That was such a pleasant read...even though it was about RATS! Yikes is right! Eeeeek! Ugh! What a nightmare! Hoorah for the weasel though! I'm glad it took care of the matter for you, Sandyslopes! Loved the "nature's psychopath" description, lol.

Hahaha! Thanks for getting into the spirit of it, jo. I think people here can understand. I almost feel guilty about how HAPPY I am that this weasel showed up. :-)

I had rats here last year. They burrowed under the goats and chicken house ( converted stables ). They couldn't get through the concrete flooring but tunneled under it popping up round the sides and chewing through the timber walls to get in.

I was loosing eggs and chicken feed. I had to make sure there was no uneaten goat feed left lying about and would have given anything for a weasel.

I eventually resorted to putting poisoned grain into the tunnels taking care to make sure none of the animals could get it.

So far so good this year and no signs of them. It's been very mild so far I'm expecting to see them again once the temperatures start to fall.

It will have to be poison again unless anybody has a spare weasel!

Dave

No hostas were harmed in the telling of this tale.

I read their range can be as large as 30-40 acres, so it probably moved on by now,

==>>> we had mink in the area .. i was told.. that they have a wide range ... and cover it .. most likely.. every night ... so i dont know about your presumption above ...

believe it or not.. i go my info from a taxidermist ... when we found a dead animal.. in a snow bank at thaw ... she presumed.. being the mean bat turd they are ... it probably tried to take on a car .. lol ... swear to god ... lol

ken

one other thought .... it is not uncommon.. in ma nature.... that during a population explosion .... she does provide a remedy ... a predator to fix it all ..

of course.. .she works on her own time frame... which is rarely fast enough for us ...

it seems... tidds problem .... just speculating here ... revolves around his creating an un-natural situation .... where perhaps ... a predator cant establish itself .... wherein.. if i recall .... you are out in nature ...

am i remembering your place correctly ??? ... i picture a balcony overlooking some mountain ... rather isolated... not what one might call.. suburbia ... am i right.. if so.. post a pic ... to refresh my memory ....

i was a big bird feeder in suburbia .... i found.. when i moved rural ... the birds were more than able to fend for themselves ... so i quit feeding them ... it falls back to the usual comment of mine.. they are not children.. they dont need to be fed .... though i am usually talking about feeding plants in mother earth.. it fits just as well with birds ....

ken

BTW ... the reason we speculated i had a mink population... was that i would find... year after year ... a possum spine and tail in one particular area ... everything else eaten ... and i couldnt figure out what would eat that thoroughly ... nor why in nearly the same spot .... hence the hunting trails .... who knows what made me ask the taxidermist .... but basically i was wondering what could do such..; with my scant knowledge of the local predators ...

sandyslopes - so HAPPY for u to be rat free! I've never had rats thank goodness. We had a bat in our garden shed last week. Husband was switching the screen to glass on the front door & double doors on the shed were open a long time. Bat sleeping behind a piece of plywood. He took a dustpan and moved it carefully. Was very sleepy. Took a pic but was in a hurry. (wish I had taken it from the front) It stretched it's wings, yawned a couple of times, did 3 laps around my yard & disappeared. We've checked the shed since & so far it hasn't been back.

One more story from my little forest. Hawk - red shouldered? - lands on a branch about 8 to 9 ft up & about 6 ft away. Starts ripping apart a small creature. A few small bloody bits are falling on my Sum & Substance & sliding down those huge leaves leaving bloody streaks. Just kept sitting on my garden seat weeding & when it flew off got the watering can & rinsed off my hosta.

as far as i know.. bats are migratory ... and mine left months ago ...

they are my friends... i enjoy sitting out in the evening.. knowing they are slaughtering to insect population ...

ken

I've read the same thing. We would never harm it. Just didn't want it living in the shed...maybe it went south after we evicted it. One neighbor would run out of the house & scream at the hawks. Rest of us like the hawks...they(neighbors)moved to a downtown condo - perfect for them. (Inserted the neighbors because after submitting I read it & it sounded like the hawks moved to a condo haha.)

We like all those critters, too (as long as they don't eat my special plants!). We have a hawk in the area, occasionally see foxes and a coyote. The neighbor behind us has at least 10 birdfeeders, so there are countless chipmunks and rabbits everywhere -- cute, but destructive. She also has a twisted little eco-system going on over there because she has several (maybe 3) outdoor cats. I have seen them sitting on her deck railing and then jumping off to nab the birds visiting the feeders.

These are great stories....

"I'm the kind of person who tries to rescue bugs that get into the house, so this was no small matter to me."

