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My first intentional kill

Medwayman

Medwayman

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Over the past few days I have been putting some peas on a plate with some water to get them going only to find them all gone in the morning. A quick webcam setup found out that as I am rural France a rather large Rat has settled under the lounge floorboards, defo a Rat and a biggish one as I walked into the kitchen this morning only for him to scarper right past me, traps were down lat night with no success and poison not an option unless 6 months later pulling up floor boards to get rid of the decomposing smell. so tonight my Rifle will lose its cherry , set up in the corner nice and quite and wait.

From a hunting for food point of view that's what I will have to do, will go for a quick clean kill as possible.
 
After a while I started to domesticate them in my garden.
In my opinion they don't disturb me.

I also bought a few in the shop, one after the other, and they slept in my sleeping bag next to the feet during the winter.
So I know them very well.

They are very funny and friendly and intelligent.
But the ones you can buy are very different to the wild ones, a bit like dog and wolf.
You really can compare them with dogs, they are more or less the same intelligent as dogs, but do not really accept rules which are against their interests.

Because I know them very well I wouldn't shoot them. In my opinion it's like shooting dogs.

If that rat is very big how you wrote, it will die in the next six month from alone, because it is very old.

Should you live in the south of France it should be enough to keep the water in your garden inaccessible. The rat will move somewhere else.

In Northern France food would probably be a reason to leave you as well. They can survive with very few food, but especially the French ones are of course interested in loads of delicate french food, and not really interested in what falls down from an English Gentleman's table.

;0)
 
Shooting domesticated dogs would be much easier than wolves as you could get them to sit still before pulling the trigger or even better throw them a ball then shoot them when theyā€™ve brought it back to you; wild dogs would be as hard as wolves.

38
 
To me? To Medwayman?
Or both?

An interesting point we didn't discuss is the following:

They usually live in tribes.

They walk long distances around theyr houses. In Germany we call Rattus Norwegicus "Wanderratte" - the hiking rat.

They are different to the smaller ones with long tails, Rattus Rattus, which live in trees and attics, and nearly died out in Germany.
Rattus Rattus lived in Roman and medieval times in Europe, Rattus Norwegicus arrived later here, coming from Asia.
And supported by the Royal Navy they settled over to all continents. (Not in Antarctic of course.) That's the reason, why they love sailors and countries with a long marine tradition.

Rattus Norwegicus digs in the earth and lives in complicated subterrain houses with up to 100, sometimes 300 animals.

Such a fat rat has born , I forgot it, up to 2000 children and children's children she can see during her life, but when they become to many some settle over to another area.

So, If you see a small one, you have 30 around, if you see 5 you have 80 or hundred around you and so on.

To shoot them all might become a long during hobby!

The only thing that helps efficient against them is a big cat. It hunts the small ones and the old ones die out.
The cat must be out in the early morning and late evening. But because rats aren't idiots, the times where the cat is outside have to change.

If you call every evening your cat at six a clock into the house, after a time the rats will sleep till you call, brush the teeth and start working at 7 PM.
They are really every thing else than stupid!

I would prefere 300 rats in the garden over one cat in the house, but that's my private opinion.

;0)
 
Rats are undoubtedly intelligent but they're also destructive when allowed to roam free, chewing timbers and electrical wires in lofts and under floors, they destroy or contaminate food stores and are proven to carry disease.
They're not a problem out in the woods but you don't want them in your kitchen.
Erbswurst, I believe Medwayman is absolutely justified in wanting to get rid of rats in his home.

Medway man, just a couple of things before you fire an air rifle inside an enclosed space, beware of ricochets and rebounds off hard surfaces and put anything especially valuable to you somewhere safe or in another room. In your situation I would persevere with the traps.
 
Catch and release are no good for rats or squirrels, you still need to dispatch them in the trap (using a trap comb and air pistol in the UK due to 2018 legislation). If you release them they're strait back, same with mice. I use the simple neck break classic "nipper" traps. I also use wire to fasten them to something to prevent them getting dragged off.
 
If you use a cage trap and bring the rat several kilometres away with the car that might be a good option.
Of course, one kilometre is nothing, the rat wilk come back!

But you really should attach the trap to something solid. Years ago, before I changed my mind about them, I put a cage trap in the garden and in the morning the trap was away and I never found it back.

I guess a fox stole the trap after a rat was inside.

They love cheese, but bacon glues better to the trap and that's important.

They have exactly the same taste like humans.
They prefere chocolate over every thing else. You could put a bit chocolate in front of and inside the trap, behind the bacon. But very small pieces!

If you really want to get rid of them, you should count at first, if you really have a problem.

It is possible that the rat only visited you on a longer hike, but doesn't live in your garden.
If you waited several hours and didn't see anything that might be the case.

If you stop feeding it on your terrasse it might finish the visits.
They can survive with nearly every food, like caoutchouc coated wires or grass seeds. But they prefere of course nuts and vegetables and especially cooked food from the compost.
 
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But if you see more than one, don't hunt them! Dont run behind them!

Follow them secretly and very slowly and watch them from a distance and try to get out where they are living!

If you shoot them or run behind them, they will understand, that you are dangerous.

But if you stay in a distance, they will become quiet domesticated, and you can get out where they are living.

And when you didn't fall in love with them by watching them, you can digg theyr cave out.
That easily can have the dimensions of 100x120x50 cm.

They know Versailles and try to copy it!

If you start to digg them out they will leave the house through the back doors.
And if you destroy the cave totally you have a good chance, that they never come back.
 
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