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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?"
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. So your best be it to figure out what the hell they're eating, and shut down their food supply. They'll move on shortly thereafter.
The word "campus" may put paid to that notion, however. Campus implies lots of people, lots of garbage, and lots of space. God help you if it's a college campus, the promised land of vermin the world over, where bulldog sized rats subsist on half a cheeseburger out of the dumpster. If that's the case, then there is no way you'll be able to shut off their food.
Introducing predators isn't necessarily a bad idea, but its a measure that can, in no way, co-exist with traditional methods of poison and trapping. Your predator will likely set off the traps and poison itself on the bioaccumulated toxins in the bodies of its prey. If you do get a cat, better feed it a bunch of activated charcoal with its kibble.
Which brings us to poison and trapping. It's not that they don't work. They work GREAT. If they're not working, it means you're not using enough. You need to come to the budgetary equilibrium where the amount you spend on extermination makes sense based on the cost of cable replacement.
So if you can't shut off their food, and you can't stomach the thought of your kitties/ferrets/snakes keeling over dead from poison every month or two, you're going to have to up the extermination.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
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
*glances at the article below this one*
One of the editors couldn't wait to put these two together, could they?
there's a breed called the rat terrier, not as common as it once was, but probably other terriers could do for this work. Possibly you can deal better with typical dog behaviors better than cat behaviors.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
You can get this at any hardware or garden store. Basically it is just a spray bottle full of capsaicin, which is what gives chili peppers their kick. It is commonly sold as rabbit or deer repellent sprays. Aviaries, which have huge rodent problems, will mix hot pepper powder in with bird seed because birds are not affected by it, but the rodents won't touch the seeds then. But a warning - DO NOT get this on your eyes or hands and apply it to the cables in a well ventilated area or outside. And if you put it on cables, you need to wear gloves in the future when handling them.
A couple of Ball pythons in the cable runs, and those rats will be history as will anybody poking around where they're not supposed to...
Cats have been used widely to get rid of rats and mice since the beginning of time. perhaps you should get some of those ?
Not all cats are good mousers, however. It really helps to have one who was properly taught by their mama-cat how to do it.
Bow-ties are cool.
Well, you could always introduce some sort of lizards to eat the rats. And then, after the lizard population explodes you could...uh, well, I'm not sure of the exact steps, but I think it all ends up with gorillas freezing to death in the winter. Or something like that.
Mice are five times more afraid of it.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Mount their little heads on spikes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification
Use high voltage cables and let evolution do the rest.
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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Willard_1971.jpg
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".
Not all cats are good mousers, however. It really helps to have one who was properly taught by their mama-cat how to do it.
Say what? I'll agree that some cats are better hunters than others, but I've yet to meet a non-grossly overweight cat that doesn't show immediate interest in anything smaller than it scurrying about. Seriously, stick any cat in a building where all kinds of interesting sounds and smells are going on, and they are good to go.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
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.
One of the great reasons why wireless networking and phone technology is popular in Africa is that the copper thieves can't steal the wires. One area I visited often, many years back, had a 25 mile long telephone cable to a phone that never worked. By the time the installation crew finished the installation the first half of the line would be gone and they'd wait for the next year's budget and start all over again...
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Is it the last stand and the final gasp of RIAA lawyers trying to stop the downloads. What? you mean REAL rats? oops.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
stop all streaming video of "ratatouille" and blog posts of rat porn, and start serving up content that rats don't like. introduce random packets of lolcat jppegs, maybe streaming video of "mrs frisby and the rats of nimh". you'll soon find the rats aren't as interested anymore at chewing into your cables to get to the content on your network, as they will find it unappealing
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
.22 air rifle, 3 Beers and 2 cans of Redbull. Make a night of it.
one is a coating for the cabling to "discourage" chewing.
popular choices are anything capsaicin based or something with a bitter substance (bitter to rodents that is)
another is those ultra-sonic repellers (it's worth a try....some rats may not give a "rat's" ass about it and still continue to do their deeds)
In the end, it may not be just one thing but a combination of things.
poisons to kill off the rats, deterrents to prevent them from chewing on cabling, and making it very unpleasant for them to live on the lot.
Especially, yanking out the welcome mat from under them.
Those rats who don't learn not to leave and not to chew on the cables will get poisoned.
