I thought I got rid of the last rat that came aboard, but on the swing mooring I have seen and chased this healthy water rat twice tonight. Obviously, I don't want to sleep aboard with it roaming around. The only way it could have come in is via the 75mm / 3-inch vents or perhaps around the outboard well.
The internet tells me 1) they're a protected native species, and 2) they need to dry out and burrow when the water is below 20 degrees (it's now 14 degrees in the Gippsland Lakes, so that is why he is fat, healthy and knows his way around my yacht, where to run, etc.).
I have used 4 pellets of a rat-sack bait, but it has not been eaten in the past 2 months.

Questions: Do I give up, remove all food (I did that before to no avail), and abandon the boat for a few months?
Do I put some sort of chicken or flyscreen wire in and around every opening, so that he starves aboard? And smells.
Is he dangerous to me? He was bold, and probably about 35cm long, happy to stare at me, and the end of his tail was white.

happy to stare at me,

Yeah, I like looking at my food before I eat it too.

%2C700

gary

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FabulousPhill said..
I thought I got rid of the last rat that came aboard, but on the swing mooring I have seen and chased this healthy water rat twice tonight. Obviously, I don't want to sleep aboard with it roaming around. The only way it could have come in is via the 75mm / 3-inch vents or perhaps around the outboard well.
The internet tells me 1) they're a protected native species, and 2) they need to dry out and burrow when the water is below 20 degrees (it's now 14 degrees in the Gippsland Lakes, so that is why he is fat, healthy and knows his way around my yacht, where to run, etc.).
I have used 4 pellets of a rat-sack bait, but it has not been eaten in the past 2 months.

Questions: Do I give up, remove all food (I did that before to no avail), and abandon the boat for a few months?
Do I put some sort of chicken or flyscreen wire in and around every opening, so that he starves aboard? And smells.
Is he dangerous to me? He was bold, and probably about 35cm long, happy to stare at me, and the end of his tail was white.

Wow that sucks. Never heard of them. Hope you figure it out. Any other boats nearby have same problem? How did you get rid of the last one?
I thought bird s..t was bad.
Keep us posted.

Do not bait as if dies aboard,have the smell,and bound to finish up in most inaccessible spot,making it hard to extract . Not good !!
( Once baited Rats that died in the wall cavity of Timber house on the farm = Re- sheet wall + wash away smell ! - never again ! )
So .... Rat/Possum Trap, as Garry shows,are the best and can be hired ? off the council?RSPCA . Use Bacon,and tie onto trigger plate .
Good Luck !
Mason

Something like this to catch him.

Maybe something like this in strategic places once he's gone, to stop his relatives visiting.

Just be careful not to zap yourself especially if the area gets wet. They sting, I know :-)

www.jaycar.com.au/electric-fence-energiser-10km/p/ME6800

Hey Phil,
cute little ish dudes : )
It isn't going to hurt you, it is nocturnal and eats live fish, shellfish, frogs, I can't tell since this is an internet forum but I am guessing you aren't one of those : p
It has a fast metabolism and will go out to hunt each night, watch how it is getting in your boat and plug the hole while it is out.

Ps: it isn't really a rat, it is a Rakali and will just do it's thing, it will only bite you if you corner it and it is scared for it's life, to it you are a T-Rex sized predator.

It might be climbing up the mooring chain/rode/rope. Maybe you could try a rat-stopper.

First google hit www.nuovarade.com/product.php?productId=6561&categoryId=261

Thank you everyone for your replies.
I posted on Sunday night, and the rat made another appearance. He was in the fore cabin and then leapt to the porta-potti area, or back, and one time at the fore cabin he was just motionless, staring at me, but he was not too afraid of me.
I thought I picked up a rat at a notorious jetty (near an abandoned house), but this was the rakali / native water rat. As such, he wasn't interested in the Talon bait (I checked), but he did leave barnacle and mussel shells around.

So, after the 3rd time, I motored back to the launching ramp jetty and slept uncomfortably in my car. The rat could be by himself.

On the Monday, I went back to the yacht to have breakfast, etc, since he is nocturnal. I did search through all of my cupboards and underberth areas, but he'd moved. I did discover that I can close the door to the fore cabin and toilet (2 bulkheads there), such that he couldn't exit that area, but he wasn't in that area on Monday arvo.

(the floor is a teak-lookalike foam from Ebay. About $65 for 2.4 metres by 0.9 metres, and 6mm thick. Soft to walk on, non-slip and looks OK).

