Home Security Video

Years ago, in my previous home, we had a rat family living in the basement. It was easy for them to hide as we kept our whole winter's firewood supply down there. Lots of places to hide.

We caught the female in a trap, but the male was way toooooo suspicious of anything we put out. It took almost 4 months, but we got him by accident. I had a 5 gallon pail about 2/3 full of water next to the large concrete slab we kept our hot water tank and water tank on. It was just a tad higher than the bucket. Went to the basement one morning to find the dead rat in the water. I figure he must have tried to get a drink, lost his balance and fell in and drowned.

If you could set up something like this, with something the rat could walk across to the bucket, but leave enough of an overhang of his path into the bucket, his weight might dump him into the it with no way out. One would hope anyway.

I am against using extreme prejudice when dealing with pests. Even the wild turkeys, a genuine man-made nuisance since the early 90's in my area. Wife and I shoo them off, using water pistols or the garden hose..  They raid the fallen seed from the bird feeders depriving smaller ground feeding birds like the Junco and mourning dove...

Yes, I would like to shoot them with my target pistol, this is the time of year or late spring when ground cover would hide the carcass and predators would lunch for their young like the foxes....

For the mice, it is a matter of having the home sealed tight against the critters. Though I have two cats they are strictly indoor. Mice have not been a problem. The chipmunk population has exploded. These guys could get destructive it they undermine the roots of a tree with their burrows.

The turkeys are destructive, will tear up the lawn to get grubs, the scat can get tracked into the house, they will attack a shiny auto finish and scratch it up. They can get so embolden as to attack someone too. (I think at that point I will take up arms)...

The other critters I do get up against are the ants, the little guys and the carpenter ants. I have to spray at least twice a year, spread a insecticide on the lawn and use cat safe ant traps in the house... There is a benefit to the lawn insecticidal, in that it kill grubs and the turkeys are less likely to scratch up the lawn. Occasionally they scratch it up and make "dust bowls" to kill the parasites on their bodies. I have had to fill and re-seed several of these dust baths over the years...

I have to "bomb" my two sheds each year for the carpenter ants, about the end of June. Despite the shed being calk tight, they do get around the doors...

Here is a funny, a large carpenter ant nest was at the base of the electrical service pole across the street. These guys would march out along the power cable to my home and come in via the service entrance despite tight caulking... While making repairs to the service side of the house, upon recommendation of a contractor, I generously wiped the services cable for several feet with Tabasco sauce. Gave them a hot foot, they never came back...

Chas

Mix 1/3 cup of concrete powder and 2/3 cup course ground flour. Mix thoroughly.
 Place in a dry place and be sure to put a bowl of water close to it.
They eat the mix and drink water and it turns into concrete in their digestive system.
 Back in the 70's I had an invasion of mice on my porch. 3 treatments of this mixture and no more mice.
 First nite they ate an entire 1/2 coconut shell full, 2nd nite 1/4 a shell full (Didn't want to use a good bowl for this), 3rd nite less & less and in under 3 weeks not one to be seen on my porch.
 I think I got this from an old  magazine from the 20's or 30's. Cheap & effective.

Rat terriers have a propensity to be High Strung, so if your not at home they will rip stuff apart. They have to have extensive training. I wish someone in my Neighborhood had one that was willing to help with one, I don't think though there useful in a very cramped attic? Less than a foot high in some places..

By the way I went to BIMART and bought a crosman pellet rifle that operates on Co2 Cartridges. In case I don't hit them on the first shot I can hit them with a total of 12 pellets as fast as i Can pull the trigger at 740 feet per second. Now I got to figure out which end is which?

I also picked up a game camera that I setup, but I'm hoping I set it right. Will find out in the Morning. I heard scratching in my bedroom wall last night and the night before it sounded like some one was knocking on the wall 4 times in rapid time.

I'm also going to set up some used cottage cheese tubs and yogurt tubs too.  put the bicarbonate of soda and try plaster of Paris along with flour and dry oatmeal. Cut a hole in each tub and keep a lid on, to keep the moisture away and stick a can of water by each tub.

I watch another video that has twin brothers doing what other companies won't do and they mentioned the above process and using slim Jim beef sticks and jam them onto the trap triggers. they can't just lick them they would have to tug at them. Using a sensitive setting Helps they say and be sure to slather some butternut onto the bait as Rats can smell the Peanut-butter as far away as the attic.

I also got a can of Bear Spray that I will use during the day when their sleeping in the attic.
I told my next door nieghbor and He said laughing Sounds like you got bats in your belfry err I mean rats in your belfry. I said yup I'm going batty too.

You didn't mention whether you have a dog but there is a breed that is death on rats. That is the Rat Terrier. But the expenses for a dog exceed that for multiple cats as I suggested before.
73, Rod

Yes him
and Shawn woods [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Cliff,
Have you ever watched any of "The Mink Man" videos on youtube? He tackles rats, muskrats, invasive fish, nutria and so on with his minks. Very effective.
Rod

you posted after my comments but even in the meantime I did some more editing and added more too.

