. And they are very shy and stay in dark corners, so you won;t find them just crawling up a wall.
Duckdogger, if you cannot kill the Rat, my old company is going to be looking for a new district manager.I am starting a class action suite on the current one. They love DM's that eat cheese.
Cuda Ken
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
duckdoggerIf any of my neighbors have a decent pellet gun, I will go the humanitarian, low drama route. Otherwise, it could be shop vac or the drill with a real long bit. I always wanted to be a dentist.
You're a model railroader, and this is a model railroading forum-- why not just make the poor beastie walk the third rail???
Rat update. This old gal has to be dying - she has eaten most of 2 bait blocks. Plus she doesn't appear to be hearing as well. I got within 4 feet of the tunnel before she scampered into the side chamber.
Still dragging crap (literally), leaves and hydrocal boulders by the entrances but much less of it. Here's the deal. One way or another, she is dead by sundown tomorrow. I have played several scenarios in my mind as I finish the A-West Twin Stack cars.
I waiver between a Jack Bauer highly painful finish or a quick clean kill. Either way, it's not personal. It's about she put her mouse lips on my intermodal cars. She's been carrying dried dog poop with them for heaven's sake! Now, I have to wipe them down with bleach to kill any residual rodent cooties.
If any of my neighbors have a decent pellet gun, I will go the humanitarian, low drama route. Otherwise, it could be shop vac or the drill with a real long bit. I always wanted to be a dentist.
MisterBeasleyWe have messed up the natural balance, though, by eliminating predators, leashing dogs, keeping cats indoors and allowing the vermin (including the long-legged variety called "deer") to multiply unchecked. We have a problem with deer in our town, and to make it worse, they've not only prohibited hunting, but also banned "professional" thinning of the herd for population control. So, the primary "natural" enemy of the deer is now the Sport Utility Vehicle, which leaves its kill alongside the road.
It's not always SUVs...
After repairs:
Back on the road later that day. I started calling the car "Catfish Hunter" after this, the second deer I hit.
I haven't had much problem with smaller vermin yet, but we'll see what happens. My garage door doesn't seal very well, but the farmer behind us has a few cats that roam around a bit...
Mike WSOR engineer | HO scale since 1988 | Visit our club www.WCGandyDancers.com
My experience with home invasions, or RV invasions, is that the wee beasties are looking for a birthing place and/or grub. If they find the latter, the former is sure to be within hiking distance. But why go all the way back into the wet grass to get to a birthing place...let's play house in the quilt stuffed into this seldom-opened cupboard or closet.
I used to awaken at zero-dark thirty in our RV and I could hear the mice chewing on the wood frame. It's reeeeeaaaaaalllly tough to go back to sleep when you hear things larger than termites tearing at your home.
Funny stuff for sure. It does seem odd that space mouse shows up the same time this thread is running