Last night, when I took jeevdawg out for his evening pee, we spotted some rather unwelcome visitors in the alley behind our house - namely rats. Filthy, disgusting, brown rats. Much as I would have loved to have let jeevdawg off leash to tear after them (he is part terrier, and hopefully has some vermin-hunting instincts), that’s obviously not the safest thing for jeevdawg to do.
At any rate, I saw them again this morning. This time it was pretty close to our building, in an area under our back deck where jeevdawg typically does his business. In other words, an area that reeks of dog urine. Yet these brassy rats are out there. (And jeevfiancee, who is deathly afraid of rats, isn’t all that happy about that.)
Any advice on things to do about my problem? I have no problem poisoning the little bastards, except that I’m worried about jeevdawg finding and getting a hold of any poisoned bait, even if left outside. (the bait could obviously be moved by the rats, and jeevdawg is much better at finding and putting inappropriate objects in his mouth than I am at stopping him from getting them first. Tons of fun when you share your alley with a chicken restaurant). I’ve seen that RatZapper thing on the 'Net. Is it any good? Seems like a way of dealing with the problem in a reasonably safe way. Any other ideas?
Eewww. Nothing bothers me more than the idea of rats in the wild. My mother wa sraised in Detroit during the Depression, so I have her stories of rats.
I’m sure Chicago must have some sort of vermin-extermination department. Maybe the Health Dept. Does Chicago have a general-purpose number to call for city services?
StG
Don’t poison them if you can avoid it. They’ll end up killing all the good critters. Maybe live traps? StG was right. There must be some place that will assist you. They’re a real problem in some areas.
Live traps? Unless you have thousands of live traps and the willingness to transport a pied piper sized horde of vermin to some location that is willing to allow you to dump them there, you ain’t gonna make a dent in the Chicago rat population with live traps.
I generally try to avoid using poison or chemcials because of the harm it can do to the environment, but in a case like this (where there is little other ‘wildlife’ in Chicago that will be harmed) I’m not sure there are many other ways to tackle the problem.
Keeping garbage cans secured is the best way to prevent an infestation in the first place, but once the rats are there, you’ll need something stronger to get rid of them.
Call 311 in Chicago. The city will come out and bait the area using special devices that are desgned to keep other critters from eating the poison. Untill then, it may help to just think of them as weird looking squirrels…