Allison 2,369 Posted March 16, 2012 Report Share Posted March 16, 2012 We've got a rat in the house. He was down in the basement, avoiding all the traps, but today he has come upstairs. Any advice? He's got to go. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Starghoti 466 Posted March 16, 2012 Report Share Posted March 16, 2012 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
miz molly 1,800 Posted March 16, 2012 Report Share Posted March 16, 2012 I DON'T LIKE RATS! Another option is the sticky pad with treats. I've done this with a mouse, but not a rat. icky..... The good thing is that it isn't poisonous so if another critter eats it they don't die too. The sad part is they will try to free them selves by eating through what ever part of the body is stuck to the pad ....at any rate, one has to figure out what to do with the struggling varmit .....I was advised to stick it in the freezer. Hypothermia is a pretty painless way to go. Put it in a bag so you don't see his eyes. Good luck. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sherab 2,337 Posted March 16, 2012 Report Share Posted March 16, 2012 Put something tempting in the bottom of an empty trash barrel. Make it easy to get in. Chances are it will go in but it won't be able to scale the sides to get out. Put on lid, take to woods far far away and no more rat. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
woodrat 399 Posted March 16, 2012 Report Share Posted March 16, 2012 First off, I would try make absolutely sure he's got no way to get hold of any food in the house. Go through your cabinets, maybe put everything in Tupperware containers for a bit or in higher cabinets/on top of the fridge and vacuum to get all crumbs up. If he finds access to food upstairs he is going to keep making the trip. Rats are extremely opportunistic and extremely clever little things. I've been keeping them as pets for the past 12 years, so I can attest to that I don't know if the trash barrel trick will work with rats, though I've heard it is successful with mice. Rats are a LOT smarter and have a very strong instinct to avoid anything new in their environment for weeks - which is why people have such a hard time catching them in traps. It is, of course, an instinct we've bred into them. I've always wondered, but never had the chance to ask anyone who'd know, if leaving un-baited traps in place for two weeks before attempting to set them would prove more effective as, after that time, they'd have become part of the scenery so to speak. Placement of traps would be important, too. Rats always travel against walls and often follow the same route, and I think if you could find the hole he was emerging from in the basement, you could probably figure out his likely routes. I would think that an ideal spot for a trap would be a 'pinched' area in his regular travel route where he has to slip between an object close to the wall for example, and maybe put a trap (or two back-to-back so he can't hop over the one) at the end of the pinched area. Another thing that might work, if you know where his hole is, is to move everything around in that general area. When rats enter a new space (so, for example, the first time he emerged from that hole into your basement), they explore slowly and create a mental map of that area as they go. They depend very strongly on that mental map to know where to run in case of emergency and how to get from point A to point B the fastest and most direct. It also means that anything new in that area (i.e. a trap) is picked up on immediately. If however, he emerges from his hole one day to find his entire mental map and regular routes suddenly void because all the objects he's used to navigating are replaced with new ones or moved all around, then he's going to have to recreate an entirely new map... and if un-set traps are suddenly lying about and placed in every new likely travel route, they're going to become a part of the scenery - especially if all other objects in the area are new. You could use some old boxes to create the pinched areas I mentioned earlier - creating tunnels against the walls to put un-baited traps in. Then you could start placing small food items about to see if he takes them if they're sitting in his usual travel route. If he gets used to finding bits of food in his home turf, then he's likely to take the food out of a baited trap that he's grown accustomed to. Of course, that all would take considerable time and effort... but it'd be the first thing I would try if it were my situation, knowing what I know about rats and how their brains work. Trying to outsmart a rat is a bit like trying to outsmart a very conniving dog - you have to get creative As I'm sure you already know (but I'll say it anyway for lurkers), poison, though effective with rats, is extremely dangerous when you have your own animals to think of. Anything that eats a poisoned rat carcass is effectively poisoning itself. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Allison 2,369 Posted March 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2012 I love some of these ideas. Thanks. I'll let you know when I get my python. But seriously, traps not set, until they become part of the scenery.....very good. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Allison 2,369 Posted March 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2012 Okay, I set an un-trap at the place where it has been coming for seeds, with seeds on it, and just before it. It usually takes a couple days, but I'm hopeful again. May set a few more before the day is out, but this place I know it keeps coming back. Thanks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Starghoti 466 Posted March 16, 2012 Report Share Posted March 16, 2012 OMG- Allison, remind me to tell you the story of Gwydo and the mouse... (there are actually 2 totally different stories, one involves our old cat..) Both are pretty funny. I'll save it for 'round the fire' at the Gathering Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gramtot 8 Posted March 16, 2012 Report Share Posted March 16, 2012 There's a product on the market called the Rat Zapper. It works on batteries and zaps the rat inside the trap. You never really even have to see the rat. I've used it for mice but I understand from the product literature that, as woodrat says, rats are much harder to trap. They advise all the things Woodrat says but add that you can put bait outside the trap for a few days so they think it's a good, safe ready supply of food. Move it closer and closer to the trap and then finally inside the trap. They definitely have to build up their confidence that things are safe. Good luck. I expect I'd be calling the professionals in to get the beast AND find out where he got in and plug that hole! I had to do that for my mouse problem--took me years of fighting the battle myself and then I just got tired of it. They found several places that mice could get in and fixed them. It's been worth it to have someone else do the crawling around in the muck and turning themselves into pretzels to get to those hard places. Nice not to hear the pitter-patter of little feet in the walls! Good Luck! Rats are a whole other level of yicky! