How Many Rodent Kills Have We Made So Far This Year? Not all rodents are bad, consider the hare, but some...

[Watermonkey 0]

So, as some of you know, I do a bit if varmint shooting and I don't have to go far. There is a little balcony on the third floor of my house which is where I spend much of my time in front of the computer unless it just gets too damn hot. Many people who see the balcony think of it as a tree stand like a hunter would use to stay up and away from deer (apparently they never look up). I have a good view to the garden and in the afternoons I sometimes count as many as four chipmunks in the garden harvesting sunflower seeds for the winter. I suppose I should thank them for that, but they also like to re-locate seeds my wife or I have planted and I shoot them for that. So far this year I've shot and killed four chipmunks, but they must breed like rabbits or have a veritable metropolis above the garden in the woods. The cats have killed an additional four or more along with a few field mice. What, you say? Guns can be used for something other than killing people? Shocking! But I digress...

 

Shooting in the garden has been suspended until I get a telescope for the rifle because of the damage I've done shooting around a chipmunk. I took a tomato plant right off, though I clipped it clean and for some reason it's still alive, but not likely to produce any fruit. I shot off a larger branch of a pepper plant that actually had peppers on it, and I've damaged some PVC in a couple places. It gets frustrating when they just stand there while bullets are whizzing right past them and so I open up a can of rapid-fire which never does anything but cause collateral damage. I need a scope bad. But when I'm slow and patient with the trigger, I often hit my target with just one or two shots.

 

This little guy is next... I saw him or one of his kin today run away from the garden and when I went to find out what he was doing there, I found he'd dug a hole (or two) from outside the fence to inside the fence and I think they're planning a raid of some sort on a patch of onions....

 

[t3jem 0]

Well, it sounds like your at war with the chipmunks . Don't worry, I fight rodents too, just not chipmunks. I have to fight pack rats, they love cars; Though, I don't shoot them, i use traps and poison, really does stink when they die under your house (literally, it stinks). I've killed too many packrats to count, they always come back, at least my car is clean now . Well, good luck with those chipmunks!

[Watermonkey 0]

I had to go work out of town last year for quite a while, like about six months or more. By the time my wife, the cats and I returned, nature had moved back in and we had rats that had built nests in the truck's engine compartment and caused some damage tearing a hole in a hard-to-get-at coolant line and they removed a ten inch long section of washer fluid tubing. I cleared it all out and put a nice little poisonous treat in its place in case they get tempted again. They caused about $60 worth of damage in the car when they built a nest next to the battery. I'd hate it if one of the cats ate a poisoned rat, but I doubt it'd happen. My wife drove the Passat to the farmer we get fresh eggs from while I was still in Seattle and they had a dog (she died recently) that was especially adept at going after rats. Well, that dog was all over the car when she pulled up and the farmer told her to pop the hood which she did and when she opened it, there was a very large pack rat just boldly staring at her. I swear, nothing but a rat dog scares one of those things! So the dog got a hold of it and apparently a virtual blood bath ensued and an epic chase that took the rat from one car to the farmer's car back to the Passat and finally out to the lawn where it met its demise. Now I've got rat poison in both vehicles and haven't had any trouble with them since. I hate it when we have to leave because nature encroaches on our home so quickly. I don't think the neighborhood bear would be showing up so frequently if we hadn't gone. I had to confront him face to face on our back deck a month ago when he was stealing bird suet. He didn't respect my authority until I actually stepped toward him. And he was only about 10 feet away by the time I did that. Bad bear... But I wouldn't shoot a bear unless he was rabid or something. Same goes for skunks. I like the little guys, even though they're rodents, because they eat the smaller vermin so they're beneficial.Update: At a little past four this afternoon PDT I shot and killed with multiple gunshot wounds the gopher/ground squirrel whose parent(s) are photographed above. I hope that's the last one that's doing damage to the garden because I really hate to shoot mammals that size. Although I'm amazed i can take something like that out using open sites on the .22 Rugar 10/22 rifle I've got... The rodent was approximately 10 inches long and weighed around a pound. It was much smaller then what we believe to be its parents (in the pictures above) who live down by the well, near a hanging target of mine ironically, though it seemed to be not suffering from malnutrition.

Edited July 14, 2007 by Watermonkey (see edit history)

[sheepdog 10]

Ug, I hate rats. They are SO destructive! Last year they chewed holes in my soaker hose in my flower bed. Now what possible benifit could they get from eating that? Of course the flowers were allready growing good and it was a real pain to fix the hose. They have done an incredible amount of damage here.

 

Right now the mice are really a plague here. I'm looking for an inexpensive way to poision them, anybody have any ideas? Boughten poison bait runs $2.50 to $5 a pound depending on the type, and I would sure like to find something a bit more reasonable. I did talk to a professional exterminater, and he said to mix trail mix with either concrete or plaster of paris, or something like that, but now I can't remember what for sure he told me.

 

UPDATE!

Finally got some poison bought! I get it by the tub full, and tonight I really layed out the feed for the nasty little varmits. I am hoping for massive deaths!

Edited August 1, 2007 by sheepdog (see edit history)

[Watermonkey 0]

Well, for a while there the cats were each catching and, presumably, eating or at least killing a rodent or two each per day. That seems to have tapered off for whatever reason. One of them even managed to capture a muskrat, didn't even know we had muskrats. Leave it to the cats to find something like that! A couple years ago they even had a lizard in their clutches before I rescued it. I live near the Canadian border in the Inland Northwest so lizards aren't something you see every day around here. I haven't killed any more rodents since the cats have been hunting them down. Right now, though, I am looking for a varmint rifle. Everyone's got to have a hobby, right?

[t0od0pe4u 0]

I have a huge gopher problem in my front and back lawns. Its terrible! they burrow all sorts of holes. I know of the gopher pellets I can spread across the lawns, but fear when my little girl (16 months) runs around the backyard (supervised), that she would try to sneak one in. Just waiting for the right time to knock these suckers out of my lawn!Any advice?