My basement door doesn't exactly seal right (my goal this year is to replace it) and we used to have mice coming into the basement all the time.
The fix was to get one of those high-frequency boxes you plug in and clicks every now and then. Ever since I put one near that door, we haven't had a mouse problem.
Second thought. If you do decide to use snap traps or glue traps, be sure to use peanut butter instead of cheese. Cheese dries out too quickly and they never eat it. PB stays good for a long time.
Third thought (yea I said two, here's a bonus). The very popular anticoagulant called Warfarin (AKA Coumadin) was originally used as rat poison.
Clearly, you need to deploy one or more Rat Zapper Battle Stations
They work great. Rats die humanely. Things that eat rats, don't.
I mean to say, things that eat them don't die, not that they die horrible, lingering deaths.
Well, of course they will die, eventually. But not from this.
I mean, unless they're other rats.
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
This, baited with peanut butter, is irresistible death. Place one at known rat entrances or run ways. I could catch dumb rats within an hour of placing the trap. Some smart rats took a day or two to give in to the temptation. Also, eliminate any other sources of food. A fat rat is an unmotivated rat. There is no blood, nobody dying in your walls.
Interest is much different from killing, though.
I used to have two hampsters and three cats. Occassionally, the hampsters would get out. The cats were *great* at helping me locate them, "ooh, little ball of fluff, what's it doing?" but the cats never attacked the hampsters at all. In fact, the cats rarely, if ever, got within 2 feet of the hampsters. (The hampsters, however, were much more brazen, even walking up TO the cats, wherein our trusty felis domesticus would retreat...)
Those poor cats were in hell when I bought those little rodents the balls.
These weren't obese cats either. Slightly overweight, common for indoor cats, but very active.
Have you considered dressing up as a minstrel and playing some music? Apparently, that's worked before.
Attack its weak point for massive damage!
I spent some time in Alabama and have a clear recollection of seeing the phone company out to paint some kind of substance on the above-ground wires. It seems that the red squirrels in that area like to chew on the insulation, and this causes problems. I asked the foreman if the stuff was poisonous, and he replied no. "It just burns the hell out of their little feet." Don't know what the stuff was or if it would be suitable for indoor cables.
I also agree that you need to talk management into expanding your exterminating budget. Rats are unhealthy for the human inhabitants of your facility.
"Here's what's happening. You're starting to drive like your Dad..." - Red Green
These are just regular sized cats with no ninja training.
Rats will happily rip a hole through drywall so don't really care if you block up holes. I blocked up some holes with chew-proof material and the bastards just ripped another hole.
If you have rats inside, then the chances are that they are an overflow population from somewhere else. We didn't have rats in the house until the population built up in the barn and the "turf wars" pushed some of the rats into the house. As soon as we killed a lot of the rats in the barn they disappeared from the house.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
You were probably kidding, but I'd like to point out that our local humane society has rules against adopting out animals for the purpose of pest management or hunting.
Rat poison isn't that efficient.
Rats are able to learn. They'll end up learning that said poison is poisonous to them. (That's why lot of modern poison have very delayed effect. So that it's harder for the rat to make the connection and learn what's killing them).
Bio-accumulation : predators higher up in the food chain are going to diet on poison-rich rats, and thus are going to poison themselves through their food.
By using rat poison, not only are you (attempting to) kill rats. But there's a high risk that you'll be killing the neighbors' cats, snakes, ferrets, etc.
On the other hands, predators have been considered efficient and used successfully for the past millenia.
So getting several cats *could* be a solution.
A couple of caveat :
- Cut the rat poison first, otherwise kitty is going to get poisoned. (or at least get advices from a vet on how to protect kitty).
- Get a grown up cat. One that has already learned to use the litter box, has already learned to hunt, etc.
- When getting a cat, get one who has grown up outdoor and is used to hunting. Avoid the overweighted, indoor, constantly drooling and sleeping type.
- Prefer shorter hair : they are simpler to take care of, tend less to puke hair balls, and tend to leave less hair around.
None the less, try to secure and isolate the server cabinet with proper dust filters. Other wise you might have to often vacuum your server's radiators. (Anyway, the filters will be good against dust bunnies too).
