You dirty rat...

[MarkW]

Right - that's it. I got a call from the office alarm monitoring company at 2 o'clock this morning to say the intruder alarm in the warehouse had been triggered. Our usual key-holder is on holiday, so I had a 90-minute round-trip (25 minutes there, 40 minutes trying to evict the rat that set it off and stop him getting back in, and then 25 minutes home) before I could crawl back into bed at just after 3.30 this morning. On the plus side, I had turned up there expecting to deal with a completely different type of vermin.

Anyway, the office is surrounded by farmland, and as you'd expect there is plenty of evidence of rat activity. We can't exclude them from the warehouse, and in addition to the mess they leave behind they have also chewed their way through several bits of equipment we store in there. We use a commercial pest control company, but despite all the traps, bait-stations and fluorescent tracking powder they have put down they have only managed to catch two rats in the last five months. I could have done better than that sitting outside one of their burrows with an axe.

So the time has come to dispense with their services and take matters into my own hands. I'm far too insubordinate to have lasted five minutes in the army, but if I'd been forced to join up I could have quite fancied being a sniper - partly because blowing someone's head off from half a mile away sounds like jolly good fun, but mainly because you get to lie down a lot. So that's the way I'm thinking: stake out a good spot, entice them out with something tasty and then blap them with an air rifle. From my visit last night there's no shortage of quarry.

Generally speaking I dislike the idea of killing things, but these buggers have got it coming. So, if anyone has any suggestions I'm listening!

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

In the same situation. Alarmed warehouses surrounded by farmland and plenty of wildlife. Good news- you can get them out of your warehouse. I’m guessing the pest control company you’re using doesn’t know what they are doing.

We used to process food and zero vermin is essential. The way they do it is to start of baiting in the warehouse and then move the bait (food) gradually from the front of the warehouse out the back and into the hedges. The vermin then do not want to move away from their food source and when they’re cosily relaxed with their easy food supply they switch to the nasty stuff and bye bye ratty.

I’m sure it’s a little more involved than I’ve outlined but what our pest control does has worked completely.

ps still had to get up at 2am when a fat spider was dancing over the pir!

[Gerontious]

We can't exclude them from the warehouse

 

gotta love it when the most obvious answer has already been ruled out.

try harder..

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

There are rubber seals that form a lip under roller shutter doors etc

They can still be driven over and the pesky so n sos cant get in. I have them on my garage doors at home and no vermin in the last 10 years or so and that’s with no traps or poison.

Mice are capable of flattening their bodies down really small, our pest control guy said if you can fit a pencil in a gap a mouse can get through so it was an effort plugging everything. Worked though.

[bonio]

Your answer to the rats is to import a small herd of feral cats.

But this might not improve the situation with the intruder alarm.

[Mr Fro]

Mark - I'm an air rifleist (although I only really do paper punching) and it's pretty good fun. Whether waiting for hours in the cold and dark for a rat to appear is quite as much fun... I'm not so sure.

However, there are some individuals who like that sort of stuff and would scrabble and claw each other to death for the opportunity to do it for you. For free. Fully insured too.

If you can stomach some pretty vile attitudes to people who aren't white working class men, have a look at something like airgunforum and stick a post up. I guarantee you will have more offers than you can shake your plonker at.

[MarkW]

We can't exclude them from the warehouse

 

gotta love it when the most obvious answer has already been ruled out.

try harder..

 

Trouble is the warehouse is often open for extended periods whilst equipment is moved in and out - especially apiary stuff or equipment used in field trials. Once a rat gets in, there are a hundred and one places to hide undetected.

[Fozzie]

I clicked on this thread hoping for some kind of social scandal

Build a moat around the warehouse. It will cost millions, especially if there is a security controlled electrified floor at the only entrance of the building. But the rat problem will go away!

[Gerontious]

double post. i fiddled when i shoulda faddled.

Edited August 14, 2018 by Gerontious

[Gerontious]

Trouble is the warehouse is often open for extended periods whilst equipment is moved in and out - especially apiary stuff or equipment used in field trials. Once a rat gets in, there are a hundred and one places to hide undetected.

 

In which case you remove or otherwise deal with any access to a food supply so the rats are forced to eat poisoned bait. And tell your warehouse people that doors must be kept secure when not in use or unattended. if rats can get in so easily then so can thieves and Im sure you wouldn't hesitate to take steps if you were robbed. if equipment walked out the door.

[Epic Earl]

A friend of mine used to go shooting rats on a farm, clever little buggers, they soon learned that food under a light was a death trap, then he tried shooting them in the dark, didn't take long for them to avoid the risky places

[MarkW]

Trouble is the warehouse is often open for extended periods whilst equipment is moved in and out - especially apiary stuff or equipment used in field trials. Once a rat gets in, there are a hundred and one places to hide undetected.

 

In which case you remove or otherwise deal with any access to a food supply so the rats are forced to eat poisoned bait. And tell your warehouse people that doors must be kept secure when not in use or unattended. if rats can get in so easily then so can thieves and Im sure you wouldn't hesitate to take steps if you were robbed. if equipment walked out the door.

