Worst advice ever.... RATS!!!
 

This past spring I was the lucky recipient of a pickup load of horse manure that was not rotted enough to use - it was full of clumps of grassy bedding. A friend advised to do as he does - cover it with a tarp and let the summer heat rot the weed seeds and grass. And that is what I did.

This morning I pulled off the tarp to start shovelling this material into the garlic beds.
THREE startled rats leaped out and ran away. A fourth sat peeping at me from a hole. There are several holes visible in the little mound of nicely rotted material which is nothing more nor less than a RAT HOTEL. :(:x
I spotted rats twice this summer in the garden and wondered why they are staying around. I stopped putting eggshells in the compost, then stopped composting at all put scraps in the garbage instead.:no: I thought it was my fault for growing tomatoes. I dragged my old tomato plants way off into the woods instead of building a proper compost with them. I thought I will have to stop trying to grow more veggies because it is attracting these pests. And maybe those thoughts have some truth, but NOTHING compares to making a manure hotel for them. :evil:
So now before I can put the manure to use, I will have to drive the rats out of it. /puke
Just absolutely thrilled with this prospect. :cry::evil::x:panic::bummer:

Bower I am so sorry to hear this. Rats can become a huge problem in a short time. Many people would try to control their numbers before they tried to run them off.

Do fat country rats bother you that much?:lol:
Here is what you did.
You created the best warm place for rats in the winter and on top of that a food source, the seeds in the manure.
You might even call it the Rat Radisson.

Just the other day at the office I never go to a woman came in and asked a man to remove a dead roach from her office.
There is no way I am going to remove a dead roach for anyone, they can do it themselves.
Worth

Oh no Bower! So sorry to hear about the Rat Radisson (good one Worth) :).

Do you know anyone with a Jack Russell Terrier that you could borrow for a while? They are excellent ratters I hear. Wish you lived closer as I have a friend who would be delighted to lend you hers for some fun exercise.

Guess you need to toss the horse manure in the woods along with the discarded tomato debris :( It might help it to degrade faster. Ugh!

Hang in there!
Linda

I probably would blame the tarp, not the manure! It provided a rainproof cover for them to set up housekeeping. Without it, the manure pile would have just sat open to the elements like any other mulch pile. I suppose rats will be attracted to undigested oats and corn kernels passing through the horse gut, or oats left attached on bedding straw.

I wonder if using clear plastic instead of an opaque tarp would have made any difference? If it was in full sun, it might have heated up the pile to the point of discomfort? In shade it would not have made any difference.

I can send you some cats. :)

Our cats have a sudden fascination with our barns because the mice and rats are getting ready for winter.

Yes indeed. Deluxe Ratisson Hotel I made. :evil: Warm as toast and riddled with food. :dizzy: And right near to my house as well. :o
Nice thought Miss S, I did worry 'where will they run to', but there is no way I'm letting them set in that pile any longer or try to 'reduce their numbers' myself. I am not cut out for the business of killing vermin or of instigating a long and endless war between me and them. As the fellow who gave me the advice about the tarp, so happens to be still engaged in a decades long war with the rats. If he expected a nest in the pile he certainly didn't say so, or if he has seen such nests it may not have occurred to him that it is a primo way to create a rat problem and a bad practice for that reason. :(
In any case it is true, there are fat country rats around wherever there's any serious attempt to grow food. The closer you are to water, the better they like it. There are plenty of ditches and marshes in the area, a river also, but these features are far enough from my house to make it less appealing as a place to nest. Or so I thought.
There has been a huge amount of construction on the hillside above the river, and a swath of forest now is housing. Dunno if that displaced some country rats or attracted them. :?!?:

I took a long pole and poked and broke away the holes in the pile and have now seen a total of ten animals leaving the pile. The smallest were no bigger than mice, the largest one the size of a cat and a medium brown color while all the lesser and small sized ones were grey. :surprised:
I will have to be on my game and make sure I have routed them out of the area and not taking up residence somewhere else on my property. :x

[QUOTE=AlittleSalt;668067]I can send you some cats. :)

Our cats have a sudden fascination with our barns because the mice and rats are getting ready for winter.[/QUOTE]

Bring em on!! :D:))
And Linda, my thoughts as well... the right dog would be a very welcome guest!!!

