Oh Rats, They Are At It Again!

breezin in #sustainableliving • 2 years ago

Dear Rats,

I currently have more than enough crap in my life, and I would really appreciate it if you could kindly fuck off. I mean, go find some cheese, go fuck yourself, or even better, go make friends with the hungriest python you can find!

But for the love of peace, leave my shit alone and stop procreating so fast!

Isn't it enough that you brought us the plague and various other diseases, ruin or crops and food supplies - Now this!

Sincerely Bitter
Breezin

This is the control housing where the pump for one of my boreholes is situated. This pump runs 80 meters (+/- 262 feet) underground, and having well-insulated power cables running down to power the pumps is crucial. Not only are these cables extremely expensive, but they are also tricky to rejoin, as the pump will have to be partially lifted out of the hole and suspended so that the cables can be replaced. I am sure this task would be less daunting with the right equipment at hand, but sadly that is not the case here.

As if water issues weren't enough to deal with, the rats manage to get into the control housing for the well water pumps. While in there, they knawed at the power cables. While working with water open power cables are the last thing you want lying around. More than that, the isolation on the cables was knawed through just enough to cause a shortage on the water pumps once the moisture and humidity in the housing increased, especially on warm days.

These power lines will need to be severed and rejoined with scotch joints to ensure a waterproof and secure join.

The little bastards really got in there and made the most of their time.

The problem is not only the cost and time to repair these cables. It also means that we will be out of a pump for a few days while this is being repaired. And no pump m means no water, and seeing that water shortage is a very cold reality in this part and that we can only pump small amounts at a time, it is important to pump whenever we are able to do so in order to keep the animals and the plants afloat.

I definitely do not want to put out poison for them, as that could endanger birds of prey and rather animals. And placing traps for these vermin just doesn't seem to be keeping them at bay. So, for now, this war will wager on until a sustainable solution arises.

Complaining certainly won't fix the problem, So I better get at it!

Fuckin Rats!

#ecotrain #animals #rats #farming #agriculture #life #diy #rants

2 years ago in #sustainableliving by breezin

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valued-customer 2 years ago

In the USA there is a method of using poisons in enclosures, so that the predators aren't downstream because the rats don't get out of the enclosures. Rats like dark hidy holes, so it may be possible for you to trap rats and safely poison them. Something like a cinder block with steel plates and flaps that only open one way may not be too difficult to whip up from stuff you have laying about on the farm.

I have a client with bat issues. I managed to get them out of her attic by thoroughly sealing every hole bigger than a small coin, but her house is more than 50 years old and was built by her now deceased husband, so there are some unique features that present novel challenges I have to surmount to keep vermin out. I neither want to use poison on the bats, because they can't be confined to a trap and raptors would be at risk, as well as pets and local fur bearers.

Critter control is a tough row to hoe. I hope you seize on quick and easy means to resolve the matter.

Thanks!

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breezin 2 years ago

Thank you so much. It's an ongoing struggle. My dogs are great ratters, but I have them confined to the yard at this stage. I have made a few rat cage traps, and they work pretty well; you catch 10+ a night with that, but then by the second or third night, the buggers somehow figure it out, and they don't go near it.

I remember many years back my brother and I (a few glasses of wine in) decided to take the pellet guns and go into the room where the animal food is stored, we ended up in competition as to who would kill the most... it ended up being a really fun day. The final tally of dead rats were 180 something

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valued-customer 2 years ago

LOL

That reminds of of when I lived in Portland and the proles at the local chip factory went on strike for a month. Rats the size of Rottweilers came streaming into the city when the flow of potato peels dried up, and I had a juicy compost heap in the back yard. I had a little tree just outside the kitchen window where I hung a steel bucket for kitchen slop. I noticed the tree wiggled seductively when the fat bastards climbed up to get in the bucket and live the good life, so I parked myself in the kitchen with a 10-22 and a 6 pack and picked them off when they skylined over the rim of the bucket.

After a couple days of these amusements, I was out in the yard tossing the previous nights kills into the compost heap, when I noticed the wood fence between me and my neighbor had holes clear through it. I didn't think shorts would get clear to his siding, but upon inspection realized they had.

Everything fun is illegal.

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breezin 2 years ago

ha, well, at least you didn't take the neighbor out in the process. But yes, that sounds about like something I would do :D

We only used the pellet guns because the bullets are much cheaper than the .22

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baah 2 years ago

https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/this-surprising-hack-will-keep-mice-away-for-good/

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baah 2 years ago

I was changing the fuel tank one night last month on our spare car, and a freaking rat ran over my foot, we don't have anything they can get into except the cars but when I told my neighbor about it she mentioned the same thing, that one rat ran across her foot as well and told me she uses both mothballs and peppermint cotton balls to keep them out.

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breezin 2 years ago

Oh wow, thank you, I will give that a try!

Here they get into the animal feeds, food storage, wiring, the bird aviary (they eat the chicks off the nest) and they attract snakes. It is such a pest.

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baah 2 years ago

Lolol rats and snakes!

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therealpaul 2 years ago

If you know how they get inside the pump house, those entrances can possibly be plugged with wads of steel wool. The varmints won't or can't chew through it, and it's flexible enough to stuff into cracks and corners. Relatively inexpensive, I used it to keep some big city mice out of my apartment once upon a time, but it should stop a rugged farm rat just the same.

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breezin 2 years ago

Well they are coming in where the water pipes run out. Stuffing the holes is something that I have been wanting to do, although these rats will chew through bulletproof glass if they want to. I was tempted to concrete the exits up at a point, but then id have to chip away at it if I need to pull the pump up. I am willing to try the steel wool though. Thanks for the advice.
Very happy to see you as well, I hope that you have been well!

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therealpaul 2 years ago

It was around the pipes in my kitchen that I tightly packed in a few bits of steel wool, never saw a rodent again in that apartment.
I've been doing well, and it's really nice to see you too. I enjoy reading about all the nature in and around your place, tho hopefully we won't read about any more rodents misbehaving around the water supply.

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breezin 2 years ago

I am going to try that.

I am happy to hear that you have been doing well.
Yes, I am crossing my fingers and holding my thumbs for the rats to stay at bay. Normally it gets better once the winter is over, and they have food out in the bush again after the supper rain... sadly that also means that they waste no time procreating LOL

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baah 2 years ago

Hey, try peppermint and moth balls, they detest both.

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4 votes