pbs Digest, Vol 35, Issue 41 Battery-Operated Rat Trap

StrawberryFred@cs.com StrawberryFred@cs.com
Sat, 31 Dec 2005 18:42:54 PST
In a message dated 12/31/2005 2:14:50 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
pbs-request@lists.ibiblio.org writes: 
> Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 16:20:30 -0800
> From: Jane McGary <janemcgary@earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: [pbs] REPLY:  Moles and other Geophyte predators
> To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <5.2.1.1.0.20051230161248.010e6468@mail.earthlink.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
> 
> Ernie O'Byrne and his authorities are indeed right about the Townsend's 
> mole eating bulbs. They eat plenty of tulips and  crocuses here.
> 
> My preferred mode of attack, other than the dogs (which catch them often at 
> night), is the Giant Destroyer, which is a stinking smoke flare that you 
> light and shove down their runs. I don't know whether it kills them or just 
> offends them, but they do depart for a while. The very name of the device 
> is satisfying, too.
> 
> Of course, the territorial animals soon come back, their population always 
> replaced by new ones from the forests and fields. You could probably get 
> rid of them in an urban setting, however.
> 
> In a catalog I see a battery-operated rat trap which is supposed to 
> electrocute the rats. I wonder if it would work for squirrels? Can a few 
> batteries really electrocute a small animal? It's $70, but I may invest in 
> one just to see. I noticed a squirrel streaking across the field the other 
> day and suspect it may be what's after my crocuses, though they're far 
> enough from trees that I didn't expect squirrels to approach them. (The 
> local squirrel species, the Douglas squirrel, named for David Douglas of 
> plant-hunting fame, is smaller than the European and eastern American 
> species.) So far my desperation maneuver of putting dishes of sunflower 
> seeds in the bulb frame has forestalled any more digging of crocuses, but 
> it's not a really good idea.
> 
> Jane McGary
> Northwestern Oregon, USA
> 
I tried the battery-operated rat trap...the devise never caught a single 
rodent, we have gophers and roof rats which live in the neighbors ivy...they raid 
the vegetable garden.  I have chosen to grow all off bulbs in raised beds with 
hardware cloth wire attached to the bottom.

Fred Thorne
Santa Cruz, CA



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