Sounds like you need a battle ship to take on those rats. Good on adopting a couple of cats from the local shelter. They don't need a lot of upkeep. I would feed them some till you see how well they do with the mice and rats.
Rod

Unfortunately in our area, there are no Ally Cats as we are out of the town limits .
However, I've been toying with the idea of going to the local animal shelter and seeing if they have any cats called Barn cats, but they would have to be kept in a garage for about a month to train them that they have a reliable food source. Along with a shelter that they can use.

My daughter is bringing some glue traps for rats, but what I've seen people are saying they don't work (but they are effective for mice) - I had one years ago and I put it behind the refrigerator and it did work. I see that we have a new store in town called BI-Mart and they carried guns and life motion cameras so I may look into that. 

I just haven't been up to doing much however  I called a company in Seattle that specializes in crawl space rat barriers of concrete, but they said they don't do Mobile Homes. 

I have a number of yogurt and cottage cheese containers with lids to keep the rain out that can be used for the rats. Make up a blend of sugar, cornmeal, oatmeal, and plaster of Paris or baking soda. All dry in equal parts. make a hole so only rats can get in. It's supposed to play havoc with digestion. They can't throw up ( regurgitate )or poop. So with the baking soda, it builds up the pressure because stomach acid produces gas but they can't belch or fart, and or the plaster of Paris hardens in their guts.

most of the local tame roaming cats are smart enough to avoid confronting the rats because of their size and viciousness in biting.

Rats are smarter than people realize and will avoid traps or lick the bait till it's gone. So they don't trip the trigger causing the trap to snap. I have even seen rats on youtube jump out of the way as the traps start to fly down on them.

A couple of alley cats might do the job on those rats, Cliff.
73, Rod   WB6FBF

The equipment came and I have gotten them set up.  Soon after setting up the outdoor cameras, one caught a bird landing on a rail on my back deck at about 15 feet.  That's pretty sensitive.  I had a bird inspecting the front camera above the porch light and have logged several cats.  The indoor cameras have fortunately not yet been triggered.  I get a month's free cloud service as well.  Now if i can just remember to turn it on before I leave and off before I go inside.

I ordered 2 indoor cameras and 2 outdoor cameras and the receiver/WiFi link device.  The cameras I ordered came as 2 sets with a device with each.  After returning the extra device, I set up the indoor cameras and struggled for an hour and a half trying to get the device to link with my WiFi router.  I finally got it by trial and error.  The cameras run on 2 AA lithium batteries, which are supposed to last 6 months of intermittent motion sensing use.  They deliver a good picture with the proprietary application that provides on demand still or motion images. as an accessory, I ordered a holder for the receiver/WiFi link unit, that came with a high capacity flash drive to serve as it's video recorder.  The cameras also come with a mike and speaker to say hello to the housebreakers when they visit.  It's monitoring plan is supposed to come with cloud storage as well.

Those would probably be good for that purpose.  I reckon their reviews would be a good guide.  Also, on Amazon you can ask questions of the product's users to see if they have used them on rodents.

I've been considering a camera that sensors and has both daylight and infrared.
I guess they call them trail cameras? cheap to wwwwaaaay expensive 
I would think two would be all I need. And set them at opposite corners of the yard.

(trying to find out about Rats paths and how their getting into the house)

My WiFi CCTV camera is slowly losing it's PIR detection, so I will soon have to change out the system.  It still looks like the Blink system will come closest to filling the bill.  I need to figure out a way to mask off my eave's overhang, as my porch light illuminates it and that would obscure anything beyond that.  I'm thinking of a 3 outdoor camera system, which will also require mounts for the cameras and the camera's sync module, the sync module and a flash drive memory.  Then I have to influence them to actually deliver the whole shebang to my home.

Well, Amazon shipped out the cameras, mounts and receiver/recorder in short order.  They shipped them to Fairburn, GA about 20 miles away and left them out for delivery there til Friday evening, then changed it's status to running late.  This morning they changed it to out for delivery, presumed lost.  I  then cancelled the order at Amazon's suggestion.      Some Prime day ripoff.

There was a program called "Home Watcher" I used for a while. Worked great on the Harbor Frt. Tools cheap video cameras.
 The program was on my computer and any movement caused the program to record that on the hard drive. Got to see lots of birds flying by and deer in the yard. Storage was limited by how big your HD was. I also used a 4 camera switcher.

The CCTV cameras I installed early last year have begun to fail.  They produce an acceptable picture, but the passive infrared motion detection feature has lost much of it's sensitivity.  It seems a year of outdoor use is their limit.  The system's manufacturer offers no compatible replacement cameras, so that takes out the shooting match.  I had been looking for a suitable replacement system that wouldn't be so expensive and have recording capability.  With prime day rolling around, Amazon sent an ad for their blink video security system.  It has cameras that are truly remote, operating on 2 AA lithium replaceable batteries.  I got a set of 3, with the necessary WiFi linked base, that uses a 256GB usb flash drive as the recording medium.   I intend on mounting 2 above my porch lights to monitor the front and rear and I'm thinking where to mount the 3rd.  they offer cloud storage of video events at 2 tiers of monthly charges.  I would hope that the camera/base combination could stay current til any of these frapps out.