Learn from my tragic mistake!

I use my basic grow up setup mentioned in this thread:
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=70923
I have been using this setup for a long time, and have LOTS of ASF's all the time. As you can see by the pics, these are HUGE tubs. I successfully store up to 80 female grow ups, or 65 male grow ups in each one.

I have never had any chew outs because there is NOTHING for them to get a tooth on. The only holes they can even remotely reach is the holes for the water bottles (I now have 2 water bottles for each tub). But they still can't get to those holes enough to chew...

I keep my ASF's in my attached garage. The garage is so PACKED with crap that there is only a narrow walkway down the middle of it.

This morning I am sleeping peacfully when my 11 year old storms into the bedroom and screams at the top of his lungs "rats are on the loose" I almost puked. I jumped out of bed and ran to the garage. Very first thing I noticed was the water bottles sitting on the table.

I HAD FORGOTTEN TO PUT THE WATER BOTTLES BACK IN ONE OF THE TUBS LAST NIGHT!!!!


they had chewed both of those little water bottle holes to about 2 inches in diameter, and every single rat was gone.

YEP. that means there were 65 large male ASF's running free in my garage and house...


:8: :colbert: :rage: :taz: :rolleye2: :8:

So far I got (killed) 32 of them. Almost all of them were in the garage, but a couple in the house.

Bottom line folks, This could have all been avoided... I thought of the solution months ago but never did it... all I have to do is hot glue some big washers around those holes... that way if you ever forget to put the water bottle back on, all there teeth will find is the washer.... I thought of it but figured it was a waste of time cause they couldn't get to those holes. I forgot to account for the possibility of human error.

To head off some of the questions that will certainly come up...

1.) How do you catch 60 rats loose in a garage packed full of crap? I will give you a hint, it is not animal friendly traps. It is 20 high quality plastic snap traps, and a BB gun, and good aim. So far 12 were snapped by the traps.... 20 were shot. Just set up all 20 traps again, so hopefully they will all be full in the morning.


2.) Why didn't I try to catch them so I can feed them off, or to let them live another day? Will I use the dead ones as food? Hah! you try having 60 rats loose in your house at once! I also have a strict rule. If an animal spends even a short amount of time running free, exposing itself to household chemicals, it is no longer safe to feed to my very expensive snake collection.

Heard at least two more traps snap while I was typing this so back to work... 32 down, 33 to go.

:8:

Ooohh nooooo! I hope you get them all quickly!

Oh no!! I was furious when I had ONE get loose. I ended up getting it with a pitcher half full of water. It got thirsty, got in, but couldn't get out. Swam until I found him too. If you have lingerers, you might try a few buckets half full of water.

48 down, 17 to go.

Very sorry to hear about that. I have also had escapes, but luckily only one at a time, so they were easy to find.

Good luck with finding the rest!

well at least they were all males,no litters to be concerned about.thanks for the heads up.

I'll be sure to put washers at the top of my shopping list, good luck with the rest of the escapees.

That sucks Mike! I had the same thing happen to a smaller extream, all my feeders got out ( Around 30 asfs) and this was in my reptile room:O I set out sticky traps ( Which dont work with asfs...) but spring traps ( Left over night only) and 18in hemos did the trick:) Your lucky you can use your BB gun... im to afraid of what my pellet gun would do to the hardwood floor or me or the reptiles if I got it out. Good luck with the rest!

Ouch, Mike! That sucks! Good luck catching the rest. I've only ever had rats/mice escape one at a time...and still felt panic! I can't imagine how I'd freak out if I lost an entire huge tub of them! I don't blame you for taking the action you've taken. You gotta do whatever it takes to protect your home.

Golly! This is crazy! I would go psycho if this ever happens in my house. Okay, #14 on grocery list - washers.

Ahhhh crap Mike what a waste of a bunch of great feeders let alone the stress on you having to hunt them all down. I'm still old schooling it and have all my ASF's in glass tanks. Living in this huge 100+ year old house, I just cannot begin to imagine what would happen if I had a massive breakout like that.

