beavers in my roof

[Cowgirl]

Could be mice as well, I had mice in my loft & they are surprisingly loud, especially when they take to gnawing through plasterboard. An electromagnetic thingy that plugs into the mains worked for me, but it'll only work if you have wiring up where they're running about.

[Zizzie]

No wiring, unfortunately, as I have no loft. My wee barn is vaulted right up to the roof tiles. These creatures are gallivanting about in the shallow space between the top of the insulation board and the underside of the roofing felt on which the pantiles are laid. The battens holding these materials apart can be no more than 50mm max. No room for traps, for me to get poison in, or ferret poo either! But I like ferrets and as we have a wild rabbit problem (they eat my brassicas, lettuces, strawberries, beans - for someone trying to be self-sufficient in food they are a nightmare!) I just might invest in a couple! Or borrow a ferocious Jack Russell.

I love wildlife and have great admiration for the intelligence of rats and if it weren't for Weil's Disease I'd tolerate them - but there are limits and I think I've reached them!

Ziz

[Garden Carpet]

Originally Posted by Zizzie

No wiring, unfortunately, as I have no loft. My wee barn is vaulted right up to the roof tiles. These creatures are gallivanting about in the shallow space between the top of the insulation board and the underside of the roofing felt on which the pantiles are laid. The battens holding these materials apart can be no more than 50mm max. No room for traps, for me to get poison in, or ferret poo either! But I like ferrets and as we have a wild rabbit problem (they eat my brassicas, lettuces, strawberries, beans - for someone trying to be self-sufficient in food they are a nightmare!) I just might invest in a couple! Or borrow a ferocious Jack Russell.

I love wildlife and have great admiration for the intelligence of rats and if it weren't for Weil's Disease I'd tolerate them - but there are limits and I think I've reached them!

Ziz

My JR cross would have the garden dug over for you in a half day!.. Your brassicas and lettuce etc would be a thing of the past hehe. You dont need the ferret.. just the poo... apparantly they attack rats and the rats dont like the smell of the poo. It works for me!!

jaki

jaki

[salukiwhippet]

Ferret poo is very unlikely to work - I've had rats chew into my ferret hutches on several occasions. I won't work my ferrets to rats - in fact many of mine won't face a rat, despite being happy to work big winter rabbits all day long.

There is unlikely to be any grub for them up there, so they must be feeding elsewhere, and that's the place to trap them - sheds, stables, bird tables, the kitchen?

James

[Garden Carpet]

Originally Posted by salukiwhippet

Ferret poo is very unlikely to work - I've had rats chew into my ferret hutches on several occasions. I won't work my ferrets to rats - in fact many of mine won't face a rat, despite being happy to work big winter rabbits all day long.

There is unlikely to be any grub for them up there, so they must be feeding elsewhere, and that's the place to trap them - sheds, stables, bird tables, the kitchen?
James

Blooming great big field? The rats round here bring their potatoes and eat them in the space above my bedroom! They ignore any traps!

jaki

[salukiwhippet]

What sort of traps are you using Jaki? And what bait? I've just cleared (or very nearly) a feedstore with traps, had 47 in 2 weeks.

James

[Garden Carpet]

We used chocolate and peanut butter. What did you bait your traps with. I dont know what the traps are called, they are live traps.

Perhaps I should use something they can eat with their packed potato lunches hehe

jaki

[salukiwhippet]

We used fenn and bodygrip traps, with wheat at the back of the tunnel, and when they got wary of that switched to maize cobs speared on the trigger wires, then back to wheat when the catch rate dropped again.

Live traps can be effective, but can also be a waste of time, especially if the rat has been caught in one before and released - they're clever blighters!

James

[Garden Carpet]

Yup.. they are clever all right. If they come back I will consider your method. For the moment the ferret poo seems to be keeping them away.

Thanks for the input James

jaki

[salukiwhippet]

Amazing animals actually. The bodygrips have two wires which hang down into the middle of the jaws, and when the rat pushes on them, the trap fires. After we'd been trapping for a few days, they got wise to them and EVERY grain of wheat in front of the trap was eaten, the wheat behind the trap was untouched! Unbelievable.

James