For weeks I’d been trying to find and block every hole where a bush rat had been getting into my cabin.
It tunnelled anew under the rock and cement footings each night. It gnawed plastic, seeds, photo albums and – unforgivably – books.
It had to go. I borrowed a live trap big enough to take the critter I saw race along the same rafter each night.
The friend lent me two so I set them both, using apple spread with peanut butter as ‘bait’.
Next morning I had two mini bush rats – ‘it’ must have been a ‘she’.
Quite cute for rats, but nevertheless they were relocated.
The next day I caught Mum. I was heading to Sydney that day so she rode with me to the spot where the kids had been ejected.
So for the next few days in the city it was not only the dried mud on the Suzi but the rat cage in the back that gave us away as bushies.
Thanks Peter. Will reconsider with that in mind! I have one regular visitor on the verandah at night, but haven’t worried to catch it out there. Might do so to get a better look now.
Cheers
Sharyn
hi sharyn im certain the rat in the pics is not a bush rat,easiest way to tell is by the lenghth of the tail which is shorter then head and body.the tail in pics is way to long.hope this may help incase you catch another.
Ah, the ups and downs of living close to nature, Anne!
Hi Sharyn
Have not seen our “visitor” for a week now! Last saw him when I dashed into the kitchen to get a cloth (our elderly dog had thrown up in the bedroom). I put the light on, startled him, he startled me and I nearly fell over!! Have to admit I shouted at him “get out!” and that was the last I saw of him!! Maybe he hid in the wood box and made a dash for it when the door was open. We think if he had died somewhere in the house we would know about it by now. We decided that we would have to (reluctantly) put traps down but caught nothing and nothing has been touched. We are hoping that he did go out!! This morning had another surprise. My Husband went to his “office” ( a room on the end of an old dairy) and there was an echidna down almost under the desk!! He managed to pick it up (wearing thick gloves) and put it outside where it immediately burrowed and hid but obviously beetled off when all was quiet again. Weren’t we lucky to see one so close. Thanks for your help
Anne
Do take a photo when you trap the mystery critter, Anne. I’ll be keen to know just what your visitor is.
Thank you for the web site info. We have studied that and don;t think we have a bandicoot!!! We are still waiting for “cat trap” from the council so the creature is still living the “high life” in our house. We have not seen it again but know it is around as the sweet potato is getting smaller every day!! Thanks for your help we’ll let you know what happens.
Regards, Anne
Anne, take a look at this site:
http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/CA256F310024B628/0/4434C3C82D852F8ACA2573E40083858A/$File/Southern+Brown+Bandicoot+Fact+Sheet+V7.pdf
It describes the bandicoot scats and there’s a photo; they aren’t like the pointier, smaller bush rat ones.
Hi Anne,
I’ll ask friends who have a scat I.D. book re the droppings. Bandicoots are a rare sighting here so I am not familiar with their products! No bush rat I know ever strolls, but , as I describe in my ‘Mountain Tails’ book, the bandicoot we had here was ‘very laid back’.
Check back over the week and I’ll comment here re the scats.
Have read above comments with interest. Not sure whether we have a bush rat or bandicoot. We are trying to get a cage to catch it as we don’t want to kill it just don’t want to share our house with it!! Would like to know if bush rats droppings and bandicoot droppings look the same? Our animal is very”laid back” and has “strolled” across in front of us (and the dogs!!} a couple of times has not “scurried” like mice do and as I thought a rat would. Any helpfulcomments would be appreciated
Hi Jo,
Love the image of the stripper rats! And yes, they are smart – as cunning as a rat in fact…
Hi Sharyn,
Speaking of Bush rat collections – I pulled the stove top off ne day to find – a bra, a ventolin, the tarzans grip, s mall plastic bottle of glitter and torn paper – I wondered if they were building their own strip club!
They drive me nuts when they get in the house or car! We try to live trap but sometimes they’re just too smart to go in.
I’ll watch out for the blue predilection…
Jo
Hi Una, I do sympathise with you! Funny that my bush rat also shredded the blue plastic lid of a container; have never read before that they go for blue. Hope you took a photo of that arty nest; I still haven’t found where mine made hers.
But did you have one of these live traps? Your local National Parks people can probably tell you where. Not nice for them to be evicted and relocated, but hopefully not fatal. And I agree: I can’t live with rats, bush or not.
I had a similar bush rat problem. Well worse really because it made me feel so awful. I’m a painter living in small town of Nuriootpa in the Barossa Valley.Noticed sleek and handsome rats pottering around the garden. Don’t mind that. Then noticed strong ratsmell in studio. Then all my tubes of blue guache and w. colours disappearing .Couldnt catch rat. Had to use poison. Awful. Eventually found nest in studio roof. She had lined it with bits of fabric nicked from my basket,soft wool from the spinning wheel scraps of paper from edges of paintings and drawings and decorated the lot with tubes of blue paint, chewed at the end. An exquisite little creation. Haunting that one has to destroy such things but I cant live close to with rats- even artistic ones.