Aiiiieeee!!!!! Re: Rat at Work...

[AmyDeLune]

Wednesday, I spotted a rat dashing across the floor at work (bookstore). Left a note for my boss. Came in today, he had put out traps baited with peanut butter and poison. So far, so good.

One of the traps just snapped, heard the thrashing (feel guilty, rats are cute, I just want to admire their cuteness outside).

Trepiditiously go back to check, see it laying there in the trap. Say, "Sorry...:( " ...and the little bastard nearly gives me a heart attack by leaping up, thrashing free of the trap and dashing off to who knows where.

So, great, we've got SuperRat roaming the building...*shudder*

[momophile]

1. well, at least you won't have to feel guilty

but you may have to watch your back.

[AmyDeLune]

2. Too true! *shiver*

That rat's gonna have it in for me now!

[Miss_Strawberry]

3. Havahart?

They have two models big enough for trapping rats....so google tells me. Maybe this is why the bookstore near my apt. has a cat.

[AmyDeLune]

4. My boss is actually a big softie and

has tried the Haveaharts in past for mice without any success.:( There is also a wholesale bakery in the building, so a rat infestation would be a really bad thing.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. bookstore cats are REALLY cool...

I suggest that since you have Rats instead of Mice, a big cat... Ragdolls are the biggest domestic cats. Smart and Gorgeous. :)

My Scooby...




My Mouse...

[AmyDeLune]

7. Beautiful Kitties!

Just their pictures make me feel better. :)
Unfortunately, we're in a basement location (probably why we were the first to get rats) and it would be rather cruel to keep a cat here.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. cruel? not so much...

as long as they have a few rooms to roam around in.

I used to take their mom on walks (on a leash) but she much prefered the inside. :)

[AmyDeLune]

13. Picture "concrete bunker"

one room, bare concrete floor, and the walls seep at the ground level when it rains. :( ...but if it were my call, I'd still vote for having a kitty (at least during business hours).

[Viva_La_Revolution]

16. they LOVE people...

the live for their people, as a matter of fact. If you let them bunk with you at night, they will be in heaven. :)

[AmyDeLune]

22. If I were able to keep a kitty right now

those would be at the top of the list. So sweet! :loveya:

[hfojvt]

6. mice used to do that to me

It's like they were evolving strong necks or something. I had to finish them off with a hammer or club. Eeek, I hated that.

Have you read the short story "Trapped" by Dean Koontz? It's in the collection 'Strange Highways'.

It's about rats that were bred by Government researchers to be super-intelligent (for rats). Then they escape and invade a nearby farmhouse.

"Think about it: smart rats that recognize and elude traps, quick to detect poison bait, virtually ineradicable. Already the world loses a large portion of its food supply to rats, ten or fifteen percent in developed countries like ours, fifty percent in many third-world countries. Ben, we lose that much to dumb rats. What'll we lose to these?"

[AmyDeLune]

8. Again, I shriek "AIIIEEEE!!!"

and I am not generally prone to screaming. We have the hardcover graphic novel version of "Trapped", but I haven't read it. I guess I'd better before it's too late...

[hfojvt]

11. getting a mossberg of your very own

would seem to be more functional than reading a graphic novel. A rolling mossberg will give you some stones. That's what the heroine of the story used.

[AmyDeLune]

14. See, that's why I need to read the story,

then I'd know that! :D

[mentalsolstice]

10. Dammit! Now I have to go pour 'nother glass of wine!

Yes, rats are animals, and I LOVE all animals...but...

I have a specific rat experience, where s/he was on the back of the couch with me. Arrrggghhhh, I just can't go into more details.

[AmyDeLune]

12. *pats back, pours wine*

That sounds horrible (the rat on the couch, not the wine). My sympathies!

[mentalsolstice]

20. My rat came back as well!

Not trying to creep you out, or anything!

Okay, here's the real story. I'm sitting, one day, on 'da couch watching TV. When, alluva sudden, this HUGH!!!!1!! rodent starts running towards me. S/he climbs the couch behind me, I'm screaming, paralyzed in fear! My husband gets me out of there and onto our front porch, and closes off the room. He then goes in with a broom and our useless cat who is so inexperienced at killing anything. I hear beating sounds. Minutes later he holds up a rat carcass for me to see (I'm not happy about seeing a dead animal), and later tells me that he has tossed the body overs into the neighbor's yard. A couple of hours later, I'm chilling on our back porch, when I see this large mass approaching in the yard, with flies buzzing around it.

Yup, it came back to haunt us...

