Smart little feral rat.

[Robert]

Just looking for some opinions on how smart feral rats are.

I have had 1 rat running from the laundry through the kitchen then through the lounge only to get in the walls and start chewing his way to...,well who really knows.
My problem is that he is to smart for the traps i have set and i have layed 5 olong his path(i know this because i have been doing stake outs on him)
but he jumps them or sets them off but never gets caught.

I have gone to some old school tricks with many close encounters but no reward.
There is a few of them i can hear but he seems to be the only one doing the mad dash.
I don't won't to use Ratsac or poisons cause i know he will die in the walls,and also i don't wont my dog to find it and eat it.

Any suggestions,or is posion the only way.
My breeding my own rats doesn't really help the matter either.

 

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Hi Robert,
I use a trap that has a sprung gate, pumpkin seeds are the best lure.
Rochedale Produce has them for under $15.
You end up with the live animal, just throw the trap and all in a bucket of water.
Heaps better than a sprung trap, but still use the pumpkin seed on a sprung trap because as they dry they stick and the mouse/rat cant steal the bait. Guarantees to set it off.
Leave a saucer of alcohol, he will get careless!
cheers
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[Slateman]

Alcohol? to rats? My GOT

 

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Up far nq our neighbours had a white tail rat in their cieling and he was having the bait off 3 traps every night, they realized they were just feeding him! They left a saucer of sherry out and by the second trap he was a goner!

Unless of course you use Firewater which knocks out all animals smaller than a rottweiler, so Ive heard!

 

[herptrader]

We caught a rat in a cat trap in the back yard ;-)

I have a serious rat trap I got from a "Stock and Feed" place where I used to get our rodent GR2. It had steel teeth where the bar came down. It looked nasty but was quick and effective.

You rarely have just one Rat on the loose. The best bait I found to "wipe them out" is a paste that came in little sachets from Safeway. Rats are very clever so a bait with a delayed reaction helps. The last infestation we had was years back but I remember watching the rats race off with multiply sachets in their mouths. A couple of days later they were completely gone.

In our area they seem to use the storm water pipes as a kind of rat freeway. If the plastic grates on your drains have all been chewed through this is a dead give away. I replaced the ones around our home with steel ones (dynabolted to the concrete 8) ) which seems to have made a difference.

On the bait front for traps I used the GR2 rodent cubes I use for my feeder rodents. The feral rats seem to enjoy this as much as the feeder rodents.

 

[Parko]

Poison is the go, they usually wont die in the wall because the slow acting poisons make the rat thirsty, so it goes out in search of water and then goes to rat hell.

 

[africancichlidau]

Rats like to skirt the perimeters of structures and will go through anything left in their path if they can see their way out. Get yaself a spring trap and a stormwater Tee piece, put the trap in the short leg of the Tee which will go against a wall so that the rat will walk through the long side, you won't even need to bait the trap and it will get 'em every time

 

[Robert]

Thank you all for some very good and helpful info.

I might try get them tipsy at the 1st post,then put out some munchies on the 2nd post(the sachet bait)
(haven't seent this stuff b4 Daavid,will have to do a search,sounds really good)
then put a sprung gate trap in a T section of some 5in condute piping i have under the house and put that on the 3rd post.I'm bound to get at least 1.Hopefully the big Daddy.LOL.

Cheers Guys.

 

[instar]

This sounds like a great way to knock off feeders too!?
http://store.yahoo.com/mainesupply/ratzapper.html

 

[herptrader]

This sounds like a great way to knock off feeders too!?
http://store.yahoo.com/mainesupply/ratzapper.html

In addition to the problems they described of this device basically not working they are very expencive to run because you only get 10 "kills" out of 4 AA alkaline batteries.... and that is there claim not an independent assessment.