So you have pests and you think you need a terrier? No, you probably don't.
What you need to do is clean up your barn and outbuildings, remove food and water sources, rip the dens and fill them in with liquid manure which will lock up hard, mow neighborhood grass and vegetation as flat as a putting green, and then gas and gas bomb every den that you can find.
After you have lifted up the stacks of boards and buried the ripped and rotted feed bags, and burned that stack of moldy hay, follow up with a regime of poison bait stations in plastic boxes, switching bait types every 3 months.
Don't misunderstand me: I love ratting and ratting terriers, but if you have a rat problem and don't already have the dogs and a 15-year commitment to care for the dogs, which involves feeding them, socializing them, training them, and providing them with veterinary care, don't pick up a permanent liability to solve a temporary problem.
What you need to kill on the farm is as close by as a farm store or catalog, and even Amazon is very helpful if you look up exterminator or pest control:
Manning UE-12 Underground Exterminator
Hook your car exhaust up to a garden house and kill groundhogs and rats around your barn. Also works as a suicide system, I am sure. :: $31.21.
Gopher X Pest Control and Extermination
This looks to be a serious bit of equipment for burrowing rodent extermination. A ridiculous price for a small engine, though :: $2,400
This looks to be a serious bit of equipment for burrowing rodent extermination. A ridiculous price for a small engine, though :: $2,400
6 comments:
All good advice. I would add as a precaution, that dogs and other animals who eat dead and dying varmints who have ingested poisoned bait can suffer the same fate. I have heard too many unfortunate stories not to warn the danger. Pets and farm animals who behave strangely or seizure-like, may be exhibiting symptoms of poison. Have heard they can be treated with vet care. -- TEC
Lately I've been seeing flyers from local shelters trying to adopt out feral cats to people with farms and barns for pest control.
https://www.barnowlbox.com/
This is a program gaining momentum and becoming quite successfull if implemented with the guidelines.
Well said. The true and committed (and well informed) love of dogs should always be the single reason for getting one.
With growing unease I observe the massive dog trafficking industry that imports thousands of dogs from hell to adopt them out to clueless hippies growing and growing. Infecting people with the romantic thought of saving a dog from misery by giving a lot of love -that's all it takes, they say.
I just had a phone call the oher day with a lady importing such dogs... when it turned out that the only reason she started an organisation for the purpose was to have a charity activity in her curriculum (!? color me shocked, of all the stupid reasons, I would NEVER have thought of this one -what a low life) . And it turns out, she owns a pure bred Westie with papers and all, it's her first ever dog and it's almost 1.5 years old! Wow! She Has Absolutely No Idea What She Is Doing. But was very proud to tell me that within the 4.5 months since founding the organisation she has already placed more than 70 street dogs from greece with great families. Now I didn't do the math. But, we have approx half a million dogs in this country and only 8 million people.There are at least 10 very active organisations of the kind that I know of that import weekly dogs from Romania, Greece, Poland, Italy, Croatia, Spain, now also Portugal. How likely is it that so many dogs will end up in an adequate home for life? It's probably just a station in their curriculum to check off as "done" as well. It's not about the dog, it's about their ego. No one thinks of the possible real problems or of the 15 years to come.
I wholeheartedly agree with TEC above. Those that use poison to rid their property of unwanted critters quite often poison their own dogs or cats, and those of their neighbors. Birds of prey that take them, get poisoned, too. Absolutely check with local ordinances first, many places don't even allow this due to how frequently pets and wildlife get poisoned.
It's also an awful way to go and I avoid unnecessary cruelty. Look up what strychnine does to the body of any animal, especially at ineffective low doses, quite common when folks try to cheap out. For mice/rats, plain old food baited snap traps are quick and very effective when used correctly.
I'm very much against poisons. For every wildlife rehabber, falconer and others have seen the effects of rat poisons' secondary effects. www.raptorsarethesolution.org. There are safer methods.
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