storrsroars
Exiled in Pittsburgh
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2012
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Last weekend my neighbor told me he saw a rat on our patio. We've had the occasional mouse in the house, but never any issue with big boys. I scoured the patio for droppings and found three, so I wasn't overly concerned. Every entry into the house via gaps around wires and pipes is sealed, pretty much the only way in is when we open the garage.
Yesterday, while perusing the BY on my patio, I saw it. It was running from my neighbor's patio then down into the rail tie retaining wall that separates the properties, then into a garden on my side and finally into a hole in my stone wall next to the driveway that was originally dug out by chipmunks, that's right next to a pile of wood on my driveway.
So I went to Google to figure out what to do. Using that info, I hit every hole I could find with ammonia bleach, went out and bought a couple of traps, and set those yesterday. No bites on the traps last night. Today I dismantled most of the wood pile, got some polyurethane foam and mothballs, stuffed the mothballs into the holes, filled the holes with the spray foam, then covered those with loose pebbles to camoflage the foam. Tomorrow I plan to hit the holes in the retaining wall with cottonballs soaked in eucalyptus oil.
Other than it taking the bait from one of the traps, none of this will actually kill the rat (and I've only seen the one), but should drive him/her away, most likely into my neighbor's yard.
Anyone here ever had a rat problem? If so, how did you deal with it.
Btw, I have one plastic trap with the green poison chunks, and the other is a standard old wooden trap on which I used creamy peanut butter. If chunky is better, please advise
Yesterday, while perusing the BY on my patio, I saw it. It was running from my neighbor's patio then down into the rail tie retaining wall that separates the properties, then into a garden on my side and finally into a hole in my stone wall next to the driveway that was originally dug out by chipmunks, that's right next to a pile of wood on my driveway.
So I went to Google to figure out what to do. Using that info, I hit every hole I could find with ammonia bleach, went out and bought a couple of traps, and set those yesterday. No bites on the traps last night. Today I dismantled most of the wood pile, got some polyurethane foam and mothballs, stuffed the mothballs into the holes, filled the holes with the spray foam, then covered those with loose pebbles to camoflage the foam. Tomorrow I plan to hit the holes in the retaining wall with cottonballs soaked in eucalyptus oil.
Other than it taking the bait from one of the traps, none of this will actually kill the rat (and I've only seen the one), but should drive him/her away, most likely into my neighbor's yard.
Anyone here ever had a rat problem? If so, how did you deal with it.
Btw, I have one plastic trap with the green poison chunks, and the other is a standard old wooden trap on which I used creamy peanut butter. If chunky is better, please advise
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