To get some epoxy out from under the cockpit I saw his tail and foot stuck in the corner of the vertical slides and the bilge:

His black and white tail is on the left, and his foot is next to the small styrofoam on the round inspection port. He was stuck, facing downwards.
I thought about grabbing him with my leather gloves, but he'd be vicious and angry. I then tried to catch him with my fishing net, but thought he would run too fast and go anywhere in the yacht. But after a few minutes of him being stuck, he ran under the floorboards/bilge area. I sealed him off and thought about the net again.
In the end, I opened the seacock and drowned him.
This morning I fished him out and then tried draining the bilges. The bilge pump blew 2 fuses, so I had a look at replacing the pump. (I wired it up last time but thought that it wasn't working well). I discovered that he chewed through all 3 wires of the bilge pump, and shorted them.

End of story. I thought he was too big to wrestle with, and to chase out of the yacht would have been difficult, unless I could corner him somehow.
He came in through the opening of the outboard well (leg), so I will seal that better next time aboard.

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julesmoto said..

How did you get rid of the last one?
I thought bird s..t was bad.
Keep us posted.

The last time I had a rat was a normal land rat, and some bait took care of him. With a gloved hand I felt under my bilges, and felt his soft body, but he was on the way out of this life.

This water rat didn't take bait that land rats eat. Unfortunately.

Good work. Glad to hear that you prevailed. Also fortunate that you discovered the bike pump wiring damage.

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julesmoto said..
Good work. Glad to hear that you prevailed. Also fortunate that you discovered the bike pump wiring damage.

Apparently spellcheck thinks "bilge pump" should be "bike pump" :(. One really annoying thing about this site is that after a couple of hours you can no longer edit your post.

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FabulousPhill said..

This water rat didn't take bait that land rats eat. Unfortunately.

I know this is a sailing site but perhaps rethink spreading poisons liberally as a way to kill small inoffensive mammals, the poison doesn't disappear when you are "lucky" and it kills the intended animal. You could choose to not be afraid of an animal with 2% of your body mass and kill them directly after trapping them.
theconversation.com/australias-reptiles-may-be-spreading-rat-poison-through-the-food-chain-94922

On the lake in Ballarat, a mate of mine had substantial damage to sails & sheets on his Jubilee class in the little marina. However, like me, he is a farmer and and went for the usual livestock solution - electric fencing. He just strung electric fence tape around chainplates, deck blocks,etc; all electrically isolated by the GRP hull. A tiny energiser pushing probably 6000+V did the job. No more rakali, no poison either (horrendous for our raptors BTW). And for the squeamish, electric fencing is sreious aversion therapy; it is not to kill the trainee.

I've had a bit to do with elec fences, and yep they deliver a grand kick. I've contemplated using one to deter gulls & dickh**ds. As I understand the operation of an electric fence the isolated positive (the fence wire ) is sent pulses and the ground is the earth, ie a earth peg is connected to negative, when something shorts the system by touching the wire and the ground simultaneously the electric pulse flows through that something as long as it's conductive. So to run it on a boat would you use two wires pos & neg close together ?

Use electric fence to deter possums,with small,solar powered self-contained unit - zap dependent on length of run with clean ( well insulated ) connections + be wary of marine/water environment as moisture multiplies the effect ! Not good if old mate d...head has a pacemaker , but would love to see a zinged gull !

Don't know about leading electrified ribbons around your chain plates and hence shrouds and mast when you have electronic instruments up there.

Also more crap to carry on the yacht. I guess it's worth it if you have a serious problem. Reminds me of a certain large catamaran that's been for sale for over a year which nobody wants to buy. Pets plant pots and all manner of crap on there because they treat it like a house. Need to be minimalist if you actually sail.

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MuttonBird said..
And for the squeamish, electric fencing is sreious aversion therapy; it is not to kill the trainee.

Tell my neighbour that - he turned up our boundary fence to the stage where it leaves a mark on your inner thigh, and sweat on your brow when you think of what could have been.

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Chris 249 said..

MuttonBird said..
And for the squeamish, electric fencing is sreious aversion therapy; it is not to kill the trainee.

Tell my neighbour that - he turned up our boundary fence to the stage where it leaves a mark on your inner thigh, and sweat on your brow when you think of what could have been.

But you're not dead, and I'm guessing you learned something from that experience? Apart from the free heart-health check?

Our friends in Williamstown have an ultrasonic deterrent and they swear by it. Noticeable difference since installation. Best part is it also repels bears and water buffalo.

You can bait them in a safe way. Mix chocolate powder, nuts, oats with plaster of paris. Add some bicarbonate of soda. Mix any food that attracts them. The added food is just an attractant, you really want them to eat the chocolate powder and plaster of Paris as the main course.