Yes sandyslopes I can relate since I am the same way. I have left spiders in the house in winter if I deem it too cold for them to survive outside lol!

I generally live and let live but mice (and if I had rats) are not welcome in the house. They are filthy little critters that leave their calling cards everywhere so I have carefully used traps and poison on them. They are very cute but the bad outweighs the cute factor. I can only imagine how high the rodent population would be without the hawks and coyotes.

We are rural and I can't put out bird feeders because of the many creatures that would raid the feed, mostly the concern is bears.

Loved your story! Hooray for your killer weasel! Our local radio garden guy has a bait recipe for killing rats that includes oatmeal and plaster of paris. You put it in a covered place (shoe box with a small hole. Says he has seen the rats with sick tummys stagger out into open spaces where the raptors quickly consume them...carefully leaving the hardened stomach behind.

We had roof rats eating our precious tomatoes and it called for war. With all the citrus trees around here dropping fruit, there are always rats.

-Babka

peren.all - bears! that WOULD concern me. have u had them on your property?

Please be judicious in using rat poison as it can kill the very predators which can help control them. Most use one form of anti-coagulant or another which can lead to the predators bleeding to death internally. Inside a home, perhaps not so bad if the critters die inside, but the groggy, dying rodents seek water and may go outside to find it. Definitely outside it is much better to set up snap traps.

From Cornell

tj

I had a dozen tree rats (also called squirrels) come by my hosta yard several times a week doing not so good things. I had a Havahart trap to catch rabbits, but instead caught squirrels, which got free rides from me. Now there are only 1-3 squirrels occasionally, and it is peace.

ken_adrian - thought u might find this interesting. Was reading some older posts & u mentioned Randy Goodwin. He used to be one of my neighbors. Used to give him my empty pots.

Tiddisolo, those are some tenacious rats to be chewing through your timber walls. I was feeling discouraged because they were outsmarting me and everything I was trying to get rid of them. I was worried the rats would try getting into the house this winter. I'd wish for a weasel to find you, but I've heard they can go on a killing spree if they get into a chicken coop, so maybe you're better off with your solution.

Ken, that's what I was waiting for, Ma Nature to take care of things like she usually does around here. .... What? Weasels can cover that big a territory every night! I did presume it would take months for it to make the rounds now that my yard should be on its hunting trail. It would take me that long if I was walking it, lol. I know weasels are mean, and I sure don't want to run into it, especially if they would take on a car!

I'm up in the foothills of the Wasatch front, but on the edge of my small city. There still is a lot of natural food for the birds, even though there's a lot of building taking away natural habitat. (That's what happens when developers get elected to mayor and the city council). I'm sure the birds would be fine without my feeders, but I do enjoy watching them. Before I moved here I never saw a robin or a hawk for that matter, so I really appreciate the nature around me. My Mom thinks I live out in the "wild" now, lol! I'm glad the weasel helped me out this time and hope the balance continues.

nicholsworth55, I like bats, and I see them during the summer months at dusk when they fly overhead while I'm still outside. I want them to gobble up all the mosquitoes they can find. Although, I wouldn't want to get too close to one. That's good your DH was able to move it while it was sleeping like that.

I don't know if I would have had the stomach to keep weeding under a hawk's dinner like you did. Now that's what I call a dedicated gardener, lol!

windymess, I know I am part of the problem with my feeders, but so far it's been a good balance except for this recent rat explosion. I've only seen rabbits and chipmunks in the higher elevations, so I haven't attracted them yet. Foxes make the craziest sounds at night! I've never seen coyotes here but heard some once, and they were off in the distance. In SoCal, where I used to live, they would go after cats and dogs, so they scare me.

peren.all, Bears would make me think twice about putting out bird feeders, too! The only other animal that raids my feeders would be deer. Frustrating because a one time visit from them empties a feeder that would have taken 4-5 days of the birds using it. I joke that I need to find something to feed the deer so they leave the feeders alone, but then I'd probably get a herd instead of a few at a time.

My indoor cats let any mice know that it's a bad idea to try to come inside. I can tell when the cats are hunkered down staring that one ventured in. But I'm able to keep the bird seeds in the basement thanks to the guard cats. ...You're very kind-hearted to let spiders stay during winter. I would save more if they would cooperate with their capture, but wasps and box elder bugs are easy to rescue and put outside.

