A tail of resurrection..............

orchidman

Couple of months ago the property next door was sold to a property developer. The house stayed, but the area out the back was a hodge podge of garden sheds lean to's and market gardens. They were all cleared off the property. Only problem was that the displaced wildlife had no home and some of them decided to move to my place.

I became aware of the presence of a few undesireables like mice and wild cats. The cats met with an untimely end as did some of the mice.

Was laying back on the couch a few weeks back having returned late from doing a charter and was dozing when something caught my attention as it moved from behind the tv cabinet. Initially I thought it was a mouse...........but bigger.......yep, that's a rat!!!!!!! He disappeared behind the piano so I quietly got up, got my air rifle and 'resumed the position' so to speak. About 20 mins later he decided to come back and as he walked behind the tv I got ready to shoot. When he came out the other side I gave a very low whistle and he stopped to look at me. I took the shot..........and missed.........well I missed the rat, but managed to bury the 177 pellet in the cable that runs from the Sat decoder to the dvd player which caused a loss of picture.

Score: Rat 1..................Human 0

The following morning I found that my mousetrap had disappeared? Finally found it behind the freezer on the back porch where it had been dragged by something obviously bigger than its intended target.

Score: Rat 2..................Human 0

Went and bought some of those new-fangled plastic rat traps and set them up with bait in various locations along with one of my game camera's.

The new plastic rat trap came with a chain to tie it down, so after baiting it, I tied it to a chair leg, set the camera up and retired. The following morning I found the trap on its side sans bait. Checked the video on the game cam and found that the rat had triggered the trap which snapped shut on its head. The rat then backed off until the chain came tight then pulled itself free.............shook its head for a second or two.....then ate the bait and disappeared. ( I cant get the video to download from the game camera)

Score: Rat 3..................Human 0

The following couple of nights I got video of the rat walking past the trap but it seems he learned his lesson.

Decided that I would make my own trap with some scraps of ply etc. Set it up baited it with peanut butter. Woke up early on Easter friday to head up for a charter and found 'Richard the Rat' cowering in the corner of the trap. Didn't have time to deal to him until I got back. Get home about midnight to find him still sitting there .........then I realised I didn't put any 'gunport' hole in the trap so I could put him out of his misery.
I put plan 'B' into effect and stood the trap on end in a plastic barrel, put a couple of bricks on top to stop it floating up and then started filling the barrel full of water. When the barrel was full I figured he was done for and just as I started to turn away I saw a nose and whiskers poke up through the water...............he climbed out of the barrel shook himself and then ran off into the glasshouse. To get out he had squeezed himself through a gap which was less that 1/2 " wide!!!!!

I figured that being Easter he had been resurrected.

Score:Rat 4....................Human 0 ( By this stage I was really getting pissed off and was going to resort to the 375 H&H.......with video I might add ...........but sanity prevailed.)

Yesterday I headed to the hardware store and managed to find some old style wooden snap traps. Baited them up with bait and set them in 3 different places. Went to bed about 1.30am.......was just about asleep when at 2.05am I hear a loud 'SNAP'.

Bailed out of bed wearing my usual attire ( birthday suit), grabbed the air rifle in case the trap hadnt done its job and sprinted up the hallway to the back porch............straight through the doorway...................then picked myself up off the hall floor, opened the door and went through the doorway ..............to find 'Richard' kicking his last death throes . Decided I wasnt taking any chances of a further 'resurrection' and put not one but 2 177cal pellets into his head at point blank range. Vaguely recall yelling something like "Resurrect yourself from this you Fathermucker!"

Having satisfied myself that the score was now Rat 0...........Human 1.......and that a '2nd coming' was not going to happen, I went back to bed stubbing my toe on the hall chair leg in the process.

Here is a picture of the deceased..............note the kink in his tail which was probably done by the mouse trap.............(CRC can for scale)



Woke up this morning feeling great..................until I headed to the basement where I found a second rat in another trap.

I think he might have moved his whole family into my place....................................................