Thanks for sharing this though. The washer idea is fantastic!

the snap traps really do work like a charm. they are the $3 each home depot hard plastic victory ones if anyone ever needs them. When I woke up this morning almost all of them were full!!!!

61 down and 4 to go!!!!! Haven't seen any more activity though in the garage or the house so I am starting to think those 4 may be gone forever.... It is certainly possible that I miscounted somewhere along the way before they escaped...

Dude, that sucks!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

dude, that sucks!!

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lol!

I had one adult male jump free when i was cleaning the cage. Took me almost an hour to catch him. If i had 60 get out i would probobly burn the house down to kill them all. Im sorry you have to go through all that.
Get about a dozen cats and let them lose in the house for a couple days and that should take care of them.

Crazy thing in my house is that my lazy arse male cat, Sebastian, won't hunt rodents but my nutsy female yellow Labrador does and then...GIVES THEM TO THE CAT! :rolleyes:

Yep we regularily find house mice that have a distinctly squashed look to them being played with by the darned cat. Apparently Bella the Lab does a front paw thump on the mice then gives over her prize to the stupid cat (who is her best buddy). Their little game though has worked. Haven't seen a house mouse around here for ages now. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Crazy thing in my house is that my lazy arse male cat, Sebastian, won't hunt rodents but my nutsy female yellow Labrador does and then...GIVES THEM TO THE CAT! :rolleyes:

Yep we regularily find house mice that have a distinctly squashed look to them being played with by the darned cat. Apparently Bella the Lab does a front paw thump on the mice then gives over her prize to the stupid cat (who is her best buddy). Their little game though has worked. Haven't seen a house mouse around here for ages now. :)

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That's awesome, Joanna!! :rofl:

Mike, I'm glad you've rounded most of them up! :gj:

three more dead rats in the traps this morning!!!!!!! :gj: :rolleye2: :rage: :8: :gj:

64 down, 1 to go!!!! and I think for sure that the one unaccounted for is dead somewhere. I say this because on the first day I shot one right in the belly, but it still managed to run off to a spot I couldn't get to.... so he may be number 65.

LOL, I should have videotaped the whole thing... I would have been an internet legend! heck I probably would have even gotten my own tv show!

Anyways I will leave all 20 traps out for another day or two to make sure. Holy crap that was a long, painful ordeal.


NOW FOR THE MVP AWARD......
If anyone is ever in this kind of situation, these victor power kill traps are priceless. They are definately more then the cheap wooden ones (home depot sells them for $3 EACH) but over half of the rats ended up getting killed by the traps. I didn't have a single trap go off without a dead rat... and the best part they can be reused hunreds of times.... so I am ready for the next prison break.

http://www.victorpest.com/resource/i...e/B144-2_l.jpg

Glad to hear that you got most, if not all, of them. Sounds like you have a little more fun that you should have. :rofl:

Hope fully there wont be another prison break!!:D

oh my god, Mike. My girlfriend called me at 8:30 am yesterday and screamed into the phone.. "there are rats loose in the *explicative* house." I swear, must be a bad day for African Rats.

Our two cats did a great job of cornering the rats until i made it home to round them up. Yes, i had to leave work to go chase my two loose rats. Mine chewed threw a air hole. i'll be stopping by Home Depot in the next few days.

funniest story ever!

Wow! Pretty stressful. Glad you found most of them already.

Wow!!!! I use to catch mice by placing a large metal pot on the floor with a yardstick going from the floor to the top edge of the pot (like a ramp). I would just throw some candy in the pot and find it full of mice in the morning.

So sorry.

I love the BB gun...I imagine (no offense, just the image in my head), an old guy in a rocking chair with some whiskey and a BB gun shooting rats as they scurry by. Lol...always a good laugh around here.

I think our cats and dogs would take care of any problems like that for us...I hope so. I would be fine with traps, but I think my pellet gun would create a huge mess, both hits and misses.