- Depending on the size of the territory to cover. Adding a couple more cats might help, if you can manage to handle them all.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
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 once saw a rat run into my garage, and I had heard that cat urine would make them leave so I scooped some used clay litter into a bucket and put it into the garage. I went back the next day and THE RAT HAD EATEN THE FUCKING LITTER!
Rats are real badasses.
Good point, and entirely true. Cats generally need to learn that something is food before they will eat it, though they may find out by accident. And although a cat's killing maneuver (the neck-bite) is instinctual and doesn't need to be learned, learning the stalking and pouncing behavior specific to each prey species makes a cat a much more effective hunter.
I saw the same sort of behavior from my cats and guinea pig, which wasn't afraid of the cats at all. In fact, it seemed to realize that cats only sweat from their pads, and therefore their pads are salty, which guinea pigs love. The guinea pig would waddle up to the cats and attempt to eat their toes, which confused and upset the cats terribly, but they still wouldn't so much as whack the guinea pig with claws retracted.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Rats can go right through concrete.
You should look at ruggedized stainless steel fiber for you expensive short haul fiber and maybe switch to air gap laser or MMDS wireless for long haul or switch it around.
Both of those are rat proof. check it out http://www.timbercon.com/SS-Cables/index.html
[RIAA] says its concern is artists. That's true, in just the sense that a cattle rancher is concerned about its cattle.
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.
I tried using a live trap for rats. Out of a dozen or so, I only managed to snag 2. I reluctantly ended up having to use the crush-their-skulls version for the rest. It's bad enough when the trap kills them. It's really gruesome when it only partly kills them and I have to finish the job.
I have/had a similar set of problems.
1. I've owned pet rats and know what they can eat.
2. I currently own house rabbits.
3. I have a recurring mouse problem.
So lemme sum up. A rabbit can eat through a 14 gauge stranded copper cord of the sort you'd use for your refrigerator. Guess how I figured that out? Since it's starting at one side it doesn't ever cross both the live and neutral, so it doesn't get electrocuted. It can eat every cord off the back of a computer in under three minutes. Guess how I figured that out? A rat doesn't have quite the toothy abilities of a rabbit but it's fairly close. They can certainly cut through thin copper.
Neither the rabbits nor the rats -- nor my dog -- have been bothered by sprays intended to keep animals from digging/chewing on things. The super hot pepper-derived stuff stopped the rabbits but not the rats, and my dog loves the stuff. The sour/bitter stuff didn't slow any of them down even slightly.
Plastic split conduit doesn't even slow them down. Even when soaked in bitter or hot do-not-chew stuff.
Rats can chew through the side of a lead pipe and crawl through a hole the size of a US quarter. I don't have evidence that they can chew through copper pipe but I wouldn't be surprised.
Reducing food doesn't work. Once they're established, you can't keep the place clean enough. I have no idea how wild mice manage to find nutrition but they do. We keep all our food in sealed containers and vacuum and roomba every other day, and neither the dog nor the sometimes cat deter the mice in the slightest. The mice do, however, drive the dog and the cat completely insane, so if you want to have your predator madly clawing at the wall where it can either hear or smell a mouse, go for it. Both dogs and clawed cats can dig through standard drywall, and then you have a repair to do. (and they remember it and keep trying. Pitbulls are very, very retentive dogs and she'll dig through 12mm thick plywood to get to where she remembers a mouse or rat or squirrel to have hidden, once, six months ago.)
hate to say it but d-con and other awful poisons are probably the best way to go, as far as eradication, and flexible conduit to protect the lines you can't easily replace.
As I said elsewhere, glue traps are probably more evil than poison, and oftentimes live traps are as well, because you don't check them often enough and the animal dies of dehydration. And if you're really lucky the animal will manage to drag the glue trap into a place you can't get to and if you're young and still have good ears you can hear its little high-pitched screams for a couple days before it does die.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
Your dog was sane.
My brothers dog used to chew on the piano.
So we went and tried the whole hot sauce trick.
We watched until he tried the chewing on the piano leg again (didn't take long).
He recoiled and gave it one of those tilted head looks for a sec, then instead of just nibbling on it like he had been he started chewing on it full force like he'd finally found the ultimate food.
Mycroft
https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
Take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
There are two kinds of societies: sustainable and doomed.
