Rats or Squirrels. Ouch.

[ToughButterCup]

When you live next to a pig farm, there's not a lot you can do about food left over and lying around the place. Rats will always accumulate there.

 

And as for banning guns, well I admire the sentiment but not the practicality. It would be brilliant if you could suggest away of suppressing vermin on a farm  without one. 

[SteamyTea]

14 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

When you live next to a pig farm, there's not a lot you can do about food left over and lying around the place. Rats will always accumulate there.

 

And as for banning guns, well I admire the sentiment but not the practicality. It would be brilliant if you could suggest away of suppressing vermin on a farm  without one. 

Why should a pig farm not be able to control the distribution of animal feed.

Do you really think that a gun is an effective manner to control vermin?

 

Farmers tend to do what they have always done, look backwards to a time when there was less control on the food supply industry.

[ToughButterCup]

35 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Why should a pig farm not be able to control the distribution of animal feed.

Do you really think that a gun is an effective manner to control vermin?

 

Farmers do control the distribution of feed. But they can't control the efficiency - or lack of it - with which pigs consume their feed. Some feed is inevitably left over. And rats clean up the leftovers, other omnivores do the same until there's none left. Seen as a whole, the process is very efficient. Same with our chicken feed: inevitably they leave some, and that (a few grammes maybe) is hoovered up by rats, wild birds and others - including our sheep dog.

 

No, a gun isn't - on its own - the answer to efficient vermin control. But a gun, some judiciously laid poison, the local owls, our resident tomcat, other rats ( who eat their dead brethren), and on ocassion our local buzzards do make the problem manageable.

 

Its wonderful to hear and see the difference made to rat activity when an owl decides to hunt on our patch and hoots to announce his or her presence.  I sometimes wish they were completely silent killers. 

Edited April 5, 2023 by ToughButterCup
splllellin'

[Onoff]

34 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

 

Farmers do control the distribution of feed. But they can't control the efficiency - or lack of it - with which pigs consume their feed. Some feed is inevitably left over. And rats clean up the leftovers, other omnivores do the same until there's none left. Seen as a whole, the process is very efficient. Same with our chicken feed: inevitably they leave some, and that (a few grammes maybe) is hoovered up by rats, wild birds and others - including our sheep dog.

 

No, a gun isn't - on its own - the answer to efficient vermin control. But a gun, some judiciously laid poison, the local owls, our resident tomcat, other rats ( who eat their dead brethren), and on ocassion our local buzzards do make the problem manageable.

 

Its wonderful to hear and see the difference made to rat activity when an owl decides to hunt on our patch and hoots to announce his or her presence.  I sometimes wish they were completely silent killers. 

 

I believe foxes take more rats than cats, at least if there aren't any leftover kebabs which are their natural foodstuff.

[ToughButterCup]

I think you're right. Foxes  probably do kill quite a lot of rats. I don't shoot them because I haven't got a weapon powerful enough for a clean kill.

[SteamyTea]

37 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

Farmers do control the distribution of feed. But they can't control the efficiency - or lack of it - with which pigs consume their feed

They can in a controlled environment i.e. indoors.

38 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

No, a gun isn't - on its own - the answer to efficient vermin control

How long would it take to shoot 1000 rats on a 100 hectare farm?

If we say a good shooter managed to kill 1 in ten, and each shot takes 1 minute, then that is 10 minutes per kill.

10,000 minutes. 167 hours. Or about 1 month for someone working a 40 hour week.

 

The only reason that farmers claim to need a gun is to massage their fragile egos.

Ban guns, then, in no time, much more effective controls will be in place.

[SteamyTea]

Right.

That stuff I said about guns and how useless they are at killing vermin.

Well I am sitting in Tehidy Woods having a coffee, (expletive deleted)ing crow shit on me, my comic, phone, glasses and actually in my coffee.

So off to get a shotguns for revenger. Silence the (expletive deleted) for good.

[Gone West]

4 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

(expletive deleted)ing crow shit on me

If it came from that lot of nests then it was a rook not a crow, still a corvid though. Corvids are listed as vermin and can be shot.

[Onoff]

5 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

Right.

That stuff I said about guns and how useless they are at killing vermin.

Well I am sitting in Tehidy Woods having a coffee, (expletive deleted)ing crow shit on me, my comic, phone, glasses and actually in my coffee.

So off to get a shotguns for revenger. Silence the (expletive deleted) for good.

 

Caw!

[SteamyTea]

2 hours ago, Onoff said:

Caw!

Just had a customer who lives very near you. 

I have set the traps, and leaving the till empty tonight.

[Onoff]

Monday night heard loud gnawing above the bedroom ceiling within the flat roof! I've trimmed any overhanging branches near the house but still have 4 overhead cables. Also plenty of squirrels about.

 

I'd poked an extension lead up there years ago, just a lead with a single 13A socket on into the inaccessible loft space with one of that ultrasonic vermin repeller things plugged in. SWMBO had tuned it off a while back as she thought it "might upset the cat".

 

Turned it back on last night, no more gnawing!

[Temp]

I found those ultrasonic things to be a waste of money. The critters come back. I've caught mice in a trap right next to one.

 

Edited April 26, 2023 by Temp

[Big Jimbo]

On 05/04/2023 at 10:26, Onoff said:

 

I believe foxes take more rats than cats, at least if there aren't any leftover kebabs which are their natural foodstuff.

I never leave any of my Kebab. I also have mice living under a tarp, which i believe means i dont have rats. My daughter had rats in the void of her flat roof extension. Chewed the lighting wires right through. I cut a hole in the ceiling and fitted one of those small plastic hatches. I spoke to a pest control friend who said he would have to come on a monthly basis unless i could find out where they were getting in. He gave me Three different poisons that did the initial kill. (Very sweet sickly smell for about 10 days. Her extension is built on the boundary. Fortunately a neighbour pointed out a rat hole near her building. I dug it out and found the hole went in under her 300mm footing. From there they were going up the cavity wall, and into the roof. All i could do was use a stick and stuff loads and loads of wire wool down the hole. It has done the trick for the past year but I expect at somepoint they will be back. She lives in a mixed use area, with fast food and warehousing. Sometime during the day you will see One just strolling down the pavement. No fear, just chilling. Waiting for the fast food places to open.

[Onoff]

1 hour ago, Temp said:

I found those ultrasonic things to be a waste of money. The critters come back. I've caught mice in a trap right next to one.

 

 

I got to thinking that too but this has been off for ages. Maybe its a case they get used to it?

[Onoff]

1 minute ago, Big Jimbo said:

I dug it out and found the hole went in under her 300mm footing. From there they were going up the cavity wall

 

Very likely a route for "mine" too. Shallow footings and old / new sections of the house. I don't think too much attention was paid to keying sections together and there'll be wide gap joints etc. Saying that not all my walls are cavity walls some are solid with a rudimentary service cavity onside. Bathroom / waste positions have changed over the years so there's likely old clay pipes. If I had my way I'd dig up the old concrete path that fronts the house. Bet I'd find a few runs.

[saveasteading]

5 hours ago, Big Jimbo said:

sweet sickly smell for about 10 days. 

I find it to be 2 days for mice, 7 for rats.

Have never found a dead rat or skeleton in the attic , only tails ! 

 

Recently had total lack of interest in the red blocks they sell in recent years. Replaced with grain bait  which was taken the same day.