Rat or Mouse???

Eeks! In your hair?

The Rat Zapper rocks! You can get it at most any hardware store, about $40-$50. It works, it's clean and humane.

Greetings Liz

I can't help you to identify the critter. Sorry. Don't use duct tape for ingress and egress issues though. Use steel wool. Pack steel wool into any cracks and/or holes you can find. They can't chew through it and they can't push it out of the way. It works for all critters including insects. A mouse can fit through any opening that it can get its head through - openings as small as 1/4" - so be thorough!

Hi!

Thank you for the advice. I had heard about using steel wool, but these are not holes, they are gaps between the wall and the AC. I'm not quite sure how thorough I can be as it is a rather large area. Can you buy steel wool at hardware stores rather than using the type of steel wool I buy for dishes?

Hi Liz,

Sea Chest, Ace Hardware in Crown Bay phone: 774.0495, sells bronze wool, which will work just as well and is far more rust-resistant than steel wool.

Hope this helps a little and best of luck to you in getting rid of that terrible pest.

Bronze wool is a great idea. For large openings, you can use just about anything that hardens as a backing material and limit the depth of the hole. Use a screwdriver to pack the steel wool over the backing material and then caulk over the steel wool to make it look nice.

The size you describe is probably a small tree rat. Tree rats go in and out like they own the place. Be sure to cut back trees and shrubs that touch your house. while living in an un-named St Croix condo I had a rather large rat move in and begin to share my kitchen at night. The condo manager called one of the big pest companies, I can't remember if it was or Orkin or Terminix. He stuck his head in the crawl space and said yesum you do have a rat. Then he went away.

I went to gallows bay and bought a medium priced rat trap. I then fed the rat for the next few days, but did not catch a thing. One helpful neighbor suggested the "best rat trap you can buy". I did consider a high priced rat trap, but instead bought the dreaded "poison grain". My thinking was that the rat had an exit plan from my condo and would go away to die. Fortunately that was true. Good bye Mr rat.

Good luck plugging holes, they seem able to go through the smallest space. Do make your home as inhospitable as possible to the furry rodents. There are some good local pest companies.

There are three things in this world I can not deal with.....snakes, rats and spiders....I support poison.....
Ah...make it 4...I forgot about my X.

jay - hmmm.... sounds like it was thoughts of your ex that brought poison to mind... or vice versa. lol

For rats and mice, I prefer the clean touch trap that you can open easily to set the trap or to release the dead little critters without having to touch the part with the muck on it. They come in small and large sizes and they work great. Bait them with peanut butter for the best success. Glue traps also work pretty well if the mouse has to walk across a specific spot on the floor to get to or from his hole. They manage to avoid them if they have another option for getting to their way in/out. The downside is that they live a long time while glued and the traps aren't particularly reusable. Sometimes the trap gets flipped over and you have glue on the floor that is hard to get off.

The size of critter and droppings sounds like a mouse. Having one up on the bed in your hair can't have been fun. That one definitely has to go.

I thought mice and rats would always stay AWAY from humans. UGH. Am I wrong ?

Do those ultrasonic pest repellers that you plug in work at all ?

Do be careful with poisons ESPECIALLY if the critter can get outside to die. If a dog or cat eats a poisoned rodent, it too will be poisoned. For mice, there's a box with a wind up key on the side. You place it up against the wall in the critter's pathway. It has a small tunnel going through the box. Mice, being quite curious critters, will walk through the tunnel. No bait is needed. When they step inside, a paddle wheel flips them to the other side of the box where they will stay alive and well until you release them. Just let them free well away from your home.

Aussie, good advise....releasing them far away I mean.
I had some chipmunks disrupting my world when I was in the states. Mom and four babies.....Destructive little critters. Anyway, I got some humane traps and was told by the people selling them that the beasts need to be taken at least seven miles from the house or they would find their way back, it worked......I was thinking that, if rats are as smart as the chipmunks....the island is only 13 miles long here in STT....and if you live in the middle of the island, you may as well just make friends with the rat, give him a name...maybe a nice chew toy.....and a feeding dish......heck, a little rat door so he doesn't have to come in through the cracks.....that can be considered insulting to a proud rat. Anyway, Liz....good luck with your pesky problem....and if you do release him, keep him away from Frenchman's Bay 🙂

If you're on STT, go to the exterminators in Smith Bay in that shopping center where the gas station is. You can buy this clip sort of heavy plastic thing. They gave me a little cardboard box to put it in & cut a hole in the side so the rat could get to it. Here's my rat story:

Usually there's more than one. I caught one with a glue trap but he left his mate behind & I didn't relish dealing with a critter stuck to a trap. A friend took pity on me & got rid of it. He left his mate behind. This one was smarter. I bought a Have-a-Heart trap which he sneered at. I also didn't have luck with peanut butter & the exterminator said it doesn't work as well down here as it does in other places.

