Home Improvement Today?

Have you by chance tried using a plunger on it? Once a year or so our master shower drain backs up from dog and wife hair, last time I was planning on the discusting manual auger tool when my wife grabbed the toilet plunger and damned if it didn't clear it out.

 

Bought a cheap jeldwen fiberglass front door for our house. I wanted to just paint it a satin black but the wife wanted a wood-grained door.

Used a Zar graining tool and stain and this is the result. Still need to poly but I think it came out ok. She’s happy with it so that’s all that matters.

 

anyone have a good solution for tree rats? I keep my yard clean and clear of them but they seem to be living in the neighbors yards and coming over the fence to eat my fruits and veggies. I tried adding sheet metal to the top of fences and throwing those little poison pellets in places that don’t effect other animals but they’re still around. My dogs keep them from walking around on the ground but the trees are a different story

 

Rats are the fucking worst. They drove me nuts with an infestation last year in my tool shed. I tried everything from traps to sonic wastes of money. In the end the only thing that cures it is to block all access to what's getting their interest. Don't know the size of your garden, but can you completely enclose it with wire screen?

 

I tried that for the garden but then they’ll just go after the fruit trees. The trees are small so I don’t have a good way to just raise the branches higher off the ground or else I would wrap the trunk with sheet metal too. I might have to resort to acting like a psycho and shooting them off the second floor balcony with a BB gun

 

Ever since they chewed through my fuel pump harness on my previous Taco, doing almost $700 worth of damage, I've been using a multi approach method:
Dog, but limited as you said, a spray, traps, fake snakes, and BB gun. And if I weren't so allergic to them I would get a big outdoor cat, hard to beat a natural hunter.

Good Luck.

Exterminators Choice - Rodent Defense Spray for Cars and Trucks - Non-Toxic Deterrent for Pest Control - Repels Mice and Rats - Vehicle Protection - Safe for Kids and Pets (1 Gallon)

https://www.amazon.com/Exterminator...hild=1&qid=1591196462&sr=8-13&srs=14082330011

Havahart 1077 Small Professional Style One-Door Animal Trap for Squirrel, Rabbit, Skunk, and Mink

https://www.amazon.com/Havahart-Pro...d=1591196742&sprefix=squirrel+,aps,158&sr=8-6

$8 Homdipoo Realistic Fake Rubber Snake Toys Black That Look Real Prank Stuff Cobra 49" Long

https://www.amazon.com/Homdipoo-Rea...198&sprefix=realistic+looking,aps,163&sr=8-11

 

Had one in an apartment building that chewed the entire wire harness for a 3 month old bosch dishwasher. Very smart animals; they would't go near any sticky traps or snaps with peanut butter or any other bait in them. I ended up buying some expensive poison and the dude ate so much of it I thought I had a whole pack of them. Turned out to be just one, and he died after 3 nights of feedings. Made my own bait station.. 5 gallon bucket, 2 2" holes low on the sides for rat access, 3 pieces of wire vertical through the bottom (tie off), and through the top.. thread the bait on the wire, shut the lid and twist the wires together - NOT CHILD OR PET PROOF. If there are kids around, spend the money and get some child proof/petproof bait stations.

There was so much food in this apartment, sitting out, no garbage can just a garbage bag on the floor, food all over the place so I figured the rat was staying off the traps because it kept getting food elsewhere so easily. I picked a spot between where I thought the rat was coming from and the dirty apartment kitchen, and he decided to go for the bait instead of up 2 floors to the dirty apartment. Point is, he choose the bait, because its delicious. The stuff you get at the box stores, is not delicious. Rats tend to stick to their known-safe paths, and don't deviate. They can also avoid new objects out of fear, and can also sit somewhere if they get frightened for a very very long time. So place your baits, monitor for a few days and be patient.

