Show me yours and I'll show you mine,... BAIT STATION ! (Pic heavy)

[nervoustrigger]

Oh the memories.

Interesting you should resurrect this thread today, seeing as how I got the urge this afternoon to make a new feeder.  Something that won't be so easy for the raccoons to just rake the food out onto the ground and consume it all in one night, which is what they've been doing lately.  This one has a small hopper at the bottom with a clear polycarbonate lid that has to be lifted to access the food.



BTW, the black stuff is roofing tar to seal the joints.  Moldy corn and black oil sunflower seeds aren't very appetizing.

[SilentSine]

That looks great nervoustrigger! Tar gives it character!

Until my ding donger gets here I am going to do a bait station test w what I had just laying around. Like you guys suggested, it's good to have a white background, so I grabbed an old foam cooler and servo taped a clear party cup filled with a yummy assortment of nuts mixed with old PB I found sitting in the back of the cabinet..smeared that stuff down good to the cup too...but YUP it was expired so while it may be expired for human consumption, it seemed fine for the enemy to enjoy it with their lead dessert soon to follow. I put a few clear/red/green tacks down around the bait and on the rim of the cooler to hopefully act as speed bumps.    SO far the light is working great and I don't ever have to change a battery too...but we will see if it holds up. Wore gloves the whole time to hopefully throw off scent, and JIC I have a polymag loaded...

I HAD to try to resurrect this thread because from what understand I.F.A.R.T. is for LIFE! 

[Tater]

Until my ding donger gets here I am going to do a bait station test w what I had just laying around. Like you guys suggested, it's good to have a white background, so I grabbed an old foam cooler and servo taped a clear party cup filled with a yummy assortment of nuts mixed with old PB I found sitting in the back of the cabinet..smeared that stuff down good to the cup too...but YUP it was expired so while it may be expired for human consumption, it seemed fine for the enemy to enjoy it with their lead dessert soon to follow.

I catch mice and chippers in mouse traps baited with Chunky PB that expired in 2013.     Even got a hosp the other day with it.

[SilentSine]

No bites yet....except for all the ants!

[nervoustrigger]

Yeah, the ants are going to be a battle if leaving peanut butter, meat, cheese, etc.  If you will have the food in a small container of some sort, you can spray the surrounding area with liquid pesticide and that will keep them away for a few hours.

For what it's worth, around here the brown rats have been hitting a mix of yellow corn, bird seed, and black oil sunflower seed.  It's not attractive to ants so that's not a problem.  With that on the menu, I greased 5 rats in one evening about a week ago.  It only took about 30 minutes for the first one to show after I set up a red flashlight at 25 yards. and the other 4 visited over a span of 3 hours.

[nervoustrigger]

I finished up the feeder, using some Hardi-board scraps to make a canopy to shield the platform from rain.  It's now on a trial run on the magnolia tree outside the kitchen window to see how long it takes the tree rats to figure out lifting the clear lid.  It came a downpour last night and I was pleased to see the contents remained dry.  Soon it will get transplanted to the local pecan orchard. 

 

[SilentSine]

Wow that thing is looking like a rat condo! They will probably move in quickly not knowing that their landlord has other plans for them...guess you don't need to paint it cause it's soon to be covered in matter. 

- Good luck!!

[kbstingwing]

haven't had any action lately except for cats, raccoons and possums at night, day time crew, Doves, sparrows, crows and a squirrel.

[Gerard]

I've got a neighbour to one side who is really upset about raccoons attacking various foods she leaves on her patio. She makes all sorts of dried or pickled things, traditional Japanese stuff, and needs to be able to do that outside so as not to make the house too smelly. She keeps asking if I can do the same with raccoons as I do with rats and squirrels... and I have to keep explaining, politely, that even shooting rats and squirrels is frowned upon in the city. Using something more powerful on raccoons might make for significant legal difficulties. Besides, I think they're cute, in a terrifying sort of way.

I'll just keep up with the smaller critters where low fpe is sufficient. Got another squirrel this morning from about 10 metres, 6fpe wadcutter just below and ahead of the ear hole. Never knew what hit it. Up to 26 for the year. No rats showing up this week so far. Peanut butter on the butternut tree so far not disturbed.

[frodo9mm]

Thank you for bumping this to the top of the stack. There is a lot good (and funny) info here!

[Nvreloader]

Well guys

I have been reading ALL the posts of the 34+ pg's of I.F.A.R.T., with great enjoyment and laughing until my sides hurt,
and I have tears as big as HT= road apples, I can't even see the PC screen, OUTSTANDING POSTS.......
keep it up.............

But,

I feel so discriminated against........ 
I don't have a bait station, or rats or any other varmints around here except HS/starlings/Magpies eating the chicken eggs...........
or once or twice during the winter months I have a Yeller Dog (coyote) sneaking around the chicken house, they don't last long. 

