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How To Keep Rats From Eating My Cables?
An anonymous reader writes "I am curious to know what vermin prevention/eradication methods are used in other locations. I am working at a dealership and we have an exterminator man who puts out glue traps and bait stations, but they still come and eat my cable. The latest was a couple of fiber runs — very expensive. I have threatened my boss with a cat for the server room (my office), going so far as to cruise the local Humane Society's website and eye-balling a nice Ragdoll-Siamese mix. Even if I do feel like dealing with a litter box, cat hair in the equipment and pouncings on my keyboards (and I'm not sure I do), that only covers the server room. We have multiple buildings on the campus which get locked up to prevent theft, but it isn't secure enough to keep out the critters and the latest chew spot was in the ceiling. Any ideas?"
And if you can't "afford" conduit, make your own. Garden hose (which rats don't eat through), PVC, etc.
Rat Poison.
Yeah, this is "inhumane" etc, whatever. But that's the only way to reduce the population fast enough to make a difference. Most pest control people want to use poisons, because they know it's the only way that works, but then people insist "omg no! you have to be humane about it!"
Look people. If you want the pests gone, there's really only one option that works.
WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
He said he works at a dealership, and I can only assume that he means a car dealership. Have you ever seen a car dealership on a college campus?
There HAS to be a reason why cables are usually put in conduits and/or PVC pipes. If you have bare cables lying around, you're asking for trouble.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
In addition: as much as it's great to bring a cat home from the shelter so they can take in another one (especially now, with people abandoning cats when their houses get foreclosed... who would do that?!?), ask yourself why you're getting the cat.
Make sure that you're not just getting the cat to be a roving rattrap. You're going to be responsible for the care of a living being, remember -- regardless of whether the cat is actually a good mouser, it's your responsibility to give it a good home.
Also, just to warn you, Siamese cats are very loud and whiny. We just got one, and she's very needy, and talks your ear off if she wants something. Look at some Youtube videos of Siamese cats. I have no idea how a mix would be, but I just wanted to warn you...
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I know this is a strange concept, but there is this stuff called conduit. You know, that metal tube stuff that has been used in buildings for eons. That stuff that you run wire through.
It is available in both flex and solid. You can bet all *MY* fiber runs are in steel conduit (even though all my wire stuff is not).
BTW- I like the word "stuff".
Get rid of their food source and they'll move on. Get a garbage dumpster with lids that seal. Remove trash bags from the trash every night. Vacuum the carpets every night (and tell the slob who eats at his desk to eat somewhere that the crumbs can be swept up). No food in the cupboards unless it's in jars or cans. No birdfeeder outside. And so on - use your imagination. There is no solution apart from this one, and it has to be building-wide. If there is food for them, they will return.
And glue traps are incredibly cruel; other killing traps almost as much so. Live-trap them and drive them (a few miles or more) to someplace green without buildings around, make them work for a living.
The short-term solution is probably one layer of spiral cable wrap, topped with another layer of split-flex tubing.
Rats and mice are also different problems. If you have mice, cats are very effective. Mice will not even approach anywhere they think a cat lives. If you have rats, you will need a larger predator. At least a big cat, that you know will take out rats. Rats are much larger than mice.
I would consider lining everywhere there are cables with glue traps. That will catch anything that goes near the cables. Unfortunately, it could also be highly annoying. Line everywhere a cable enters or exits a small whole with steal wool. Mice are almost impossible to prevent entering a building, because they can move freely through such small entry points. They also seek out heat.
Finally, if the problem is rats, then it is much easier to block entry to the buildings. Rats are much larger than mice, so physical protection methods work better against rats. Be prepared to use concrete and steel solutions. Rats and squirrels can chew through wood. My experience is that rats will eat plastic much more readily than mice. Rats are much larger than mice, and are tougher to catch. Mouse traps are ineffective against rats. Consider sheathing your wiring in metal and/or concrete. Quick setting concrete is an easy way to plug oddly shaped holes. Metal conduit can be terminated with liquid tight fittings. Between the two solutions, you should be able to prevent mice and rats from either going through conduit, or going around conduit and exploiting holes in the building walls.
Rats and mice don't eat cables...They chew the insulation off to make their nests...or if it happens to be in their way.
I wish I had a source for this... but I remember reading somewhere that rats are generalist foragers who will try nibbling on just about anything they come across to see if it's edible or not. When they come across a foreign substance (a seed, a fruit, a piece of garbage, a nice shiny cable), they'll try a few bites of it. if it makes them sick, they throw it up and remember not to eat it again- apparently they have very good memory.
This is what makes poisoning them so difficult, and why rat poisons are designed to have a delayed effect. Plastic, on the other hand, won't necessarily make a rat sick in small quantities (it isn't exactly digestible), and new plastic products often "outgas" just enough to produce odors which rats can pick up on. So, when a rat happens across a foreign object with a funky smell (your newly laid cable), it's inclined to take a few nibbles.
Depending on the application, wireless might simply be too slow. I've worked on a wireless connection in my office for a few months, and it was torture. The main problem was that we weren't using commercial wireless access points, just regular home ones due to budget issues. I was so happy to get a regular wired network connection after.
boas, pythons, owls, hawks, monitor lizards, ...
I mean a python crawling in the ceiling eating mice while your coding python.
How cool would that be ?
Absolute statements are never true
If you've got that much of a rat problem ... get some metal conduit and run your cables in that. Splice boxes can be anything.- keep'em suspended in the middle of the room or cover with glue.
But you've got more of a food problem than anything- the rats won't stick around without a food supply and it sounds like they like what you're serving there.
If all else ... just start putting down rat poison everywhere outside. It'll take your squirrels out too....
