Hey everyone,
I'm super pumped that we are putting out rat traps, I'm sure we are all tired of seeing those things scurrying about. I understand that glue traps were agreed upon in a previous forum, but there is the matter of what must be done once the rat becomes trapped. I stopped by yesterday to throw out a beer (already a sad occasion) and found a still alive rat in one of the traps. It had been there for some time--as one could tell from the large pile of feces that had accumulated between its stuck legs and the many self-inflicted injuries it had accrued over the past 12+ hours (I'm guessing)--so I had to take it outside and put it out of its misery with the assistance of a friendly rock.
I imagine that not everyone is up for arriving to the club to find a screaming/starving/suffering rat, so one or more of us should probably check the traps at least daily. It's not a task that I'd seek out and I'd prefer that whoever voted for glue traps and/or put them out take care of this, but the club is on my route to and from work (and I've already survived the initial trauma of bashing in a rat skull) so I could do it if really no one else can. But still, anyone else want to take on this task?
Hey Tynan.
First of all thank you for being the one to deal with the rat in the trap. I was the one who put out the rat traps over objections to the other mechanical options which were pet-unfriendly.
Now that you have exposed a flaw in that line of thinking, we should reconsider our options here. The glue traps require the rat to be dealt with by a person, whereas the mechanical traps are pet-unfriendly.
I personally have no problem being the one to check the rat traps, but your point that not everybody is comfortable doing that is an important one.
We should put the two options up for a vote at the next board/general membership meeting.
Thanks for your help.
Poison should be on the table too, since it is probably the most effective by far, not to mention it likely avoids the situation above. If the choice is between effective pest control or allowing a few people to bring their dog, the choice seems like a no-brainer to me. And there is pet-safe rat poison(RatX is one), but it isn't cheap, and not as effective.
Mechanical traps or poison are definitely the way to go, not glue traps, those things are horrible. We discussed at the board that members will need to be careful about bringing their pets and children to the brewhouse because of the traps.
www.singingboysbrewing.com
I agree.
While I have no problem ending the vermin's life, I still think mechanical traps or poison is the best option.
The only problem I have with poison is that the rat will more then likely die elsewhere and then leave us hunting for it when it starts to decay and stink up the brewhouse.
The emperor is not as forgiving as i am
I would gladly bash splinter with a rock/my tire! I am saying a prayer that this will fix our problem. I don't think we need to have mercy on these rats and worry about the type of traps we are using. That's just my opinion. If glue works great! Hell Im up for buying a cat or 2 and I'm not even a cat lover. I know I'm a rat hater, and seeing rat crap everywhere is disgusting. Thanks for handling the first rat caught. I know I bought the spring traps and they didn't catch our old friend. We've had poison in those boxes and we saw our little friend a few times last Friday.
What bait was used James?
I'm to delicate for the scene described above. (I actually made Jim V throw out a dead rat for me.) So, I'm all for poison!
That's fine I don't have to bring my dog around for awhile, or ever, if this is the choice of the club.
that said:
1. Rat poison is bad news. Very inhumane. Dogs and children aside, this is a place where food/beer is made, you sure you want dead poisened rats in nooks around the club? Or poisoned rats trapsing over counters and etc?
2. Can we not afford a real exterminator? Have we had one in? There must be an industrial way to handle this and figure out the rat's ingress points and target those. That's typically how this done. Find how they are getting in and cap that off or grate it off and then set some traps for the rest.
Perhaps crush the trapped rat's head outside and bring it back in to sit overnight.
We need to leave a f!*king message: Either get a trial membership & buy a (possible) new storage space or your'e not welcome here, rats!
May the odds be ever in our favor.
This is not the first time vermin blood has been on CHAOS hands...trust me....
I think a multi prong approach may be most effective.
First, as Kris mentions we need to figure out where they are getting in. It's pretty safe to say that hole in the wall on the east side is probably their point of entry. We need to toss some moth balls in the hole and plug it with steel wool. They can't chew threw steel wool, no more rat entry.
Second, we need to toss a few moth balls in the corners, probably around the grain mill and such. maybe not around the barrels as the fumes may leach in to the wood...or not...I have no idea but i dont want to risk tainting a whole barrel. If mothballs are objectionable, and they may be, I dont know if they are pet safe or not, we can alternatively squirt some peppermint oil in those areas or toss some peppermint oil soaked wadded up tissues or something. Either way the goal is to create an unwelcoming atmosphere, either one will do.
