best bait and trap for mongoose.

[AlohaSteven]

In Alaska we were having problems with squirrels getting into structures, chewing on sheetrock and wires, and making huge messes in attic spaces so set some traps. These traps were highly effective and several times stronger than they actually needed to be to instantly kill any squirrel triggering the mechanism.

We had the traps screwed to buildings under eves way up high where a ladder was needed to reach them, but I have thought these traps would probably be useful for mongoose and rat control, both, down on the ground. The traps are pieces of stainless steel pipe which (for added safety and target-specificity) can be placed inside crates with holes in the crates just big enough for mongoose and rats to pass through but filter out and exclude cats, small dogs, and other such non-pest critters. MAKE SURE THE TRAPS ARE PLACED SUCH THAT SMALL CHILDREN CANNOT GET A HAND INSIDE! Likewise, I am thinking the pipe traps could be placed inside rockpiles and buried under planks with holes just big enough for mongoose and rats to pass through but exclude farm animals and pets. Be careful with these, as they will seriously break your hand if you reach inside one while it is cocked. Best to wear leather gloves while cocking them, too.
http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page1599.html
These traps are humane inasmuch as there is an instant kill and no suffering on the part of the animal- bang! Lights out.

Edit: PS - In the YouTube video clip showing how to cock the trap the guy keeps sticking his finger down by the trigger where the crossbar could nail it. Not a good idea. Even with gloves on I'd recommend keeping pointing fingers clear of that bar out side the pipe. The trap is more powerful than it looks in this clip. The "bait" he is talking about is a sticky paste of nuts and pecan paste (like pecan pie filling, but more viscous) they sell. Globs of that paste will stick to the top of the inside of the pipe trap, right over the plate the animal steps on to set it off. Squirrels, at least, dive straight for the stuff but it smells like delicious candy to a human nose even from several feet away so, again, make sure you have the trap inside a milk crate hinged on one side and padlocked on the other to a piece of plywood or otherwise rigged so little kids cannot get at it. The pecan paste bait would be very attractive to small children as well as to rats or (I'd think) to mongoose.

[macuu222]

Get a cat. Mine treats them like rats and mongooses never come near our property

[Guest]

Did you know that 50% of a mongoose is edible [:0] 3rd link "Mongooses html version" I can't link it for some reason

I do see a possible economic job in the future for someone.

As meat prices go up... just imagine if you could find a market for "Mongoose" meat.[8D]

From an article I'm not able to link for some reason... "Mongoose Meat is nutritious but gamey and ratty in flavor"

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Rally For the Plan

[Chuysmom]

Ew. Can't even go there in my head. [xx(]

Carrie Rojo

"The sun and moon collide. Isn't gravity a funny thing? The universe explodes apart. All the children sing..." Todd Rundgren

[Guest]

Seriously though, as the price of meat goes up... I don't see anything wrong with a little road-kill cafe []

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Rally For the Plan

[canhle]

Damon,
I caught one today. If you want, I can put in the refrigerator for you. Anytime, just let me know. I'll throw in some curry flavor too.

canhle

[Guest]

I'll pass... the freezers still full of lau lau and poi!

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Rally For the Plan

[Carey]

My question is based on the "ratty in flavor".... like that would help most anyone.... what IS 'ratty in flavor'??? My mind has a taste 'picture' based more on the thoughts I have of rat, than on any flavor.... But then, I have a really limited palette in the rodent & weasel family sooo....

[AlohaSteven]

Well, my best guess is that the varietal character of a mongoose "ratty in flavor" would be similar in body to robust guinea pig with perhaps a hint of earthy muskrat and an overtone of slightly woody --though not oaken-- beaver. Aroma similar to perhaps a heavy weasel or light martin, tangy bouquet of mink, with highlights of porcupine. Best accompanied by a well-aged pinot noir of fine vintage.

Joking aside, I've eaten all of the above. Guinea pig is eaten in the Andes on many ordinary and festive occasions alike, analogous to where Norte Americanos would be eating chicken. Guinea pig (they call it cuey) tastes best BBQed spread-eagled on skewers over glowing charcoal with a thick coat of spicy BBQ sauce, IMHO; baked in a terra cotta pot together with vegetables guinea pig can be a bit greasy and strong. Perfectly healthy to eat.

Muskrat is likewise edible (though they tend to taste rather like the pond mud smells, so stewing with plenty of other items to dilute that flavor is preferable); beaver meat is likewise dark and strong but their tails are fatty and yummy. The carnivores (weasel and mink) taste like whatever they have been living on, so that can vary from fishy to mousy to "yah don't wanna know exactly what it was chewing on" (probably carrion from a winter-killed caribou or moose). Porcupine tastes like meat-flavored pine tree turpentine; just horrible (only meat I've ever eaten worse-tasting than porcupine was walrus). There is really is quite a bit of truth to the old adage "You are what you eat" based on the evidence reported by taste buds.

Going from that, I'd guess if mongoose mainly eat rodents, birds, insects, and miscellaneous plant tidbits then they would probably taste pretty much like guinea pig (since guinea pigs are rodents eating plant matter). Thorough cooking would be in order to neutralize potential problems from helminths and other parasites which the mongoose may have acquired from whatever they are eating.

I noticed some big snails crawling around in the forest down near the ocean in Puna; while I have zero experience with whatever these are, they do look very similar to snails I've seen in Southeast Asian jungles which carry a problem helminth. Rodents also frequently carry helminths of various sorts, So, if mongoose are eating the rodents and/or snails, then it would be a good idea to really cook that 'goose!

Actually, if anyone does trap mongoose or otherwise has access to dead mongoose (such as fresh roadkill) and would not mind sharing their findings, it would be informative to know the mongooses' stomach contents (you might want to use gloves and wash up after touching dead mongoose or assaying their stomach contents; watch out for fleas or other ectoparasites jumping ship from the cooling mongoose corpse for a new warm host). It would be interesting if coqui frogs were found in mongoose stomaches, but that is probably too much to hope for given the mongoose are diurnal and the coqui are nocturnal.

The other main food besides termites (bitter and nasty) which kept my professor alive during WWII, while he was fighting the Japanese in the jungles of Java, was rat. Protein in a pinch. I doubt that roasted BBQ mongoose is going to supplant huli-huli chicken from roadside stands, but if well-cooked then mongoose should sustain life at least as well if not better than guinea pig.





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[Chuysmom]

Alaska...very illuminative subject matter for certain, and you are an eloquent speaker. Although I find myself squelching the urge to spew.[xx(] ([])

Carrie Rojo

"The sun and moon collide. Isn't gravity a funny thing? The universe explodes apart. All the children sing..." Todd Rundgren