Why rat traps are uselss for rats

[silkiechicken]

Yeah, shooting them is pretty fun. That's what we do off the back of a vehicle when we have the time. Wait for one to pop up and pop it in the head with a high powered air rifle. Almost like whack a mole. Glad this guy wasn't as big as the ones found in down town seattle, I'd have to set the coon trap for those! Imp can confirm the cat sized seattle beasts!

All I used for bait was chicken feed. They'd been living on it so I'm certain were used to the flavor and scent so went in to get it. Rats are really smart though. You can potty train pet rats and teach them tricks pretty easily. Wild rats though, I wish they weren't so darn smart.


Think the only potential down falls of throwing a ferret down a rat hole is that they might get hurt if they are a pet, if they get lost they can be a pretty bad predator much like a mink, and are kind of expensive animals.

As for the continual trapping for the ones we don't shoot, the plan is to bait the cage nightly but only have it set to close every few nights, to slow down their fear of the trap.

 

[YoYofranko]

To be honest its like the rats are smarter then the humans at the moment, i never thought it would be so differcult to control them.
Theres alot of holes and tunnels but luckily they dont seem to be inside the hen house yet and i'm pretty sure they dont come out at all during the day.
We probably wont be using our ferrets someone told us it can make them vicious because they have to fight with them. I think its time to try a different poison.

Can i just say ive actually got 2 pet rats but i dont think of them as being the same as wild rats, there actually really great pets, they reply to the name and will sit on your shoulder. Sometimes i feel there more intelligent then my dog.

 

[cluckcluck42]

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You, Madam, are a total bad #$%.

 

[silkiechicken]

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You, Madam, are a total bad #$%.

If I had four feet I'd have stomped the other 3 that got away too. Out of the 6 I saw scurry away from a hidden nest coop cleaning, was only able to stomp that one and slam the shovel down on a second. The third tried to escape a collapsed tunnel but I pulled it out by it's tail before shoveling it too.

Still hunting mom and the two other pups I saw run.

When greeting strangers, I'm always in front because I am more approachable, but my SO says I'm much more dangerous than anyone would think. LOL

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

Last winter I tried trapping in the shed, got one but had many more drag the trap away into their lairs (found later during spring cleanup ick)

The one I caught really impressed the teen son, who never thought they got that big or glossy (unfortunately a properous rat in our cornfields)

We had to use poisons, but the only thing that worked was antifreeze. I hate to poison, but really had no options.

Would much rather quickly and cleanly kill them. My dad tried rat hunting, as evidenced by all the small holes in the pole shed walls.

 

[Tala]

Yeah, our cats control the mice type critters, but the rats were stealing feed and eggs. I've had good luck with Tom Cat poison in a bait station to keep it away from the pets. Funny thing is that I never see them, dead or alive, but the bait goes missing and after that I quit losing eggs so I'm pretty sure I got them.
It would take an exceptionally small possum to get into my coop and I never saw evidence of snakes either, because fake eggs were never taken.

Would much rather quickly and cleanly kill them. My dad tried rat hunting, as evidenced by all the small holes in the pole shed walls.

 

[treldib]

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Check your PM's

 

[Ibicella]

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I've got pet ratties too. A domestic pet rat and a wild rat are as different as dogs are to wolves. They're so lovey dovey and sweet.

 

[Ibicella]

Rats share 98-99% of the same genes that humans do. This is why we use them for lab experiments in medicine and psychology. So if they seem shockingly smart, there is a reason for it!

This is why pest control folks advocate "building them out" for rat control over poisons or traps. Keeping things very clean and repaired is the best way to go. Destroy their trails, their hiding places, their ramps, their food, and their points of entry, and you will greatly reduce or eliminate wild rat problems.

If you need to use traps, very large snap traps and no-kill traps work best. Male Norway rats like what the OP had in her trap can easily get 8-12 inches long. So it's important to pick BIG traps. Poison is difficult to use because rats are very leery about eating new things, and they watch one another. If one rat dies because of poison, the rest of the colony knows what to stay away from.

Plus if you are lucky and it DOES work, you end up with rat bodies in inconvenient places where your animals can get secondary poisoning, or you are forced to carve out a wall to dig out the rotting, putrid carcasses.

 

[YoYofranko]

Ha your pic looks exactly the same as one of my babies. The only thing i dont like about pet ratties is the fact they don't live long enough. Wild rats are practically a different species in my eyes. Sorry to bore people with my pointless talk lol.