dustydeni
New Member
Joined: October 2013
Posts: 18 
|
Post by dustydeni on Oct 19, 2013 10:33:57 GMT -5
Please forgive me because this will sound really stupid but I have had a mice problem but now I'm wondering if it could be rats. I looked at tons of pics online and am confused. I have caught over 1/2 dozen of them in those covered traps over the past year and never looked to really see them so not sure what they are. Seems rats are more dangerous with disease so I'm wondering. Thankfully I've only seen 3 droppings on my stove top when I was away for a week and I caught one mouse/rat right when I returned. No droppings in over a week and no caught critters in the remaining traps I have out. Is there any way I could have rats and do I sound overly paranoid? Since we seem to have a couple of rat catching experts here, I thought I'd ask. Thank you
|
|
|
|
Post by casper on Oct 19, 2013 11:21:36 GMT -5
The body (not counting the tail) of a mouse is usually between 2 to 4 inches long and the tail is fuzzy. The body of a rat is usually much larger and their tails have a lot fewer hairs on them. The rat my cat killed was a full foot long, not counting it's tail. Fortunately, that was outside and not in my house  Edited to add... Mice also carry some extremely dangerous viruses. Look up hanta virus. A very nasty way to die.  |
|
|
|
Post by 60isolderthanithot on Oct 19, 2013 17:11:00 GMT -5
You could have both! Sometimes juvenile rats are mistaken for mice. In the end, assume the worst. They live in colonies and are extremely smart. So smart, governments typically have food standards which incorporate some tiny (microscopic) rodent parts (such as hair molecules) because it's acknowledged that huge grain warehouses and other food processing plants probably can't do more than control and minimize the incursions, they don't really expect a 100% successful erasure of rodent presence.
Many of the pest control sites I studied claimed there were probably fifty rats within breeding distance of any rat you saw near the house.
|
|
|
|
Post by Perfect Mess on Nov 9, 2013 15:03:37 GMT -5
Been a while....
We stopped catching rats at 41 in September.
Then just now we caught another after so long and we thought we were totally done catching them too! So this was a surprise and a surprisingly disgusting one too. It was a big one. And it was a girl.
I started to suspect there was more when I started hearing things in the back of the house really late a couple weeks ago. But it was too seldom to make me think we really had more rats.
+1 = 42. Wow!
|
|
|
|
Post by Fivecat on Nov 9, 2013 18:43:44 GMT -5
maybe she was pregnant and you caught her before she could give birth.
|
|
|
|
Post by 60isolderthanithot on Nov 10, 2013 9:41:50 GMT -5
*ack* I'm sorry to hear this. I also am fighting a last ditch holdover - in the ceiling/attic. Very ugly stuff, scary and dark up there. I had to stand on a ladder and cut big holes in the ceiling to look around with a flashlight. I took to banging on the ceiling at random times during the day, hoping to interrupt their sleep until they moved out.
I say "they" because I've realized they're never alone.
How did you determine it was a female?
|
|
|
|
Post by 60isolderthanithot on Nov 10, 2013 9:45:31 GMT -5
The rat my cat killed was a full foot long, not counting it's tail.  |
|
|
|
Post by casper on Nov 10, 2013 9:50:07 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Perfect Mess on Nov 11, 2013 2:21:16 GMT -5
Well, maybe it's experience. If you remember, I have snakes I have to feed rats to on a regular basis and I kept a breeding pair of rats for a while too. Boy rats are very "obviously" male after a certain age. This one was missing the relevant boy parts and appeared to have female baby feeding parts, if you know what I mean. If she was pregnant, then that means there is another boy rat in the house (at least). But I really hope she was one of the babies I was catching and just grew up on hoarded food on the attic. Time will tell.
|
|
|
|
Post by Perfect Mess on Nov 14, 2013 2:50:58 GMT -5
It's been confirmed she was a momma rat with babies. I found 2 baby rats with their eyes barely open and near death in the middle of my kitchen floor when I came home from work. They were squirming around very obviously starving to death. Probably looking for their momma.
Rats never have just 2 babies so there are likely to be more in the walls or under the cabinets that will soon be causing a stench.
I know they are rats, but these two babies made me try to feed them some water on a spoon. My kids were very concerned for their wellbeing. Go figure.
One of them drank water but the other seemed too weak and is already dead. I don't expect that first one will be making it either. Way too young and I'm not about to bottle feed it.
This brings the grand total to 44.
|
|
|
|
Post by messymimi on Nov 14, 2013 7:10:45 GMT -5
PerfectMess, it's sad, and it's the way of life, we have to get them out of our houses, and some of the casualties are the young and helpless.
Let's hope you are nearing the end of the ordeal, though, and if you catch the last breeding pair or two you won't have to deal with this any more.
messymimi
|
|
|
|
Post by bigrae on Nov 14, 2013 7:29:10 GMT -5
On a lighter note if you have got them all then I am claiming the prize for guessing at 44 of the little blighters.  |
|
|
|
Post by 60isolderthanithot on Nov 26, 2013 14:36:18 GMT -5
Alas, I'm back on the barricades. Doggie gave an alert last night and again this morning. In the kitchen, so it's doubly ugly. I've spent the morning tearing apart a large cabinet.
We didn't spot this earlier because they got in behind and under the cabinets. There used to be a gas oven in that spot. The gas was turned off but the pipe and the large hole it uses are still there.
They ate their way through drywall and made a hotel under the drawer, which is hardly ever opened anyway. It stores things like cookie sheets.
|
|
|
|
Post by Fivecat on Nov 26, 2013 17:48:43 GMT -5
oy. hate to hear about the hotel. keep us posted.
|
|
Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2013 20:15:37 GMT -5
rats will eat everything including metal
|
|