( I hate Autumn, especially cos the wildlife here moves to warmer places......like my place damnit)

sherwood

I have 3 neighbors who have a total of 6 large dogs. None of them pick up after the dogs or keep them quiet. I now have rats going back and forth through my yard to feed themselves. I have used a new poison bait and so far have seen one dead rat in my yard. I also have seen one tree rat eating the same bait just like he would eat an acorn. I wish you luck in killing every one of them.

Big Chief

Ha, I smell a Rat......................dang long tail on that one.

You are a Rat Fink now...............:tooth::rotflmao::rotflmao::rotflmao:

https://www.ratfink.com/rat-fink-poster-art-1.php

tennmike

Don't know if you have them over there, but the d-Con bait trays for mice, and the bait sticks for rats work really well.
And mixing cement in cracked corn at a rate of 1 cup cement to 4 cups cracked corn works good, too; gives them terminal constipation.
The cement/corn mix is good for inside where it can't get wet or is an area with high humidity.

Big Chief

I guess you would have to use yer 375 H&H on a Tasmanian Devil :tooth:

Big Al1

Be vewy, vewy quite!!

Bigslug

Well, you can still try the M41A pulse rifle, but it might be time to take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. . .it's the only way to be sure.

olesniper

Just in case a bunch of Richard's relatives come to the funeral, get you some fish yoyos and hook them to the plastic traps. Anchor them under a table or something, where the little beggar will get snatched up off of the floor and he can't pull out of the trap.

Teach

Our flight line snack bar at Korat AB Thailand had a rat problem. One day a bunch of us heard a commotion in one of the 55-gallon drums we used for garbage cans. A big rat had managed to climb into the empty can looking for a snack, and was running around inside it trying to find a way out. He would make a couple of laps around the bottom of the can, and then jump for the top- - - -usually about 6 inches short- - - -and fall back to the bottom. Of course, we gathered around the can to give him some encouragement by banging on the side of the can and laughing at his acrobatics. One guy said "Watch this"- - - -and poured a little hot coffee into the can. The rat squealed, jumped, and caught the rim of the barrel! I don't think a live hand grenade would have made us scatter faster- - - -there weren't enough doors in that place! That critter was about the size of a half-grown cat, and he was not in a good mood!
Jerry

Big Al1

Teach wrote: »

Our flight line snack bar at Korat AB Thailand had a rat problem. One day a bunch of us heard a commotion in one of the 55-gallon drums we used for garbage cans. A big rat had managed to climb into the empty can looking for a snack, and was running around inside it trying to find a way out. He would make a couple of laps around the bottom of the can, and then jump for the top- - - -usually about 6 inches short- - - -and fall back to the bottom. Of course, we gathered around the can to give him some encouragement by banging on the side of the can and laughing at his acrobatics. One guy said "Watch this"- - - -and poured a little hot coffee into the can. The rat squealed, jumped, and caught the rim of the barrel! I don't think a live hand grenade would have made us scatter faster- - - -there weren't enough doors in that place! That critter was about the size of a half-grown cat, and he was not in a good mood!
Jerry

Must not have been full grown!! I saw rats at DaNang that wouldn't fit in a 55 gallon drum!!

Six-Gun

At least you got him eventually, Alec!

One place that had serious rat problems when I used to deploy was Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. In particular, the tents. I learned that hard way that even an empty plastic bag that once held a sandwich had enough scent on it to attract a good-sized rat. I had such a bag in my main flight backpack and woke up to a rat-sized tunnel bored through the pack and the jacket inside of it that held the sandwich bag! I never did get revenge on that one.

Weatherby

Score:Rat 4....................Human 0 ( By this stage I was really getting pissed off and was going to resort to the 375 H&H.......with video I might add ...........but sanity prevailed.)

It's Early......we still may get video

NN

You need to become the Pied Piper Of New Zeeland.

CHIRO1989

I bet your .270 would be an adequate rat rifle. Maybe. Use the Nosler Partitions.