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...get a big "Tomcat" snap trap (Available at Amazon or Home Depot) |
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(Use crunchy peanut butter, and overfill the bait section. At least that works for chipmunks.)
Posted on 08/16/2017 6:24:37 AM PDT by logi_cal869
Neither a joke nor metaphor, I have a rat problem and seek learned wisdom from others who've combatted these cunning creatures.
I have a lone rat (I believe) lurking somewhere in my house. Without regard to the accuracy of that statement or my seeming inability to find its lair, this smart SOB freed itself from a sticky trap and has been Ninja ever since, sometimes not taking my popcorn bait for days (there are NO other food sources other than our occasional lapse in leaving the dog's food out).
Spring traps don't work; it's too smart. Or, to be more accurate, they don't work with the bait I've been using. I prefer not to use poison, as my neighbor has incurred significant expense in tearing into walls to remove decomposing flesh.
I'm hopeful for meritorious advice, as all of my requests to borrow/rent a farm cat have fallen on deaf ears...
“Bacon.”
Wasting bacon on a rat is just wrong.
It’s just as irresistible to them.
Try it.
“Try it.”
I won’t, and you can’t make me. :-)
I resemble that...
We think alike. Thanks!
To dispose of the rat carcass, I just tilt the trap over the trash can and it slides right out.
“The electrocution traps work well BUT you have to check on them frequently as a week-old corpse begins to fuse with the trap and its dreck to unglue them. I have had to toss two of them with stuck rats so that defeats the approach. If they add a bluetooth sensor so you know when they discharge that would be great.”
Correct - when I get into rat defestation mode, I check the trap at least daily. A bluetooth sensor alarm would be an awesome idea!
Sounds like the snake idea is the best posted here.
But wimmin hate snakes.
Don’t have a problem with rats or mice now but in the distant past we did. The man next door filled his garage up with candy and crackers for a vending business. He filled the neighborhood up with rats. We had to coordinate attack efforts for almost a year before we got rid of them. The candy man got hit by the town’s health officer.
We used traps and poison in the houses. It was almost a daily effort. The candy man was furious that we were “murdering” the rats. A real head case!
Seal your house off with caulking. This is the only solution.
Just went through a rat problem, and have been through it before. Patience with this type of problem is a necessity. What needs to be done depends on the circumstances.
Don’t assume there is only one entrance. Do a complete survey of your house to find additional ones (we have a terrier that helped with this). Make certain there is no food/water source inside the house. If they are trapped inside the house with no food source, they will eventually be attracted to your traps. In this situation, I’ve used a live trap with a trail of food leading to it (they will eventually go in and get trapped). I have used my wireless surveillance camera to verify entrance points and blocked them after the rat was observed leaving. It is best to do it this way rather than have a rat die inside the walls. This camera has observed rats escaping a spring trap (they are unbelievably quick). Once the rat is out and can no longer access your house, then you can go full ninja in return. Only use poison if you are certain a pet won’t be able to find it. I have had some success with a device that electrocutes a rodent (more so with mice, though). Note that young rats are difficult to differentiate from mice (mice have hair on their tails, whereas rats don’t).
I have cameras and dvr but my handicap is not having a wireless one. I’m positive I have a lone RAT trapped in the house, maddened by the fact I cannot find its hiding place (yeah, cameras...i have extenuating circumstances).
Thanks for the tips. The bucket idea is what I’m moving toward. Right now it’s being starved to the end game you also suggest.
I’ll share when it’s over.
Had an internet friend who specialized in ‘importing’ “Triple P” (his name for Tres Pasitos) and some other products for pest control that actually worked worth sh!t, unlike the watered down junk usually available thanks to liberal efforts. He made surprisingly good money and the products got rave reviews.
Careless people ruin everything. You can’t leave it around where pets and children can eat it and die.
Your sticky trap may have been a little old, sometimes they don’t stick as well. but since it’s been caught in one once he will be too waary next time. Try getting a plastic “step on to open” Black Cat brand trap, the kind that has a cup in the center to put your bait. These are really easy to set, won’t snap your fingers, and the bait doesn’t fall out easy.
Bait it with peanut butter and bread, or better yet the absolutely irresistable Zupreem fruit flavored parrot pellets from the pet store if there’s one in your area. [that stuff will work on everything from rats to raccoons without fail.]
Or, get a fresh big sticky trap intended for rats, not mice- big because you don’t want it reaching over the gel for the bait, you want him in it. Use fruit pellets for parrots, place it along a wall where you have seen or heard them run or up on a shelf or other ledge because rats prefer to run high rather than low. To find a run they use most, look for signs of dirt rubbed on the wall or trim.
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...get a big "Tomcat" snap trap (Available at Amazon or Home Depot) |
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A 10 x 10 x 10 bird nest box with a 2.5 inch hole in it set up high will attract the pregnant rats, esp. if you put parrot pellets in it. Leave corn husks, wool, cotton, wads of soft paper or insulation around the area; the rats will gather them up and stuff them in the box for a nest.
As soon as you see this stuffing sticking out the hole you know it’s occupied. The entire family will sleep in there in the daytime. If you haven’t rigged the hole with a clear plastic lid on a screw for a pivot, Just slap some duct tape over the hole, trapping them inside the box.
Then drop the box in a tub of water and weight it down, they’ll drown, but leave them there and go to lunch because they don’t drown fast.
Dump them out, dry the box in the sun, reuse. I caught 44 in a day that way for someone who had a flea market booth. There was bulldozing going on in a neighboring field and the rats displaced from that invaded the market one summer.
Parrot pellets. Works every time.
Those “jokes” work really well for us but you have to use a good bait.
Yeah that’s what happened. Poor Latinos kept being careless with it and poisoned their little bambinos. Personally I wouldn’t mind a little Darwinization but the public health departments and the feds now treat it like DDT. Grrr.
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