I just had to laugh

[Rhodie Ranch]

We have two cats. Fat Cat Leah who is prob now 15 or so. She the mistress of sleeping. And Max who may be about 4. Max hunts gophers out on the golf course. He's brought a few to the back slider door. We had a rat down under the deck and I would feed it until DH found out recently.

Did you know you can't buy rat poison anymore, at least here in Calif. Decon, Dicon Di Con...something. Well I found some in my shed and put out five pieces. Got that big old rat and it died where we knew Max couldn't get it. Thank goodness.

 

[Nyboy]

I just had to buy some, local supermarket had several brands on shelf.

 

[ducks4you]

Fenced against the deer. Jack rabbits cannot get in. Live in a golf course community so they don't allow even Chickens (sob). Gophers? Millions of them. I do have a mouse living next to my compost bin. Do you think he/she ate them? I've fed he/she apples, french fries, bread, etc. We also are starting to get grasshoppers due to the drought. Two summers ago they were at least 2.5 " in length. Haven't seen any yet this year.

You FED IT?!?!?!?!

 

[ducks4you]

We have two cats. Fat Cat Leah who is prob now 15 or so. She the mistress of sleeping. And Max who may be about 4. Max hunts gophers out on the golf course. He's brought a few to the back slider door. We had a rat down under the deck and I would feed it until DH found out recently.

Did you know you can't buy rat poison anymore, at least here in Calif. Decon, Dicon Di Con...something. Well I found some in my shed and put out five pieces. Got that big old rat and it died where we knew Max couldn't get it. Thank goodness.

PLEASE don't put out any poison!!! There are many more cats in your neighborhood than you may know that mouse. I even have a stray that rats. If the rat/mouse eats the poison that makes him bleed out, the predator, the cat, will die by bleeding out.
Try traps first. They like peanut butter and bacon. You could put a trap in an animal cage, if you have one and then a cat won't trip it and get hurt.

 

[aftermidnight]

When one set of neighbors moved and couldn't take their cat with them we adopted him, He was an outdoor cat but we finally got him so he'd stay in most nights, we also had a cat/small dog door in our outside door so all we had to do was open the kitchen door to let him out, our own kitty was strictly an inside gal. Basil was the best ratter but he always brought them home and caterwalled at the kitchen door until someone came to exchange his kill for a treat. This really wasn't appreciated if it happened to be two in the morning tho .
Annette

 

[Smart Red]

The sibling cats I don't have are great hunters of rabbits. They get them when they are still small so I have few rabbits around to breed.

 

[Nyboy]

Ducks I read that 2nd hand poisoning can't happen with today's poison. It is much safer to use.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

The state banned that poison quite a few years back due to the raptors eating the dead rodents, from that poison, who then died themselves. So I dunno.....

 

[Ridgerunner]

Did they actually die? This is my opinion so take it for what it is worth (not much) but I think dosage comes into play. The amount of poison that will kill a one ounce mouse is not likely to harm a five pound cat or large raptor. But the effect might be cumulative. Some of these poisons are not easily removed from the body so they can accumulate. While one poisoned mouse should not hurt them, one poisoned mouse a day for weeks on end could be bad. Then there is the DDT effect. It did not harm the raptors directly but it caused them to lay thin shelled eggs which broke before they could hatch, thus greatly reducing the numbers of raptors. The consequences are not always what people expect.

I will use poison to control an outbreak I can't control any other way. I'm not trying to kill off every rat or mouse anywhere around, I try to keep the numbers to a point they are not causing a significant damage and I try to keep them out of certain buildings. Since the first of the year I've taken seven rats, mostly out of my garden, using live traps. I'm trying to get the numbers down so they don't eat off Bluejay's beans as they sprout like they have in the past. I did not appreciate them eating the tops of my sweet potatoes as they formed either, the actual tubers not the leaves and stems. I hope I don't have to resort to poison but if that is the only way I can keep the numbers under control, I will. But it will not be an extended poisoning campaign. Get it done and get it over with. In the meantime I keep my traps set.

 

[ducks4you]

I am not judging. I don't want you to get hit by local authorities who trace any of this back to you. People who live in the city or suburbs use Decon and the like all of the time. It's those of us in the country who get accused of poisoning predators on the "endangered" list.