On Monday, July 18, 2016 at 10:53:52 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Mon, 18 Jul 2016 19:56:24 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

On Monday, July 18, 2016 at 8:09:35 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Mon, 18 Jul 2016 14:46:13 -0700 (PDT), True North
wrote:

Someone else must have gotten the rat...no sign of him for a couple of months.

Trust me, he is still around, with plenty of friends. There is a
formula for rats. If you see one at night, you have a bunch. If you
see one in the daytime, you have a ****load. Rats are tough and it is
real hard to get rid of them.
I haven't seen a Rattus norvegicus here but we have lots of Rattus
rattus (AKA roof rats, tree rats, fruit rats or "palmetto" squirrels).
I know better than to think I can eliminate them but I do keep a bait
station in the boat house. Based on the bait I go through, there must
be a lot of dead ones somewhere ... or they have developed an immunity
to it. I have had them chewing up the boat wiring from time to time.
If one gets into the console, it is a mess. The last time it was my
fault. I did not have the door closed tight and it popped open.
I have also had them hiding on the boat and Mr Ed flushes them out.
That is exciting until they jump in the water. A rat running around
being chased by a 112 pound dog. Auggie Doggie was better at it.
Occasionally he could catch it, kill it and bring it to you. Louie
(the dachshund mix) was deadly on them. If they didn't get overboard
right away they were dead.

On the old farm place I run though a lot of bait too. concerning immunity yes I suppose it can happen. I switch brands ever so often for that possibility.

If they eat enough to seriously stress the population, they will
simply stop eating it.


I am running into that problem with ants as we speak. I have "crazy
ants" in the house now and these are crazier than most. I don't ever
see them eating anything so baiting is not an option. Perimeter sprays
really only do so much and I really think they are living under the
slab. I don't see then outside anywhere and I have sprayed the outside
around the house.
These guys are really strange. They actually run and hide from you.
They act more like German roaches than ants. If you turn the lights on
you see some but in a few seconds they all disappear.
I saw them in a doughnut box and I thought I had them but they were
not eating the doughnuts, they were just hiding in the box. I left one
out on the counter all day and they never touched it. If I can find
out what they will eat, I can get them. So far, no joy.
I am working on trying to get every penetration in the slab but that
is tough since some are inside the walls, not really near anything I
can get to. They will just pop up somewhere else if you can't kill the
queen anyway. This is the longest I have ever gone without figuring
out what my ants eat and baiting them.
It has been over 20 years since I found a commercial bait that they
would touch. I also have not seen a sugar eating ant in about that
long. These guys can get very selective. The last time I saw an ant
eating anything, it was a dead bug and I think the poison that killed
the bug, killed them so now they don't eat dead bugs.
I guess that is how they survived a few million years.

Greg I might be mistaken but that almost sounds like termites.