Have a question regarding critter control. Today, a plumber discovered a gnawed leak in a inlet water pipe. I'm guessing a rat or mouse, saw a dark rodent the other night in my back yard, think it was a rat. Too large to be a mouse. However, there are lots of squirrels cats and maybe some raccoons in the neighborhood.

I live in a manufactured home but access to under the house is limited due to the house being set too low. I'm thinking poison but don't want critters dying under house.

I have heard that repellent really doesn't work that well.

I remember being told that some poison will cause the animal to seek out water and drown itself. Of course that may cause a problem if there's any water under the house. Anybody have an idea what the best option is?

I feel your pain.

I've got what I think is red squirrels in a wall. I've tried high freq. plug ins that don't seem to do much.
I've progressed to a live trap that lets them in but is supposed to trap them. No action.

I'm thinking a whisper Gamo pellet gun w/ bait on the deck railing w/ the shed in background as a stop might be me reaching the end of the line.

I've got a cat but they are fast and they taunt her. She's not the type of hungry anymore as when I caught her and her kittens otherwise she would end them. She's slid from a quick, worm ridden skinny feral to a healthy 10 lbs. of 2 hots and all day cots and treats.

So I also avoid poison for the sake of the predators that may eat them.

Just be careful at night, it might be a skunk and then you'd have another issue to deal with! My dog found out the hard way.

Consider a ultra-sonic sound pest repellent?
Keep them from coming around in the first place.

I would start by blocking access points, especially for any larger critters. That could include some wire mesh with small holes.

When it comes to pests I’d rather have them die under(or even in) the space than letting them do their thing. I know, my sniffer isn’t tuned, but unless it’s coon sized, limited smell, shirt term.

It seems electric traps are all the range now, up to rat & squirrel sized targets. A lady friend uses a Victor, just bought a few more.

https://www.bestproductsreview...KEAAYAyAAEgJblvD_BwE

If it was me, once blocked off, I’d use some poison with the other methods. Of course, in an area when a passing pet can’t eat it.

I am told, fly bait from Tractor Supply, moisten with 7 Up and mixed with peanut butter is the most humane. They won't go 10 steps after eating it. Be careful not to have your pets around it.

Irish Spring soap bars really do work to deter mice. Larger rodents don't seem to care though. Voles, rats, etc.

One issue with poison is that birds or other animals may eat the dead rodent and be poisoned.

Traps with peanut butter have worked perfectly for me. The ones with a spring that squash the critter when it goes for the food. I have not had success with the humane no-kill mouse traps, as the critter seems to die of a fright very quickly. The traps that electrocute and kill the mouse have also not worked for me.

Florida--> it's Norway Rat. Look around your neighborhood for black plastic boxes approx 11 x 11 x 4 ". These are bait boxes for the rats. Access hole is small--designed to allow rats in , not house pets. Boxes are baited with rat poison-warfin. If you see these black boxes in the neighborhood--rat problem.
The source for rats is typically a site that is in disrepair--foreclosure or condemned property.

Get an outside cat and feed it on the porch. Feral rescues will take care of business.

Thanks, actually have a feral cat that I feed but not sure if he can get under house. Access under house for me is impossible, it's too low.

Hence if I use poison/ traps I'd have to place where accessible. Last year something died under the house, the stench lasted for two weeks, no idea what it was.

I have seen those black bait boxes, do they prevent the rat from leaving the box? If so that may be my best bet.

I was just researching rat poisons, looking for that magic bullet.

"Tomcat" has a neurotoxin in it, can kill pets and kill scavengers that eat the dead rat.

"Dcon" advertises no neurotoxins nor anticoagulants, but the warnings on the package say it does have anticoagulants and can kill pets. Dcon advertised that they were abandoning anticoagulants in 2018.

"Ratx" has no neurotoxins nor anticoagulants, is basically flour with a lot of salt in it. Supposedly the rat/rodent digestive track doesn't deal well with a lot of salt.

