I THINK I MADE A MISTAKE

[john455]

ok I've been cleaning up at dads old house in Greeneville and found a fairly big rat problem while tearing down and burning an old chicken coop. After a few days of sitting in a chair picking them off with a pellet rifle I got the bright ideal to go buy a bunch of rat poison and put it out. Well, 6 boxes were gone in one night but MY GOD the smell is unbearable, I'm thinking I may need to postpone my cleanup for a month and let the dead quit stinking before I go back. I somehow didn't think that the outside rats might go under or inside the house to die DOHT

[LagerHead]

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. In my case it was mice, and one of them crawled up on the wall in our bedroom and died. The next several days were very unpleasant in our room.

[hipower]

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. In my case it was mice, and one of them crawled up on the wall in our bedroom and died. The next several days were very unpleasant in our room.

 

Ditto. Moved into a house that had been storing old carpet in the basement. What a mess. And of course the stink.

[peejman]

Please don't use rat poison unless there's no other options.  Rats eat the poison and die.  Other very beneficial critters eat the dead rats and die or get very sick.  I had rats take up residence under my screened porch.  Plain old rat traps made quick work of them, and the bodies are easily located and disposed of. 

Edited May 8, 2015 by peejman

[JAB]

Makes me think of a story my mom has told me a couple of times over the years.  I am not sure if this happened when I was a baby or before I was even born but, anyhow, mom was working third shift and trying to sleep during the day.  She said that it never failed that right as she was about to doze off a rat/mouse would start gnawing inside the wall next to her bed, keeping her from going to sleep.  Well, one day she was trying to sleep and, sure enough, the gnawing started.  Having had enough, mom got up and retrieved a hammer and a decent sized nail.  She figured out where the varmint was by the sound of its gnawing, placed the point of the nail over the spot and BAM - one strike from the hammer drove the nail into the wall and the gnawing stopped.  Permanently.  She said it was worth putting up with the smell for a day or two to finally get some sleep.

Edited May 8, 2015 by JAB

[Jonnin]

Proceed with the burning plan...  it will stink for weeks, if you burn it, it will stink for less than a day, and as noted, if you burn them you won;t have other stuff dying from eating the rats.   If possible, of course.  

Edited May 8, 2015 by Jonnin

[BigK]

The exterminator tells me that rats are very skiddish of traps, so sometimes it takes days before they'll get anywhere near a trap. Mice, on the other hand, are overly curious and will investigate new things, so traps that haven't caught something in a day or 2 should be relocated. I haven't seen a rat since I was a teenager, so I can't verify this. It's just what I was told.

[peejman]

The exterminator tells me that rats are very skiddish of traps, so sometimes it takes days before they'll get anywhere near a trap. Mice, on the other hand, are overly curious and will investigate new things, so traps that haven't caught something in a day or 2 should be relocated. I haven't seen a rat since I was a teenager, so I can't verify this. It's just what I was told.

 

 

Not the rats at my house  (they were big'uns too... bodies 6-8" long).  I set the trap after I got home from work and got the first one in less than 30 minutes.  I waited until after dinner to re-bait the trap, put it in exactly the same place (didn't even clean up the blood from the first one), and the 2nd one was dead when I got up the next morning. 

 

Body disposal consisted of tossing them behind my stack of firewood.  Both bodies were gone within 24hrs.  So I eliminated some pests and some other critter got a free meal.  Win win. 

Edited May 8, 2015 by peejman

[bersaguy]

Rat poison will cause the rat to need water and they went in the house in search of it and died before they could get back out. It has a major dose of blood thinners in it and they bleed to death internally. Other more friendly critters such as hawks and Eagles may eat them as they are dying and in turn it kills the bird. I don't recommend using any type of poison on rodents.......jmho

[Patton]

Peppermint oil really does a wonderful job at masking the dead smell and deters rodents. However, it is somewhat pricey and hard to locate.

[BigK]

Peppermint oil really does a wonderful job at masking the dead smell and deters rodents. However, it is somewhat pricey and hard to locate.

 

My mother-in-law swears by using mothballs to deter rodents. I'm sure it works, I can't stand the smell of those darn things either.

[Fourtyfive]

My mother-in-law swears by using mothballs to deter rodents. I'm sure it works, I can't stand the smell of those darn things either.

So you are a rodent ? :)

[TNWNGR]

My mother-in-law swears by using mothballs to deter rodents. I'm sure it works, I can't stand the smell of those darn things either.

Those work for snakes too...

[BigK]

So you are a rodent ? :)

I've been called worse

[enfield]

There apparently is a rodent poison that dehydrates the corpse, eliminating the decomp smell.  My critter guy spread some in my crawlspace last year.

[Dane]

There apparently is a rodent poison that dehydrates the corpse, eliminating the decomp smell. My critter guy spread some in my crawlspace last year.

Yep it can be found at TSC for $19.99 a bucket.

[RED333]

Build one of these

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SWoTwXxO1Y

[VERO1]

Ah good old Cumadin, feed it to rats to kill them, feed it to people to keep them alive!