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RATS!
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April
Joined: 13 Dec 2003
Posts: 6593
Location: Westchester/NYC

4/29/17 12:20 AM

RATS!

I mean the real thing!

Found a hole in my saddle bag, where the power bar used to be. Now just the wrapper was left, with a matching hole as the saddle bag. Bike has been in garage, untouched all winter.

So it's clear rat(s) got into my garage sometime during the winter. (power bars in the house is still intact, thank god).

How do I get rid of them? Traps? Or just leave the garage door open and hope they'll leave?

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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19068
Location: PDX

4/29/17 12:29 AM

Suggest you iradaicate before they breed too much. Poisen and or traps. If poisen keep a pan or pans of water outside so they die outside the house instead of in walls. I would use traps with the power bars for bait too.

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dan emery
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 6884
Location: Maine

4/29/17 12:36 AM

Good luck

Those are gonna be some highly conditioned rats....

No experience with rats, but traps work well for mice.

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Marc N.
Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 457
Location: Israel

4/29/17 2:00 AM

Why rats?

If you didn`t see them, why are you so sure they are rats? Mice would have no problem eating through the saddle bag to get to the bars. Either way you want to get rid of them, but the idea of rats, to me, is much worse than mice. Traps are better than poison as the critter doesn`t go die somewhere and start to smell. Good luck !

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April
Joined: 13 Dec 2003
Posts: 6593
Location: Westchester/NYC

4/29/17 4:27 AM

I don't know if they're rats or mice or even squirrels, actually. But I assume it's some kind of rodents, judging from the hole they ate.

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Jesus Saves
Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 1150
Location: South of Heaven

4/29/17 6:07 AM

No food, no visitors, no need for traps and poison.

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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19068
Location: PDX

4/29/17 10:08 AM

"No food, no visitors, no need for traps and poison."

My experience when doing HUD work is contrary to this.

Worst example was a long vacant property in TN that I had to dispatch contractors to set traps and clear massive feces every quarterly visit/inspection. Country house had a Japanese Beetle infestation too, maybe the food source?

Other long vacant properties in urban area where rats fled out of couches when picked up to toss. Glad I only made the work orders for contractors and not the actual work.

Once a den is established, it grows and grows as they are breedin_mofos. Best to eliminate all early.

The old wood traps word great.

Look for the dropping size to determine if rats or mice, I agree likely mice. They continually drop poo, there should be dropping in and around your saddle bags. The rats dropping are obvious and rather large by comparison.

Look along the walls on the floor, they travel close for safety and the dropping will be there. If 3mm ish mice, Rat dropping can be 10mm long and 1/2 as round, They are big.

The chewed hole can tell you also, 3x size for rats than mice.

Pet kibble bits works good on the wood traps, they love that shit and you won't have to keep putting more on the traps before success...

Get a 1/2 doz traps for a a start.. As soon as you figure out if mouse or rat traps...

Good luck!

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April
Joined: 13 Dec 2003
Posts: 6593
Location: Westchester/NYC

4/29/17 11:48 AM

Droppings are borderline in size. Hole is pretty big. (have picture but is complicated to post)

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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19068
Location: PDX

4/29/17 12:43 PM

If they are bigger than a few mm, maybe small rats, young babies.... Get busy. ;)

I used to keep my bike bars in the the box in the cabinet over the Washer/Dryer in the Laundry area. Room is between kitchen and bike stables [garage],

I went in to get some for a ride and you know the rest. Took a few days, but I got 7 altogether using the bars on wood traps.

2 years later, walked into the kitchen and a mouse jumped out of the dogs kibble bowl and ran under the dish washer.

That is when I went kibble for bait. They already liked it presumably. ;)

The worst bout was when I put the Del Sol in my Shop out back for the winter. Targa top and 24 year old gaskets = damp car. Went to get it out a few months later and when I open the trunk there was a ton of insulation and stink. Turns out the horizontal opening rear window has drain holes under the section between the interior and trunk the glass lowers into.

Cleaned and de-smell-e-fied the trunk. Pulled it out and turned on the heat/fan. What a racket. 4 hours of pulling the fan and vacuuming the nest in the fan/cage and ducts work.

Bathroom in trunk, nest in vent system. Hours of work to recover my DelSol.. Eeesh...

I go on the warpath first sign.

I pulled 11 out of the trunk over a week with wood traps before getting the clean up started. The farm/field 60 feet behind my shop no help.

And we have 5-6 cats left behind by foreclosed folks on the block my neighbor feeds. I find dead mice around my driveway time to time. Imagine if the cats were not here....

;)


Last edited by Sparky on 4/29/17 1:11 PM; edited 1 time in total

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dan emery
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 6884
Location: Maine

4/29/17 12:50 PM

I'm guesssing mice

I think they have zoned rats out of Westchester. Rats are more urban anyway.

Anyway this reminds me that years ago mice (I presume) did a similar number on a Kelty backpack I had in the garage. I have a large garage/barn with a dirt floor so I don't try to keep rodents out (including foxes as I had last year). Sometimes mice eff up things in my car as well.

Back in law school I lived in a farmhouse outside Ithaca, and trapped lots of mice. I just chucked them as far as I could into the overgrown field (I had a pretty good arm back then). Then one day my beloved Golden Peaches puked up about 6 mouse carcasses.

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April
Joined: 13 Dec 2003
Posts: 6593
Location: Westchester/NYC

4/29/17 2:16 PM

OK, traps.

