Had to evict some rats

[Magoo541]

We notices some rodent droppings in the shed this winter and naively thought it was a dine and dash.  So the wife decided yesterday was a good time to clean the shed out and started without my knowledge.  She probably would have continued by herself, just desserts maybe, but she determined she was a little ambitious and came and retrieved me from my own chores.  First let me say that rats are just nasty, there was crap EVERYWHERE!  The bag of grass seed they were feasting on was full of crap mixed in with the seed (their food).  I donned a face mask, latex gloves and some old shoes and began the task of dragging everything out of the shed, except the bricks.

Heavy, crusty and just plain lazy I didn't want to mess with them but knew they needed to come out but didn't want to just grab them (weird noises kept coming from their vicinity) so I did what any man would do, no not make the wife grab them, I used a tool!  I hooked the masonry block with an old edger tool and drug it towards the door.  I saw a black rat go bat sh!t crazy, bouncing around the floor and walls of the 10'X10' shed before he raced up one of the studs ran across the top of the wall and back down only to do it again.  My first thought was I wish he'd stop so I could get a good bead on him with my XDM, but remembered I was in town, with neighbors and other critters around that didn't want any extra holes in them.  So I retreated retired to the house to retrieve the trusty 10-22 (not so loud).  I figured he'd be gone (I knew he was the man when I found mom and the babies, we aren't so protective of our young-live and learn kids  ).  Back out to the shed with the rifle close at hand, mom decides to make a run for it then reconsiders giving me a nice head shot around the brick from 6', not the optimum distance for the 3-9 scope (cranked up to 9  ) so I roll it over and point shoot at a 45* angle into the wall and miss her.  OK, not a good idea, she makes it out of the shed to a tree on the right about the same time dad hears the shot and takes off to the tree on the left side.  I found the nest and about 6-8 babies all nestled in nice and cozy.  Threw them all in the now empty grass seed back with all the other "stuff" their parents chewed and into the trash.  It was at this time the wife decided to leave me to the "manly" duties and went back into the house. 

FFW a few hours of sweeping, hosing, mopping and scrubbing my shed now is reorganized with no rat condos or all-you-can-eat-and-sh!t buffets with room for my kids bikes.  Sprayed some repellent around/in the shed and hope those little rat bastards don't return but I'll have something for them if they do. 

BTW the 15 cats (not really that many more like 2 plus some freeloaders) my wife has adopted did nothing to keep these rats outta my shed 

[dipisc]

Hi;

     Maybe your next project should be slowly disposing of the useless kitties when the wife is not around ?

[twyacht]

Your restraint in not shooting up the shed is good....

This fella went "ratting" with night vision....
Skip to the 5:00 mark...

The music is great!!!!

[locnload]

Shucks, I thought you had made a visit to the State Capitol.   

[Magoo541]

Dipisc, most of the cats that wander our yard are residents in the neighborhood but they are a little weary of our back yard because of my 45 pounds of boxer/pit.

locnload, that'll be next year.  I work with Oregon Firearms Federation, right now its mostly working gun shows for membership drives but the PAC will start working next year.  But I will have a chance next weekend to exact some rough justice in a State Senators neighborhood working a sportsman show at a church in his district, seems he thought we weren't serious about keeping those anti-gun bills from getting voted out of committee. 

TW thats some cool rat killing! 

[Sponsor]

[fightingquaker13]

Get some .22 shot shells, not the old rat shot. These are blue plastic tipped #9 shot (CCW I think). They work well at close range.

[TAB]

i prefer the super heavy slow  cb caps.   quiter then my airifle.

[Magoo541]

i prefer the super heavy slow  cb caps.   quiter then my airifle.

I rarely see them on the shelf during normal times but in this current atmosphere I haven't seen any in a long time. 

My 511P has a 24" barrel and normal CCIs are pretty quite in that but CBs would be very quiet.  Too bad I have it tore down to refinish the stock and put new sights on it.

[fightingquaker13]

Great excuse to buy an air rifle. I know its my hobby horse, but now is the time to ride it. Ammo is expensive and scarce, pellets are cheap and plentiful. Buy a Benjamin or Remington Nitro piston and you'll get a cheap(ish) tack driver that will solve your rodent issues, let you hit golf balls at 50 yards and cost pennies a round (and that's if you buy the good stuff. Buy a decent piece of glass or red dot for it and you have a great practice rifle/pest control tool that is very quiet and cheap to feed. Try Airgundepot.com. They'll have it there by weeks end.

[mortdooley]

 I have a major rat problem in my garden and so far they are winning and poison is not an option because the dogs have been known to eat rodents they catch. Every morning there are more tomatoes eaten from to give to the chickens. Last week-end I found a nest of 8 mice and my evil side must have come out because I threw the whole thing in the chicken pen, now if the chickens could spend the night in the garden without eating more then the rats my problem would be solved.