Tree rats

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Thanks to EPA demands, Trane was using wire manufactured using peanut oil. The rats love peanuts and munch the control wire repeatedly. Out here, most installers use flexible EMT to run the wires and then they have to install hardware cloth inside the condensers as the rats can get through some of the holes and vents on those. So far, after six years, no rat damage on those.

Down in the tile roofed subdivisions surrounding Phoenix, they call them "roof rats" or "sewer rats." Same critter: A hundred names.

Actually some parts of Phoenix have real Roof and sewer Rats, Arcadia is filled with them, Nasty, disgusting, buggers!

 

[bearbait]

Well at least we don't have skunks here on the island and at the risk of jinxing myself no sign of rats except the odd muskrat which don't seem to bother us. Never thought I'd ever say it but we have too much, I mean too many beaver and a healthy population of otter which we see in the pond and sometimes when we're taking our dog for a walk. Just glad their no problem cause man they are one large critter.

 

[bcp]

I'm really glad squirrels aren't as big as beavers.

Bruce

 

[johnjk]

Buddy of mine works for a big auto manufacturer here in Ohio. Plants are out by me in the middle of nowhere and they have issues with ground hogs chewing on wiring harnesses. Same reason, they switched to a peanut oil to use as a lube to pull the wires and the critters found them tasty. Not sure how many of those made it to the consumer but they did have a dozen or so that had to be pulled out of the transport lot and fixed.

They've since switched over to a less tasty lube and no longer have the issue. The visual of someone trying to chase a groundhog in a lot of a couple thousand cars strikes me as rather amusing

 

[bird dogger]

Tree rats!! We’ve had a sweet corn stand off our driveway for quite a number of years. I had been lax in keeping the squirrel population under control for a couple of years and last year while manning the stand the squirrels would go after the corn the minute someone left the stand for whatever reason. We also have black walnut trees lining the drive and they were full of walnuts. The squirrels had a designated route they used through the woods so picking a spot underneath I declared war on them with a .410 shotgun. After 70 some squirrels had been dispatched they got the hint and stopped coming over through the windbreaks that connect our farmstead with some rural development areas. Since .410 shotshells aren’t real cheap I found .444 marlin brass could be substituted with minimal alteration and reloaded as a shotshell for 1/3rd the price. Only the rim thickness had to be thinned down in order for them to work in the break action .410 I have. Making a few handloading tools on the lathe for both the brass and regular shells makes reloading simple. Here’s a few pics of a normal .410 shotshell, .444 Marlin brass and the tools made to reload each.

 

[bearbait]

Nice work bird dogger, great to be able to do that yourself however the pellet gun is a cheap and effective way for me to take care of the problem.

 

[Daren Todd]

Nice work bird dogger, great to be able to do that yourself however the pellet gun is a cheap and effective way for me to take care of the problem.

Heres an idea if you want a little entertainment

https://youtu.be/MaDVUGybFdE

 

[bearbait]

Heres an idea if you want a little entertainment

https://youtu.be/MaDVUGybFdE

That could be highly addictive!

 

[bucktail]

Tree rats!! We’ve had a sweet corn stand off our driveway for quite a number of years. I had been lax in keeping the squirrel population under control for a couple of years and last year while manning the stand the squirrels would go after the corn the minute someone left the stand for whatever reason. We also have black walnut trees lining the drive and they were full of walnuts. The squirrels had a designated route they used through the woods so picking a spot underneath I declared war on them with a .410 shotgun. After 70 some squirrels had been dispatched they got the hint and stopped coming over through the windbreaks that connect our farmstead with some rural development areas. Since .410 shotshells aren’t real cheap I found .444 marlin brass could be substituted with minimal alteration and reloaded as a shotshell for 1/3rd the price. Only the rim thickness had to be thinned down in order for them to work in the break action .410 I have. Making a few handloading tools on the lathe for both the brass and regular shells makes reloading simple. Here’s a few pics of a normal .410 shotshell, .444 Marlin brass and the tools made to reload each.

View attachment 44428

View attachment 44429

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View attachment 44431

Can't you just reload the plastic hulls?

 

[skeets]

Actually some parts of Phoenix have real Roof and sewer Rats, Arcadia is filled with them, Nasty, disgusting, buggers!

OH real rats,,, I thought you were talking about the politicians,,, no offence toward the real rats

 

[bearbait]

OH real rats,,, I thought you were talking about the politicians,,, no offence toward the real rats

If your talking real rats we do have more than our share of them. They disguise themselves in suits hoping nobody will notice. Now the smaller ones are much the same, steal everything they get but still much more likeable and much easier to get rid of if you decide.