 

Sounds good, but just not practical I'm afraid. A lot of what is stored in the warehouse is equipment for a commercial apiary, which is in itself a food source for rats: they chew the wooden frames and eat the wax combs and any residual honey in them. We keep them racked, which is about the best we can do as we have hundreds of them.

Keeping the roller shutters closed isn't practical either, as at certain times of the year we have telehandlers in and out all day.

Theft during the day isn't a problem, as nobody can get on site unless they have a gate fob or we remotely let them in (imagine the gate to the Tyrannosaur paddock in Jurassic Park - it's not far off what we have). The only way in at night would be to cut the fence or come across the fields, neither of which would go unnoticed in daylight.

[MarkW]

A friend of mine used to go shooting rats on a farm, clever little buggers, they soon learned that food under a light was a death trap, then he tried shooting them in the dark, didn't take long for them to avoid the risky places

 

So you're saying I need to get a night vision scope? Cool!

[Tankbag]

A trained Jack Russell to the rescue

[Bender]

Large pool liner with an inch of water in, insulated spike in the middle with food, live to spike, neutral into water, make sure the feed has no rcd

[Six30]

We could be quids in mark ... there’s a Chinese down the road from me who’ll buy as many as you can kill

[cockercas]

Right - that's it. I got a call from the office alarm monitoring company at 2 o'clock this morning to say the intruder alarm in the warehouse had been triggered. Our usual key-holder is on holiday, so I had a 90-minute round-trip (25 minutes there, 40 minutes trying to evict the rat that set it off and stop him getting back in, and then 25 minutes home) before I could crawl back into bed at just after 3.30 this morning. On the plus side, I had turned up there expecting to deal with a completely different type of vermin.

Anyway, the office is surrounded by farmland, and as you'd expect there is plenty of evidence of rat activity. We can't exclude them from the warehouse, and in addition to the mess they leave behind they have also chewed their way through several bits of equipment we store in there. We use a commercial pest control company, but despite all the traps, bait-stations and fluorescent tracking powder they have put down they have only managed to catch two rats in the last five months. I could have done better than that sitting outside one of their burrows with an axe.

So the time has come to dispense with their services and take matters into my own hands. I'm far too insubordinate to have lasted five minutes in the army, but if I'd been forced to join up I could have quite fancied being a sniper - partly because blowing someone's head off from half a mile away sounds like jolly good fun, but mainly because you get to lie down a lot. So that's the way I'm thinking: stake out a good spot, entice them out with something tasty and then blap them with an air rifle. From my visit last night there's no shortage of quarry.

Generally speaking I dislike the idea of killing things, but these buggers have got it coming. So, if anyone has any suggestions I'm listening!

 

The way we used to shoot them as kids was to mash some tinned catfood up so there was no lumps.

Smear it on a brick and then shoot them at dusk/dark using a lamp.

If the farm had a light that could be left on we would leave it on for a few nights and throw food down so they wasn't bothered with the lights and we didn't have to take a lamp.

Flat head pellets are the best for rats, keep it to about 20m.

[cockercas]

Trouble is the warehouse is often open for extended periods whilst equipment is moved in and out - especially apiary stuff or equipment used in field trials. Once a rat gets in, there are a hundred and one places to hide undetected.

 

In which case you remove or otherwise deal with any access to a food supply so the rats are forced to eat poisoned bait. And tell your warehouse people that doors must be kept secure when not in use or unattended. if rats can get in so easily then so can thieves and Im sure you wouldn't hesitate to take steps if you were robbed. if equipment walked out the door.

 

Poisions are only any good if the rats eat it and its changed for a diffrent poison regular, if anyone farms maize local then poisons don't work.

A old bloke asked if i could shoot a few rats in his barn because the poison wasn't working and he was feeding them it in the kilos.

In 3 nights two of us shot over 200 rats, well we killed quite a few with shovels because they would run up our legs

[rennie]

We have a big problem with rats at work!

We use the best known rodent control company,

they've failed miserably!

Apart from making me jump occasionally they don't bother me that much

An even bigger problem is pigeons! nasty dirty things!

all our cranes, ladders, outside filters etc. are covered in shit!

[Joeman]

Large pool liner with an inch of water in, insulated spike in the middle with food, live to spike, neutral into water, make sure the feed has no rcd

 

I cut a bit of drainpipe, drilled a hole in either side, cut the lead off some old appliance, stripped the wires bare, fed live into one hole, neutral into the other hole, droped in some food and plugged it in... I think the poor bugger died with a pretty electrifying head ache.

[MR_W]

I suggest landmines.

[Grumpy Old Git]

A small nuclear warhead will suffice.

[RantMachine]

I'll try posting you some firearms if you pay up front.

[Six30]

It's not the same women in charge of your kitchen area who nearly blew your place up is it ..... tell her to clean it properly

[fastbob]

https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Skyfall