Thread: Trapping Rats! Monsters sized rats

Our apartment complex has a rat problem...

They aren't in the house, but run around along the walls outside and it drives me nuts when I'm trying to sleep. Yesterday, I went down to the store and got some nice big rat traps, the snap kind, and loaded them up and set them in the back patio. Tonight, I heard that trademark SNAP! and went to check...sure enough I had knocked one of them off. Satisfied, I shut the door and went back to SRP. I had gotten him right on the neck and he wasn't moving. About ten minutes later, I heard a commotion on the patio and went to investigate....no more rat!!! Somehow this monster had gotten himself out of the trap! How the heck did he get out? These things would surely break my finger if I had it in the way when it went off, but somehow this rat managed to get his full head out of the trap.

any ideas?

I also have a rat issue when the Bunya nuts fall each year. I've found the most effective solution is poison. I set up pet-proof bait boxes - you can either buy them or make your own out of pvc pipe and some tin to ensure the access holes are rat and mouse sized - and just load them up with baits. Sure, it is not as immediate as a trap but I have found it works well over time.

James.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

I also have a rat issue when the Bunya nuts fall each year. I've found the most effective solution is poison. I set up pet-proof bait boxes - you can either buy them or make your own out of pvc pipe and some tin to ensure the access holes are rat and mouse sized - and just load them up with baits. Sure, it is not as immediate as a trap but I have found it works well over time.

James.

James, if you can get all the rats to stand under one of those bunya pines for long enough you might just get lucky and have a pod of nuts fall on them. You wouldn't even have to dispose of the bodies, they would be buried already.

In an apartment where I lived, I had a similar problem, but with mice.
I tried many things. I've found poison to be the most effective. I alternated between 2 types of poison every 2 weeks or so, because I noticed that with only 1 type, they just kept eating and eating...

I also used traps, but the problem is I had more mice than traps. And when I came back from holiday, I found mice that had been in the trap for 10 days, during a summer heatwave. Let's just say I threw them away with traps and all.

Mice and rats have a tendency to walk along walls. What you could also do is to bury a bucket with a lid, and have a length of pipe run along the wall, and have the pipe end in the bucket. Or instead of a bucket us a cage with a lid that only swings inwards. Or something similar. Then you only need to come up with a way to give them a quick death.

Get a case of beer and a high powered air rifle.

The best bait I have found is called "Just one Bite", get the one in the yellow brick.

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

The best bait I have found is called "Just one Bite", get the one in the yellow brick.

i've used this as well seemed to work well.... and good for rats that are used to heart medication (warefin resistent). if you used bait stations your dogs, cats, kids and other livestock will be fine. in the past i have baited the barn, sheds and garage. the barn took about 3 weeks before the bait stopped being taken. now in the fall i makes sure to leave some out before i get a nest in someplace warm; a dead rat in the wall would stink for a LONG time.

Originally Posted by Theseus

Get a case of beer and a high powered air rifle.

+1 That my kind of thinking right there.

+1 for a big Cat, I haven't seen any Mice or rats here. Loads of Cats, each dumpster has 5 or 6 living around it.

Originally Posted by RayCover

+1 That my kind of thinking right there.

amen to that but a 22 is better less chance of the police being called vs a extremly loud bang of say a 30-06