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Allison 2,369 Posted March 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2012 We tried that Zapper. They liked it! They got the food, got zapped, and kept coming back for more! It was "One Flew Over the Rat's Nest". Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gramtot 8 Posted March 17, 2012 Report Share Posted March 17, 2012 Allison, if you still have it, you can beef it up with D batteries instead of those little AA's! There's an attachment they make for it that allows for this extra "juice". If the rats liked it and it wasn't strong enough to kill them, you might very well get them by adding the D battery attachment. It worked great on my mice, but they are quite a bit smaller--and dumber! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chinatola 927 Posted March 18, 2012 Report Share Posted March 18, 2012 Hey! I've got an idea! Ask 'em to run for Congress....it'll be among its own kind! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sherab 2,337 Posted March 18, 2012 Report Share Posted March 18, 2012 C, that would get him out of the house but not out of her pocket. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Starghoti 466 Posted March 18, 2012 Report Share Posted March 18, 2012 C, that would get him out of the house but not out of her pocket. Nice one! lol Quote Link to post Share on other sites
miz molly 1,800 Posted March 18, 2012 Report Share Posted March 18, 2012 Hey! I've got an idea! Ask 'em to run for Congress....it'll be among its own kind! The visual of a bunch of rats sitting in congress dressed in suits. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chinatola 927 Posted March 19, 2012 Report Share Posted March 19, 2012 At least the Rats would look better dressed in suits than the weasels occupying congress & the White House. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gib 291 Posted March 19, 2012 Report Share Posted March 19, 2012 Funny!! (Somewhat bitter-sweetly funny but very funny!) It's difficult to talk about rats & moles without it sounding like a war!! Currently, I'm losing my campaign with the moles but have had my perimeter secure from rats for a few years now. Not long after we moved into this place, we realized Joan & I were in a losing battle so we brought in professionals and they tore out all the stuff from the crawl space, re-insulated & re-water-vapor-barrier-ed and sealed all the possible ingresses & egresses! Since then I see evidence weekly of their presence out by our shed but only when it gets cold do we see evidence of them trying to get closer to the house. So, far, our perimeter has held. Why bother with our house when the neighbors present much easier pickings. It's sort of a variation of the same approach as not running faster than the bear, just faster than whoever you are with!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Starghoti 466 Posted March 19, 2012 Report Share Posted March 19, 2012 It's sort of a variation of the same approach as not running faster than the bear, just faster than whoever you are with!! LOL- works with Zombies too! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
miz molly 1,800 Posted March 19, 2012 Report Share Posted March 19, 2012 This morning I was presented with a "gift" by either one of the dogs or one of the cats.......a DEAD RAT laying on my deck. I HATE RATS! But a dead rat is better than one half dead or one that is still scurring around. Yuck! It's been years since I have seen a four legged rat. I forgot how BIG these varmits get. e-uuuuuie. bang! bang! bang! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Allison 2,369 Posted March 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2012 Aaaaaaahhhhhh! Good boys/girls. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
linda 19 Posted March 19, 2012 Report Share Posted March 19, 2012 If you cant afford a bug guy and you know someone with a cat some dirty litter in ur base ment they smell cat and leave or just borrow a cat or getour neighbor was infested a few years ago 2008 and I must have had one for a while they made a nest and having familys I found my dianmond earing and xmas decorations as soon as I got a cat it went away also had my wolf dog and he was agreat mouser that helped too I also found out if you have any plants with in 3 feet of the houe move them if poss. and wood chips they nest in them find the where they are coming in and put steel wool in the hole s they cant chew through it we did all of the above they moved on Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Karen 41 Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 Allison, if you still have that rat, call United Pest Solutions (tell them I sent you!) I'm with Gib - some things are best left to the pros. If you don't get rid of your rat soon, you will either have more rats or a dead rat somewhere in the walls or crawlspace. I'm not sure which is worse - as you might imagine, I've had both out here. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Allison 2,369 Posted March 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 Well, just when I was about to give up, and call in Karen's exterminator, the rat came and ate from the un-trap. I think I'll feed him one more time before I set it--a last meal. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
swade 22 Posted March 24, 2012 Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 This thread is hysterical! I'm laughing out loud. Good luck. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Starghoti 466 Posted March 25, 2012 Report Share Posted March 25, 2012 If you do catch the rat, maybe you could put him to good use- have him stuffed and mounted as a halloween decoration? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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