 

[bird dogger]

Can't you just reload the plastic hulls?

Sure you can, and I do reload the few I have. But you can only reload them a few times depending on how hot the load is before the plastic starts to degrade. The brass shells should last forever and that's where the real savings come from. Not sure how they'd feed in an auto loader or a pump action gun but in a break action gun where you just drop in the shells by hand they function perfectly!

Those critter catapults in all the variants are hilarious! Will have to build a version of one sometime. But they don't eliminate the problem permanently.

 

[Daren Todd]

I had a squirrell that kept getting into a bird feeder that was hung on a shepherds hook. I went out one day and slicked the pole up with vaseline. Neighbor would sit out on his front porch and laugh at the squirrels. They would get about 4ft up the pole and lose traction. Start throwing there feet up trying to make up lost ground. Then walk funny cause everything was stucking to there feet

A coworker had a family friend who mounted a bird feeder inside a hampster wheel They mounted it in a tree in veiw of their kitchen window. Said it provided hours of entertainment

 

[Howling]

Many years ago my folks had a vicious squirrel in the yard. It killed a couple birds off the feeder going for the seed. My dad finally caught it a trap while we was there. Even in the trap that thing was nasty. After we let he let it go a few miles east (They live on ocean).

 

[bird dogger]

Many years ago my folks had a vicious squirrel in the yard. It killed a couple birds off the feeder going for the seed. My dad finally caught it a trap while we was there. Even in the trap that thing was nasty. After we let he let it go a few miles east (They live on ocean).

Did the squirrel survive the long swim back to shore?

 

[Howling]

Did the squirrel survive the long swim back to shore?

The relocation appeared to have worked. The squirrel never came to my folk's house. The birds use the feeder in piece now.

 

[lugbolt]

I went to visit my friend a while back and he was standing outside the back yard with his pellet gun. It's a 1960's CO2 powered Crosman. It holds a charge for years after a $12 rebuild kit in the 1990's at some point. Anyway I could see the frustration on his face. He's got a squirrel that gets into everything, the trailer wiring, race car, everything. Of course if there's any squirrel nearby now, he's paranoid thinking it's the one that's eating wires. So he's looking up a tree and there sits in the crotch of a couple limbs a big old fox squirrel. I pointed it out, he aims and shoots. Miss. Darn squirrel went to barking at him. Guy said he keeps shooting and missing and every single time the squirrel starts laughing at him.

The gray squirrels are outnumbering the fox squirrels 5:1 now. 20 years ago you rarely saw a gray. Now you rarely see a fox and NEVER see a black squirrel. I used to live in Iowa and the blacks were everywhere. Maybe they like the more temperate climate or maybe they don't tolerate the heat here, dunno.

Couple weeks ago I was fishing at the local lake, which is about 50,000 acres in size. Sprawled out between the hills. Anyway, I was sitting over a brush pile more or less in the middle of nowhere. That part is 2.62 miles from the ramp and about 2 1/2 to land on 3 sides, and about 500 yards to the bank over on the one side. Well I see something swimming across the water, gets closer and it was a fox squirrel. I didn't know they could swim, but apparently they're VERY good swimmers. I was impressed. I didn't know deer could swim very well either but they sure can. Seen one crossing the creek in that same general part of the lake last fall. From a distance it looked like a pile of brush floating across the water until I got closer, then realized it was a big buck.

 

[bearbait]

Deer are great swimmers. We used to see them quite often crossing the river when we were fishing for sea run trout and salmon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkrLn1WxF5Q

 

[Luckystars]

I had them get used to my routine of feeding caged animals and they would follow the cart and take expensive fruit and produce away from my animals. I was telling an older customer about shooting over 200 hundred this year. He looked and me and had the "you sure are stupid" look on his face. Then he says "You're picking them up, ain't ya?"
Well, yea, of course.
"Let them lay. You won't have to shoot near as many"
within weeks I couldn't find one.
Chalk one up for experience.

 

[Benhameen]

I had a squirrel get into my barn recently, he chewed on my kubotas fuel cap. I’ll get s pic next time I’m over there.

I was fishing in a lake in a very rural area years ago. I heard something barreling through the woods. All Of a sudden a very large buck jumped into the water and started swimming across the lake. Soon after two large dogs appeared on the bank clearly out of breathe. The deer was huffing and puffing as well, I trolled over near him and took a few pictures. Unfortunately, they’re on a phone that took a crap on me so I lost them.