Babka, I've never heard of the oatmeal and plaster of paris. I was searching the net for ideas that wouldn't hurt any predators. So they would know not to eat the hardened stomach? Hmm, that's interesting, and I'll look into that in case I need it. But I am so relieved the weasel did the trick this time. ....My Mom still lives in SoCal and has an orange tree. She hears the squirrels rolling them across her roof sometimes, but they only take the oranges she can't reach so no harm done by them so far.

tj, this was exactly my dilemma. I'm aware that predators can be poisoned, too, and they take a lot longer to come back. Some rats might die but there's always more coming because they reproduce so quickly. Around the time this started, I saw a hawk flying away with a huge rat in its talons. But as far
as I can tell, it never came back. My neighbor said she put out slow acting (her words) rat
poison (she didn't want to have to touch a dead rat) so I thought maybe
that fat rat poisoned our resident hawk. Only speculation because I don't know
why I never saw it again. That's why I'm relieved the weasel came along and did the dirty deed for me.

bernd, I like the squirrels we have. They're mild mannered and never in big quantities. Like you said 2-3 is fine. I was angry with the rats for chasing them off. I saw one jump on the back of a squirrel. The squirrel was bigger so came right back, but the rats were so aggressive that the squirrels gave up. These rats were chasing away everything until the weasel took them on.

sandyslopes - I just read that hawks, falcons and owls feed regularly on rodents. Owls are particularly formidable. They r nocturnal - most active when rats r out in search of food. We have owls & hawks - even in my backyard in broad daylight! Must be why we don't have rodents. Have great pics of owls & hawks but not sure how to post them...try to figure it out.

Yay, weasel!

All hail the mighty weasel! I think I'm in love.

nicholsworth55, I was hearing a Great Horned Owl and a Screech Owl. Wish they would come back. These rats were working 24/7. They were very comfortable being out in the daylight even though I read they usually come out at night. ...I hope you do learn how to post your pics here. Hosta pics, too!

Don, that weasel is good looking, isn't it? At first I thought it might be someone's lost pet ferret because the fur looked so clean and silky.

LOL, popmama! Even weasels need a little lovin.

I had rats this August and they were big Swedish rats. Bigger than I remember seeing in the USA. Called building maintenance and they have put out traps with poison. They were running around in the daytime and would stop and look at me. They had been doing renovation on a building nearby.

Ken, you are right, no suburban situation for me. I'm 900ft up a Welsh hill, 8 miles from the nearest store.

A view to the south.

Lookling back to the house

Down the track to the stables.

There are a few natural predators, my two cats, buzzards and red tailed kites.

The rats stay under the buildings to avoid them.

We do have stoats and weasels that would predate them but they are pretty scarce and I've never seen one in the wild.

I think rats pretty much rely on humans to provide a food source and thus the reason we get so many.

I'm not happy using poison because it can quite easily get into the food chain. I've tried traps but they can only be placed close to the entrance to burrows were nosey goats and stupid chickens try to get the bait and spring them.

Some of the farmers use terriers to get them but I'm not keen on dogs hunting things down and my goats and sheep would definately not like dogs on the property.

Anyway none so far this winter, fingers crossed it stays that way.

Dave

Wow Dave what a beautiful property.Love the picture to the stables.What views!

Ma nature can act faster than you think, ken. The excess deer population has been screaming out for a larger predator and this is what is filling the bill. We're 30 miles south of the Virginia border and I'm pretty sure I've seen one.

New predator arises

Kathy

There has been mentioned the idea of reintroducing wolves into the UK.

Deer and rabbit populations are more than our woods forests and grassland can sustain to the point were regrowth is just not happening.

We need a large predator to control numbers.

Not sure if they would make much difference to the rat population but it would give an edge to a walk in the woods.

Dave

There seem to be various rodent breeds outside. Perhaps I was feeding rats too when I fed voles with poison pellets in 1 1/4 inch dia tunnels for 3 months. Or they were larger (house) mice? Since I reduced the tunnel size to 1 inch dia, after initial business by voles probably, there is nothing being eaten for the last 2 months. I actually noticed a 'beaten' path to/from a poison tunnel, showed it here, must have been a larger rodent.

peren.all - WOW. Just inches away separated by glass is WAY too close. Thank goodness for your dogs - like little security guards. Must be beautiful where u live. Be careful...

Ahmmmm, I guess it's not so bad living in the city..... :). Bear - be gone!

We had trouble with ground squirrels two summers ago. Those little buggers dug tunnels around the post of our perimeter fence, therefore we had a moving fence post. Some cement for the post and live traps and a ride for the critters fixed things. We don't see the Hawks and such as often, suburbia is a bummer sometimes.

Sherry

Stoc, I had to look up what a Swedish rat looks like. Those suckers are BIG! They were probably sizing you up, thinking about taking you on.