Vitamin D3 will kill rodents, but the normal dosage available on the shelf would require the rat to eat something like 10 pills every day for over a week...

We've been using the Ratx, but the rats don't seem to eat it unless it's juiced up a bit. If we do manage to kill them off, I'll be cheering so loud you won't need the internet to hear about it.

My yard was overrun with chipmunks until I bought a Havahart model 1025 live trap. Using sunflower seeds as bait, I’ve captured 21 of the little rodents including 10 during the first month. Now I use it whenever I see one in the yard. It works for me.

quote:

Originally posted by 12GA:
Havahart model 1025 live trap.

I was pretty skeptical of Havahart traps...until I bought one. I now have several and have caught pack rats, rock chucks, squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, a skunk, and a stray feral cat...or two. The dang things work well. It's funner to shoot them, but if you can't do that, I'd recommend these traps.

First you need to identify what is causing the problem.

I use an Amcrest Security camera at ground level near granola that I set out, and see who comes by. Works very well.

Later I put out traps and monitor them with the camera.

Timely discussion.
We bought a vacation home in the mountains near Asheville NC and noticed a lot of spiders inside. We called the pest company and he came over and talked us into a yearly contract where they come by every other month and spray both inside and out.

While we were talking I mentioned that I will be storing my Porsche in the garage for the winter and wanted to make sure any mice wouldn’t get inside and chew on the wiring etc. He said no problem and put one of those large plastic boxes near our heat pumps and a couple of bait stations along the wall inside the garage.

Fast forward to this spring and I open the front hood to disconnect the battery tender and what do I find? A mound of various nuts and shells in a nice little pile! I freaked out! I cleaned everything out and did a fairly thorough inspection and didn’t find any evidence of things being chewed on so I may have dodged a bullet on that front BUT I was determined to get those little fuckers.

I had some glue strips used to capture mice and placed them around the garage near the doors and baseboard. Long story short in the course of a week I caught three of those little fuckers! The next week we got a visit from our pest control guy and I told him what had happened. He checked his bait stations and they had been chewed on but the mice were still there. He gave me a big handful of the glue traps so that I can keep using them and replace them when they get full with bugs etc.


This is what I initially bought…
https://www.acehardware.com/de...animal-traps/7567241

Good luck!

I had a racoon in my basement night before leaving town for a week. Shot it through the withers with a powerful pellet gun. Didn't know what I was going to come home to, live coon in house, or stink. It was stink and luckily I found the carcass and removed it the next day. What a relief.

Neighbors went for a boat ride and were soon confronted by a mother coon and two babies. They had to jump in the lake to escape the mad mother.

A guy who lives a few miles away was feeding deer and enjoying seeing them until coons found the feeder. He trapped six the first night. He was taking them several miles away and eventually trapped 26. He found out they'll return if don't take them 11 miles away. He started painting them with fluorescent paint and saw three dead on road with paint half way to where he was dropping them and two live with paint.

We have the roof rats down here (they use neighborhood wood fences as a highway system). I've been using Nectus 2G Soft Bait in Protecta Evo Ambush Bait Station on a 35 ft spacing between bait stations.

I like the second generation anticoagulant (bromodiolone) as it's a super-warfarin , unlike neurotoxins there is an antidote (i.e. vitamin k1), and it has bitrix in it (i.e. nasty, bitter substance that should prevent kids/pets from eating if they get in the box). Additionally, mathematically second hand poisoning of a dog (i.e. poison kills rat and dog eats dead rat) moves the risk to extremely low as it takes 8x the dose per kg of body weight in dogs vs rats, and even a toy dog should be 6x larger than a roof rat. In other words, a very large roof rat (i.e. 10 oz) would have to eat 48x the lethal dose to kill a 4 lb dog, and very large Norway rat (i.e. 18 oz) would have to eat 28x the lethal dose to kill a 4 lb dog. Neither myself nor my neighbors have dogs less than 25 lbs so the risk is even more unlikely.