Bite marks on my soap, could it be rat?

[Ellacho]

Oh no.... I knew and heard about mice and rats eating soaps. Yes, those do look like rats teeth marks. If those were my soaps, I would just toss them(contaminated) away. But I hope you'd find a way to save them somehow. Sorry about your soaps .

 

[btz]

@AnneMarie, paillo, Susie, I'm setting up the mouse trap tonight, with the honey soap as bait. If they want the soap, they can have it. Let's see if I can get them.

@AustinStraight - I'm making soap for personal use . Peppermint force-shield sounds great too. I use eucalyptus oil once to get rid of an ant nest in my room,they work wonderful.

@Donna & Ruthie - I move my other soaps to a shoes box temporarily until I can figure out where to cure them safely. I don't have any type of minty oil right now, but I do have tree tea oil. Will put that in the shoes box, it should keep those pest out for the time being.

Thanks for the support and ideas guys. I guess I can use this as an excuse to make new batches of soap .

 

[btz]

BTW, does anyone know if lavender oil can also be used to repels rats? I read that it can do that, but the rat ate one of my soaps with lavender eo in it. Although, to be fair, I didn't put much in and the smell was almost very faint now.

 

[Kansas Farm Girl]

I did not know that rats or mice would eat soap, but I know some dogs who will if they get a chance. Guess they all look at it as a food source. I can't imagine soap tasting good to any creature. Since I am frugal by nature (aka Cheapsake) I would cut off the bitten areas, shave the outer edges and rebatch. Like I said, I am cheap.

 

[Jeanea]

If the soap is curing, the lye won't effect them....huh...I had friend who would leave Coca-Cola out for mice and rats. She said they can't pass gas so it kills them after they digest it

 

[grayceworks]

I would honestly just cut the bitten areas off and keep it for personal use. I mean, what do you wash with after touching yucky stuff? Soap!

 

[btz]

@Kansas Farm Girl - The rice bran with manuka honey actually has this food smell, something like cooked bean (?). I can't explained it very clearly, the smell is very subtle though. I had this conversation on another thread before the rat gets to my soap.

btz, my husband is Russian and reads a lot of anecdotes. He told me one about a tourist who goes to a nearby store where a couple different kinds of soaps are being sold. He asks the cashier which is the better soap. And she says "the local soap...because the mice will eat it." Basically, saying that the local soap is made with good ingredients, but the mice won't eat the other soap because it's full of chemicals.

All that to say, I think that any critter is going to be attracted to our soaps because of the natural ingredients that are "edible" even though they should not be eaten.

@Jeanea - the soap has been zap-free since week 2 though. I'm guessing that the rat had just find a way to my curing place. I don't mind killing rats using trap, but I'm afraid if I did what you said, they will die somewhere I couldn't reach and will stink up the house.

@grayceworks - I use one bar as rat baits, and give the others away. I told them what happened to the soap, and they don't mind it so they asked for it. I already cut out the bitten part and peel out the outer layer, and told them to soak them in alcohol and dried it under the sun before using it as extra measure.

Didn't managed to get rat last night, but I put the trap inside the house and make sure that all the doors and windows were closed. Gonna put it in the garage tonight, hopefully I can catch those little critters.

 

[Sagebrush]

I was thinking about that anecdote as I was creeping on this thread

 

[btz]

I was thinking about that anecdote as I was creeping on this thread

It was like premonition . I immediately thinking about that too when I first saw the bite mark.

 

[Sagebrush]

It was like premonition . I immediately thinking about that too when I first saw the bite mark.

Ha ha...crazy!