Mmathis
TurtleMommy
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2011
- Messages
- 14,266
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- Location
- NW Louisiana -- zone 8b
- Hardiness Zone
- 8b
- Country
Warning! This might get graphic & gross.....
A little while back I posted (somewhere) about our rat infestation. I was mostly concerned for the safety of my box turtles, plus these rats kept eating the turtle's food.
I believe that we had 2 types of rats: an outdoor, wood-rat type, and another type that visited the attic. I say that because I observed rats that were 2 different colors and 2 different size ranges. There were larger, darker gray ones, and smaller, lighter gray with white underbellies.
Well, we did a lot of yard clean-up, which helped reduce the rats' hiding places. We normally keep snap traps in the attic, but lately they haven't been catching anything. I refuse to put snap traps out in the open because I once killed some wrens -- I love wrens. And same for sticky traps (also caught some wrens -- nosey birds!). And normally, I'm against poisons, as well, but this was war!
I put out baits. Soon the rat sightings stopped. But never saw or smelled dead rats in the yard. Then, within the past week or 2, have been seeing houseflies in the house. We NEVER have houseflies! Went in the attic to check, but there was no odor up there [and I have no idea at what point during decomposition the odor would stop on its own.....]. But we still figured the flies were due to dead rats.
It started with a few flies here & there. But 2 days ago our cats were having a blast, chasing something around the back windows. We will occas. have a wasp that comes in through the chimney, so I went to investigate....... OMG! Our windows [somewhat hidden by the blinds] were smothered in houseflies! Hubby went to get a fly swatter. I went for the vacuum cleaner. We started sucking those flies up -- our vac sounded like a video game, making this "plink" sound every time a fly went in. Hubby & I were actually having a blast!
We got all that were visible, but know there will be stragglers. Hubby wanted to cover the entrance hole to the vacuum cleaner so the ones we'd sucked up wouldn't get out. No need to worry about that! We have a Dyson vac, and whatever it has -- cyclonic action -- took care of any living flies. We looked inside the canister and there was nothing but fly-parts.
So, moral of the story, for us anyway, is to keep our yard tidy so the rats won't have any reason to live at our house!
A little while back I posted (somewhere) about our rat infestation. I was mostly concerned for the safety of my box turtles, plus these rats kept eating the turtle's food.
I believe that we had 2 types of rats: an outdoor, wood-rat type, and another type that visited the attic. I say that because I observed rats that were 2 different colors and 2 different size ranges. There were larger, darker gray ones, and smaller, lighter gray with white underbellies.
Well, we did a lot of yard clean-up, which helped reduce the rats' hiding places. We normally keep snap traps in the attic, but lately they haven't been catching anything. I refuse to put snap traps out in the open because I once killed some wrens -- I love wrens. And same for sticky traps (also caught some wrens -- nosey birds!). And normally, I'm against poisons, as well, but this was war!
I put out baits. Soon the rat sightings stopped. But never saw or smelled dead rats in the yard. Then, within the past week or 2, have been seeing houseflies in the house. We NEVER have houseflies! Went in the attic to check, but there was no odor up there [and I have no idea at what point during decomposition the odor would stop on its own.....]. But we still figured the flies were due to dead rats.
It started with a few flies here & there. But 2 days ago our cats were having a blast, chasing something around the back windows. We will occas. have a wasp that comes in through the chimney, so I went to investigate....... OMG! Our windows [somewhat hidden by the blinds] were smothered in houseflies! Hubby went to get a fly swatter. I went for the vacuum cleaner. We started sucking those flies up -- our vac sounded like a video game, making this "plink" sound every time a fly went in. Hubby & I were actually having a blast!
We got all that were visible, but know there will be stragglers. Hubby wanted to cover the entrance hole to the vacuum cleaner so the ones we'd sucked up wouldn't get out. No need to worry about that! We have a Dyson vac, and whatever it has -- cyclonic action -- took care of any living flies. We looked inside the canister and there was nothing but fly-parts.
So, moral of the story, for us anyway, is to keep our yard tidy so the rats won't have any reason to live at our house!
