trapping rats

[rhoda_bruce]

If they already sick, I doubt it, but you right cuz I don't want to take that chance.
I'm late moving. I have been missing a lot of sleep lately and I took a melatonin. I almost took a nerve pill from an old Rx, but then remembered I want to apply for a job and don't need that in my system and have to start showing Rx bottles, etc.....so just did the melatonin....had the wildest dreams too.
But gotta get moving, see about drowning rats and feeding animals and maybe some flylady chores.
I will kick my own butt if my biggest vat has a hole in it.

 

[Mini Horses]

Part of the water in the vat method is to keep them from jumping out. I've seen some VERY athletic mice in my barn jumping when I moved something! So they wouldn't be able to jump out, will swim until........

My daughter told me she has a live trap -- takes them out & turns them loose Wow.....I told her to take them waaaaay away from her house before release.

Guy up road from me has a mouse "factory". Special white ones he raises & sells to pet stores, etc. Food for snakes, lizards, etc.
Does really, really well. They are disease free, etc. Not my type of farming.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

To tell the truth, there is a lab in my parish a few towns over and I have know of them to buy snakes, frogs and lizards. Pretty sure they must also buy rats and my daughter teaches biology at our HS, so she might have connections. I was half thinking it might be to my advantage to catch them live. DS probably messed me up this year, and its really only a thought. If I get my old job back up the bayou, I will be much closer, so might be able to take a detour sometimes.....help me pay my gas. But this is really a wild thought....maybe one of my more wilder ones. If I can make a brooder, I'm pretty sure I can also make a cage a rat can't escape from, if I put my mind to it, or just start collecting aquariums from my cousin's flea market. Oh what a life!!! Almost wilder than Jamaican rat venture.

 

[sumi]

Hey, I farm worms to supply pet shops and I'm probably going to expand into crickets soon. People buy them to feed to pet snakes, lizards, spiders etc. Rats and mice make lovely pets, if you got "pet" ones and they breed quickly too. I may go that route down the line, if/when I have time and space. It's a viable business idea.

 

[Mini Horses]

For him, a business. $10K building, special type mice, daily work. But, he makes money from it. Has customers & helps supply other wholesalers. The businesses won't take just any ole mouse....he has rows of mouse containers, about 3 stacks high, water supply set-up, temp controlled, etc.

Yes, they reproduce at an unbelievable rate!! Like every 30 days.

 

[HomesteaderWife]

Breeding mice is profitable but ridiculous to keep up with. My best friend raises feeder mice and she said it's been tough- they bred SOOO much that she had to cull a bunch this Summer and freeze them. She also had HALF of them get loose in her house! I could not raise mice haha!

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Oh my!!! Your friend is in a fix, related to my fix.
Well, I have the vat with water and its quiet now, but I was hearing a lot of noise a few hours ago. I just hope I find out I hit the jackpot.

 

[HomesteaderWife]

Well we set the bucket trap last night with no luck but I am not giving up yet. We need those mice gone (and the chickens need a treat!)

 

[Denim Deb]

She also had HALF of them get loose in her house! I could not raise mice haha!

My DD had a couple of pet mice. And, they did get loose a couple of time. Then, we had a field mouse in the house. We had to check first to be sure it wasn't one of hers. I was so glad when they finally died. I was NOT happy that her father let her get them.

 

[sumi]

You guys just reminded me of something horrible/funny that happened to me a few years ago with a field mouse. It got into the house and hid in my DS's bedroom. I went looking for it and found the tail sticking out of it's hiding place, so doing what you do under circumstances, I grabbed the tail and pulled… The mouse, realising it's predicament, did the same… Needless to say, a few seconds later I was sitting holding a mouse tail and the mouse is GONE!! I think we both screamed. We did manage the find and catch the tail-less wanderer some time after that and disposed of it. I still feel a little bit bad about that incident.