Good luck mike:d,i keep mine in my snake room pretty much sealed.clutter makes it worse hope they don't get outside.

man that got to suck .. I under stand the thing about chemicals. I don't use any in my snake room. You will know in a couple days if one that missing died you will smell it.( and it a horrible smell ) specially in closed areas.

Mom's cats don't hunt mice either the one will run from a mouse/rat . I also be warry about using a air rifle in my place mom got too many nicknacks.

I found either a container with water or food brings out my escaped rodented with in a 2 day period :).. and since they are stuck in the room ( unless they climb the wall to were he door knob was they stuck). so I offer them a special tub for 2 weeks then they fed off to the black rat,corn snake.

Wow,I feel your pain.Seriously! I had a female Fancy rat escape a few months ago :oops:and have been paying the price ever since!! I had a few "almost catches" and finally one time she ran under my stove(and inside it) So I dragged the whole thing outside.I was hoping maybe the cold would kill her,it didnt! I would occasionally see her outside but could never catch her... Finally I start seeing smaller rats like her only IN MY HOUSE:mad:
I have an old house and apparently they found a way in

So since then my dog has been going nuts trying to get these lil buggers.One day I came home after work and there were two dead rats by my door and my dog just wagging his tail:rofl: So I've been using a combo of him and sticky traps trying to get the rest.I've gotten two with sticky traps.

One morning I came downstairs getting ready for work and hear alot of noise behind my fridge(yuk!):weirdface So I called my dogs pulled out the fridge and we had a rat slaying party:banana: He got three.Now there is atlease one more left... Hopefully only one:please:

^^^^

You know, a bunch of kill snap traps would work pretty well too. Rats love food.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mike Cavanaugh

hot glue some big washers around those holes...

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I use the same setup for my mice. Like you, I also thought about using washers as a safety precaution but have not done it yet. I'm going to add washers to my tubs ASAP.

That sucks Mike! I've had group escapes but it was only 3 or 4 at a time over the years . . . . never 65. I can't imagine. We just caught one yesterday that had escaped 3 days ago.

I also agree with you about not feeding out or using a recaught rat for breeding purposes. Those get put down.

Washers are now on my to do list to buy today! Thanks for the great idea.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Crazy thing in my house is that my lazy arse male cat, Sebastian, won't hunt rodents but my nutsy female yellow Labrador does and then...GIVES THEM TO THE CAT! :rolleyes:

Yep we regularily find house mice that have a distinctly squashed look to them being played with by the darned cat. Apparently Bella the Lab does a front paw thump on the mice then gives over her prize to the stupid cat (who is her best buddy). Their little game though has worked. Haven't seen a house mouse around here for ages now. :)

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I'm late to this thread, but I had a baby hopper ASF leap out of a tub of one of the hatchlings and I was like CRAP!

No fear though, Lexi was near and was on that hopper like white on rice! LOL

Just an update to this, and I believe I spoke about it in another thread....

To avoid this from ever happening again cost me less then 5 bucks.

I simply hot glued LARGE stainless washers to the water bottle holes on the inside of the tubs.... This way if I ever do again forget to put a bottle back in, the only thing they will be able to chew on is 1/8" thick stainless steel.

Wow, that sucks! I don't have asf's, only mice but was considering switching if I could find some. Are they that nasty of chewers? My feeders are in the room my cat hangs out in so the few times mice have escaped due to my error, she gets a snack. Worst case scenerio I have 6 mouse eating ferrets to let loose on them!

did you get the last one??? And what a waste of asf's i hope you will freeze them or something!!!

heck use them all for crab bait, they won't care it free fod for them, I personal don't blame with some of the chemicals that get put down now a days. my few escapes are kept int the snake rom and are alway found within anhour ( I don't have chemical outside PAM in e room) the only asf that got loos and didn't find was found 3 days after it died by my het pied that got out an hour or so while cleaning cages he was hiding right above th corpse looking up at me as I slide the cage out like her theat nasty smaell dad now clean it up..
:rolleye2: