rat kill'in

Do you think that would work on pocket gophers as well? I have been using Juicy Fruit gum and that seems to work, but it takes a while.

Dang plain old DeCon works for me. I dump a whole box of it down the rat holes, then in about 3 months I will move the water tank sitting next to the barn and get at least 1/2 of it back. They seem to like to stay under the tank all winter. There is a tank heater in it.

If you want to clear out pests in holes in the ground, run some anhydrous down the holes. Anything in there will want out of there and right now if it isn't asphyxiated first.

thanks Buckskin...i'll check it out!

DiyDave wrote: Thought I heard a request...

I am old enough to very well remember being part of genuine old-time rat killings.
The first place we lived was right across the road from my grand-father's big feed mill business.
Four huge wooden corn-cribs meant rat city USA.
Behind our filling station was a house trailer village; we lived in one of them.
The rats had a network of tunnels from the corn-cribs to underneath every one of the house trailers.
Several times a year, the whole community would turn out armed with clubs; we would put a hose on the exhaust of some old worn-out car and poke it down a hole.
With the throttle tied back so the engine wouldn't die, it was one guys job to slowly pour used oil down the throat of the carburetor, carefully monitoring whether the engine was going to take it or not and adjusting the amount of used oil accordingly.
After a bit, black smoke would be rolling out of a thousand holes and out from under every house trailer; and, the amount of rats that would come pouring out was like something in a horror movie.
People would club rats until they were exhausted.
They would dump the dead rats in a sink-hole, throw in a bunch of old inner-tubes, roll in some old junk tires, douse a few gallons of coal-oil on the works, and set the whole mess afire.
I can right now smell those burning rat carcasses just from remembering it.

shameless dude wrote: went to the feed store today, asked about the hydrated lime, the owner said he has only order that in once in the 30 sum years he's had the store. he asked why I wanted it and told him. he looked at me funny and said no kidd'in? he says he might order a bag now and he'd share with me. feed stores always have trouble with rats and mice!

After reading this, I thought I might oughta take a look at the bag, just to make sure you didn't poison the neighborhood on my recommendation.

The bag says "Chemical   Hydrated Lime   (Rotary Kiln)   for Water Softening and Chemical Use"

The brand-name and weight is printed on the part of the bag that is rolled down and I was wearing my clean pajamas and didn't want twenty years of wood-shop dust and spider webs all over me, so I did not molest the bag.

Like I already said, WEAR A MASK; this stuff is about as fine as fine gets.
I may be wrong about this, but I am fairly certain that this is the same stuff that granny used to mix with water to make white-wash paint.

Another thought, find out if they make different fineness grades of the stuff; it will defeat the purpose if the bag you get has the consistency of coarse-ground corn-meal.

My grandfather built our local feed-mill while my father was off in Korea getting our a-double-s whipped, so it has been in business a long time.
He sold it when I was a wee lad, so it is not in the family anymore.
I never gave a thought as to availability; I just asked for a bag and they had a couple pallets of the stuff and it wasn't buried in dust like anything that is around there more than a couple weeks is.
As best I remember, it was not expensive at all either, like less than ten bucks; if it had of been more, I would most likely not have been able to afford it.

I would wear some throw-away gloves and not my Sunday-go-to-meetin' best; whatever that stuff gets on, it stays on.

I am gonna Duck-Duck-Go about the white-wash and see if that is what it is made with.


>>> On EDIT:  Forgot to add:  The bag also says "High Calcium" : I really don't know how Calcium Hydroxide could be any more Calcium and still be lime, but that is what the bag says.
On another thought, if the stuff is used for water softening, high calcium content is what you are trying to get rid off; how on earth is using pure Calcium Hydroxide going to lessen a Calcium problem ?


>>>2nd Edit:  Plain old lime, as in agricultural lime or limestone rock, or TUMS, is Calcium Carbonate; Hydrated Lime, which is Calcium Carbonate that has been burned in a kiln, is Calcium Hydroxide


Edited by BuckSkin - 11 Apr 2020 at 2:04am

Hydrated lime is the most active form of lime, it is used in cement, chemical industry, masonry, food industry (pickling), agriculture, and various other uses.  It is available here, in 80 lb bags, from southern states farm co-op stores...

According to Penn State U. the dolomite will give you the same results as hydrated line in the end but will take about 6 mo. to start to get results from the dolomite lime and it will be much cheaper.

Edited by nella(Pa) - 11 Apr 2020 at 12:34pm

when I worked construction, I was in charge of making the concrete for block laying and sometimes had to mix some lime in it for other uses...I remember how fine that stuff was, made sure I was up wind when pouring it in the mixer! thanks ya'll for the info, I guess I can get it at menards or the other box box DIY stores.

shameless dude wrote: ...I remember how fine that stuff was, made sure I was up wind when pouring it in the mixer!

At least you had a mixer; when I had the thankless job of being the mud man, all I had was a goose-neck hoe and a wheel-barrow that just looked for an excuse to tip over.

All of the guys that worked at our local Ready-Mix plant, and I knew all of them well, died before they were fifty from their lungs having so much fine dust in them.

It is not funny that those guys died at such a young age; but, what is funny is that the local dry-cleaning business was right beside the driveway that went into the Ready-Mix plant; every house and car in the neighborhood stayed completely coated with the fine dust; and, here is this dry-cleaners as close to the dust-storm as one could get without being under the mixers.
I guess it was good for his business, as he stayed covered up ----- in both dust and business.