Pack Rat as big as rabbit!

Brent Dowell

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
16,542
Location
Reno NV
I don't think I've ever gotten as much pleasure from a dead rat before. There's a spot on the back patio where when the added on a garage, kind of overlaps the patio roof. This apparently made an idea spot for the pack rats to live. We've had issues with them up there before, but lately I've noticed things, like an entire roll of paper towels go missing. I've set regular rat traps out, put up some rat poison in a bait station. All to no avail.

Yesterday I put some fresh batteries in our 'rat zapper' electronic rat traps and baited them with dog food. This morning I woke up to the guy on the left barely stuffed into the trap. He was so big his back legs and tails were sticking out of the trap. A rat the size of the one on the right would be completely enclosed and you'd have to lift the trap to see what was inside it.

That dude looks like a genetically mutated hulk version of the rat on the right. If he did get caught in a regular rat trap, I think he could just bench press his way right out of it.

The hawks/owls/ravens should have a good meal today.

Time to clean out that area and try to make sure no new rats can get in.

20151209_064328.jpg
 
:eek::eek: Are you kidding me??? :eek::eek: That is 22 caliber rimfire time!! That gives me the willies sitting here! Here not moving, the hawks and cats won't touch them.

They generally disappear in a day or so. I set up a game camera on some one time and it was the ravens that took them. They are probably more of a scavenger I reckon.
 
We occasionally see huge Muskrats here. Our brown rats are about the size of the one on the right. I was wondering if one of those 500 fpm .22 calibre air pistols would kill one. Anything more powerful and I have to go through the hassle of getting a firearms acquisition certificate. Can't fire real guns inside city limits, but I figure with an air pistol, noone's going to know.
 
A buddy had a couple of those "Rat Zapper 2000" units and they do work a charm on them.

He also had a problem with his cat clawing the screen door up so using that knowledge got the bright idea to hookup a small capacitor to the screen and a strip of tinfoil along the base to discourage that sort of activity. That also worked quite well until he went to open the door barefoot... :rofl:
 
Oh man what u feeding the guys out your way...lol.
I would be delighted I bagged them. Is that 2 and 0 and are you going for more. That surely ain't Arthur and martha there has to be more. No wonder this guy can carry away a roll of paper.

Be interesting to see if u can find the nest with guys like that around.
Eh maybe these guys have been into ur mash and been getting loads of calories sucking on the keg tap at night. Lol.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
We occasionally see huge Muskrats here. Our brown rats are about the size of the one on the right. I was wondering if one of those 500 fpm .22 calibre air pistols would kill one. Anything more powerful and I have to go through the hassle of getting a firearms acquisition certificate. Can't fire real guns inside city limits, but I figure with an air pistol, noone's going to know.

My experience suggests a C02 pellet rifle would not have enough 'oomph' to do the job with one shot. A single shot one that would take multiple pumps would work, but you only get one shot. Subsonic .22 ammo would work pretty well, but with where this guy was nesting, I'd be basically shooting holes in the house! I have come across some of their nests up in the hills behind the house that they have built out of sticks and rocks and they are incredible workers.

Oh man what u feeding the guys out your way...lol.
I would be delighted I bagged them. Is that 2 and 0 and are you going for more. That surely ain't Arthur and martha there has to be more. No wonder this guy can carry away a roll of paper.

Be interesting to see if u can find the nest with guys like that around.
Eh maybe these guys have been into ur mash and been getting loads of calories sucking on the keg tap at night. Lol.

Earlier this year I must have trapped about 20-30 the size of the one on the right. A few years ago they stuff both my truck and sharons suv engine compartments full of leaves and twigs and stuff in addition to pulling the insulation off of the bottom of the hood.

We now keep the hoods propped open and a couple of rat traps in there. Thats where the smaller one came from.

The nest this guy built has been used on and off since we moved here. I clean it out every now and then. It's on the roof of the back patio, under where the garage roof joins it. He had to climb a tree about 20' away, scamper along the roof, then crawl in there. And it's filled with stuff and it's a huge space. I bet I'll get 6 garbage cans full of stuff out of there, if I can even reach all the way back. These guys are industrious little destructive devils.
 
Dude, I think you killed some kid's dog! :rofl:

You gonna stuff and mount the head? That's a Boone & Crockett trophy right there, buddy!
 
I was thinking it would have been a cool opportunity to try out some home taxidermy experiments! Like I need another hobby.
 
I think you need to go primitive. Nothing like taking a trophy pack rat the old fashioned way.
http://fox2now.com/2015/11/24/hunter-uses-atlatl-to-take-15-point-buck-in-st-charles-county/

I tried to figure out which states allowed spear hunting a couple of years ago - the rules are .. complex... I think the Missouri atlatl rules are new but it appears hand thrown spears are still not listed.

Looks like they're probably legal in Nevada for "unprotected species (like coyotes and rabbits)" which I would assume includes packrats.
 
The dawn of the rats has started... that is the first sign. Pay attention to other unusual sightings or hapenings, there are other worlds there but they are in this one...:chair::rofl:
 
Top