Rat In Our House - Very Smart - Can't Get Rid Of Him --HELP!--

[Nifty-Chicken]

Okay, for the past month we've been trying to get rid of a rat that is up in our attic and in our garage. I'm 80% sure it is all the same one and that there is just one.

I started out with traps all over the house, garage, attic. Put in all types of different treats, peanut butter, almond butter, marshmallows, etc. etc. etc. I even put the traps right where I've seen him run, right in his direct path.

None of them worked... not a single one is tripped.

Next I decided I had to do something... he's chewing up all our insulation and doing who knows what else. I know it is bad, but I put poison in the garage (away from the children and the chickens). I know there is a chance it might die outside and our chickens might get at him, but I'm hoping the chance is really low... plus I have to take the risk to get rid of him.

Anyway, he's not eating the poison. I've got two kinds out, the green little pellets and the bar / stick kind. He doesn't want either one.

We're at our wits end. We hear him gnawing at wood in the attic at night and in the walls while we're watching TV.

So, what the heck do I do now? I'm a hair away from blowing up the house!

 

[nccountrygirl]

Call in an exterminator and let them deal with it, they know ways to get the little buggers we haven't even thought of. Good Luck and I'm glad it's not me. Oh and I bet there's more than 1

 

[hcammack]

DO YOU HAVE A CAT? if you do put it in the attick if you dont try a bucket filled half way up with water and smear penut butter inbetween the waters surface and the rim of the bucket. it must be a large bucket so that the rat cant hang on with its back feet and eat at the same time it has to fall into the water and drown. it works realy well for mice.

Good luck

 

[picklespickles]

rats are smarter than mice. they will avoid new things in the environment more than mice. even food stuff. tricky little devils.

i think the neck snap traps are most humane but i've only had like one work ever in my entire life. i don't know if it will help with a rat, but i use those glue ones that you are supposed to fold up into a box. but i leave them unfolded cause even mice are too smart to run through a glue house. but they do run across.

a rat might be too smart for that but it is possible. the only thing as they are bigger and more powerful it might just drag it along with it...........maybe a few of them? don't add food, it will disolve the glue.

if you left the same glue traps (or whichever you go with) for a week, maybe he would get used to them and then go for it.

good luck

 

[thndrdancr]

Maybe he's back if he is that smart....


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gef_the_talking_mongoose

 

[Freebie]

My brother had a rat problem. I loaned him my cat, and in about a week he woke up to a headless rat on his pillow. He promptly brought the cat back to me.

 

[hencackle]

Gross, but funny!

 

[seagullplayer]

I have the best luck with mice/rat traps when I place them in a box in a dark corner.
A cereal box on it's side works great for a mouse trap. They like to hide while they eat, the narrow box also keeps them from approching the trap from an odd angle.

Like dad use to say "A good cat is hard to beat, with a bad cat its easy".

 

[bantymum]

Any snake owners out there that can go and visit Nifty chicken for the evening?

Good luck with it, the thing is that when you do get rid of him you will miss hearing him up there whilst you are laying in your slumber!!!.

sorry I forgot that it is winter over there and snakies dont like the cold,
what else ? do ferrets eat rats? Have you got a cat?must be some type of pred that you could leave in that room, ill keep thinking.!! slug gun??dynamite?

 

[jjthink]

Is a hav-a-hart trap one of the traps you've tried? I've caught them this way (with trap placed along a dark wall) and moved them far away from human habitation (and have no more problems). Poison can have so many bad outcomes. besides being a grizzly slow horrid way to die, anything that eats the rat may get poisoned and also, rats are known to move poison (as they do food) to other locations and then an unintended victim will eat the poison instead of the rat. Squirrels and bunnies will die from even the most discriminating rat poison.

For at least several days offer food WITHOUT setting the hav-a-hart door to close shut. First put the food outside the entrance on the floor in front of the trap and then gradually further and further in. Once the food is reliably disappearing from inside the trap, then set the trap door to close. Takes time and patience, I know....but they're so smart.

Once I catch them they are terrified in the trap and actually very easy to deal with if you do release because they can't wait to high tail it away from you
once the door is raised and they will generally wait till you step away quite a distance.

Good luck - I know it's frustrating. But it will work.
JJ