awp101
07-28-2010, 08:30 PM
During the recent downtime, I discovered we had rats in the attic. When I found out it was more than the random, individual rat up there I decided to stake out the attic with a BL22 stoked with .22 Shorts. Spending time in an attic during a Texas summer isn't the brightest idea I've ever had...
Set out some traps, "homebrew" bait/killers and nothing worked. One day my wife called and asked if I'd put out poison. "Nope, why?" The Boy came home and found one dead in the garage. When I got home he came out and asked if I'd seen it. "Nope. Where was it?" He pointed to where it HAD been. We looked around, then looked UP. Well, more at eye level. The little bastard was on one of my hats on the safe. And between the hat and the safe was the new to me Ruger Super Single Six I had loaded with Shorts for just this occasion.:rolleyes:
It just sat there looking but not seeing. It showed no fear, no aggression, it seemed that it didn't even recognize we were humans. Later I figured out it had already been poisoned.
A quick look around turned up an old, metal yard stick. I whacked it with the thin edge and it fell between the safe and freezer. Fished it out and saw the yardstick cut through the skin and broke his back. Tossed it in the yard just outside the garage, made sure no one was coming down the street, quickly grabbed the Single Six and put a Short through it's head from about 3" away.
The next morning I made a check of the traps and saw one was missing. Looking around to see where it might have fallen, I saw a tail sticking out of an old Chinese ammo crate. Moved a couple of things still in the box and there it was but it wasn't moving. To be safe I put a Short through the brain pan from about 2" out. Good thing, it started flopping and twisting so it wasn't dead when I found it.
The following Monday I had an exterminator out and after I described how those two had acted he agreed they'd already been poisoned (I didn't know if their actions were due to poison or something like rabies) which tells me someone else around here is having this problem too.
I don't have a pic of the yard stick, but here's the Rat Gat:
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/uu306/awp101_2009/92041517.jpg
Set out some traps, "homebrew" bait/killers and nothing worked. One day my wife called and asked if I'd put out poison. "Nope, why?" The Boy came home and found one dead in the garage. When I got home he came out and asked if I'd seen it. "Nope. Where was it?" He pointed to where it HAD been. We looked around, then looked UP. Well, more at eye level. The little bastard was on one of my hats on the safe. And between the hat and the safe was the new to me Ruger Super Single Six I had loaded with Shorts for just this occasion.:rolleyes:
It just sat there looking but not seeing. It showed no fear, no aggression, it seemed that it didn't even recognize we were humans. Later I figured out it had already been poisoned.
A quick look around turned up an old, metal yard stick. I whacked it with the thin edge and it fell between the safe and freezer. Fished it out and saw the yardstick cut through the skin and broke his back. Tossed it in the yard just outside the garage, made sure no one was coming down the street, quickly grabbed the Single Six and put a Short through it's head from about 3" away.
The next morning I made a check of the traps and saw one was missing. Looking around to see where it might have fallen, I saw a tail sticking out of an old Chinese ammo crate. Moved a couple of things still in the box and there it was but it wasn't moving. To be safe I put a Short through the brain pan from about 2" out. Good thing, it started flopping and twisting so it wasn't dead when I found it.
The following Monday I had an exterminator out and after I described how those two had acted he agreed they'd already been poisoned (I didn't know if their actions were due to poison or something like rabies) which tells me someone else around here is having this problem too.
I don't have a pic of the yard stick, but here's the Rat Gat:
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/uu306/awp101_2009/92041517.jpg