Suggestions On Best Rat Traps To Buy

[kuntrygirl]

About a week ago, I caught a rat in my old feed storage pen. I no longer store feed in there (an hadn't for many months now and there is no feed laying around in there), although I do use it that area for a nesting box area. The rat was caught with a glue trap but was almost as long as the glue trap itself. Now I have seen a few more rats running around and I want to catch them as well but the glue traps are not working this time. I saw somewhere that has these "electronic" traps that trap rats or mice and you can dispose of the dead varmints and re-sue the trap. Has anyone seen anything like that? What do you all use to catch those pesky rats and mice? Whatever I buy will be used outside in the chicken house, breeding pens and feed storage area. Any suggestions would be great on what I should get that works. I know that I won't be able to totally eliminate the rat and mice problem because there is a wooded area of about 1 acre behind the chicken yard but I want to do what I can to kill the ones that come into the chicken yard, chicken house and feed storage building.

 

[Lollipop]

I read, not long ago, about a simple solution to the rat trap problem. Haven't tried it, but the logic is reasonable and I will soon. Fill a 5 gal bucket about half full of water. Put enough sunflower seeds in the water to make it look like a solid surface of seeds floating on the water. Build a makeshift ramp so the rats can get up to the rim and see/smell the seeds. The rats will jump in and drown, because they can't jump out. Then you just remove the drowned rat and ad a few seeds and you're good to catch another one. Can't wait to try it...........Pop

 

[christineavatar]

I have heard of the same idea but you put a piece of coat hanger through small holes you bore into the walls of the bucket. Put a soda can or the like on the coat hanger piece and cover it with peanut butter. The smell attracts the rats. The rat tries to get the peanut butter and they spin on the can which is a loose fit and they fall into the bucket. They bucket can either be filled with water or not. If you want to spare the lives of the rats and relocate them, it becomes an option.

 

[delamarter]

Probably should put water in the bucket - large rats can jump up to 4 feet vertically.

 

[Folly's place]

I have killed a few in water in a bucket, but by the time you are seeing rats, you have MANY MANY of them! They are very smart and difficult to trap. I finally confined the chickens and barn cat and set out warfarin type bait. After about a week no more bait was disappearing, so I picked it up, waited a few more days, and let everyone back out. I set the bait along the walls and under cover to minimize risk to larger critters. Never saw a dead rat, but no more signs of live ones, either. Mary

 

[bellschick]

I set warfarin out and it killed the rats but just before the rats died they crawled out into the open and my chickens started eating the rats with warfarin in them!!! Im going to try bucket trick. Sounds best for me.

 

[Folly's place]

That's why I locked all my critters up first, so no cat, dog, or chicken would eat a poisoned animal. I also let the neighbors know that rat poison was going to be in my barn that week, so they would be looking to pick up dead rodents. Mary

 

[johnderosa1]

I ve tried the bucket with water ... Peanut butter around the rim and caught some that way in my garden. I have used snap traps with some success ... The key here is to buy a bunch of them, bait them without setting them for about a week and then set them all at once. You can nail a bunch of them this way. I have a rat zapper electronic trap and they work well but cant be used outdoors unless protected from rain. When all else fails rat poison is very effective if you take the appropriate precautions . If you suspect rats , get on it quickly. - before things get out of hand . Try a combination of methods a nd you can rid of them pretty easily

 

[Wrooster]

Yes - Warfarin (D-Con) as long as they won't be dieing in your attic or someplace where they'll stink or someplace where you care what eats them. I've had them chew into unopened D-Con boxes to get at the stuff and it works!

Yes - regular old wood snap traps and yes - use several and yes - leaving them in place but not set first is good. A little pricey if you buy them in the wrong place but they last forever. Cheap is OK if you can find it but cheaply made is not. There are some plastic snap traps but 3/4 of mine don't work any more. Glue traps are good but expensive.

 

[omilona]

UGGHH. I had the rat problem from hell last summer. It required (literally) half a ton of cement and 7 lbs of rat poison. But now it's dealt with. Unfortunately a bunch died under the hen house (as opposed to the 14 in the pen) and stunk to high heaven in the summer heat....just as Tinsel was hatching her babies in there...

Then I discovered a new tunnel right by the side door to our house. I then called in the exterminator, because I was scared to death the labradors would get the posoned rats and die. They used some kind of uber strong poison which kills them on contact not in a few days.