When our cat died and they tore down the old houses next to us the rats
came up the hill to us, with nothing to stop them.

Glue traps: had some success catching rats, but you possibly end up with
a live rat you have to kill, and if you have a cat, the cat (or dog) they
can get stuck in it, not real harmful but awfully messy.

Snap traps: good success with mice, no success with rats

Poison: rats ignored it plain, but loved it mixed with fresh pears.
However, like John we had some die in inaccessible places and the
smell was bad, or in the spring the bloom of flies was awesome.

And one of our cats died from poisoning. We never did know for sure
if he got to the bait (unlikely but possible) or got secondary poisoning
from eating some poisoned rat.

I have read conflicting stories about whether animals can get poisoned
from poisoned animals. Some say -- no, if it's digested and in the
blood stream. But there's always the danger of undigested poison
in the animal's stomach/intestines.

We do not use poison anymore. We keep a killer kitty in the basement.


Douglas F. Daily
ddaily at u.washington.edu
Seattle WA 98195


On Tue, 15 Jun 1999, John Shelton - ext. 4051 wrote:
> Rodents are a problem anyone who feeds birds is likely to encounter.
> If anyone has experience with traps, I'd really appreciate your advice.
>
> John Shelton
> Portland, Oregon
> johns at ohsu.edu
>
>
>
>