Dave, what a beautiful place you live in. I love how that path to the stables looks. Because you mentioned buzzards, I'm remembering when five turkey vultures flew overhead one time right by my house. Their wingspan was awesome! We've had wolves reintroduced here in the west. I don't think they're too near me, but we did have a cougar for a while. I only saw its paw prints and the remainder of a large buck it took down at the end of my street.

Kathy, That coywolf looks powerful. This might be a case of "be careful what you wish for," when wishing for a predator to come around. In SoCal there's been cases of packs of coyotes in neighborhoods chasing people while walking their dogs at night. At my old place I had one chase my cat right up to the front door. Thankfully, my cat made it inside but was scared for days after that. I do not want coyotes or a coywolf living too close to me.

peren.all, how many of us would go for the camera first? lol. Too bad the pic didn't turn out. Even though bears are so large, they seem less scary than other animals. But I have no experience with them so maybe I idealize them a bit. ... I also looked into those sonic devices to rid me of the rats and found out they don't seem to work.

sherry, I thought of live traps, too, but there were just too many of them!

There was a coyote in downtown Dallas last week. It broke a glass door and was in the Greyhound bus station snarling and growling at people. It escaped to scare some one again. The bus station is about a mile from the river, which is probably it's origin.

I think a lot of the wildlife depends on the current climate. About 5 years ago, we had hawks galore around here. There were some huge ones that raised a chick on top of the mobile phone tower. They hunted in the tree across the alley from me, which was full of grackle nests. It was glorious watching the hawks. They are so fast. They swooped down and left with prey, day after day.

Coopers hawks were also common. They would wait at my neighbor's bird feeder for a bird to show up. They sat perfectly still and blended right in. I never saw them succeed, though.

With the drought over the last few years, they have dwindled. There are fewer starlings and grackles and no noticeable hawks.

With all the rain, things will change again.

bk

.

When I lived briefly on the outskirts of Calgary, I happened to be golfing with the gals one evening when I had to look for my errant ball in some tall scrub. (Lousy shot!) You should have seen me running (sans ball) when I heard a coyote nearby! We heard them often. Always worried about the horses but nothing ever happened to them, thank goodness.

Update sandyslopes.......I think hubby caught 7-8 ground squirrels in the live traps. We also caught a very angry squirrel and a toad.

sherry

bkay, a coyote breaking through glass is a new one to me. Another story from my old neighborhood, I was almost home, driving behind a car that slowed down. I saw they had their door open trying to coax a sick looking dog inside. A car drove by in the other direction and a guy yelled out, "That's not a dog, it's a coyote!" It must have been ill or very hungry to be out during the day. That was a drought year where they came down into my neighborhood.

I wish I knew what happened to my resident hawk that flew off with the big rat. I like when they go for the rodents, but I wish they wouldn't go after easy targets like the baby quails. When I moved here I described my first ever hawk sighting to a neighbor, asking what kind of bird it was. I said it looked like the Pit Bull of birds with large feet and stockier build. He guessed it was a hawk right away. I hope your hawks come back with the rains. There probably will be more food for them, then.

josephine, that must have been some pretty tall shrub you hit into. Oops, lol. Coyotes do have a distinctive yipping sound. As a teen three of us were up in the (Topanga) hills hiking and walked by two coyotes who were going the opposite way. We all just continued on our way and didn't think twice about it. When they lived away from people they didn't seem so scary. I think we're all spreading into each other's territories a bit more now.

Sherry, I've never used a live trap. Do they ever catch more than one at a time? I pictured us having to drive rats around like it was our new job if I tried to catch them all. ...I bet you let the toad stay to help out with hosta eating slugs.

Sandyslopes, the toad stayed, we opened the trap in our yard to let the squirrel go. We baited the traps with peanut butter but only caught one ground squirrel at a time. So, 7 or so half mile trips to a very large natural area. Don't have the heart to kill the little buggers.

Sherry

DON'T catch a mouse or rat in a live trap. The squeal and then you have to either let them go or kill them (been there, done that). Use a snap trap and then they will be dead.

They coyote in the bus station story was on the local radio news station. Breaking glass sounded pretty drastic to me, too. That's what they said, though.

bk

I'm thinking that using Liquid Fence or a homemade putrefied egg mix around the property would repel most critters. Researches claim that rotten egg mimics the smell of well fed wolf urine which I think mice, rats, weasels, squirrels and most varmints would stay away from. Poisoning does discriminate for pets and you can't possibly kill them all so a deterrent may be better/best???? Send them away to be someone else's problem........

