Rat Patrol
 

I meant to post this as a new post but I put it in another. Not an A but a V8. Wonder if it has a Willard battery

Re: Rat Patrol
 

I suspect this "system" was used on the city septic lines in the street? Yunno - downstream of the traps (water seal) applied to each septic connection in the living space?

Which might be possible. Kill the rodents with carbon monoxide, the excess goes out the top of each septic "stack" - and the building occupants are safe if they didn't smell "sewer gas" before the treatment.

A little "close to the edge" - but likely worked well.

Joe K

Re: Rat Patrol
 

My dad used to use this method to kill gophers. As many of you know, it is a constant battle to rid a yard of gophers. In the end, the gophers win.

Before air quality regulations hit the automobile industry, the exhaust gas from cars was much more toxic. If I had to use this technique I would use my Model A and twist the gas adjustment valve a few turns open. Fortunately I don't have gophers and the hound dog kills the moles.

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It looks like a '36, 5 window coupe. Nice car, although when this photo was taken it was well used.

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Not meaning to start a political discussion, but many years ago city and county animal control shelters used CO from motor vehicle engines for euthanasia. On one of my oddball engineering consulting jobs early in my career I got called out to a shelter that found that their euthanasia chamber wasn't working. It had a WWII surplus jeep engine mounted on a frame, and piped the exhaust from it to the chamber. Turns out that a couple of weeks before the engine wouldn't start, and the shelter called out their motor pool mechanics to fix it. They rebuilt the engine and tuned that engine up so sweet that it wasn't emitting enough CO to put the animals down. I suggested that they adjust the mixture to way rich, and behold, it worked just like before.

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I've seen exhaust gasses used in a couple of similar ways.
The first was to gas rabbits in their warrens. We'd walk around a big warren plugging up as many holes as we could find, then use the exhaust from the oldest, smokiest engine we could find to gas them. Adding some oil to the fuel was a standard trick. To add interest to the job, we'd stand back with a 12 gauge under our arm waiting for those rabbits that found a hole we missed.
The other was to gas Myna birds. This annoying invasive species is very smart but easily falls for a well made trap. Once there are several birds in the trap, they are euthanised but if other Mynas see what is happening to their fellow pests, you won't catch another. The best way to destroy them is to cover the trap and in darkness, gas them with a car exhaust and dispose of the dead ones before light comes. Mynas are often referred to here as "Rats of the sky."

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One of the helicopter pilots I used to work with would catch what ever critter was being a pest and then he'd drop the trap cage into the stock tank full of water. He referred to it as baptising them.

Using engine exhaust might kill more than what a person wants to be rid of. Sort of like the canary in the coal mine.

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The old dog catcher trucks used to put the dogs in the lethal chamber and divert the exhaust into it. Humane,I guess

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I have been poisoned by carbon monoxide. It was an old gas refrigerator. It happened at night. I woke up feeling like I was drowning. I opened all the windows and then moved the 500 pound refrigerator outside. Not a fun experience.

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I have had CO overdose as well, and it is miserable. Splitting headache, shortness of breath, dizziness, the whole works. It was in an asparagus packing plant whose manager decided to switch from electric forklifts, which required a shift of downtime to recharge, to propane forklifts. That let the plant run three shifts uninterrupted. Bad decision, but fortunately easily corrected.

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My friend ,as a milkman, told a customer about co2 to kill moles. The guy piped his exhaust down a hill into the tunnel, and laid down in the house and fell asleep, waiting for it to work. Unfortunately, the moles had tunneled under the house, and he fortunately woke , but was poisoned. He evidently was pretty pissed about it.

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i need them to come to my house,