Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2004 11:12 am Post subject: Rodent / General Pest Control
Aviaries tend to get rats and mice. They are a problem because they can contaminate food stuffs with their defication, and can even take birds and chicks or disturb nesting females.
Hence we want to destroy rats and mice (which should be a national hobby/pasttime in NZ anyway).
There are many ingenious ways of doing this which revolve not so much around what works best to kill the rat but what works best for the 'icky' factor of the aviary owner. e.g. do you mind taking a dad/bleeding rat out of a trap. Sometimes it might even be still alive and you'll have to hit it with a hammer. Or would you rather poison them and have them curl up and die somewhere out of sight?
Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2004 11:34 am Post subject: what works
What works best (in my vaguely qualified opinion) is kill-trapping. The animal is dead, and you know it because you have the body in your hand. Good stuff! The problems associated though are
1) you have a dead rat in your hand (smelly)
2) setting the traps entails an element of losing your finger
but check out the T-REX traps on the above website. Risk-free!!
Poisoning is also a very valid method, but poison is expensive and not always efficient when much yummier bird seeds (or birds!) are lieing around
Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2004 11:36 am Post subject: rats vs mice
rats and mice are two very different species. You need to know this.
They can prefer different foods, and they need different traps to catch them (big vs small). Mice smell bad, rats don't. Rats run first, bite later, mice bite first, then run.
Mice also ned 10x as much poison to die as rats (per body weight). Nobody is quite sure why.
So know what you're working with or be perpared to deal with both!
Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2004 11:38 am Post subject: Recolonisation
Be aware that once you remove the critters, there will be another ten ready to step-up and take their place (re-colonisation). Your aviary is probably the best habitat they've got for miles. Warm, sheltered and full of birds and bird seed. YUMMY!
So your ridding campaign will be an ongoing one.
What you are working with are most probably ship rats (long tail) and house mice (normal mice). Not Norway rats (big) or kiore (extinct almost).
Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2004 11:41 am Post subject: Other pests (cats)
Not really gonna say much here. Because you keep cats away rats and mice will like your aviaries even more. But local cats may keep some control on the local rats (but also the local birds).
So long as the cat can't get in to the aviary, most domestic moggies seem content just to stare into space imagining how wonderful the meal might be.
Most domestic cats are hopless, unless they are real hungry, out of our 3 only 1 will actually kill the pests.
Yes we have lost birds from mice....
And seen in other avairies where mice are nesting in boxes under the nesting material, with birds sitting on eggs and young chicks!!!
The best we have found and so have several friends, including the Ma-In-Law (Ma-In-Laws are always right!!!) is this below, using peanut butter as bait.
Drop into a bucket of water, then unclip tip out to dispose of the bodies, no handling
One can get several mice in one go in the same trap over night.
P.S Reference is to lower wire trap, not the furry one at the top
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_________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
We have had very few problems with rats and mice. They are out there for sure. We have three cats and a Jack Russel and they catch rodents every few days that we are aware of.
Wd hand reared some three baby Spotted Eagle Owls about five years ago and then we were actively catching wild rodents and breeding mice in order to feed the owls.
Owls and hawks are certainly far more efficient at catching rodents than cats. The big problem is once the rodents are resident in your aviary. Never use poison, it kills birds too, particularly raptors.
Suspended aviaries and concrete floors are probably the reason why rodents are not a problem for us, a number of breeders near to me have lots of problems with rats killing birds, they have earth floors.
I happened on what I think was 'good' idea after being driven crazy with mice in one old aviary......the solution? I put set traps IN the aviary inside old bird cages.
Worked a treat, kept the birds out of danger but WHAMMO to the mice. I emptied traps at least twice a day that way. I could always tell when the trap had been tripped as the cat would hear and run to the safety door for me to throw her her treat!
I'm also lucky with my cat's, especially Fat Poo. She's an awesome mouser
Have u ever seen a problem, have a soln in your head but just cant quite make the final idea come about?
Then someone comes along with a real simiple soln that makes u want to just throw your hands in the air, and feel silly.
Parrotdragon, thats what u have just done
Great idea m8 _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
Actually another clue is if ya gonna set traps, don't put them in the same place all the time 'cos them meeces get to know these things so ya gotta change the location a little just to confuse them and get them a bit more interested into investigating _________________ ~~INDI~~
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