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| We have some ducks, geese, and chickens. Rats got into the duck pen. We have a kiddy pool with water for the ducks so the rats had plenty of water and plenty of feed and decided to move in. We didn't want to poison the ducks and the bait station wasn't working, so my son and I grabbed a sump pump hose and taped it to the vehicle exhaust that was just the right size. We stuck it down a hole on one side of the pen after plugging the other holes on that side. We quickly found out where we missed a few holes as a few rats showed up, so we started to shoot with the .22. Those rats then ran to the holes on the other side, so we plugged a bunch of them and put the hose there. Sure enough we missed an escape hole but were able to shoot a couple that came out but the others ran back in somewhere. We then went around looking for holes we had missed to fill in. My son found a hole with dead rat almost out of it. I figure that they ran out when they saw the other rats dying, got scared of us shooting, and ran back in, saw another dead rat in the hole, turned to run back out and never made it. We filled in all the holes when done and plan to just watch for any fresh digging/new holes and then do it again. The exhaust pipe on our Honda CRV is just the right size and it does not get too hot for the large plastic sump pump hose. I just taped it on with tile tape and let the vehicle idle. I figure the rats in the hole only lasted a few minutes, but we let it run there for about a half hour or so to give the ones that ran off time to come back to the holes and not come back out. I'm not sure if it would cause problems for the vehicle with back pressure if we had actually plugged all the holes. The way we did it, there was plenty of flow for the exhaust, it just had a longer route. If we are able to do it when there are just 2 openings, then we can put the hose down one, and wait at the other and be much more effective. My father-in-law figures I should be ready with a scatter gun next time instead of the .22. I don't want to go duck hunting though. I got the one rat by shooting right past a duck with the .22. That would not have worked with scatter shot unless we moved the ducks first. I'm sure Elmer Fudd could figure it out though.
I've actually heard that this is the most humane way to kill rats. They just go to sleep and never wake up. I had to laugh as I was looking online for ideas for how to get rid of them. One place said not to kill them in their burrows because then the dead bodies would rot under ground. Um, wouldn't we bury them anyway? | |
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Rat killing machine
