Last Stand at Packrat Gulch

[Bailey Guns]

Use red vines for bait. That will get them

The candy? I used peanut butter and he didn't take it. Works really good on mice.

[TRnCO]

pack rats are bad news. I'm so glad that they are far and few between around here. My nephew in KS. has entered a one day contest for the last two years, to see who can kill the most in one day. He and his team killed 47 last year and 43 of them this year. Didn't even place in the contest. Winning teams brought in over 100 rats, in one day.
Had a back hoe burn to the ground at work because of them and also had to replace all the plug wires on a truck because most of the wires got chewed by em.
I've got a picture that a buddy in KS. sent me earlier this spring showing a hood open on his neighbors truck that wouldn't start. When they opened the hood the whole engine compartment was packed completely full with milo heads.

[rondog]

Pellet rifle, gitcha one.....

[Richard K]

Take one of your wife's nylons, put a fist sized ball of moth balls in it and tie it somewhere in the engine compartment. They are attracted to the hoses and wires since our friends at the EPA have banned the use of silicone as a mold release and manufactures now use vegetable oil.

[Bailey Guns]

We tried: mothballs, dryer sheets, traps, soap (Irish Spring?) and a few other "tried and true" methods. He ate the mothballs, used the dryer sheets for laundry, bathed with the soap and ignored the traps.

[Hummer]

No offense meant Hummer, but after reading your post I had to chuckle a little bit, because all I could think of was "yeeyeeyee LIVE ACTION!!"

It was crazy how this frightened little marmot ran us between and under vehicles. And, I'm crawling on my back looking in the under carriage with a flashlight trying to spot him without getting bit. Once we started spraying with water to try to get him out, things got very messy.

Hummer, do you do wildlife work professionally?


(unrelated to that question)
Every now and then we live capture / rescue / relocate / whatever critters around our place.
Latest one was some bunnies the wife obsessed over. They are healthy and weaned, and now there is an underweight vixen with kits hanging around the bunnies safe zone (pallets)

So my wife has a bit of a dilemma.

We've rescued and dropped off things like hummingbirds and hawks and the like. If you do that professionally, let me know if you take anything - it's a rare now and again when the more important ones crop up, but they do from time to time.

I'm a fruit grower and an ornithologist working professionally in private and contract research, and as a volunteer doing wildlife rescue for the state wildlife agency. In the marmot rescue I worked with fellow volunteers, great, dedicated folks, experienced with animals.

We like the birds and bunnies and try to protect the nesting critters but we never begrudge the native predators. That's just nature. But, we don't tolerate feral and free roaming cats. Native wildlife regularly gives us the opportunity to see fox, coyote, bobcat, badger, bear, hawks, eagles and owls on our property. We have numerous nest boxes on the farm and currently have falcons and screech-owls in two of them.

If you encounter injured or displaced wildlife it's best to call CPW. The gals in the GJ office know which volunteers to contact based on the situation. They'll call me when they need my particular expertise with hummers, raptors and other birds. I see my job as mostly public education. but we'll capture, pick up and transport wildlife to the vet whenever necessary.