The action is pretty simple. Plaster of paris bogs up the rat, the bicarbonate of soda reacts with the gut acids and blows the rat up into 1 big cast ball. The plaster of paris will also absorb liquids and air dry the dead rat much quicker than rat poison resulting in almost no smell. You can also put a dish of anti-freeze with vanilla essence in it, the thirsty rat which is bogged up and dehydrated will be looking for water. Put the water in sheltered area on your deck, they can smell fresh water. The anti-freeze will ensure that they depart the earth gracefully as a double measure.

I use the above in my shed because the Missus will kill me if her pet dogs ate a dead poisonous rat. The vet bill is another reason to cause panic!

Anyway it works very well for me and I have cleared my shed of rats and its amusing to find these rat looking rocks now and then! I have never noticed the smell, but I always notice the smell of dead birds that have fallen from their nests in the shed.

That sounds like a good recipe.
Of course Rakali are not rats and it's illegal to kill them.

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p3p4p5 said..
You can bait them in a safe way. Mix chocolate powder, nuts, oats with plaster of paris. Add some bicarbonate of soda. Mix any food that attracts them. The added food is just an attractant, you really want them to eat the chocolate powder and plaster of Paris as the main course.

The action is pretty simple. Plaster of paris bogs up the rat, the bicarbonate of soda reacts with the gut acids and blows the rat up into 1 big cast ball. The plaster of paris will also absorb liquids and air dry the dead rat much quicker than rat poison resulting in almost no smell. You can also put a dish of anti-freeze with vanilla essence in it, the thirsty rat which is bogged up and dehydrated will be looking for water. Put the water in sheltered area on your deck, they can smell fresh water. The anti-freeze will ensure that they depart the earth gracefully as a double measure.

I use the above in my shed because the Missus will kill me if her pet dogs ate a dead poisonous rat. The vet bill is another reason to cause panic!

Anyway it works very well for me and I have cleared my shed of rats and its amusing to find these rat looking rocks now and then! I have never noticed the smell, but I always notice the smell of dead birds that have fallen from their nests in the shed.

You can't bait a rakali! I will tell you why. They are not rats from foreign places they are native. They don't invade your home and cupboards. They hunt in the rivers and along the shore. They dive for shellfish, fish, frogs and actually attacked black rats.

So baiting a rakali will not work. They are native solitary and are not destructive.

Also native wildlife is protected in Victoria under the Wildlife Act 1975 and it is illegal to kill, trap or disturb wildlife without a permit. So intentionally baiting, electrocuting, drowning a native animal is illegal.

Did you join to have a rant about a topic that was last posted on 6 months ago ??????

This discussion is closed. It is subject to (my) prosecution.

I posted this query on how to deal with an invading animal in the yacht (affecting my health, food safety/contamination, etc) and got some responses. A man from a Victorian government department obviously contacted/demanded my contact details from the forum management, and I was issued a letter. The letter outlined the legislation and an allegation. The prosecution has not closed, but is seems it is stalled for lack of evidence. Hence I shut up for months (on this forum) and this discussion is closed.

Please refrain Neercs from personal, unprofessional comments.

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FabulousPhill said..
This discussion is closed. It is subject to (my) prosecution.

I posted this query on how to deal with an invading animal in the yacht (affecting my health, food safety/contamination, etc) and got some responses. A man from a Victorian government department obviously contacted/demanded my contact details from the forum management, and I was issued a letter. The letter outlined the legislation and an allegation. The prosecution has not closed, but is seems it is stalled for lack of evidence. Hence I shut up for months (on this forum) and this discussion is closed.

Please refrain Neercs from personal, unprofessional comments.

Wow even yachting forums aren't safe from freaks and pathetic little power drunk government officials.

Sad. Mind you I was recently taken advantage of and cheated by a certain Adelaide based yacht purchaser who I extensively helped so no guarantees of honesty or reasonableness on here.

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julesmoto
Wow even yachting forums aren't safe from freaks and pathetic little power drunk government officials.

Sad. Mind you I was recently taken advantage of and cheated by a certain Adelaide based yacht purchaser who I extensively helped so no guarantees of honesty or reasonableness on here.

The sad part is the need for protection of our native animals from ignoramuses, for a country with a top 10 per capita wealth to lead the world in mammal extinctions is shameful.
The attitudes displayed here are a testament to the cause, growing up on a farm 50 years ago my father told me of the mindset of 90% of our neighbours, "if it moves, shoot it, if it stands still, cut it down".
"Infestation" and Rakali together form an oxymoron, they are small inoffensive solitary creatures who wouldn't hurt a child, let alone a supposedly grown "man". HTFU

Could the moderators please freeze this topic from further posts?
The law will take its course, and I have just reported Sparau and Neercs for personal and abusive content.