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Mtnmun
Trad climber
Top of the Mountain Mun
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 4, 2011 - 11:50pm PT
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About a week ago I set a rat trap in the attic. Currently, noises in the ceiling indicate something is in the trap. IT Sounds much bigger than a rat.
The trap door to the attic puts me face to face with said critter....
Crux move.
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Seamstress
Trad climber
Yacolt, WA
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I became deranged when a family of squirrels took residence in my attic WHILE I was trying to sell the house. Traps did not work. We boarded up every tiny hole, and the momma ripped open the siding to get in. That's when we discovered her babies nesting in the baby clothes stored in the attic. I can laugh now, but I was driven to blasting at these vermin with pellet guns. The neighbors in this residential neighborhood were quite concerned and not at all amused to see us shooting at the house and hear shots in the attic!!
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Mtnmun
Trad climber
Top of the Mountain Mun
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 5, 2011 - 12:02am PT
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I got the ladder, flashlight, then popped my head up under the trap door and inched it up ever so slightly to get a look. Inched it up a bit more. The trap had not been sprung, but had been moved about a foot. The coast looked clear, no critter in sight. I opened the door and looked around the attic.
Two beedie eyes and a brown mound about 10 feet away. Shined the light on it. Holy sheet, it was a rat the size of a squirrel. He had been batting the trap around.
He will be mine.
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jstan
climber
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Get yourself a couple liters of liquid nitrogen.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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This thread would be more entertaining with photos. The great SuperTopo rat hunt of 2011 begins.
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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PHOTOS!! WE NEED PHOTOS!!
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boognish
Trad climber
SLC
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Get big speakers and music with lots of bass. Crank it up every time you leave the house. It worked in 2 days for a family of raccoons we had living in the chimney.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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hooblie
climber
from where the anecdotes roam
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he was docile at first, but when he got cranky and started curling all the way back with bared teeth toward my fingers,
i had to employ the force, centrifugal force, swinging figure eights while getting the lid off a bucket with my other hand.
i guess i violated some law transporting him to a woodsy creek area across town
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Charlie D.
Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
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If there's one there's more, poison the bastards.
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Captain...or Skully
climber
leading the away team, but not in a red shirt!
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Possums are fairly harmless. 99% show. they are not the fighters they will pretend to be. A rat, now, that can be a dangerous foe. Good luck & please let us know that you survived (or if you do) , & how the battle went down.
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adatesman
climber
philadelphia, pa
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Good lord, no poison!!! Last thing you want is it eating a big ol' piece of it and then proceeding to crawl inside one of the walls to die. Not only will it stink for years, the only way to get rid of it is to cut a hole in the wall.
I had a half dozen or so squirrels in the attic this year (get rid of one, another would move in) and the pellet gun made quick work of it. I'd highly recommend the Benjamin Trail NP in .22cal for anything up to possum-sized. Plenty of power, not terribly expensive and the shrouded barrel makes it amazingly quiet (neighbors won't notice). The stock trigger kinda sucks, but a replacement from CharlieDaTuna fixes it right up and makes for quite the accurate pest control device.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Traps: I've had luck with rubbery overcooked french fry + peanut butter. Hard to get off the trap without deploying it. If you are not opposed to dehydrating their ass to death- those Decon wedges are pretty effective... at least they were the last time I lived in a totally mouse-infested house. I had so many mice they ate all the contents of an entire case of those things in one night- including the two I left wrapped up in plastic in a drawer. Never saw another mouse again. Surprisingly.. I never smelled anything. It's so dry here they probably just mummified. Someday someone will open a wall in that house and find the rodent catacombs.
Possums... I don't go near that sh#t. Skeerd.
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Mtnmun
Trad climber
Top of the Mountain Mun
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 5, 2011 - 12:15pm PT
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Hoh man, that is some funny stuff. I'm posting a pic of Piton Ron in my attic. That will take care of the problem.
My camera died a few days ago. It will not focus. I will send you the dead ones if you want an up close view.
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matisse
climber
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Unfortunately I have become quite an expert on rats. peanut butter flavoured clif bars. easier to manipulate onto the snap trap, and it sticks down quite nicely onto the trigger. Mice like it too. If they are in your attic get all the little holes closed up first with wire mesh(look for the grease marks at the entrances). Then they will be a captive audience and therefore hungry. good idea to stake or tie down the trap, so a really big un doesn't drag it off to someplace you don't want to have to go into to retrieve.
Get rid of your Ivy and verdant fields of ice plant if you have it. Expect that when you displace them from your place that they will move next door.
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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He's waiting for you!
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