Subject: Some rat data
Date: Mar 13 22:10:50 2003
From: Rob Sandelin - floriferous at msn.com


Where I live has had populations of rats, visible from time to time. The
commerical rat poisons are also eaten by Townsend's Chipmunks, although to
what end I was not able to determine. Using Snap traps I have caught birds,
squirrels,and chipmunks in rat sized snap traps. Setting them at night, and
tripping them during the day seemed to take care of most of non-target
issues, but you have to get up early in order to keep the birds out of it.
Live traps have been my best tool, I can release the towhees and other
non-target critters. I kept getting towhees so before releasing them I
marked them with a permanent marker and found I was catching the same ones
over and over. Sheesh..I thought Towhees would be smarter. I never caught
the same song sparrow twice. I have a large water bucket that I use for the
rats. I caught and killed 13 rats this way in a 4 month period, then did
not catch any rats for 4 weeks so stopped setting the trap. Its been a year
now with no rat sightings. I saw the marked towhee this morning and its
kind of handy to know who is resident in my yard. I have thinking about
using the live trap and marking some other birds, but have too much going
already to do this at this time.

Rob Sandelin
Sky Valley Environments <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous at msn.com


-----Original Message-----
From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu
[mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of Abby Jaworski
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2003 1:40 PM
To: Oregon Birds On Line; obolb at yahoogroups.com; tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Need help- rats


Hi, everyone-

I really need some help, and I'm hoping someone on one of these lists
might have experience with this issue.

I've been feeding birds for almost a year, and now it appears the bird
seed is attracting rats. I've read what I can find on how to discourage and
elminate rats, and the general consensus seems to be that water, shelter and
food all need to be eliminated. Unfortunately, we live next to a storm
drain, which is where the rats are burrowing, and also where they are
getting their water. Therefore, there's nothing I can do about the shelter
and water, and the city will not do anything either.

I've been told I should stop feeding the birds, which breaks my heart, as
I really love to open the windows each morning and see them. I also credit
the bird watching with a partial cure in a battle with depression. I'd hate
to think that I have to stop feeding them.

Has anyone ever had this problem, and if so, what did you do about the
rats? We've put out bait boxes and bait in an attempt to get rid of them,
but so far, that isn't working. I have seed catchers on every feeder, and I
clean up daily- unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be working, either. I'm
assuming I'm missing some of the seeds that are falling and the rats are
coming to that seed. I've seen the rats, even in the middle of the day, as
they come to the area under my feeders.

If anyone has any suggestions on what to do, or a better way to catch the
falling seed, please let me know. I'm at a loss.

Please feel free to contact me privately, if you think this discussion
should be taken off list.

Thanks so much-
Abby
Beaverton, OR
carpe.diem4 at verizon.net


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