Sandy, more lols...it wasn't a shrub...I meant scrub meaning tallish weedy undergrowth..tall enough to hide coyotes. Probably scrub isn't the right word.... it's the yipping that one of the local gals recognized as coyote. This city gal ran - er .... I was subbing to make it a foursome - no one told me coyotes played golf too! Lol

I'm almost a mile from actual wilderness but the coyotes have been living in the more overgrown yards around here. They are so aggressive that I've eliminated two with a baseball bat. I was shocked the first time when I connected with its skull but it didn't have time to be surprised.

I used to have a cat door so my cat could come and go but after a skunk and a racoon decided to use it, that option is not available anymore.

I have big Avocado trees but the invasive Eastern Fox Squirrel have driven off the Grey Squirrel and eat all the Avocados. Where do I buy a weasel?

Sherry, I hear ya! I never want to kill anything, so I hope I'm never overrun again. This time I got lucky with the weasel.

Oh, I believe you, bkay. Coyotes are determined hunters so who knows what it was after when it broke into the bus station, or if it was sick or why it did that.

Jon, I was searching for a solution, but I never thought of LF for rats, so I'll file away those ideas in case I need them in the future. I have a good sense of smell so the putrefied egg might drive me from the property, lol. I'm relieved nature worked in my favor this time.

LOL, Josephine, I read that wrong. That coyote must have been hunting in the scrub. :) I've never heard one close up like you did, but I have heard a rattle snake in some tall grass. That was enough to convince me to change directions FAST.

gregbradley, what a small world. My old place where my cat was chased right up to my door was Upland! You sound like you're higher up than I was. I was below Baseline so it was only bad when we had a couple years of drought. The drought is much worse now than when I lived there so I can imagine they're coming down looking for food. We had a/an opposum in the yard once, but not all the other animals you have. My brother is in Valencia and a coyote killed his much loved cat :-( He would love that you got two of them with your baseball bat....which means they got very close to you. Be careful out there!

2 squirrels here killed themselves in my Havaheart trap by pushing their snouts too hard into a corner to open the trap and suffocated. I tried to catch rabbits, but squirrels always went in. I live in a suburb, backyard is fenced in, but we had a flock of wild turkeys, with one of them having a hard time figuring out how to fly over the 4ft fence.

Poor squirrels. :-( I didn't know that could happen with those traps. I think I'd like wild turkeys, but I hear they can scratch up a lot of dirt and maybe hostas? I guess they're not the smartest birds. I hope that one figured out how to get over the fence, or maybe you had to open the gate for it.

So far, so good! No rats, no mice, and today a squirrel came back. It took a few seeds from the woodpecker block, but it didn't like how it twirled around so it left. One squirrel is no problem and kind of cute.

Babka, I was really intrigued by your oatmeal and plaster of paris comment, so I googled - here's a youtube video about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncEVHthmGNE

I think this would work for us with our chipmunk problem. And I do mean problem... we've seen just recently where they are undermining a short retaining wall that will be a very expensive and crucial fix if it ever goes. There's a protected place under the porch where only the undesirables will be able to get to it, and it's near that retaining wall, so I think that's where we'll put it. I like the idea of not poisoning any birds that might get them.

Jon, I got the Liquid Fence and started using it -- so far so good. It is definitely the worst-smelling thing I've ever encountered (gotta stand down-wind when spraying)! But I haven't noticed any more damage to those shrubs since starting. Funny story tho - a couple of weeks ago, a little while after I sprayed, and it had dried, I was out back with the dog and caught her licking the leaves!!! Dogs will be dogs!

Recipe: 3 parts oatmeal 1 part plaster of paris, garnish with some bits of hard cheese. ;-) To keep the other critters from eating it,(and to keep it dry) put it a dish in a shoebox with small door hole. I liked that YouTube video! Confirms that it sets up really fast. Good.

-Babka

I had gotten so disgusted with the voles that I put some Just One Bite poison in some vole runs I found, right before this thread started. Turns out it has the bromodialone that is mentioned in the article tj linked to. It makes the poisoned animal extremely thirsty so they go in search of water.

So all of a sudden the new dumpster-diving cat that can't catch anything is playing with a vole in the yard. It had to have been poisoned because he's a terrible hunter. The cats usually don't eat voles but he'll eat anything so I threw out the vole and the poison and I'm going to try the oatmeal and plaster of Paris mix. I'm going to get some small diameter PVC pipe and put the mix in the pipe and put it in the vole runs.

Kathy

Kathy- Please report back here with whatever the results.

-Babka

dave

LMK when your neighbor decides to sell ...

dave