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Minkenry

#1
Zinjanthropos Offline
The art of hunting or fishing using trained mink. Some may see it as sport. Some may think it cruel. I think I now know why city officials do not want chicken coops in urban areas. 

Plus I thought of C2 and his rat problems. 

There's a few videos out on this Carter gentleman. He has a book and I'm guessing he's in the rat extermination business. Interesting that he also has a dog(s) that accompanies the mink when it's working. They complement one another as the dog is quite adept at delivering the coup de grace once the rat is flushed out. He uses mainly female minks as he explains the males are generally larger and can't get into tight spaces. He also keeps a bucket of cool water on hand so the mink, accustomed to a marine environment, can lower his body temperature which rises during the hunt. 

I don't know if this Carter guy is careless, immune or if rats are germ free vermin because he handles each and every victim using his bare hands as he piles the dead and half-dead rodents up for all to see. I even saw him wipe his eye once after gathering some bodies. 

Here's one vid where the mink/dog managed to nail 6 rats but there are other videos showing them responsible for a lot more carnage. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjebAlfrexA


As a sidenote: I live in a rural area and even though I try to rodent proof my home there have been the odd years where mice get in. It usually happens just prior to or at the beginning of winter. I've always managed to eradicate any intruder. This year I decided to go to them before they came to me. I screwed three reliable Victor mousetraps, the hair trigger snap shut type, to my deck outdoors. I jam a sunflower seed into the clasp mechanism and check in the morning. So far since early November I've killed 28 mice of three varieties, field, house and deer mice. Deer mice I've heard carry some deadly human virus. So far I've killed 4 of them, all in the 1st 2 days and none since. I'm pleased and hope there aren't anymore nearby. I figure if the parents are killed then there's probably more newborns that don't make it also. I use tight fitting gloves to handle and bait traps. I still wash my hands after. So far no rodent has made it inside. Told my nearest neighbours and they're doing it now too, also with success.
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#2
C C Offline
Interesting.

And what a coincidence. I just had a venture with a nuisance rat creating noisy mischief underneath an outbuilding, where I couldn't get a rat trap set because of the restricted space (it would trigger everytime I set the mechanism outside and then tried to place the trap inside). Used a small, ordinary [cage] animal trap instead and was wondering how I'd kill it quickly afterwards or how silly I'd feel literally driving miles away to release it to potentially just become somebody else's problem (believe me, it takes "miles" or they return astonishingly fast or maybe our extraordinarily humane neighbors are just uniquely cursed with respect to individual rats being so devoted to them).

As things turned out, my rat instead met its demise in a Victor rat trap set above -- it had finally found a way up to through the floor of the outbuilding (hadn't had any signs of either damage or rat droppings in there before then).

Not really a quick way to go, either, because they thrash about bug-eyed before finally suffocating. But because you don't usually get to watch it, there's the vacuous merciful illusion of the rat trap being better than speculatively drowning the rat or taking a chance the dog as intervening assassin will truly seize and deal with the rat in prolonged squealing fashion or that if dropped into a non-transparent plastic sack -- tied afterwards -- that you can by chance successfully crush the skull first or flatten the whole body in one shot with a sufficiently heavy object. Ah, there's also carbon dioxide euthanasia, which would be ideal and convenient because we're like, already operating a research laboratory of white rodents here (not!). Seal 'em in a large jar and hope for incremental final sleep minus too much gasping portent of impending doom would be the nearest mimicry of it here.
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#3
Zinjanthropos Offline
Quote:As things turned out, my rat instead met its demise in a Victor rat trap set above -- it had finally found a way up to through the floor of the outbuilding (hadn't had any signs of either damage or rat droppings in there before then)


I didn’t want any thrashing about or mouse caught in the trap by its tail dragging my traps away. That’s why I secured them to my wooden deck. I’ve tried many baits from cheese to peanut butter but all it takes is one solitary sunflower seed, they can’t seem to resist it. I thought the smell of death on the traps might be a deterrent but hunger can overcome a lot of things. They keep getting whacked on the same traps over and over again. It really surprised me how many mice are roaming around out there. Never got one in the daytime. They have night & day raptors, coyotes and other predators chasing them down all the time. No mice indoors and that’s what I wanted. The only collateral damage was to an unfortunate sparrow who saw a seed grabbing opportunity.
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#4
C C Offline
(Jan 21, 2020 02:18 AM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: [...] I’ve tried many baits from cheese to peanut butter but all it takes is one solitary sunflower seed, they can’t seem to resist it. [...] The only collateral damage was to an unfortunate sparrow who saw a seed grabbing opportunity.


Do you use a sunflower seed still in its hull or a shelled one? Or it doesn't make a difference any more than to chickadee or nuthatch or that ill-fated sparrow?
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#5
Zinjanthropos Offline
(Jan 24, 2020 04:19 AM)C C Wrote:
(Jan 21, 2020 02:18 AM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: [...] I’ve tried many baits from cheese to peanut butter but all it takes is one solitary sunflower seed, they can’t seem to resist it. [...] The only collateral damage was to an unfortunate sparrow who saw a seed grabbing opportunity.


Do you use a sunflower seed still in its hull or a shelled one? Or it doesn't make a difference any more than to chickadee or nuthatch or that ill-fated sparrow?

Still in its hull. The Victor traps I use are the wooden variety with metal components,. Don't like any plastic mechanisms.. On the bait plate there is a hole big enough to jam a sunflower seed in there. Almost impossible for the mouse to pull it out and by then its too late. The jostling trips the mechanism and if trap screwed to surface then nothing much else moves.  One seed may get you two or three. Less messy. Almost every victim receives a devastating head shot. Rarely is the trap tripped, seed gone and no mouse. I've even seen evidence that a victim has been ripped out of a tripped trap by some other foraging critter (possum, raccoon, whatever)

I regret the bird was killed, so I made it a lot more difficult for the birds to access. Seems to be working.
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