There is a lot of different bait out there, some are 1 feeding and kill, but I decided to pick something a little slower so that I'd have more chance of catching the dead rat OUTSIDE of the wall.. And it worked. I found him half out of his burrow under the foundation in the clean out pit dead.

https://www.domyown.com/jt-eaton-nectus-2g-second-generation-rodenticide-716s-p-16865.html

 

We had a huge problem with rats (talking 30+) due to some jackass neighbors (the whole neighborhood did) last year. Hadnt ever been an issue before. But we had them come under the shed and they would go steal our chickens food. Tried all the readily available baits plus got a different chicken feeder but didnt help. Ended up calling out an exterminator and they placed some boxes around. Over filled them. Came back out 2 days later and all the bait was gone. But after the first day it was significantly better population wise. But the 3rd or fourth day there werent any to be found. It was fairly inexpensive too. Want to say like $100 bucks for the initial and then only $50 a month afterwards. Just make sure the exterminator knows its for outdoors and just for rats and they will probably give you a deal since its quick and easy for them. The company we used left the bait boxes for us and said we could fill them with off the shelve bait if we wanted or if we noticed any coming back.

Just an option.

 

No, it just has water sitting deep in the pipe. When the master toilet flushes the water moves so I assume both drains are connected pretty closely. Also we don't use the master shower, it's tiny compared to the hall bathroom, so we use it instead lol

 

Pictures as requested @98tacoma27
You can see the damp spots where the puddle once was, I used the towel to stop the edge of the puddle getting to the wall that backs the laundry/utility room.

 

We had them get into our roof and a majority of the insulation with chewed up pine cones. Two summers of feeding them a consistent supply of .177 cal lead pills and they would not show up on the property except to sprint through. They would sit in the little green belt on one side of our property, sprint through, and sit in the neighbors trees, but would not stop even for a second in ours.

 

If you decide against full on chemical warfare (safe for doggo?) there are so many ways to trap

I have 0 experience with tree rats but it seems like you know at least 2 things about them:they like fruits and vegetables and they are coming over your fence.

My first move would be to put a big (50 gal would do it lol) trash can or barrel with the bottom 1’ filled with water next to the fence. Rig up a bridge from top of fence to barrel. There are a few different ways to bait them out over the water. In the past we put a piece of 1” pvc pipe loosely over a spindle (a dowel I think) that spans the diameter of the barrel. Smear/attach some fruit or veggie bait out in the middle. PB works around here but maybe some jelly or baby food or something.
A rat can’t hang on to a smooth piece of pvc and will fall off it when it rolls around the spindle.

A cat would be killer but good luck keeping a cat in where u can’t keep a rat out

get an ir scope for your pellet gun and have some fun lol

good luck

 

By "tree rats" you do mean squirrels, correct? I just wanted to make sure we all on the same page.

 

Nope. Actual rats but they’re smaller than the giant sewer rats that are around closer to the restaurants downtown. They’re a bit bigger than field mice.

I have tried some cages with fruit inside and that worked the first year but the new ones seem too smart for that. They do not want any type or peanut/almond butter either. I might try to make one of those bucket traps with water in them. I found two of them a few months ago in a 40 gallon trash can on the side of my garage. Drowned in about 4” of rain water. No other ones want to fall in anymore though

 

Sorry, I thought you were talking about squirrels too, also know as tree chicken in these parts.

 

Maybe I’m the dumb one, but did you want to add some words to tell us what we are looking at here?

 

Was in addition to the post above it. Was posting while rushing to get to work. @wilcam47 @98tacoma27

 

Ahhh got ya, the negative drainage issue. I didn’t remember who had posted that so threw me off!

 

Yeah, it's a foundation issue, they were just wondering if that main drain was leaking. but I think its a definite issue of proper drainage on the backside of the foundation. You can see all the tiny cracks if you look close in my garage floor.
IDK what the splattered stuff is on the wall, has been there since before we moved in, I assume it was some kind of sprayed sealing attempt.

 

Do you own or rent? We had negative drainage when we moved in but was more because the dirt and gutters draining into the beds. Also had a couple very small leaks in the crawlspace. They were all remedied fairly easily though. Yours looks like you might be well served with a french drain and some beds around the backside with sloping dirt to direct water away from the foundation.