Leaving water in the hot water bucket has an add-on benefit…
How long can you tread water, parasite?
Of course this has always been obvious, which is why bucket traps are common in the desert. But as I learned during my winter rodent jihad of five or so years ago, what kills rodents must first attract rodents – and we never run out of rodents to attract. In the end it just doesn’t pay.
But since I kept finding droppings in the nearly-dry bucket I decided to see how Nijinsky here liked a not-dry bucket.
Every fall I put one bucket trap in the barn and on in the garage. Old pop bottle on a steel rod and some peanut butter around the center of the bottle. First year I got about 5, second year 2 and last year zero. Either I got them all or they got real smart. Will see what happens this fall. Beats the heck out of having to set and re-bait snap traps which are finicky and my dog puts it’s nose wherever it smells food regardless of pain to follow.
Rodent jihad takes more than one season, but in time you will win. You will win sooner if you choose a continuous birth control method other than offing them. Watch your horizon for a stream of rodents headed your way, kill at first, then birth control.
Picture the aesthetic appeal of a landscape dotted with blue buckets, peanut butter cooking in the sun, rodents drowning in water in each one. You can line the roads with buckets weighed down with rocks so they don’t blow away. After a few years, a relatively rodent, damage and disease free environment. Let me know how many truckloads of blue buckets to send. Cheering you on from out here somewhere. The only good rodent is a dead rodent.