So they sold me the clippy thing which you spring open & put some dry dog food inside it. (They love dry dog food.) The next morning, there he was with his little neck broken quickly & cleanly with no muss. He did a LOT of damage before he went to his reward. Chewed through the hoses on my dishwasher as well as the hoses on my washing machine. They have to sharpen their teeth so get rid of it as soon as possible. It was about the size you describe & I guess the dogs thought he was another friend as they ignored him. Good luck!

This thing had chewed holes in the screen on my deck to get in.

Ok....I take back my poison remark...I am now in favor of breaking their little necks. I like that!! (tu)

🙂 I DID try the Have-a-Heart but after he cost me a bundle in repairs I lost my compassion. Had he played around in my hair, I might have gotten a gun and that's a frightening thought.

Poison makes rodents thirsty and when they look for water, the cistern is often where they end up. I have no qualms about killing pests and glue strips or snap traps baited with peanut butter seem easiest. I only wish there were something equally effective for scorpions because I hate them most of all.

I love this board! Almost as many posts about rats as Kenny (who?) Chesney! LOL!

Liz-

You lost me at "something playing with my hair". It sounds like when I arrive the first thing I'm getting after a rum drink, is a cat.

Good luck to you!

About a month ago I was washing dishes and saw a mouse. I yelled at my husband and said there is a mouse in our kitchen. He yelled back no problem I'll take care of it. A few minutes later he came into the kitchen with his paintball gun and said where is it. I pointed and left the kitchen. A short while later he came out and said don't go in the kitchen and don't ever use a paintball gun to kill a mouse. He spent quite a while in the kitchen before I was allowed to go in. I did not ask any questions but the mouse is gone. I do on occasion find a dead mouse in the house usually close to my cats mouth.

dougtami,

It is 6:30 in the morning, and I am laughing so hard there are tears in my eyes. WhatEVER possessed him to use a paintball gun? Hope it was a nice color!

Everyday should start like this.

Paintball gun!!! Thats priceless!!!!
Why do women ever question our methods for getting things done....We (men) know what we're doing!
Good day everyone!

I stand by my proven method to keep out everything from my kitchen at night. No more roaches, no more wolf spiders, no more scorpions... I swear to God, if you keep a bright light burning in your kitchen, they stay away. I had a long fluorescent light on all night every night and had no more surprises in the morning. It was worth it! Now the ants were another story. I just kept the house as clean as possible. Sorry about your mouse...rat problem. I had a mouse in my hair while sleeping one night. Half asleep I grabbed it and then woke up enough to realize what I had grabbed and threw it. Glue trap worked for me, but it was just a mouse, not a rat. Good luck and ditto on Not using poison. Too many issues there and it will backfire on you.

Teresa

Your killing me ladies! O.K I am bypassing the rum drink and going straight to the sporting good store for paintball gun (with cool colors of course) then making a stop at the hardware store for fluorescent light and then the dive shop for new bands for my speargun. Just think, I was only concerned about getting housing and a job.

Maybe the rodents won't like my head. I started losing my hair some years ago.

My story comes to a sad, sad ending. I left work yesterday, after calling both Ace Hardwares on St. Thomas who said they closed by 5pm, I went to little K... nothing for rats. I then went to big K... nothing for rats except poison. I considered it, and then decided to just get some steel or copper wool to plug the holes, thinking, without motivation (I have no food out) he (it may have been a she, but I'll just say he) may not try to find another way in my house. I came home, sure he would not be in my apt because he usually only comes out at night... and when he is out, when I come home, he runs back into the wall through the AC. I come home and hear nothing, so I decide to get to work. I could not find steel copper and I had already been to three stores, so I got some steel wool and used nearly 16 pads plugging the holes.
Later, I am on the couch after dinner, and out of the kitchen slowly walks the small rat, looking around as if nobody else is there. I shreik a little, it doesn't seem to bother him. I go and get a wooden pole I have lying around and walk towards him... he seems not to notice. I swing at him (and I'm not sure if I made contact, and if I did, I don't think it was much-- as much as I wanted him gone, I just didn't have it in me to pound on an animal) and he realized he should move, but didn't move very fast. I meet him at the other end of the room, where I end his life. It was terrible. It didn't take a very powerful hit to knock him on his side, unable to get up, yet trying, and I couldn't help but cry at the little guy lying there helplessly breathing his last breaths. I felt so terrible at the sight of his blood. I did my best so he wouldn't suffer. It chokes me up just to think about it. I hope I never have to intentionally kill anything other than a bug again!

So I should cancel my bid for a pea shooter on Ebay? I tried keeping the kitchen light on but after Mr. Rat was firmly established I think it just helped him look around. 🙁

My kitchen does need to be repainted, though. . .