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The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

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Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#141

Post by rsync »

bmurphy1976 wrote: post #125
Amezarak wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sometimes get mice in the house, and found snap traps to be totally ineffective. They worked at first, but when I had more than one mouse in the house, they seemed to learn to avoid them and even how to eat the bait without setting off the mechanism. The most generally effective trap I have found is glue traps. They are an awful device but very effective. Unfortunately, you have to kill the trapped mice yourself. T…

> I sometimes get mice in the house, and found snap traps to be totally ineffective. They worked at first, but when I had more than one mouse in the house, they seemed to learn to avoid them and even how to eat the bait without setting off the mechanism They work, you just have to give it time. Keep the peanut butter fresh and smear it all over the mechanism to increase the probability of them setting off the trap. T…

Also … the simple snap traps are sometimes badly calibrated.

As a poster further upthread alluded to, you can fix them. I bend the vertical plate a tiny bit so that there is a bit less “shelf” for the tension wire to rest on.

Be careful - you can take this too far and make it a hair trigger…

ALSO: I always mix a pinch of quinoa or tiny seeds into the peanut butter so it can’t be licked clean - they must bump and move it to get the peanut butter.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#142

Post by sonofhans »

praptak wrote: post #37
WalterBright wrote: post #14

I use the old-fashioned snap traps. They work fine. Sometimes it's necessary to tweak the catch to make it more sensitive. They're made of wood and wire, and aren't an environmental problem. I live near a greenbelt and there's a never-ending invasion of mice. If I leave the garage door open and unattended, they're in in a flash and setting up shop. The only way to get rid of them is the traps, and you have to get rid…

For a Cat to work on mice it has to be a Mouser. I can't pretend I know the full theory of Mousers but it seems that females brought up by Mouser mothers in a mouse-rich environment are the best Mousers, since they are taught to kill from their earliest years.

That’s not been my experience, and I’ve lived with dozens of cats. Currently we have three cats, siblings. They were found orphaned, a few days old, and raised bottle-fed by humans. They never had a cat mother. All three of them regularly delivery rodents to the house as gifts.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#143

Post by kingcharles »

pcmaffey wrote: post #91
WalterBright wrote: post #14

I use the old-fashioned snap traps. They work fine. Sometimes it's necessary to tweak the catch to make it more sensitive. They're made of wood and wire, and aren't an environmental problem. I live near a greenbelt and there's a never-ending invasion of mice. If I leave the garage door open and unattended, they're in in a flash and setting up shop. The only way to get rid of them is the traps, and you have to get rid…

The problem with most traps is that they only catch one at a time. By far the most effective way to deal with a mouse problem is a bucket with a ramp leading up to a cylinder(bought online) that spins and drops the mouse into the bucket when they come for the peanut butter taped to the cylinder. You can fill the bucket with water to drown them or something non lethal. It can catch many mice at once, they stay inside…

I had one of those and somehow the fuckers would always clean the cylinder and not fall in. I lubed the shit out of the cylinder too. I put a video camera on it. They would keep their back feet on the top of the ramp and stretch their whole body along the cylinder to lick it clean without tipping in.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#144

Post by sgtnoodle »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #96
ziml77 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was her concern about leaving a bad review?

I’m this case a bad review could threaten someone’s livelihood and ability to feed/house themselves and their dependents. I feel a lot less bad leaving a bad review on an object on Amazon, but a bad review of a person who I know might very well lose everything because of even small changes in rating makes me nervous to rate them anything worse than a perfect score.

If you genuinely thought they were driving dangerously, then isn't it better to report it than to not? It's not really your fault that Uber's internal culture is so toxic. On the other hand, your choice to use Uber supports them. On the third hand, traditional taxi services often deliver exceptionally worse service, so what is someone to do?

Regarding the driver's livelihood, it seems to me like you should not worry so much about the choice of clicking a button in an app on your phone. For one thing, the driver probably isn't actually on the edge of ruin, and if they are it was due to a sequence of events that started long before you got into their car. If that's not the case, and Uber's in-app rating system is indeed a life destroyer, then at the very least maybe you should uninstall that app immediately, give the app itself a 1 star rating, and not associate yourself with Uber in the future, even at the cost of your own personal inconvenience? Would you ride in a taxi cab that included a loaded revolver in the back seat next to a sign that read, "satisfaction guaranteed, no questions asked"?

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#145

Post by kortex »

hilbert42 wrote: post #89
skissane wrote: post #45

Brodifacoum? I don’t buy that on Amazon, I buy it at my local supermarket. Not the US, Australia. I’ve never heard any controversy about availability of brodifacoum in Australia (maybe some environmental or animal welfare group has complained, but if so I haven’t heard about it) Glue traps, now that’s controversial. In the state of Victoria, illegal to use in residential settings (on animal welfare grounds), but stil…

"I buy it at my local supermarket. Not the US, Australia. I’ve never heard any controversy about availability of brodifacoum in Australia....)." I can confirm that, just went to my armory where I stockpile my weapons and ammo for use in the never ending war against four and six-legged house invaders and read a few packet labels. I live in a location that I unashamedly call Ratsville or Cockroach City depending on spe…

I suppose it's better than strychnine in that there is a chance for antidote. But that presumes there is the time/knowledge to apply the antidote for the pet. And of course that won't help with wild animals or "utility pets" like barn cats.

