Re: Up and Down?

Not all cats will hunt rats. If you find a rare hunter, keep her and try to
keep the hunters she will train from her offspring. You also have to keep
them hungry. Your barn cat population will swell to match the amount of cat
food you supply, so don't be too generous. You have to be hard-hearted and
let the weak and sickly ones die off and force the strong ones to hunt. If
you live in climes that drop below freezing in winter, you should feed them
complete ration after the snow flies, as the outdoor rats are dormant then
and the cats will run out of rats that have come into the barn. Cats are
multi-purpose, they eat pigeons and even weevils, but their *** contains
parasites that can harm livestock.

Best bet if you haven't already started selective breeding your hunter cat
army, is to get a couple of female Jack Russels. They are designed to kill
rats, and will dig them right out of their holes. The rats are smart enough
to know when there're some JR's around, they'll give your barn a wide berth.
Best of all for a bad infestation in a premise where the rats can't be
reached by larger animals: bring in a ferreter. A hunting ferret will kill
a hundred rats and all of their kits in one visit. They don't eat them, just
kill for the joy of it. The downside is the hundred rat corpses behind
your walls will reek until they mummify. You have to withdraw the rat bait
a few weeks before going any of these routes, though, or the warfarin in the
bloodstream can make your pest control animals sick.

I've heard lore that if you live capture a couple of rats and singe their
fur, it somehow frightens all the other rats and they split. Likewise if
you keep guinea pigs, their squeaking causes a similar effect. I'm unable
to testify to the efficacy of these methods. The farmers almanac recommends
crushed glass in oatmeal as a non-toxic rat poison. Just make sure your
livestock doesn't get into it.

-JD

"diddy" <diddy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns972AA710D5023danny@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> in thread news:1134421754.29981.0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx: " Jill"
> <newsNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> whittled the following words:
>
>> Mark wrote:
>>> I put down rat poison but there are thousands of rats here.
>>> I'm in the middle of the country.
>>
>> Being in the middle of the country does not mean you have to have
>> 1000's of rats
>> If you are seeing alot of rats - rather than just thinking there are
>> lots there - then you might need to get bigger guns in.
>> Look up rodent pest control and get them in to bring the situation
>> under control
> Couldnt say it better myself. I also live in the country, in the middle of
> grain country. We have an occassional mouse, but I havent seen a rat in
> years.



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