Third, pet safe bait stations and traps exist, we can get those, we have no reason not to, especially since having a pet presence is important to some members, therefore the additional cost of these pet safe options is negligible and worth it. It's my understanding that the poison in the bait stations is a dessicant, meaning that the rat basically gets mummified, no rotting or stinking or anything. That was my experience with it at least. both these options are pet safe, unless of course your pet is a rat, to a dog its just a box on the floor. Once we have a rat in the "humane" trap we still need to kill it, since a rat bite equals a hospital visit at best, the easiest way to do it is to fill a bucket with some water and toss the trap in, give it a little while and you'll have a dead rat. get some rubber gloves, dump the bucket outside...or just throw it in the trash...buckets are cheap. or at least mark it "rat drownin' bucket" so no one uses it for grain, and toss the dead rat in the dumpster. If you're feeling hardcore you could mount the rat's head on a pike by the hole as a warning to all the other rats of what will happen to them if they continue their ratting ways on our turf. hardcore.
https://www.amazon.com/Tomcat-Killer-Resistant-Refillable-Station/dp/B00...
https://www.amazon.com/Southern-Homewares-Multi-Catch-Humane-Repeater/dp...
At my apartment in logan square we had two glue traps next to each other, the mouse chewed off its own leg to get out of one glue trap only to get it's back glued to the other glue trap. I had no idea mice had that much blood but there was a sizable puddle on the floor. That was one of those nights when the windchill was double digits below zero, so I took the gluetrap mouse sandwich, tossed it in a ziplock bag, filled it with water, and put it on the back porch. Besides cleaning up the blood puddle, that was an easy and clean way to get rid of it. I favor drowning them if you have it in a trap, it may be cruel and inhumane, but it's the safest way I'm aware of to kill it, you want to keep it as far away from yourself as possible to avoid getting bitten. no one wants that, then you have to take the dead rat to the hospital with you so they can test it for diseases so they know what to treat you for....no thanks
I have seen the rat poison boxes in the brew house. Guess what splinter did with those? Chewed through the side of the box and didn't eat the bait! Hell he might have even took a dump on the box and tagged it with a middle finger.
For those that are against the only thing that has caught one of these nasty beasts crapping all over a brew house, please catch one with one of your "more humane" methods and maybe we can use that. Until then I'm pro sticky traps/dead rats so I'm not dodging rat shit around my brew station everytime. If we think a poisoned rat walking on your brew station is nasty, have you thought about any rat walking on your brew station? If you haven't seen them with your own eyes, they resemble big kittens, it is 8 inches long and well fed!!
I agree with Brandon! Splinter needs to rent a storage unit or we will get his ass with glue! #makethebrewhousegreatagain #imwithglue
Unfourtunatley the rat/mouse does not mummify from poison. I speak from experience, and so does Julene.
We had a rat/mouse problem in the condo. We laid out poison which the rat seemed to ignore. They only way I got the rat was figuring out its path to the cat food and putting a snap trap on that path. The mouse however ate the poison and the went and died in our closet. We did not know this until the smell started to become unbearable and I went on the hunt. Found the bastard in a corner of the closset buried under a blanket.
The emperor is not as forgiving as i am
I know it's already said, but I've 'changed out' glue traps before and they are really bad news. It tortures the animal, leave a big mess and doesn't get the job done. All of the traps have their downsides, and obviously no one wants poisioned rats lying in the walls. Joe made a great point about plugging up the source while strategically placing 'humane' traps.If we can manage regular trap placement and keep thout of harms way it's only a matter of time before the place is too dangerous for rats to stick around. I'd be interested to see how well the poison could actually mummify them, or if thats just a product description and the rat stinks up the joint.
Hopefully this can be coordinated in the club wide meeting !
I know it's already been said, but I've 'changed out' glue traps before and they are really bad news. It tortures the animal, leave a big mess and doesn't get the job done. All of the traps have their downsides, and obviously no one wants poisioned rats lying in the walls. Joe made a great point about plugging up the source while strategically placing 'humane' traps.If we can manage regular trap placement and keep thout of harms way it's only a matter of time before the place is too dangerous for rats to stick around. I'd be interested to see how well the poison could actually mummify them, or if thats just a product description and the rat stinks up the joint.
Hopefully this can be coordinated in the club wide meeting. I know the general attitude is that rats are not cool, and I'm definitely on team human here, but if you've ever seen a rat stuck in a glue trap after a few days you might agree with me.
If it gets rid of the vermin, I'm for baiting electrified glue traps with poison over a moat.
With lasers
www.singingboysbrewing.com
So you wanna "running man" them to death Jeff? Hahaha
All kidding aside, the following may not be as common knowledge as I think it is:
We found out that the building next to ours actually stores grain and that's where the rats and mice are coming from.