I'm not sure why the metal phosphide class isn't more popular in America. They hydrolyze in the stomach to produce toxic phosphine gas, which doesn't persist. Seems to be used in conjunction with SGARs but not as a first-line.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#146

Post by berkes »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #85

I wonder if this is what killed our beloved cat Eli. He was just dead one day laying in the doghouse, no apparent trauma of any kind. I can see the idiot show hog owning neighbor using a lot of baits like this.

A neighbor-kid found our cat, Ziggy, in the grass early in the morning. Ziggy was in a terrible state. Soaked (it was raining), shaking, full on hypothermia, foam on his mouth and terrified - apparently he was conscious of his surroundings still, but could not move.

Brought him to the emergency vet. Made it. But barely. Vet thought he wasn't, but we asked to try anyway. They give the cat loads of greasy puree. Rat and mouse-poison binds to that. Cost us an arm and a leg; something I thought I'd never do for an animal. But stress and full on "sunken cost fallacy - we already drove all the way, might as wel...". He made it, which makes it worth it in the end though.

Emailed all neighbors not to do this. We live in a nature-reserve, so with all the hawks, storks, buzzards, badgers and minks, it really is unacceptable. Two neighbors confined that they got some poison illegally (this is The Netherlands where no such poisons may be sold to consumers) on the internet, unaware of the risks, and harm to animals.

Me: "you were unaware of the harm that a poison for animals, does to animals?" I'm a beekeeper, the same happens there too "Huh? Never realized that insecticide is bad for bees, thought it only worked on wasps and flies. ...".

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#147

Post by sgtnoodle »

OneLeggedCat wrote: post #48
Syonyk wrote: post #2

Ew. Not surprised you can buy the stuff that professionals shy away from for being too damned toxic, to your door, overnight delivery. Plus good reviews, hard to leave a bad review for it when you're bleeding out in the ER. I don't use poisons for pest control. We have too many owls, hawks, and the occasional eagle overhead. I'll kill stuff mechanically (damned pocket gophers...) and toss the carcass out where someth…

I have a terrible pocket gopher problem. They absolutely have to be dealt with when they come out of hibernation this year. What's you're favorite trap for them?

After years of trouble, my wife finally found success with a GopherHawk.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#148

Post by derefr »

matwood wrote: post #67
pvaldes wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a big enough garden, you could put an owl nest box in a calm place when the owlets constant screeching noise will not suppose a problem. Owls can be territorial and attack to protect the nest also, so leave them far from the house and alone. Unlike traps, they will catch ten mice by night each night and will dispose of the corpses so you don't need to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P-KWBSbis4

We're fortunate enough to have an owl (I assume a pair) and a couple of hawk pairs in my neighborhood (I can see them in the nest). There are also snakes (I've had to coerce a 3' black racer off my porch). Rodents have never been an issue. The problem with denser city living is there isn't a lot of habitat for natural predators.

There's a natural predator in cities whose habitat is "your couch."

But people say that allowing cats to be "outdoor cats" is a bad thing.

(Cats do hunt a bunch of species that aren't going to try to enter your house, and may in fact be endangered. But then... so would owls, hawks, and snakes living in the same areas. My point isn't so much that having cats outdoors is good; but rather that we should apply the same standard to having any of these other predatory species in our neighbourhoods that we do for cats.)

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#149

Post by dredmorbius »

justsaying9 wrote: post #103
progre wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, I totally thought that it would be about some law that ruins the internet for everyone while at the same time does nothing to stop bad actors. Like the EU cookie warning mandate.

God I hate that bullshit. They have accomplished what, exactly? Oh, a big annoying banner that I now have to click through. So helpful. A testament to the stupidity of mankind.

Awareness of a problem is the first stage in addressing it.

Tracking became as ubiquitous as it is silently for most people. As you're demonstrating, it's no longer silent.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#150

Post by kingcharles »

alpaca128 wrote: post #33
zrm wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar to eBay seller ratings where 99.9% positive feedback means you might get your item, whereas 95% positive feedback implies the seller is stealing the goods from the factory that counterfeits them and whether you receive anything depends mainly on how the shipping carrier handles a package that catches fire in transit. Less than 80% positive feedback has never been observed but would presumably involve the sell…

This has the same energy as that "you wouldn't steal a car" ad in IT Crowd. But it's not far from the truth, and unless 10 news websites report on it online platforms won't even bother with an empty statement. Amazon for example lets vendors transfer good reviews to any other product by just replacing the product entry (name, description, price). Sure you then have reviews for coffee cups under some solder wire, but…

> Amazon for example lets vendors transfer good reviews to any other product by just replacing the product entry (name, description, price).

Huh. I wondered why often the reviews were for clearly a different product than the one in the description.

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