Cats are soft and useless creatues no if you want to get rid of the rats call the PETA and tell them your running a rehabilitation home for freshly freed mink those are vicius and evil creature thats going to rid you of the rats within the week.
I know you said that tongue in cheek, but realistically speaking if they've been doing it since they were 4 months old, then yes they did have the requisite 'ninja training'. House cats (and dogs), from experience, don't know squat about how to hunt or kill effectively because they never learned how and didn't need to. They might learn how to scavenge, and might even get lucky enough if they are in a 'high target' location to get a few kills, but they never do learn how to do it 'right'.
That might sound pedantic, but it's important to realize that if you are going for a 'mouser' at the local Humane Society, you may have to do quite a bit of looking to find the right one.
Barn bred cats are the ninja's of the cat world.
His fault for trusting someone else with his card details.
The credit card company would disagree. It would actually be the merchants fault for not checking the signature on the back of the card.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
It's funny that 'faggot hippie' is an insult, but 'homophobic rednecked moron' is just a statement of fact.
Instead of highly poisonous, how about something that is just highly unpleasant?
I live on a farm, and have had good luck getting things to not chew on my cables, or power wires for that matter, by rubbing them with habanero peppers. Poison takes time to work. Habaneros work damn near instantly.
Amusingly, the Denatonium article lead me to the one conerning phenylthiocarbamide and the following quote struck me.
That ladies and gentlemen, is how science is done. Spill some shit and see who falls over dead, goes blind, or starts growing a third arm. Then do studies to "Find Out Why".
Know anything on the other end of the spectrum? Something less humane?
You want less humane? Glue traps hit the other end of the spectrum. Basically, they're stuck there until one of three things happen:
John
Outdoor cats live an average of 6 years, indoor cats live an average of 18 years, 20+ is not uncommon. The outside world is a VERY dangerous place for cats.
Local adoption societies like the humane society don't adopt out cats to be hunters because that usually guarantee's the cat is going to be an outdoor only cat. A cat that is one step above feral. It's life will likely be short, it will not have human companionship, it won't be fed catfood as the owner will expect it to hunt it's food and it will be exposed to the elements. From most people's perspective the adoption of an animal is for companionship and there are better people to adopt the cat to then someone that wants it strictly for killing pests. If you want pests killed hirer and exterminator.
Have to agree with the parent. Cats are not tools to be thrown at a problem. They are intelligent creatures and require regular care and attention. Do not try to own a cat, dog, or other animal if you don't know how to take care of them. The submitter might know his stuff about I.T. but plainly knows nothing of either pests or pets.
Please submitter: have your company hire or consult someone who knows what they are doing when it comes to pest control. You worry about the computers. I don't know what on earth possessed you ask other I.T. nerds for advice either.
Just curious if you can't ask for ID, how are you supposed to verify ID? I know when I sign it looks like scribbles most of the.
maybe you can explain, since you're championing his cause. what are you supposed to do with the steel wool???
I wouldn't use rat poison unless you can get to the areas where they're gonna die, which won't be right next to the poison due to the time delay effect. Use rat traps with peanut butter. You might need a lot but it's pretty effective. That's what the CDC recommends. If you've ever smelled a dead rat you would understand why you wouldn't want one dead in a wall stinking the place up for weeks.
You could also turn to armoring critical cables.
That's why my significant other doesn't know my slashdot ID...
She also doesn't care to know, as she will not hesitate to tell me to shut up if I mention slashdot at all. Though she did get me a slashdot hat for my birthday last year, maybe next thing you know will be nudity combined with hot grits?
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
The signature portion is not there for identification. It's there to signify accession to the terms of the cardholder agreement. The merchant only needs to check that a signature is there. And a signature is required additionally for the merchant to signify accession to the terms of the sale.
The merchant is only required to make sure both signatures occur. They need not be the same signature. It's the card holder and the bank's job to make sure that the card is used validly or entrusted to someone who used the card validly.
Anyone who has your card, unless you tell the bank otherwise, is assumed to be your authorized agent.
As a side note, handwriting recognition is tricky business for experts testifying in court cases. What kind of an idiot would think that banks would expect store clerks to be that kind of expert?
As a further side note, in the story, the dad paid it off in full at the end of the month. So, no finance charge. If she'd financed it, there would have been fees for opening it and for paying it off early. Also, many credit cards give cash back or points for purchases. If the daughter knew it was going to be paid off in full right away, she's the one who made the right decision.
Best advice I can offer is... buy and run armored innerduct for your fiber because it's too expensive to lose. It's expensive, but so is replacing fiber and having it terminated.
I know a simple solution to keep cats from chewing on wires or other things is to take a bunch of hot sauce and rub it on the cables. The first time the cat tries to knaw on it they will taste the hot sauce and immediately stop, after acouple of tries they will not go back. Not sure if this would work for rats or not.
Another cat-specific solution is to spray citrus on the wires, cats hate the smell of citrus.
Anyway the point would be to do some research and find whats rats hate to smell or taste, and just wipe some of that on your cables.
Contrast that to the cats and dogs that came after, the ones that actually came from litters that were raised and born outside and I guarantee you that you'll immediately notice what I'm talking about.
I've had extensive interaction with both ex-feral and completely domesticated cats, and I can confirm there is a very obvious difference.
My old roommate had a cat that they picked up on his parents' rural property when she was a little less than a year old. Even after years of being an inside cat, she stalks everything from rabbit size on down that appears to move on its own (and I mean everything... your feet aren't even safe!). Once she catches one of her toys, she holds it down and thoroughly "kills" it before she'll let you have it back (IF she lets you have it back!).
Contrast that with my girlfriend's cat, who'll chase things, but only half-heartedly, and then loses interest the second he catches it.