Cornbread rat cure

[Al Gerhart]

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

No amount of cornbread could make a rat cute enough to eat

 

[Al Gerhart]

Damn, their cornbread and baking soda mix worked after all. Nice fluffy cornbread and rat cup cakes. I used up all of the baking soda in the mix so I had to use sesame seeds for a topping.

If we can get the government to make these SNAP and WIC eligible I think we have solved the chicken and rat problem forever. Just rename them to Chicago Chicken and fry or bake them in a golden batter.....

/s

Sarcasm alert....

 

[Al Gerhart]

No amount of cornbread could make a rat cute enough to eat
View attachment 4114685

You know, we might be able to cut back on that baking soda and still get a fluffy cornbread. Being that these rats done et that baking soda, then swelled up like toad frogs, I'm reckoning we uns might just need that there store boughten Jiffy mix and some water.

You thinken that Everett might like some?

/s

 

[londrajs]

Folks, before falling for these old wives tales and spreading false information please take one minute to Google the information.

First, rats do fart.

https://www.reddit.com/r/RATS/comments/17p813y/til_that_rats_can_fart

https://www.ratforum.com/threads/so-umm-do-rats-fart.39925/

https://halcyonwandering.com/2018/02/do-rats-fart/

And no, baking soda or cement or plaster of paris or any other old foolishness put in feed or bait doesn't harm the rats under natural conditions.

https://bobseyes.net/baking-soda-doesnt-kill-rats-2/

Now, sodium bicarbonate, AKA baking soda, CAN kill a rat if they eat 20% of their body weight of baking soda. Even more ridiculous, the OP's receipe of 50% baking soda to cornmeal, requiring the rodent to eat 40% of its body weight.

Google this term "scientific study rodenticide sodium bicarbonate" without the quote marks. Gemini will come back with a result disproving the idea of baking soda as a rodentcide and many studies where rodents are GIVEN baking soda to stop a poison dose at just the right level for a study, as an antidote to other poisons, or to prevent the rodents from passing food to quickly during scientific studies.

A forum search will turn up another white paper I published a link to that details the amount of baking soda needed to kill a rat and another scientist that tested plaster of paris. The result, some sore rat biden holes but otherwise healthy rats.

This is very interesting, and thank you. But at the same time, since I have been using this, rat population is about gone, and I have scooped up several that are “near death”. I need to do more research myself, and I thank you for this.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

This is very interesting, and thank you. But at the same time, since I have been using this, rat population is about gone, and I have scooped up several that are “near death”. I need to do more research myself, and I thank you for this.

The rat population you see versus the actual rat population are two very different things. I had a horrible rat problem at my last place and would see them scurrying along through the grape vines beside the house. I had no idea how extensive the nest they had made under my chicken run was until I stomped on the ground and it sounded hollow. It took me months to get my coop rat proof but the rats were never eradicated and I have no delusions about that. They just moved their nest because I destroyed the one under my run.

 

[Tib]

Fourth method. Sour the milk. This combined with the other methods above (steel cans, 1/4" hardware cloth everywhere) and I've stopped all varmint issues with Cole's Flaming Squirrel Seed Sauce. I don't know if it would cause issues with the crumble feed and pellets absorbing it and making it mushy, however the scratch works which is all that gets thrown on the ground as an occasional treat.

I still have deer, rabbits, opossum, and cats passing by the property, but the shiny little rat eyes stopped showing up on the cameras. Still get spider eyes which throw me off some.

Oh, add a Fifth method, let the house up the street be more appealing than your place. Most of these critters are opportunists and lazy. They only work when they don't have easier options.

 

[Al Gerhart]

sorry, capsaicin has been studied extensively. I posted a link to the study a few weeks ago or just Google capsaicin rodentcide scientific study and you will find the link.

Initially, three to four days, the feed theft lessened, then it rose to past levels, then remained slightly elevated; they like it. This study was done several times with a control test done with normal feed first, then redone at increasing levels of heat.

The initial reduction in feed theft had more to do with a change in the feed and rodents being very wary of new things.

Your "fifth" method is what the sanitation and exclusion methods do. Make the rats go elsewhere where the takings are easier.

There are only three methods to deal with rodents, sanitation, exclusion, and elimination. Until we get roosters with fricking laser beams strapped to their heads or mini robots waging war on rodents there isn't likely to be anything else. Forget all the useless old wive tales and focus on one of the three. They are listed in order of effectiveness and least cost which happen to be the same for all three.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

All I ask for is frickin roosters with frickin laser beams attached to their heads!

 

[Tib]

sorry, capsaicin has been studied extensively. I posted a link to the study a few weeks ago or just Google capsaicin rodentcide scientific study and you will find the link.

Initially, three to four days, the feed theft lessened, then it rose to past levels, then remained slightly elevated; they like it. This study was done several times with a control test done with normal feed first, then redone at increasing levels of heat.

The initial reduction in feed theft had more to do with a change in the feed and rodents being very wary of new things.

Your "fifth" method is what the sanitation and exclusion methods do. Make the rats go elsewhere where the takings are easier.

There are only three methods to deal with rodents, sanitation, exclusion, and elimination. Until we get roosters with fricking laser beams strapped to their heads or mini robots waging war on rodents there isn't likely to be anything else. Forget all the useless old wive tales and focus on one of the three. They are listed in order of effectiveness and least cost which happen to be the same for all three.

Im surprised by that but I don't doubt there are situations where they will eat it no matter what or build up a tolerance to it - living things are complicated. Going to read the study because it sounds intriguing.

I've only got anecdotal evidence that they (squirrels, raccoons and rats) stopped visiting the bird feeder once adding the hot sauce. They get a bite, don't like it and move elsewhere. Every spring the new squirrels show up, get a bite and leave after experiencing it. Once in a while a few raccoons will swing by and try it out and leave. However, the instructions were clear - put double the normal amount on for a few weeks, then go to the normal amount.

I do know how hard it is to duplicate every environment so maybe they just found stuff elsewhere and don't come back to my feeder. 8 years following your first two combined with the sauce has kept them away. I used to put the feeder up every night in a steel can but once I added the sauce and watched the feeders for a few weeks I stopped putting them up.