RAT bloom.... now it's WAR

[hilodiver]

The Farm Supply Cooperative in Hilo may have some supplies. I'm starting to get rats under my house slab! What happens if my dog eats a rat that has been poisoned? I think I'll stick to traps for now.

Aloha!

[DanielP]

Take a few standard rat traps; one oatmeal cookie; tiny drop of gorilla glue a small piece of the cookie onto the bait holder. let glue dry overnight. place traps along walls or in corners. They just can't walk away from that last little morsel.

[Pilgrim]

I've had great results using those sticky traps. The Tom Cat ones work well and you can get them at Ace, Walmart, HD and several other places. Just place them along the path you think the rats are using to get around and in no time they get stuck. You can then dispatch with them as you think best. I use a 2x4. (Not pretty, but quick).

I never use bait because I found out it can kill our native hawks, owls - and neighbor cats too. Also had a real bad experience once with poisoned rats stuck inside a bedroom wall where I was living. Yehk!

Try sticky traps.

[bananahead]

2 cats, is best for rats

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save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha

[bananahead]

PS. Owls arent killed by the right poison! ....diphacinone

with the rodent poison they use in sensitive areas... an Owl (Barn or Pueo) would have to eat 81 pounds of dead rodents to get a lethal dose...

ie read all about it... (1st line on 2nd page)
http://dlnr.hawaii.gov/ecosystems/files/..._kaena.pdf


******************************************************************
save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha

[tada]

I bought Hoyhoy traparoach at long's last week $3 for the 5 pack. I think the sale till 6-15. Cheap but effective!

[SuperGu]

Only thing that worked for me was the cat. I thought I had tried everything. Zapper, traps, peanut butter, mote, fire. Nothing worked very well. Cat arrived and rats be gone.

[birdmove]

Our female cat, Cranky, does help keep the rodent population at bay.

Jon in Keaau/HPP

[MarkP]

I can believe that cats would be effective although I am sure it depends on the cat. My gripe with using cats as bio-controls is they are incredibly indiscriminate. Anything more vulnerable than a rat, which is everything, will bear the brunt of their onslaught first. Also, they roam and their very nature leads them to escape confinement. They are in every way the world's worst choice as a bio-contol if you look at it objectively.

My parents will be bringing their two cats with them. We are planning to fence the property to keep out pigs and I intend to add whatever fencing is necessary at the top to keep the cats in. That way the cats can go out in the yard. In doing so we will be writing off the yard as habitat for endangered Hawaiian birds and also I hope as habitat for non-endangered rats, but that of course depends on the habits of the cats.

[PunaMauka2]

They are in every way the world's worst choice as a bio-contol if you look at it objectively.

i have to say that has certainly not been my experience over the years.

i live in an area where native birds dominate, almost exclusively so. not once have i seen any evidence of a native bird being taken by my own or the other cats in the neighborhood, seriously. the flourishing native birds in these parts are fast and stay up in the tree tops for the most part. they just don't hang around within reach of cats. the only carcasses and remains i ever find are that of the very occasional mouse or rat, maybe a salamander every once in awhile, perhaps some dove feathers once in a long while. my cat seems to enjoy a gaming charge at a roaming pheasant now and then, but the pheasants don't seem very traumatized.