Rats be eatin' my corn! -- THE DEATH TOLL MOUNTS!

B

Brisketexan

1,000+ Posts
My daughter wanted to plant corn in our veggie garden this year. I was not very optimistic, but hey, it's what she wanted.

Lo and behold, it has grown like hell, and is producing like hell. One problem -- when an ear gets near ready, it gets eaten all to hell. I'm pretty sure rats are doing it.

Any suggested remedies? I am going to buy some good old skull crushing rat traps today. Any other suggestions to keep them away? Scatter cat-piss soaked kitty litter around? Anything like that? I just want to eat my damned corn before the rats do.
 
I think we've found the culprit.

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Such a wimpy dog would face the same fate as the rats will.

And my dog (a lab) would just eat the whole damn ear, not meticulously nibble off each and every kernel.

I got two old school neckbreaker traps. I intend to rack up a body count, and will post the count here.
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If only I could catch them alive and torture them first, as a warning to the others.
 
I used to catch them in the basement in a "havahart"
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trap. I had various tortures for them. The best (worst) was hooking the trap up to the jumper cables attached to the running car. Since just poking the unattached "electrode" at the bastage was only making him mad, I just hooked up both side and gunned the engine to get 'ol sparky really revved. I thought I was done when I saw the smoke. Unfortunately, it was just my mother's ignition system frying.
 
I once caught a mother and 6 babies in one of those neck-breaker traps all at one time using peanut butter. One of my finer moments, just didn't want to brag too loud that I caught rats in the backyard.
They were attracted to leftover dog food. I feed the dogs inside now.
 
Baited the traps with PB -- they were able to lick them clean without setting them off. Re-baited with bread, pinched into the bait tray.

Current score:

Brisket 1, Rats 0.

Got one early in the evening. I will keep a running score posted.
 
Brisket,

They did that to me too (licked it off) until I realized how to set the trap right. I would put a twist-tie trough the hole in the trap release/catch and then put a cracker with the PB on it tied to that.

If you want to keep with the bread, good, but adding PB may enhance your trap rate. They are attracted to the smell.

Ed
 
UPDATE -- I am one dead rat away from being a rat-killin' ace.

SCORE:

Brisket 4, rats 0.

Got one during the day yesterday -- in a daring attempted daylight raid of my corn, a rat met his maker in the form of a metal bar across the throat.

Got two more right around sundown. The cover of darkness was not enough to save them from the bread and peanut butter temptation that led them to a deadly SNAP of the neck.

Curiously, got no more overnight. Left the traps out. Hopefully I eliminate the stragglers soon.

I am enjoying this. A lot. It kind of frightens me.
 
Damned Varmint Cong!

Interestingly enough, we now DO have a snake. Yesterday, while pulling weeds, my wife called me over to identify a snake that was heading towards a hiding space under our AC unit. It was about a 2.5 foot long rat snake. I told her, and the kids and neighbors who were nearby, to leave it alone, and let it do its job.

The VC I've been getting are about 5 inches in length, with another 4 inches of tail or so. Good sized, but not ginormous. Oh, and they have all had a bar-shaped flat spot around their neck.
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I used to trap a bunch. I think they were coming from 5 houses away, not to mention construction stuff and dumpsters when they were still building in my neighborhood.

I see a black snake skin in the yard every once in a while now and am at peace.
 
The bastard squirrels ate all my tomatoes the past two years. It took me a while to catch the ******** in the act until one day I saw one running up a tree with one tomato in his mouth and another tucked under his front arm like a football. I am too lazy to trap them. For father's day, I am buying myself a kickass pellet gun and will set up shop on my deck with a six-pack and lounge away the day.
 
Pshaw. Rats? Hell, I got a field double on coons last night. They had been outclevering me by stepping over the trip panel on the bottom of the havahart, but I figgered out a system. I got some romex and stripped several inches. I then connected a plug on the other end and placed the bare "electrodes" in a crossing pattern above the cat food, but not touching. I once stripped some live romex with my teeth so I know how bad it will make you jump if you get a bit of e- in your mouth.

Right onto the trip pad.

I went out on Sunday to check the trap and was greeted with a snarl from hell. I turned tail and went back inside pronto without seeing any critter. I hadn't been threatened like that since the rattlesnake last fall.
 
While I am prone to do stupid things, this one had a joint tortfeasor. I was rewiring a light fixture in the attic and had turned the circuit off at the switch. My wife came along and flipped the switch since the room was dark. I had all that blown in insulation in the attic and I never did find the pliers or screwdriver that I had been holding in my hands.
 
What's important for you to know, Nick, is that I am laughing AT you, not with you.

However, when all was said and done, she managed to take the position that it was your fault, right?

And how is it that no man I know can work with electricity for more than 3 minutes without popping himself (me included)?

Also, I am now currently scheming to create an elaborate electric rat torture device. You have given me some ideas.
 
Oh, I know you aren't laughing with me.
And, it WAS my fault according to her even though she knew I was up there working on the light. I really didn't fuss at her much because I should have tripped the breaker. Hers was kind of like the excuse Bluto and D-day offered Flounder. "You ****** up. You trusted us."

I've been thinking. You recent invasion of rats is likely due to some road construction. Is TxDoT in the neighborhood?
 
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No, that's not it. They don't come NEAR me anymore. Although every time I see John Hurt on TV my blood pressure goes through the roof.

The more likely source is the tangle of brush outside my fence (on city ROW, of course) that provides a perfect hiding space. Not to mention my old and decaying double-layer wood fence, that provides a PERFECT secure area. Add that to the fact that a house around the corner had a junk pile of ginormous proportions in the back yard, and when they recently cleaned it out, they sent DOZENS of rats scattering, and you've got a recipe for Brisketexan v. the Rodents.

But I will win. The bodycount will mount. And I will cackle with evil glee.

How sad is my life?
 
If you ever catch them in a havahart, don't open the hatch and allow them to "escape" underneath the lawnmower because I hear it can ruin a perfectly good pair of sneakers.

And, unless they have changed the design on the rat traps, don't let the rats go swimming in the pool because the doors have been known to come open and the rats will escape and tell all their friends that you have a pool.
 
Oh, and don't try to flush them alive, because even if you are quick enough to get the lid down, many of them can easily squeeze out between the bowl and the lid and run around the house and scare the **** out of your mother.
 
I haven't come across any rats recently, dead or alive, but I would absolutely launch one from the spud gun given the opportunity. School trout that have already committed suicide by hook poisoning have been known to clear the third channel down at the Land Cut.
 
I'm just not a cat person. In fact, our rat terrier was more of a cat terrier and whiffed on several opportunities to ratslap.

The rat terrorist had to go though as he was terrorizing anyone who came to visit.
 
Nick,

Our rat terrior mix is so obsessive-compulsive.

If she sees a lizard, mouse, water spider, anything that moves fast she will wear herself out trying to catch it. Sometimes she doesn't want to come in the house at night.

Tuesday night I got the flashlight out and made light spots on the floor, moving them around. I did this for an hour and she never gave up trying to catch it and biting the carpet. When it was time to go to sleep my wife was pissed because I got her too hyper and she was whining because she was still thinking about it.

Cheap thrills come easy with that dog. I still need to get a laser pointer.
 
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