Do I get them ... Home Depot? Or? (sorry, never had done this before)

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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19068
Location: PDX

4/29/17 4:59 PM

Ace Hardware
Home Depot
Supermarket in Isle with brooms and mops..

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Nick Payne
Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 2625
Location: Canberra, Australia

4/29/17 6:49 PM

At our last house we had a rat gnaw through a plasterboard wall in order to get to our garbage bin...

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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19068
Location: PDX

4/29/17 7:08 PM

Nick, you must have some high quality bin contents! ;)

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Jesus Saves
Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 1150
Location: South of Heaven

4/30/17 11:33 AM

unabridged explanation

I willing to make a reasonably safe bet it is mice. Rats, urban, correct.

Having owned pet mice as a kid and most recently had a mice problem in my apartment kitchen - really and truly, the best option is to not store food in the garage. I did not have a problem until a messy neighbor moved in next door and family members would leave/store (packaged) food out on the counter.

You can use traps, but why bother? It is really depressing to handle a dead/dying mouse in a glue trap or snap trap. And it can be a messy affair for you - sticky or bloody. Poison - they will just go off into a corner or behind the wall and die - with the rotting corpse leaving a stench. They will outnumber you and outlast your resolve to lay down traps & poison.

No food = no problem. Mice have a really kean sense of smell, good memory, and they can squeeze through the tightest of spaces.

Patch the hole or plug it with steel wool, remove the food, and clean the area of mice droppings and consider cleaning the garage floor with bleach to remove their urine. Along the edges is suffice. Mice are agoraphobic - don't like open spaces.

Afterwards, as extra precaution, you can consider using mint based repellent spray.

No food & no trace of scent = no mice.

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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19068
Location: PDX

4/30/17 11:42 AM

Google 'garbage can mouse trap'

I actually tried a few variations for shits and giggles.

In the end, I'd rater the wood trap do the deed. having to drown the one I caught in the garbage can is a 'rather not' for me.

I found finding the path to the area they take via dropping path and putting the traps along that trap worked best.

And residual mess on the concrete floor next to the water heater was way better than goo in the cabinet...

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Matthew Currie
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 800
Location: Vermont

4/30/17 4:27 PM

Mice or rats, I vote for poison. No mercy. They are destructive pests and not in the least endangered. I suggest the big green bait chunks rather than the small stuff, because they will take it and store it, and then die. I've had them leave a pile in a computer, and had to throw away a kitchen stove because they deposited a pile in a nest that caught fire during a cleaning cycle.

Kill them dead with big green chunks.

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Steve B.
Joined: 19 Jan 2004
Posts: 769
Location: Long Island, NY

4/30/17 5:56 PM

I had an outdoor cat for many years, kept the shed mice in check. My indoor only female cats only once caught an indoor mouse, never had a problem after that.

Outdoor cat used to catch the mice then deposit them alive in the middle of my large concrete driveway, batting them around into shock, where I would inevitably run them over with the car.

Cats are just mean critters sometimes.

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Rickk
Joined: 01 Jun 2004
Posts: 528
Location: Montreal

4/30/17 6:43 PM

My vote: Option put forth by Jesus Saves

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daddy-o
Joined: 12 Apr 2004
Posts: 3307
Location: Springfield

5/1/17 4:52 AM

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I'm sure the water issue is on its way to being resolved.

This will show various ideas for making a mousetrap with a 5 gallon bucket:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bucket+mouse+trap

Use metal trash cans with tight lids. I trapped a squirrel in a plastic can and when I came back in an hour there was a beautiful circle gnawed through. Squirrel got its revenge, touché.

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PLee
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 3712
Location: Brooklyn, NY

5/1/17 6:29 AM

No on glue traps. I stopped using them after I found a mouse that literally ripped itself apart trying to break loose - it's belly was glued to the trap. My method - I put a baited wood trap inside a small brown paper bag. When the bag felt heavy, rolled up the opening and disposed of the trap and its victim. No mess.

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JohnC
Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 1939
Location: Glastonbury, Ct

5/1/17 10:59 AM

Old-fashioned wood traps for me.

Here in New England, they start coming into the house when the weather turns cool in the fall. When I see signs, I set multiple traps. Usually I kill half a dozen in a week or two, and they're scarce after that.

I guess I'm not as squeamish as some about removing the dead critter from the trap. Put on rubber gloves, open the trap and drop the mouse into the trash, re-bait and re-set trap. The ones that are a nuisance are the "not quite dead" - caught by a foot or the tail and scurrying around dragging the trap. But it's essentially the same process.

Don't leave food in the garage.

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KerryIrons
Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 3234
Location: Midland, MI

5/2/17 10:11 AM

All in

Had to de-mouse a house once and went with the combination of poison bait and the old fashioned spring traps (right out of the cartoons). Caught several in the traps and found several dead from the poison. Full court press.

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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19068
Location: PDX

5/2/17 10:47 AM

I literally sat down after setting 3 traps with the fig bar pieces to hear one trip within minutes. I figured I mis-set it and it snapped solo. Nope, got one in a few minutes of setting. And daytime at that. The fig bars must be their crack.

The small dog kibble pieces were more solid and stayed put better though.

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April
Joined: 13 Dec 2003
Posts: 6593
Location: Westchester/NYC

5/2/17 11:43 AM

I wonder if it might have been squirrels?

I drove home to find a squirrel looking for a way to get in!

He was VERY persistent! Running back and forth many times trying to to get in (there's a glass panel right next to the door which is next to the garage, he's most interested in that one)

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