This one looks like fun.
Posted on 05/14/2021 8:49:32 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
When the mouse plague began in regional New South Wales and Queensland, residents spoke like generals in a war. It was all about strategy, setting the cleverest traps, fortifying houses to keep the enemy out and outsmarting the tiny creatures as they attacked wave after wave.
But, six months on, with rodent numbers surging again despite thousands of tonnes of poisons being deployed and devastating floods, conversations about mice have changed. They aren’t foes to be bested any more, they’re more like a giant dark cloud hovering over each town.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
THAT is the EXACT way to handle this situation.
Pound for pound, feral cats are the most voracious predators on the planet.
“I hate those meeses to pieces!!”
They’re very intelligent and, unlike most humans, recognize their limitations. They don’t hesitate to run when they know they’re outmatched.
True. Feral cats are in such numbers in Australia that they are impacting native species to the point of endangerment.
Shooting Cats: Australia’s War on Feral Cats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxUTl_xd9u0
Release the Huntsman spiders!
Yeah, I would have thought they would be being trapped by the billions.
Dig a pit, throw in some grain. Probably hav a self-sustaining cannibalistic pit of mice in a week. Fill it in and start over.
A fisher?
Do the feral cats live indoors? Do they cuddle?
Yes, they do now. It took seven years for the female to trust us enough to stay, but she was injured last year and nursing her back to health all summer showed her she could trust us. The male wants to kill everything that moves - including her - so they can’t be outside at the same time.
1. Buy 5,000 cats
2. Have them all fixed
3 release into the wild
4. Profit
(Rushing to the patent office!)
I ran across an article, didn’t keep the link, that stated regulations had reduced the efficiency of the bait by 50%. Since this outbreak, the manuafacturer has permission to return to the previous formula.
I smell Greenies, not mouse-urine.
This one looks like fun.
Cousin of the wolverine, mink, otter, skunk.
I’ve caught a few rats that way, but, rats seem to wise up to most ANY kind of trap pretty quickly. I’ve had more luck, when I’ve had time (rare, these days) to plink ‘em with a scoped pellet rifle, as they don’t seem to learn to stay away from the chicken feeder for long. Also, I’ve observed our (newly adult) Buckeye chickens chasing mice and small rats. I’ve never seen one catch such, but, we seem to have less rodents now...
(Our cat helps, but she catches more small moles, voles, and small reptiles and amphibians than mice or small rats.)
The usual rat MO seems to be to dash out for a piece of food, go stash it, and come back for more. Good shooting. As a kid, I remember my grandfather’s hens chasing mice, and I’m pretty sure they’d have eaten them if they caught them. So I was surprised when I went to a friend’s house, some years back, and noticed motion under a bush. I looked, and there were several mice eating chicken food. This guy threw it around pretty good, which kind of annoyed me because I had a few roosters farmed out to him while their feathers developed, and I was paying more to feed them than my home flock. Obviously the chickens were too well fed to care, but it still struck me that all of these mice were out during the day, so I asked about it. He said it was because they didn’t dare come out at night because of the rats. I asked how bad could they be, and said I should stick around for dinner. After dark, we walked out to the shed complex, and he turned on a light. Oh. My. God. Walls, ceiling beams, shelves, and the floor turned into streams of rats running for their holes. And this guy was a shooter. Must not have had an air rifle. He could have set up a dim light and sniped rats all night, probably for weeks.
” I had a few roosters farmed out to him while their feathers developed, and I was paying more to feed them than my home flock.”
Fly tier eh?
Pro tip...
Go the farm auction in late winter/early spring and sort through the cages of roosters and pick out the best at bargain prices.
You get the necks and saddles for cheap. I’ve bought whole cages full of blue dun roosters for $1 ea!
Be sure to go late winter so the younger ones will be fully feathered.
Australia’s mouse plague: six months ago it was war, now whole towns have accepted their presence
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Sort of like Americans before and after the Nov election.
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