A better rat trap?

[Howard E]

I've looked and can find no videos of these traps being used to catch rats. But there are tons of them shown nabbing squirrels. Apparently, this is an urban survivor thing. Who knew?

This video demonstrates a number of things. One is setting the trap with a bait impaled on the whiskers. Another is the use of a setting tool to set the thing if you lack the grip strength to do it with your hands. And lastly, the squirrel gets it.

 

[Howard E]

Lastly, this trap box can also be used as a bait station. Drill matching holes top and bottom, lay the box on it's side, and start threading bait blocks on a heavy piece of #12 wire. Put a small L shaped bend on the end of the wire on the side that will become the top, then when the blocks are loaded, turn the box on it's bottom to lock the wires in place. You could easily stock this with 15 to 20 bait blocks with this method.

 

[Howard E]

Got a chance to play with the rat trap box yesterday and here are some findings.

First, on the bait block option........box is shown here with two rods installed.

Rods were made from short lengths of #9 fence wire. Matching holes drilled top and bottom to secure them in place.

I concluded I could have as many as 6 such rods per side, or 12 total, and each holding at least 3 bait blocks. So 36 blocks vs. the 2 or 3 most commercial bait stations are able to hold. You wouldn't have to, but you could.

As built, this box protects bait blocks from pets, etc, but is NOT lockable. To do that would require you to install hinges on one side, and a locking clasp on the other. Easily doable.

 

[Howard E]

Next came the Big Hammer trap options. I tried to rig the Duke 110 with a pan trigger, which was a train wreck.......



To install a pan, whiskers have to be bent 90 degrees. I thought I had done an OK job of it until the pan was installed.....I was way off. If it had worked, I could have fixed that, but this was not the biggest issue. Note the size of the openings. At best, pan is elevated nearly an inch above the jaws......so a rat might try to slip under it. Maybe not a big deal as it will fire going either way, so might get him. Or maybe not?

The Duke traps have so much slop in the trigger I was able to deflect the pan of the trigger nearly a full inch and the thing had still not fired.......



So maybe a rat could run back and forth over that all day long with impunity. One trick fur trappers use with these is to pre-set the triggers as far as I have done here.....on the hair trigger edge of firing. Seems silly to me. But again, as big as the biggest rats are, they are on the small end of what this trap was designed for........so to be effective, it needs to have a really sensitive trigger. Moral to that story is buy high quality traps. BMI, Belisle, Bridger, etc.

So by comparison, here is the bell trigger of a BMI trap:



Instead of two whisker wires, this bell shaped trigger does a decent job of blocking the 4 1/2" opening. Any opening a rat might take is less than 2 inches wide......but if super sneaky and willing to contort, they could likely get past it. Trap trigger is pretty sensitive out of the box, and a big rat might set it off as is, but also might not.

So instead of trusting this to work, I modified this even further with a blocking paddle........



That hole is only 1 1/2" in diameter and just about any rat that tries to wiggle through it will likely set it off. Rather than an inch or so of trigger slop as was the case with the Duke trap, this moved only about 1/4" before firing and effort to make it do so was about half that of the Duke. This one would get em.



Set it up in pass through mode or block the back hole off and toss baits in the back.

As for what baits, take one piece of 4" square toilet paper (bathroom tissue?).....cut it into 4 squares....each now 2" square.....and put a small 1/2" sized dab of peanut butter in each. Fold up the corners and twist it shut. This keeps things clean and paper wicks PB odor into the air. Leave 1 bait in the front and 1 or 2 in the back and you should get him.

 

[aart]

First, on the bait block option........box is shown here with two rods installed.

Rods were made from short lengths of #9 fence wire. Matching holes drilled top and bottom to secure them in place.

Is this just for using poison bait?

 

[Howard E]

BTW, I could build this box for about $5. Trap is also $5.

Commercial bait boxes start at $15 and move up from there. Traps to use in them (along with bait rods) are traps like the T-Rex, which may not be big enough to nab a huge brown rat and these traps also cost about $3 to $5 each.

 

[Howard E]

Here is a variation on the conibear / body grip trap.

https://www.snareshop.com/prodinfo.asp?number=KOROD

Smaller in size than a 110 conibear and has the pan already built in. Very much like the tombstone trap shown in post 11, so I guess someone is making at least a version of that highly lethal trap. A souped up version at that!

You could also place this in the weasel box and use this trap for rats or weasels. Holes in the ends to filter your catch?

 

[Howard E]

Tested the Koro and I don't think it is a candidate for use with our rat problems. First, it is a very powerful trap, which means most will have trouble setting it. What that also means is the spring is so powerful it creates enough friction on the dog and trigger pan so it is not a sensitive trap. It takes about 5 oz of weight to get it to fire. A rat might have to stomp on it pretty hard to get it to fire. It might be possible to modify the trap by pre-loading the pan trigger with weight, but why bother to do all that? The flip side of power factor is that if it did fire, it might take his head off entirely. It does seem to work with squirrels if you bait it as instructed with a peanut impaled on the bait spike.

So here are two more off the shelf options for traps big enough to nab Norway rats........ Gopher traps:

https://www.amazon.com/Victor-Black-Gopher-0625-Weather-Resistant/dp/B000FBMFDO

https://www.amazon.com/Various-SHOMHNK004-Black-Hole-Rodent/dp/B0007O24US

Both will work somewhat similar to the windlass trap as shown on post #11 of this thread. Bait goes in the back or is fixed to the trigger.

BTW, either of these gopher traps are also said to work for all sizes of weasels. Would replace the weasel box with wooden rat trap inside.

 

[Howard E]

On post #23 above, a 110 body grip trap was shown in a weasel box type setup. It was noted that the 110 is probably on the large size for rats (and weasels). The 110 was shown as it is one of the more commonly used (and thus commonly available) sizes. It turns out there are a few smaller sizes of these traps that may be useful for rats and weasels:


In this photo, bottom left to right is the same 110 (4 1/2" x 4 1/2" jaws), then a #50 (4 1/2" x 3 1/2" jaws), then what some refer to as a #40, a square body grip with 3" x 3" jaws.

On the top row, left to right are round body grips......a 3 1/2" round and a 2 1/2" round.

The two most likely candidates to be used on rats or weasels would be the #40 (3" x 3" and 2 1/2" round). Not only are the traps smaller, but note the size of the coil springs, which are also smaller, meaning easier to set and since they are less powerful, they have less friction on the dog, so are more sensitive. A rat or weasel could easily set off either one of them, yet either trap is more than big enough to pop a weasel or rat. Fit them into a box with bait in the back, or impale your bait on the tips of one of the whiskers. A bit of tootsie roll might do it for rats?

Square trap goes in a box......the 2 1/2" round trap will fit inside a piece of 4" sewer pipe to create a tube type trap.

https://www.wildlifecontrolsupplies.com/removal/CTM_BG.html

(also available from the same seller on ebay).

The two midsize traps......the #50 and 3 1/2" round.......are smaller than the 110, yet extremely powerful. They might work if the trigger is sensitive enough.

And again, these are intended to be kill traps, which would be used to take out rats inside a home or structure where you do not want to risk the stench of death that you might get if they ate poison, then died in a wall cavity or somewhere.

Serious big boy traps that will get the job done on the biggest rats you have.