I guess, I can't join I.F.A.R.T. etc, as you guys don't have a section for Flying Rats............

The only rat I have around here is, the Packrat, I/we, my dogs Chance/Blue has killed 12-13 in the last 20+ yrs,
unless you count Gophers, a night time rat that lives underground and ONLY comes out of it's burrow when the hay fields is flooded,
during  irrigation times 2-4 times per summer months...........
Then Chance or Blue will kill 15-20 per hour,
when they are flooded out of their burrows, and NO place to go, they don't swim well etc.

I just keep on reading and laughing.  Thanks guys.

Tia,
Don

[OleTomCat]

Don,

Winged Rats count....

Welcome...

Well guys

I have been reading ALL the posts of the 34+ pg's of I.F.A.R.T., with great enjoyment and laughing until my sides hurt,
and I have tears as big as HT= road apples, I can't even see the PC screen, OUTSTANDING POSTS.......
keep it up.............

But,

I feel so discriminated against........ 
I don't have a bait station, or rats or any other varmints around here except HS/starlings/Magpies eating the chicken eggs...........
or once or twice during the winter months I have a Yeller Dog (coyote) sneaking around the chicken house, they don't last long. 

I guess, I can't join I.F.A.R.T. etc, as you guys don't have a section for Flying Rats............

The only rat I have around here is, the Packrat, I/we, my dogs Chance/Blue has killed 12-13 in the last 20+ yrs,
unless you count Gophers, a night time rat that lives underground and ONLY comes out of it's burrow when the hay fields is flooded,
during  irrigation times 2-4 times per summer months...........
Then Chance or Blue will kill 15-20 per hour,
when they are flooded out of their burrows, and NO place to go, they don't swim well etc.

I just keep on reading and laughing.  Thanks guys.

Tia,
Don

[Tater]

I've got a neighbour to one side who is really upset about raccoons attacking various foods she leaves on her patio. She makes all sorts of dried or pickled things, traditional Japanese stuff, and needs to be able to do that outside so as not to make the house too smelly. She keeps asking if I can do the same with raccoons as I do with rats and squirrels... and I have to keep explaining, politely, that even shooting rats and squirrels is frowned upon in the city. Using something more powerful on raccoons might make for significant legal difficulties. Besides, I think they're cute, in a terrifying sort of way.

                   

[Gerard]

Exactly. That clip is both insufferably cute, and somehow terrifying to me.

My neighbour has been putting up with raccoon destruction in her garden (grapes, kiwis, tomatoes, etc.) for many years, has chased them off with sticks and even bought a little CO2 pellet pistol to shoo them away - though she never told me about that and she never figured out how to load it. But what's put her over the edge in hating them was when she had two cakes cooling on the porch and a really fat raccoon was eating them both when she came out to bring them inside. Broad daylight, right in the city, this fat little creep was destroying two cakes. She whacked it with a stick but it just stared at her and kept eating cake. Her husband (now diseased - unrelated to the raccoon incident) tried as well, and I guess he hit harder because it tried to get away. With cake in hands. Had a heck of a time crawling over the locked gate, it was that fat. She was SO MAD! That was two years ago. She's still mad. Wants me to accept a contract on raccoons... and she's a heck of a fine cook, it could pay well...

[STL_airhead]

As a semi-city boy, I don't have a chicken coup or a lot of rats.  I entertain myself dispatching moles!  I am relegated to using spear traps or my heal. 

Anyway, I would be enthralled to be admitted as an adjunct I.F.A.R.T. until I find something to kill with my AGs.  Shooting at dirt does not seem to work.

It is not worthy/fair that we seem to have polite squirrels and 'coons around here.  I see the treerats everyday and the ringtails in the early morning when they think I am sleeping.

And, wth is a HOSP?

[SilentSine]

So far, my mouse traps have had more action then my AG. Found out today why nothing is coming to my bait station outside....dang black cats roaming all over behind my house. Hmmmm....I’m not giving up! Any pointers/tips? Mice are just staying inside the house and not going close to my station which is about 25’ away from the house.

[OleTomCat]

Setup a bait station inside with a good back stop..

[SilentSine]

I would love to, but I have a couple little ones that run around way too much to do anything indoors, so outside is my only option. May start breeding my own rats outside...

[Smoketown]

And, wth is a HOSP?

House Sparrow.

http://www.sialis.org/hospattacks.htm


Cheers,
Smoketown

[kbstingwing]

I would love to, but I have a couple little ones that run around way too much to do anything indoors, so outside is my only option. May start breeding my own rats outside...

Give it time, they will come, make sure your bait station is high enough so the Rats feel safe but also accessible enough, but if can't place it up high, low will work if you bait it really good.