Subscribe now and choose from over 30 free gifts worth up to £49 - Plus get £25 to spend in our shop
It's a long story, but the end result is that I now have a rat trapped in a crate of 12" LP records. It jumped in through the handle slot to avoid me smashing its head in with a very big spanner when I found it under the eaves in our loft room. So now it's trapped in there. There's another crate on top and I've sealed up the entry point with some rat-proof steel mesh stapled in place. It can't get out the other end because there's a shedload of LPs in there too.
So now I'm at a loss as to what to do next. Ideally I'd carry it outside and simply release the little bastard back into the wild, but I'm suffering with long covid and can't really see myself carrying a heavy crate of LPs down two flights of stairs with the hand holes blocked with mesh - I'd also have to seal the top of it to prevent it from jumping out, which I guess I could manage.
I don't want to up-end the box and crush it under the weight of the records as that seems unnecessarily cruel. I don't have an air gun so I can't shoot it. And I don't want it escaping into the house.
So, what would STW do?
Big bin bag over the box and seal it up, sorry animal lovers rats are vermin
Anything deadly you can spray in to the box?
How much do you value the vinyl inside? It's probably chewing/peeing/shitting on your prized LP's right now.
They can chew breeze block an LP collection won’t hold them for long.
length of tube (got any wrapping paper, poster tube, etc.) from the handle into a more portable container?
Once trapped you are not supposed to release in a new area, long thread on this a while back, so put a breakneck trap in that container before connecting it and resolve it that way?
Anything deadly you can spray in to the box?
Paco Rabanne?
drop some rat poison into the box. Wait for the screams as it dies a slow, painful death.
so put a breakneck trap in that container before connecting it and resolve it that way?
Yep, break neck trap in a suitable "escape" vessel and then let it from one into the other.
Re it being in the box, if you can't see or hear it, it's probably not. An average sized full grown rat will fit through a hole the Suze of a 5pence piece. It will also chew its way through most things in short order so unless your LPs are kept in a steel box this probably will resolve its self pretty soon.
If there's a UB40 album in there it's gonna fix that rat, that's what it's gonna do.
Or phone the council and get their vermin control.
Probably an unpopular opinion but you will earn massive karma points by letting the little fella free outside. I use to have a pet rat named mr sleeks. He was a lovely beast, and super intelligent as well.
Whatever you do don’t subject him to a slow death like the user above who suggested suffocating him to death with a bin bag.
drop some rat poison into the box. Wait for the screams as it dies a slow, painful death.
Zoosadism is pleasure derived from cruelty to animals. It is part of the Macdonald triad, a set of three behaviors that are considered a precursor to psychopathic behaviour.
There is a UB40 LP in there. There is also very definitely a rat. I stapled some steel mesh over the top, taped some plastic over the top and carried it outside - all masked and gloved-up. My gut instinct is to let it go into the custody of next door's cat.
Joking aside. I don't have a problem with externalised rats. I just don't want them in the house which is now pretty thoroughly sealed up with a rat blocker in the drain seeming to have pretty much stopped all activity bar this little bastard :-/
I'm going to let him out to fend himself in the wild with a stern lecture 🙂
Long length of hose pipe + car exhaust fumes.
Long length of hose pipe + car exhaust fumes.
In the house? Interesting.
Do you have any friendly crows nearby?
I saw a crow fly off with a rather large rat yesterday, presumably for Mr Crows supper.
We have a cat, a Westie and a hulking ex-Paratrooper living next door, but no crows. Anyway, the thing is back outside where it belongs now.
Fortuitously the only LP it had contact with was a Deacon Blue album, which is very definitely not mine and I have no idea where it came from, so that's going straight in the bin. Mr Rat not very lively - I suspect he was tired, hungry and probably in shock. He's scuttled off into the undergrowth.
Thanks for all the suggestions, useful and otherwise. I'm going to neck a strong decaf coffee - thank you long covid - and do some serious deep cleaning. The A24 rat killer is going into the eaves storage cupboard in case he has any mates. It's been emotional 🙂
At least you let it go with some Dignity.
If your house is sealed up with rat proof defences, I would just let it go outside.
Don't like killing creatures so unless it is injured already and you are putting it out of it's misery, let it go.
Nature will do what it does and the thing will then wither find it's way to a habitat or get eaten.
Just don't let it go within 1/4m of your house if it can get back in.
He’s scuttled off into the undergrowth.
No doubt will be heading back to Boomtown 😉
he's a Real Gone Rat
At least you let it go with some Dignity.
🙂
Nice one OP, some of the suggestions on this thread were pretty heinous. I can only hope they were in jest.
That's not a rat, it's a Chinese Hamster!
Presumably the only reason you didn't want it in with your lps is that it was a single
Late to read the follow up and too late for the Dignity joke. Damn it.
At least you let it go with some Dignity.
Rhino got in before me, so I'll have to go with option three:
Just before the last Friday in the month...
It is part of the Macdonald triad
Kill it quick, but expect repercussions, apparently it's part of a Scot\Chinese criminal gang 🙂
He’s scuttled off into the undergrowth.
No doubt will be heading back to Boomtown 😉
I'd imagine anywhere in your town would do so long as it can take cover from the sky.
If only you'd had a radiocative atom, a detector and a vial of poison.
Zoosadism is pleasure derived from cruelty to animals. It is part of the Macdonald triad, a set of three behaviors that are considered a precursor to psychopathic behaviour.
Collect them all, issue one only 99p