Rats! Need New Strategy

[AK Baha]

I use a 5 gal bucket filled half way up with water. Drill two holes straight across from each other in the top edge of bucket,poke a hole in the center of both ends of a can of evaporated milk so you can put a wire through it. attach it to the bucket, put a ramp on the side,slap some peanut butter on the can and you are catching rats. Set as many different kinds of traps as you can. Have an all out war attitude!!!!

 

[Folly's place]

I've also been through this; rats out in daytime waving hello to me! I got a few youngsters in the water bucket, and NONE in the live traps. I was unwilling to use the big snap traps, so finally locked up the birds and barn cat, warned the neighbors, and set out a warfarin-based poison for about one week. The bait was no longer being eaten at that point, so I stopped putting it out. Never saw a dead animal, either, and no more rats! Be VERY careful choosing a poison; some are much too toxic for home use, IMO. Mary

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Sorry to be absent from this thread for so long. i hurt my back and haven't been able to do much. But i did catch one of the rats! i went back to trying the snap traps. i had been using them with just chicken feed. But i shifted to cheese, cat food,and hot dogs. The first night i tried that, one of them took the hot dog and cheese, set off the trap, but didn't get caught. The next night, i just used cheese but really jammed it in there. That's when i caught one of them. It was a big un!

But i still have one running around, so need to switch tactics. It isn't going for the snap trap. i have a large humane trap buried under ivy in the backyard i think i can unearth. It won't go into the rat sized humane trap i've set, too small. Maybe if it had a larger trap it wouldn't feel so confined.

Thanks so much for the pictures of the bucket trap. That really helps. Once i'm a little more mobile, i will build one of those. Even when i catch this other rat, i know that won't be the end of it.

Here's a picture of the rat my sister named Pickles.

Warning, graphic picture. That is one of those large rat snap traps.