Had a customer with a motorcycle shop that had a rat problem. His dog (Jack Russel) went nuts one day, and the owner pulled out a sawed off shotgun and promptly put a hole through the wall.
Exit one rat, four servers, a 440 volt three phase power line, air conditioning condenser, and five twinax runs. Add to damages the vet bill (pellets hit the dog), the doctor bill (pellets hit the owner), and my added expense to replace the servers, bring them from cold to hot, re-running the twin-ax cables, and the $5,000.00 USD (and this was back 15 years or so ago, call it about 8,000 USD today) for, and I quote:
"Extraordinary charge recovery for work location
in a free fire zone without body armor or hearing
protection".
He paid it.
The rat? We buried it without honors or marking it's grave.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
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.
We killed 14 of the mice. The mice under our subfloor that went to two different fiber optic wire distribution boxes (FDBs) in separate rooms separated by a drywall sub-wall. These mice would chew through a specific wire in each of our two FDBs. Some theorized they were attracted to the light in the bent fiber, some theorized that perhaps the tech that terminated the cables with SC connectors may have eaten something and the scent attracted the rodents. Much cayenne pepper, many mouse traps and persistence stopped the mice finally.
Cats are lazy. If they're not hungry, they won't chase a rat. A *dog*, on the other hand, will chase a rat, a mouse, a cat, a squirrel, a skunk, a car ...
ience.
Use *ELECTRIFIED* steel wool. Better yet, use electrified, salted copper wool. It'll give them the whoolies when they become part victims in as(sau)lt and battery. All the following rats will hopefully learn to go away because they'll be inextricably charged in current events...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
May I recommend rabbit stew? It will serve two purposes. One, the rabbit will no longer chew through cables. Two, it is a very tasty dinner. Although if your girlfriend finds out, you will probably need to find a replacement (for the girlfriend, not the rabbit).
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
I say, set up some tripwires for the rats. Bait them with Ratkensteins, or Frankenrats and treats to eat.
When they are scurrying about in the dark, on the wire-mesh-gridded floor, one or more of them trigger/s the 25 or so hidden Tesla coils that pop up like Bouncing Betty grenades. Only, these go vertical with wires, and with dart tips, they affix to the ceiling, as zapping and humming set off a cascade of:
Sqweee-squeee-squee squee, Sqweee-squeee-squee squee (multiplied by how many are getting the charge of their lives)
And, the problem is solved (nightly) with a
ratta-tat-tat.
Of course, mind your voltage, amperage, and other effects, or you'll have body parts stuck on the walls, racks, chairs, and lights. Talk about turning IT/server room into a chamber of horrors.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Don't forget to have plenty of Lysol on hand, because with all that arcing and sparking there will be a lot of hissin' and pissin'..
But, a cleaner way to deal with this is to hook up a bunch of Habitrails to the rooms. When the trap doors close, gas their asses, or, if you run electrified wires all inside the tubes, you can you can shock them into the age of the Intertubes, and transmit their doomed souls into the ether, semi-wirelessly. The ones caught 7 feet off the floor will be in nose-bleed city, with a spectacular view, bright lights, and euphoric gas before meeting doom.
Be sure to hook up a flushing system, and be sure your doper friends don't see this as a hyooge fuqin hooka system.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
and the next time a cable tech rubs his brow...
"OH GAWD MY EYE"
The latest Norscan Report has an article with some useful information.
"Problematic Pests: Protecting Your Cables":
http://www.norscan.com/PDF/0901news.pdf
Don't get just one cat. Get more than one. Get several.
You're right - Cat 1 and Cat 2 will probably do nothing. Most people won't even think they exist. Cat 3 will do most of the work, but won't harrass rats beyond 100 meters. Cat 4 needs motivation - give it a small token, like a ring.
Cat 5 can be faster than Cat 3, but like Cat 3, speed and response begin to attenuate after 100 meters. They start dropping packets, which should promptly be buried in the litter box. In the event that rodents bite back, you should consider shielding Cat 5.
Cat 6 is extremely fast with very little latency, but inflexible and difficult to work with. I use them in my fruit pantry, where rats ate "twisted pears"
"Twice half-assed makes an ass whole." --Solomon K. Chang
2 questions....
1) What the FUCK are you smoking?
and
2) Can I have some?
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.