Dee, very interesting thought about using clear plastic instead.
Could of course end up with a "Rodent Observatory" or "Rattarium" :twisted::shock:

Or a solarium for them to work on their tans in! :lol:

It's called an atrium or rattrium I'll have you know.:lol:
Worth

Wow, sorry to hear this. There is no need to cover a horse manure pile (unless you get horrendously high winds), it will heat up very well on its own. If the the air moisture is very low then you can spray it a tiny bit with the hose. But manure piles (unless you are in the desert like me) heat up and rot quickly without any help. You can even see steam rising from it on a cool morning. If you have chickens they do a great job of getting rid of bugs, weed seeds and anything that would dare to sprout. At least this has been my experience with decades of horse manure.

Just remember Farm Rats are just Squirrels with Bald Tails!!!!!!!

MikeInCypress

[URL]http://bertc.com/subfive/recipes/index.htm[/URL]

[url]http://bertc.com/subfive/recipes/cookingrats.htm[/url]

[QUOTE=ChiliPeppa;668082]Wow, sorry to hear this. There is no need to cover a horse manure pile (unless you get horrendously high winds), it will heat up very well on its own. If the the air moisture is very low then you can spray it a tiny bit with the hose. But manure piles (unless you are in the desert like me) heat up and rot quickly without any help. You can even see steam rising from it on a cool morning. If you have chickens they do a great job of getting rid of bugs, weed seeds and anything that would dare to sprout. At least this has been my experience with decades of horse manure.[/QUOTE]
So true! I think the judgement is unanimous... the tarp is to blame, not the manure.
I doubt the rats will return to try to live in that nest, now that the tarp is off.
Project 'move the manure' will happen in the near future, anyway. :|
Dang I never hope to see another rat. :bummer:

[QUOTE=MikeInCypress;668088]Just remember Farm Rats are just Squirrels with Bald Tails!!!!!!!

MikeInCypress[/QUOTE]

:twisted:Aw Mike you had to mention Squirrel, now Worth is all about cooking it up. /puke
Too bad Worth, I will not be getting close enough to any rat dead or alive, to ship it to you for your next meal.

But if you want to grow yourself some for your cheap eaten, you know what to do. :roll: All it takes is a manure pile and a tarp. :?

My rodent and deer population has went down dramatically since they stopped running the deer feeder next door.
Worth

Friend
 

:no::no:Did you tell your friend or are you gonna......?😎👹👹

[QUOTE=kurt;668127]:no::no:Did you tell your friend or are you gonna......?😎👹👹[/QUOTE]
I'll tell him, whenever I see him.
I have a funny feeling he will laugh... :roll::twisted::no::shock::shock:
He accepts rats as part of the landscape, I think. And the forever battle. He'll tell me I should set some traps, etc etc. Not me. :|:no: The tarp was the last rat trap... a big one.

Give me one day without something to eat and I will cook up a nice fat farm rat no problem.:yes:
Did you know rat milk has one of the highest butter fat percentages of any mammal it's true.
4 times that of a cow.

Worth

In/ over the eons in the trades I always would ask those others what the best was/ is,the newest etc.The exterminators said we do exactly what our name is.Then I will ask what he does,his reply and most others is basically “no food,no rats,no roaches”.Eliminate the food access,( containerize pantrys,use plastic food bins)and do not give them cover for water/ rain ,tarps ,old cars,dog food bags,bird food scatter under the cages.I am guilty of all the above,and then some.I hate to say next to Ravens,pigs,rats and us who is the king of the hill?Rats are my pick.

[url]https://youtu.be/o1takU08aOI[/url]

:)):)):))

[QUOTE=bower;668101]So true! I think the judgement is unanimous... the tarp is to blame, not the manure.
I doubt the rats will return to try to live in that nest, now that the tarp is off.
Project 'move the manure' will happen in the near future, anyway. :|
Dang I never hope to see another rat. :bummer:[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Worth1;668132]Give me one day without something to eat and I will cook up a nice fat farm rat no problem.:yes:
Did you know rat milk has one of the highest butter fat percentages of any mammal it's true.
4 times that of a cow.

