I spent the last week in Key West, keeping my fingers well pruned and off a computer keyboard. Sometimes a girl just needs to disconnect. Especially after working 65 hours the week before. That was… fun. I actually really like my job and the people I work for/with, so putting in a bunch of extra hours in the name of turning out a good product doesn’t bother me. But it turns out that physically, you can’t work 7AM to 11PM several days in a row and maintain… well, anything. A good attitude or sense of humor, a household or even appropriate caffeine to food intake ratios. I was a disaster. A twitchy-eyed, cranky disaster.
But now! Now I am well rested, appropriately caffeinated and trying to get back into the swing of things at work. Only, I’m totally distracted thinking about rats.
Oh, yes, you read that right. RATS.
This morning as I went to leave for work, I looked up from my car to see actual, gigantic, thick tailed rats walking on the window ledges of my neighbor’s house and immediately felt every hair on my body stand on end. I mean, rats. On the house. Next door. First, I freaked out and ran inside to my be-toweled husband who said he was unsurprised – the yard next door is in a state of serious neglect and the amount of rain we’d gotten over the last couple of days simply drove the vermin upwards. Totally un-comforted, I ran back outside.
“Mama!” I hollered. “C’mere, Mama!”
As Mama Cass came running, with her bow-legged little trot, from where she’d taken shelter on our back deck (I made a tent for her and the Last Wild Kitten out of a blue tarp and some patio furniture and while sure, it looks like we’ve got squatters, I just couldn’t stand the idea of them out in that rain) and I realized two things:
1) Mama is not a whole lot bigger than one of those damned rats and
2) Omg, thank the baby j that I have wild cats living in my yard
Mama Cass took after that nasty thing in a blink and, having seen Mama Cass yank a bird out of mid-air once, I was filled with every confidence that she and the LWK would soon be snacking on wild beasties. At the very least, she will keep them on their side of the fence.
Which all leads to the very important question:
Is there such a thing as anti-vermin traps or poisons that won’t hurt Mama and her kitten?
I feel like we should be pretty aggressive about keeping those horrid creatures away from our home, but I won’t do anything to compromise the health and safety of our officially unofficial pets. You know, the ones I’m considering buying a dog house for so they won’t get so wet and fine, probably even an electric blanket because cold is not an option either. SUCKER.
Hi.
You can’t use any poisons naturally, as the cat and kitten’s systems are too delicate.
You can use peppermint oil according to the Orkin website: http://www.orkin.com/rodents/natural-rat-deterrent
Peppermint oil is said to deter rats from entering treated areas. In high concentrations, peppermint oil may keep rats away for a number of days. Shrubs high in alkaloid content, such as wormwood, may also prove to be effective natural rat deterrents. These natural, scent-based deterrents are most potent when applied in tandem with neighbors.
I still love reading about your adventures.
Rachel from Philadelphia
We have a bunch of wild cats in our neighborhood. They rile up our house kitties, and are sometimes pests, but I’m now very thankful that we have them rather than rats! The house next door is vacant/in foreclosure, but a yard service comes every 1-2 weeks. Have you considered contacting the city about the state of your neighbor’s yard?
I have no answers for you, I just have to tell you that I love you for what you’ve done/are still doing for those cats.
I just spent last week on a Key in Florida too-not Key West. It was glorious, wasn’t it?
Glad you had a vacation. I echo Amber about contacting the city, though that may lead to the city calling him exterminators, hence poison. I’m surprised the rat population has led to larger feral colony since a food source like vermin often does.
Regarding shelter & warmth, I cared for my late feral boy for 10 years in one of those dogloo brand dog houses. I put old towels into it and added a fleecy cat bed w/removeable pad. Finally, for warmth, I bought an item similar to this: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=22458 but much more like this, except I found mine at U.S. website: http://www.4pets-store.co.uk/Cat_Beds/Snugglesafe_Heat_Pad_Pet_Bed_Warmer_with_Free_Cover/
Oooh, that’s a great option!
These are dogloos: http://www.google.com/search?q=dogloo&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#q=dogloo&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=ZCN&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&source=univ&tbm=shop&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=aFGTToaZOMnZ0QGu8IUQ&ved=0CIQBEK0E&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=d1a53ef703c051eb&biw=1280&bih=633
Oh Key West! Beat still my heart! I love that place. I grew up in Hollywood, Florida and my friends and I would head to Key West often. Some good times, I tell ya!
I’m glad you’re feeling good. It’s great to see ya.
As for the rat, I have to agree with Amber and Baraba E.
Good luck!
Oh, please don’t kill the rats. I understand that you don’t want them invading your house, but…please, don’t kill them. You can get humane traps — search for them on Amazon, there are many sizes, and you would want the ones meant for squirrels, rats, and creatures of that size-range — and bait them with stuff that probably won’t be so appealing to your backyard kitties. (But even if the kitten somehow gets trapped, no harm will come to her and you can just release her and try again.) Then if you catch any, you can take them to some not-in-your-neighborhood location (some wooded area would be good, or fields or something) and let them go. Problem solved, no deaths. And you can keep reusing the traps for as long as you need to.
