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There is an outbreak of rats in our neighborhood and everyone on our street is having to deal with it. Never had this issue the previous 17 years we lived here. I'm sure it's entirely coincidental the state recently banned an entire class of rat poison.
Had to move all our non-refrigerated food that isn't rodent-proof to galvanized steel garbage cans. This can't go on forever, and we are fighting back.
These little A- holes are smart. We only caught a couple in traditional traps, the rest wised up pretty quick. They won't touch the "safe" rat bait. The only thing that seems to still catch them off guard are the 12" square adhesive traps.
Of course, they are still alive when caught in these. Left to their own resources they CAN escape those even if it takes pulling their own fur out. And they can potentially still bite the unwary.
For the first time since I've been into firearms I saw a need for a bb gun. A quick trip to Sportsman's Warehouse introduced me to the Ruger NXG air pump bb gun. Shoots bb's or .177 pellets, rifled barrel, no CO2 cartridge to have to stock and replace.
I can dispatch surprisingly large rats with a single head shot if they're still... two if they choose the "hard way" and struggle. One little F-er actually bit the muzzle while I was trying to give him a humane ending... got one right down his throat for that maneuver but he did quiet down then, allowing a better placed shot that ended any suffering. I'm not fond of killing anything bigger than bugs but this is a them or us situation here. Sorry if that was too graphic for some... it's an act of necessity.
No complaints about the Ruger so far except the trigger is much heavier than I'd prefer... likely due to these non-firearms projectile launchers being frequently handed to inexperienced youngsters. Maybe that will break in with time... or maybe it can be fixed. We'll see.
Had to move all our non-refrigerated food that isn't rodent-proof to galvanized steel garbage cans. This can't go on forever, and we are fighting back.
These little A- holes are smart. We only caught a couple in traditional traps, the rest wised up pretty quick. They won't touch the "safe" rat bait. The only thing that seems to still catch them off guard are the 12" square adhesive traps.
Of course, they are still alive when caught in these. Left to their own resources they CAN escape those even if it takes pulling their own fur out. And they can potentially still bite the unwary.
For the first time since I've been into firearms I saw a need for a bb gun. A quick trip to Sportsman's Warehouse introduced me to the Ruger NXG air pump bb gun. Shoots bb's or .177 pellets, rifled barrel, no CO2 cartridge to have to stock and replace.
I can dispatch surprisingly large rats with a single head shot if they're still... two if they choose the "hard way" and struggle. One little F-er actually bit the muzzle while I was trying to give him a humane ending... got one right down his throat for that maneuver but he did quiet down then, allowing a better placed shot that ended any suffering. I'm not fond of killing anything bigger than bugs but this is a them or us situation here. Sorry if that was too graphic for some... it's an act of necessity.
No complaints about the Ruger so far except the trigger is much heavier than I'd prefer... likely due to these non-firearms projectile launchers being frequently handed to inexperienced youngsters. Maybe that will break in with time... or maybe it can be fixed. We'll see.
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