[AmyDeLune]

21. Zoiks!!! Zombie Rat!!!

:scared:
I think rats & cockroaches have to be some of the hardest creatures to kill/get rid of. Yet without them, we'd be buried under tons of waste of our own making. You just can't win...

[Kali]

15. and for every one you see there are ten more hidden...

bummer it getting away - it will likely never go near a trap again. I hate to say it but poison is probably your best bet now if you can't use a predator of some kind.

For snap traps use good sticky peanut butter and a bit of chocolate, bacon or a piece of dry dog food really mushed into the peanut butter so it is pretty stuck on there - probably what happened is the grain wasn't stuck well and the rat was already on the way off the trap when it sprung. The head needs to be positioned right over the baitplate/trigger for a good humane kill. Also sometimes the traps just aren't made real well - need to check that the snap bar hits wood all the way around - sometimes it overhangs or there is a gap.

Sorry to be so graphic. Unfortunatly I have become a bit of an expert at this subject. Here is what I found inside the control panel of my washing machine last year:

[AmyDeLune]

23. The snap bar looks okay...

and my boss really slathered the peanut butter on the bait plate. I saw that the snap bar was over the rat's head in the proper position for it to have been a "kill strike", that's why it was such a shock for it to leap up shake the trap off. It appears that it's just a freakishly strong rat.:scared:

Thanks for the info though!:hi:

[Richard Steele]

17. The rat only stayed in the trap so it could get a good look at you. They never forget a face.

Be afraid! :evilgrin:

[AmyDeLune]

27. I know, I am doomed to ratty revenge now...

they are relentless!:scared:

[mentalsolstice]

18. Ben? Willard? n/t

[AmyDeLune]

26. I-I-I sure h-h-hope not...*shiver*

[marzipanni]

19. These are good traps

Model 1025 has worked for me to catch roof rats. I had seen a mouse that had its nose nearly amputated by a snap trap, then it was found dead a couple of days later, so I didn't want to use that kind of trap.
http://www.havahart.com/nuisance/critters/critters_rats.asp
I have caught a couple of mice in this trap easily. It is important to put traps with doors with the opening next to the wall because rodents usually travel next to the baseboard! I bought it at the feed store.
http://www.amazon.com/Woodstream-Mouse-Trap/dp/B000LNT0MU/ref=sr_1_24/002-4444455-2576053?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1173508700&sr=1-24
This one sounds like a good one for a place with many mice.
http://www.amazon.com/Victor-Tin-Cat-Clear-Pack/dp/B000B75ESK/ref=pd_sim_k_1/002-4444455-2576053

[AmyDeLune]

24. Those look good!

If the other traps fail, I might get my boss to put a crowbar in his wallet and get one (he's, uh, well, cheap).

Thanks for the links!:hi:

[bumblebee1]

25. You should have put out the traps empty and unset.

Rats by nature are cautious animals. When they get used to the traps being out, you then bait and set the traps. Is there a lot of water in your workplace? Rats need a steady supply of water to stay in one place.

[AmyDeLune]

28. Too late now on the traps...

and at the moment, since there are a couple of "leaky spots" at the floor level, there's a steady water source. x(

Maybe this will give the landlord more incentive to patch the leaks...

Thanks for the advice, I'll pass it along!
:hi:

[Kali]

29. good point - or bait them and don't set them for a while

[carly denise pt deux]

30. Have a cat roaming around the bookstore

people love them and they are relaxing...........unless they are chasing a big rat thru the non-fiction section.
Carly

[AmyDeLune]

34. If all else fails

I might be able to twist my boss's arm about getting a store cat. Which, thinking about it, might not work out too well in the summer when we have the door open...

[Wapsie B]

31. Sounds like you need a bigger trap

or an exterminator. Wild rats would freak me out.

[AmyDeLune]

35. I like wild rats in the wild...

not so hot on them indoors where, for some reason, they creep me out.:shrug:

I don't know if they make rat traps any bigger.:scared:

:hi:

[Wapsie B]

36. I was thinking more along along the lines

of a fox trap or something. I know that some people have domesticated rats as pets though.

[havocmom]

32. Get a snake. Snakes on the job.

You could do a movie.

Seriously, cats are good, but snakes can go where no cat can. Try some of each :evilgrin:

[AmyDeLune]

33. Bwahahaha!!! The mental image I'm getting here

of cats & snakes together is not pretty!:P

A snake would be cool, but it won't be warm enough for one down here until June at the earliest. Right now it would just curl up around the heater and sleep.