I’ve never used humane traps for anything other than mice (There was a small infestation in my last apartment building, and the lucky ones that escaped the extermination attempts on the far end of the building ended up in my apartment. My ex and I ended up catching-and-releasing 5 of them, over a several-month period, with basically no effort on our parts.) but I am under the impression that they are pretty effective for larger creatures, generally.
I, too, have set up a “shelter” for some outside kitties. A local cat rescue group gave me some ideas. You can use a small dog house (you can find deals on them sometimes on Craiglist) or you can use a small cat carrier (minus the door), put a tarp over it. Put the cat carrier on two 2 x 4 pieces of wood (so that it’s off the ground). Put some prairie grass in the shelter to keep it soft & warm. Good luck with the rats and bless you for taking care of the neighborhood cats.
When we had “adopted” a few outside cats a few winters ago, we used my inlaws idea of a cat hut. Take a rubbermaid tote with a lid. Cut a hole in the front of the tote. Fill with old blankets. Voila!
Rats? Yeccch! I say terminate them with extreme prejudice. Know anyone with good aim (hey, you’re in Texas!)?
Five years ago my former office moved into a new building. There was a lot of construction in the area. So my first week in the office I go to the stairwell (on the sixth floor) and what do I see? A RAT on one of those sticky traps! It had a quite the blood-curdling screech. We decided to put a garbage can over it to keep the sight and sound away while the facility pest control contractor got called. Clearly, the person who arrived was more of a “bug man.” In any case, it was fun grossing out the supervisors.
Speaking of rats, here is an early 1970s thriller for you:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067991/
Glad you got to go to Key West. I’m jealous.
By the way, anyone have good ideas for getting rid of skunks?
OMG. I am also a former New Yorker and still haven’t recovered from the rats. So fuh-reaky!!!!! The outdoor cat situation sounds like perfection.
Usually, if you have cats, rats will not come into your house: just the smell of the cats is enough to keep them away.
And catching them will rarely solve the problem, since rats can breed very quick (too much info?). To get rid of them, you need to exterminate all of them, or make their home unsuitable (aka clean and neat), so they will vacate.
Keeping Mama nearby will keep them at a distance.
Shortly after I bought my house and moved in, my next door neighbor told me of her “adventures” with TREE RATS when she moved in. She also had them in her trees AND her attic. I hadn’t even heard of tree rats… and hoped to never learn about them. She eventually prevailed — I don’t know her method.
But — I later had DFW Wildlife* out to my house for eastern sparrows who had made a cozy home INSIDE an exterior wall of my house, between the studs. I could literally hear chirping in my walls — aside from being unnerved by it and being worried about the birds, it drove my dog mad. As a perk of their visit, they did an exterior perimeter walk of my house and gave me advice for keeping critters out. I’ll share:
1) Ivy growing up your house was referred to as a “Rodent Highway.” The critters are covered by the ivy, therefore feel safe from predators, as they are traveling from the ground to whatever attic opening they can find. I don’t care how asthetically pleasing the ivy on my house was, it came down the next day. All of it. Rodent Highway? That’s motivation in my book.
2) He told me to get steel wool and poke it up into every crevice between the wood “apron” under my eaves and my brick. He advised as how critters can make themselves amazingly tiny to wiggle in, but that they don’t like steel wool. Very soon after I was on a ladder, with a wad of steel wood and a chopstick, shoving that stuff up into every crevice. It didn’t take as long as I expected it to… but it could have taken all weekend and I probably still would have done it.
3) Look around your eaves for the one or two PVC pipes that are sticking out. Cover the ends. Take a piece of metal screen, form it over the end of the pipe, and affix with a ring clamp.
So far, I’ve been critter free…
* They are a humane animal control service. $75 gets them out to your house within hours of your call, and you have a 1 year guarantee against the same issue arising again. They. Were. Fab. They do every type of critter you can enountaer in the area. And they freely dispense information about, for example, what happens if my dog corners a raccoon or a possum? (The dog will win.) Priceless I tell you.
Ewww! I once worked at a store near a shipyard and the area was infested with “marine” rats… no joke, these rats were the size of large cats. *shudder*
I wouldn’t try to put any kind of poison out, I would let Mama Cass and her baby take care of them. Trust me that they will do a better job of ridding the area of the rats and will be fed in the process. I know that is one thing I love about having cats.
My partner owns a pest control business in FL, where rats are part of the wild life. You CAN safely poison rats without poisoning your pets, official or unofficial, as long as the law is followed. It’s easier to get a decent exterminator to do it for you, though. Rodent Bait Boxes are strong enough to drive a car over, are locked so even you can’t get into it if you tried, and are securely staked so they cannot be moved easily. The amount of bait it takes to kill a rat will not kill a cat if it eats it, but cats don’t eat dead anyway. I’ve had a rat box in my yard for years. My cats are outdoor cats, my dogs pee on it, no one has ever become ill. Following the law is where it’s at.