I Hate Meeces To Pieces. And Rats, Too.


 
We had a very small mouse once. My wife wanted to sell the house. I got him with a mouse trap.

Fast forward 12 years. We are contemplating buying a rodent for my 7 year old daughter. She has wanted a hamster forever and she is a great negotiator. She is a real good girl and does well in school so we are probably going to give in.
 
Bob, how do stand being so close to such a large rodent. :eek:

Those things will eat anything!

Better get you a cat, ASAP!
 
I've never had rat or mice problems around my grills and smokers. However, my garage used to be visited by field mice every fall. They did some minor damage from time to time. A couple of years ago, a feral cat took up residence under my utility barn. I probably would have removed the cat but my neighbor is a cat lady. She is a good neighbor and I didn't have the heart to move on the cat. At any rate, since the cat has taken up residence, I am no longer bothered by mice and ground squirrels. Further, I don't get any more rabbits in the yard eating my wife's flowers and plants. Now, if I could do something about the deer that visit my yard regularly and eat my wife's flowers, etc. we would be even happier!

Always something...

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
Chris Allingham said:
I've got a rat problem. On my grill. And in my grill. There, I said it.

** WARNING: This story is not for the squeamish...or for those eating while reading this post. **

I've lived on the "urban interface" of San Jose for 21 years. There's more open space out here....

How about you? Any mouse or rat stories related to barbecuing or grilling that you want to share?
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Unfortunately I can relate to Chris' story. We have bears, bobcats, coyotes and deer that wonder thru on a regular basis. And mice, rats, squirrels, rabbits, gofers which I can't stand because they destroy my plants, trees and the yard. Winter before last was very mild and the mice found the Q100... trapped 14 of the nasties in one week. The last critter standing was a giant rat. It cleaned out the traps without getting caught so I did it in the manual way, a pipe the the head. Hantavirus and plague are well know in the southwest... I was creeped out for weeks.

So this past winter was almost non-existent. The squirrels took over and were co-habitating with the rats (literally... living in the same holes). It was so bad that they were eating the cholla cactus for a nice dessert treat. I found a good tube type trap which zapped 7 squirrels, 2 rats, and 3 rabbits. The coyotes ate good that week.

Then about a month ago a family of black footed ferrets showed up. No more squirrels, or rats, or mice or rabbits or gophers! It's been amazing! I love these guys. They are an endangered species... we'll keep 'em fed here so they can multiply. Happy to have them around.
 
Ted A said:
Then about a month ago a family of black footed ferrets showed up. No more squirrels, or rats, or mice or rabbits or gophers! It's been amazing! I love these guys. They are an endangered species... we'll keep 'em fed here so they can multiply. Happy to have them around.
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Ferrets eat rats & such?? I didn't know that.

Thought about getting one for a pet, but they don't sell them in NC. However, they are known for hiding stuff, and my daughter is ferret enough in that regard.
 
Ferrets are very territorial once they find someplace they like and they don't necessarily eat the mice or rats or squirrels but the do what red squirrels do to grey squirrels.
They inflict forced birth control by dental castration on the other critters as they run away!
I'm not fond of them as pets personally but, some people love them.
 
Reading this was like watching a horrifying accident in slow motion. I couldn't look away (or stop reading) until the end. Please let us know how it turns out.
 
Update: The original offender has not come back, but I did catch a large mouse with a snap trap that was snooping around the patio near (but not on) grill.

Seeing no more signs of activity, I did a burn-off, scrape down inside, and final burn-off of the grill and reclaimed it tonight by grilling some marinated skirt steak.

Moving forward, after each use I think I'll burn off the grill and do a quick clean of the hood, control panel, work surfaces, and drip pan to make it the least attractive target I can.

Oh, and these. Probably won't do anything, but they make me feel like I'm at least trying.

NNrFSQC.jpg


CsCYJ5P.jpg
 
I think you are doing the right thing or, at least the thing I would do! There is probably something so obvious that we are both missing! Good luck
 
Chris Allingham said:
Update: The original offender has not come back, but I did catch a large mouse with a snap trap that was snooping around the patio near (but not on) grill.

Seeing no more signs of activity, I did a burn-off, scrape down inside, and final burn-off of the grill and reclaimed it tonight by grilling some marinated skirt steak.

Moving forward, after each use I think I'll burn off the grill and do a quick clean of the hood, control panel, work surfaces, and drip pan to make it the least attractive target I can.

Oh, and these. Probably won't do anything, but they make me feel like I'm at least trying.

NNrFSQC.jpg


CsCYJ5P.jpg
Click to expand...

Just watch where you walk wearing flip flops.:)

Tim
 
I haven't had any mice or rats get into my grills (perhaps due to the population of black rat snakes who live near the house, and occasionally in the crawl space) but I had a few cotton rats come into the back yard a few years back. I didn't want to kill any of the squirrels or chipmunks we have around (which haven't done any real damage, other than that time they ate a hole in the gas tank on my mower) so I set a Hav-a-hart trap, baited with peanut butter and sunflower seeds. Sure enough, I caught chipmunks, a squirrel, and even a bird before I got the rat. Then I had to figure out what to do with it. My fantasy solution involved staking it out behind the house and letting nature (in the form of the hawk that we frequently saw) take its course. But what I actually did involved a large trash can full of water...
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