Of course, traps, keeping our perishables secured, and the brew house clean will help, but not entirely cure the problem. The idea of sealing as many rat entrances as possible, in conjunction with a clean brew house and traps, will be the best way to keep the rats and mice at bay.
The alternative I suppose would be to send Brett Michaels and Poison after them with punishing riffs. Cause of death: CC DeVille guitar solo blew their rat minds
Boolish, Killsner, congratulations on your kill.
Glue traps are something I'd like to see outlawed. They cause unnecessary suffering and misery to the animal. If people are so concerned with snap traps, you can put them in bait stations or get enclosed ones so you won't have to worry about children and pets getting into them. That said, they can get into glue traps anyway, and if there's a live animal stuck on them, could get bitten. So there's really no "advantage" there.
I just don't think an animal should have to chew its own leg off or pull its face off just so we can get rid of them. Quick kill traps are always better in that regard.
And quick tip joefalck: put the mouse in a plastic bag and use something heavy to crush the head. Much better than drowning it. That said, the mouse should have never been in a position to chew its leg off in the first place. It's barbaric. Use a proper quick kill trap please. Sometimes we may have to kill animals, but we shouldn't have to torture them to death.
Stewpid, and I'm of the opinion that if you have to kill an animal, do it humanely. People are right to be concerned about the method and potential cruelty. They might be vermin but at the end of the day, they're animals.
In these glue traps have seen sparrows that have pulled off a wing, mice that have taken their jaw or eyeball off due to struggling so much, etc. It's animal cruelty to do that kind of thing to any animal, pest or not. They've been banned in my state because of that.
Glue traps are more of a last resort thing, and if they have to be used, they should be monitored frequently. Just like with any other animal trap. Perhaps you might have a different outlook of it if you see an animal suffering and squealing on these traps.
Sorry if I sound a little upfront, but I do really hate those things. Probably worse than the critters you're catching with them.
I guess that leaves fly tape out too. Looks like we drawing people to the site just to moralize on Pest Control and criticize our study habits.
David, recommend a setup that you believe is humane and effective and the club will purchase it.
Just came here to post this:
There are a few traps I would actually recommend:
Clean-kill mouse traps
Covered mouse traps
Electronic traps
These are just a small sample size, there are many varieties of traps like this. They can also be re-used, so possibly cheaper in the long run. A quick amazon search will give you plenty of results. There's also the NOOSKI trap, but I am not 100% sure how effective that is... it works by strangulation.
Either way, these are all much more humane, economical and cleaner than your standard glue trap.
David...
Not sure if you have been at the brew house and seen our Big nasty friends, but I personaly don't care how we catch them. I have bought snap traps and the damn things ate the bait right off the trap and didn't trip it. Glue worked. If you can catch one with one of your other methods I'll gladly be up for it. Until then #ImWithGlue #Flytrap
What kind of bait were you using?
Peanut butter. Bad idea? Do some of these pests have a nut allergy?
They do appear to have a weight problem...
Perhaps a gluten free and paleo options as well, in case they are fancy wicker park rats...
^^^^^
ROTFLMAO
If that was supposed to be funny, you failed miserably.
In all seriousness though, you need to use the peanut butter (nutella works too) sparingly, putting it in big globs will just make it harder to trigger. Or get better snap traps with a more sensitive trigger. Now, I gave you plenty of advice already so if you want to be a smart-alec instead (on top of your blase attitude on animal cruelty), I really have nothing more to say to you.
In the end, there is a down side to all traps. I'm for effeciently killing rats while meeting the needs of our membership and protecting their pets and children. I have no problem trying out one of the rat zapper traps, if they work.
David... By all means purchase the trap that you think is going to work, bait it and see if you can help us with this issue. I will reimburse you for whatever the cost is if the club doesn't, which I'm sure they will. I have never met you, but I'm sure you will see I am not trying to make fun of you. If my sense of humor was to over the top for you I apologize. I am also an animal owner myself and not down animal cruelty, but I'm sorry I could care less about rats.
The disease and everything else these damn things are leaving behind needs to be fixed.
Have you ever brewed at the club? Have you ever seen these rats?
I know you're not trying to make fun of me, but I just don't see the issue of animal cruelty funny at all. If you're a responsible pet owner, then you should very well know that unnecessary cruelty to animals isn't good at all and should be avoided, rat or otherwise. We know there's a problem that needs to be addressed, and that's what we are discussing, so saying the obvious (that they potentiall carry things, and chew everything) is besides the point.
After some discussion about rat traps at the meeting and a borader discussion about how we need to be awesome to each other, I think everything that can be said about this topic has been. I'm closing comments on this thread, if you want to add something, please contact me or a board member.