Worth[/QUOTE]
In the past rat posts I think there was some talk about the culinary joys of the rat.I cherish squirrel livers,chicken livers,calves not cow livers.Rats we pass on.Now we know of the Gambian jungle rat that is on the menu in some parts of the world and is a delicacy in the bush.They are actually wild now in Florida(Keys).Gots to love Mother Nature we should be as adaptable.

[QUOTE=Worth1;668132]Give me one day without something to eat and I will cook up a nice fat farm rat no problem.:yes:
Did you know rat milk has one of the highest butter fat percentages of any mammal it's true.
4 times that of a cow.

Worth[/QUOTE]

I can just see it now... Worth milking a rat before putting it into a skillet. Saving the cream for a delicious cream sauce. :twisted:

I would be careful of the clear tarp as well. I was putting in a new walkway last summer and had to cover it when I wasn't working on it to keep the sand dry. I covered it with clear plastic. More than once I saw a mouse running along the path under the plastic. Didn't bother it all that it was clear.

I am normally a peaceable person but not when it comes to rodents. Relocation would not be an option for rats in my yard.
There are no rats in Alberta where I came from but there are on the island. The neighborhood is patrolled by a number of cats, including my own and I have't seen any evidence of them yet. I would have no hesitation to murderize them thoroughly if I did.
yeech. disgusting creatures.
KarenO

In some parts of the world they have rat temples.
[IMG]http://s.hswstatic.com/gif/karni-mata-11-622x415.jpg[/IMG]

So worth, how does one go about milking a rat ??

There are so many critters that come and go in my garden and would be happily received on any menu... rabbits, moose, grouse.... rats are vastly outnumbered by better things to eat. :|
In recent years I got a bit cranky about the amount of tansy that has spread around the perennial garden area, which is a bit much for something I don't even use nor like the smell of. I suppressed one big patch last year by building a new raised bed on top after tearing out as many roots as I could with the pick. But there's certainly still no shortage of the stuff. Only when I first spotted the rat this summer and got the paths whippersnipped - including many tall patches of tansy - it dawned on me that having a flea repellent here and there in the garden is not the worst thing you could have, at all. :roll:
And that may partly explain why the rats in my garden are the healthiest looking rodents I've ever seen.:twisted: Way better looking than the ones around that dish in the picture. :shock: This is what I would call a very small mercy, in the situation. :(

[QUOTE=KarenO;668141]I am normally a peaceable person but not when it comes to rodents. Relocation would not be an option for rats in my yard.
There are no rats in Alberta where I came from but there are on the island. The neighborhood is patrolled by a number of cats, including my own and I have't seen any evidence of them yet. I would have no hesitation to murderize them thoroughly if I did.
yeech. disgusting creatures.
KarenO[/QUOTE]

Traps, baits, exterminators I will resort to immediately if I ever see sign of rodent in my house!

As for 'relocation' of rats nesting right next to my door, I didn't exactly issue passports and visas. :evil: The first three leaped out and bolted the moment I pulled off the tarp. Yes I crushed down the burrows to force the others out. I fail to see what other option was available, nor any reason for me to have a direct hand in killing them other than driving them out of the safe place I unintentionally created. I will do everything to destroy or remove anything on my property that creates a habitat for them to exploit and get comfortable. :bummer:

I fail to see what other steps I could or should have taken. :surprised: Fence off the pile to prevent them from leaving? :shock::? That pile is no more than 20 feet from my door, and let me tell you it is the worst place I can think of to have a rats nest. That pile is also history, it has to be deployed now before it freezes. How the heck would I keep the rodents from 'relocating' as I'm shovelling it off.:dizzy:

The fact is that rats have a habitat in the area because of wetlands and rivers and lots of human activity and homes. There are natural predators including foxes and hawks, and there are many dogs and cats as well. IMO driving them out into the open is the obvious thing to do, to reduce their chance of survival. Baits and traps in the garden would be a hazard for my neighbors pets and other wildlife, it is by no means a simple solution, so I hope there is no further sign of them lurking around that would force me to put out traps. :(