dcon immunity

[Harvey M. Taylor]

Anyone hear of rats/mice becoming immune to dcon rat poison? I put out one tray a day for 6 days straight, and they still eat a full one every day. This is in my shop, not the house.I dont believe there are that many rats on this side of town. Any suggestions?Max

[David G Baker]

My suggestion is that they are not eating your rat poison, they are saving it for later. Look around your shop for places where they can stash the poison. They are very creative. I have found it in the air output side of my shop vacuum the hard way. I turned it on and had rat poison all over my shop. Inside of gloves that I leave in the shop is a great place for them. A neighbor found a lot of rat poison in the salt tank of his water softener, he was afraid to use it again so he replaced the whole system at a great expense.
Seriously, spend some serious time looking around because it can be hazardous to your health.

[Harvey M. Taylor]

Thanks Dave, never thought of that. However, dont see any signs of them doing that. Plan to put a different brand of killer and see. There is always the option of the spring loaded trap.

The early bird gets the worm, but the second rat gets the cheese.An old chinese proiverb I just made up. Cheers. Max

[Lee Schierer]

I prefer traps over bait. Rats and chipmunks will tend to carry off the bait and poisoned critters can make other critters like house cats and dogs sick. Use peanut butter for trap bait. If they tend to lick it off without tripping the trap, tie a small piece of cloth to the trigger and mash peanut butter into the rag. Gets them every time.

[Jerry Bruette]

My advice would be to stop using pellets and start using bar bait. I use some stuff called Jaguar. I think it's made by a company called Tomco.

The mice can't carry the bar bait away and there's ways to keep the bait away from any house pets. You can place the bait in a piece of PVC pipe that's nailed to a board.

Another idea would be to poison the little buggers outside of your shop. I use a bucket trap at my cabin and it's outside the cabin...no sense inviting them in just to off 'em

Jerry

[Rick Moyer]

I prefer traps over bait. Rats and chipmunks will tend to carry off the bait and poisoned critters can make other critters like house cats and dogs sick. Use peanut butter for trap bait. If they tend to lick it off without tripping the trap, tie a small piece of cloth to the trigger and mash peanut butter into the rag. Gets them every time.

Yeah, with traps you know where they are, dead or alive. With poison, they may go die (and stink) where you don't want them or can't easily get them.

[Larry Frank]

+1 on traps for mice, rats and ground squirrels.

I fight a war every summer with the striped ground squirrels. I tried poison and they ignored it but the traps with peanut butter and bird seed pushed into works great. I get 20-30 every year. I think it is an invasion.

[Clarence Miller]

try anti-freeze, it's sweet they like it. so do raccoons and skunks.

[Ron Jones near Indy]

try anti-freeze, it's sweet they like it. so do raccoons and skunks.

Dogs and cats love it too.

[Greg Peterson]

A trap is quick and effective. I understand the desire to rid a space of a pest or nuisance, but there's no need to be overtly cruel about it.

[Lance Norris]

Billy the exterminator says that something in Dog and Cat food is an antidote to the poison, so if the mice or rats are eating pet food, the poison wont work. Keep your pet food sealed in a metal container and that will keep the pests out of the food and then the poison should work. I agree with the comments here to use traps.

[Shawn Pixley]

They may be carrying the d-con off but it also could be a factor that the poison hasn't killed them yet. The poison used is an anticoagulant. It typically will take 7 to 10 days to kill. it builds up in their system and the rats die of Hemmorage or anemia. Traps are likely better but they eliminate the critters one at a time. The poison can get the whole group. I prefer dogs and cats as my pest control measure.

[David G Baker]

I tried the things you plug in a wall receptacle that emits a noise that keeps critters from entering your building. I have two of them in one of my buildings as well as D-con pellets. Since I plugged in the repellers my green pellets are no longer disappearing, this makes me think that the electronic devices may be working. It bothers me thinking about where the green pellets were moved to because they were found in some very strange locations. I think I will set traps, leave the electronic devices in place and get rid of the poison for safety reasons.

[Brian Elfert]

My employer has problems with mice and rats in parts of the building. Some of the floors of the building have raised floors for ease of wiring and the mice love it there. It sure doesn't help that garbage is only picked up twice a week instead of daily due to cutbacks to save money. Poeple also keep quite a bit of food in their desks.

More than 50 pounds of poison has been put out to no effect. The mice and rats are eating other food instead of the poison.

[Clarence Miller]

A trap is quick and effective. I understand the desire to rid a space of a pest or nuisance, but there's no need to be overtly cruel about it.

Actually Greg, anti freeze is in my opinion very humane. The effect is somewhat narcotic, similar to passing out drunk. Regular rat poison is basically a blood thinner that causes death by internal bleeding which can be overcome by massive doses of Vitamin K which I learned when my neighbors dog ate a box of decon, he died of old age 12 years later. The cruelest way in my opinion is sticky traps, where the rodent is subject to starvation and being in a long term state of fear. Ron is correct about pets though, get them out of the shop before giving the pests a drink.