Killing rats

[Tony01]

How do you deal with your rat problem? Living in the state of California, rat poison is illegal to sell and I can't even shoot them in my own backyard with an air rifle (considered a firearm). Have one neck break trap and gettin a few but I still see them every day.

 

[Agreen]

I had a rat problem at my shop a while back. I tried using the neck break traps. The rats would take the bait and the thing would snap, then they'd run off with the trap on their head. These things were beasts!

I ended up tacking cut off nails to the snap bar such that it would puncture the rat's neck when set. They would get caught in it, drag the trap all around the shop, then finally stop and die. In the morning you would come in to several pools around the shop with long winding trails behind them.

The worst part is that some would still be alive after arriving at the shop. Awful way to go, but how else can you get rid of them?

 

[Ludwig II]

I have nothing to add to the trap problem apart from making a stronger one, but I am actually glad the poison is banned.

Most rat poisons here use warfarin, which causes them to haemorrhage to death; I watched my father die of the stuff because he stupidly tried balancing his beer intake with it. No animal deserves to die in that much pain and distress, and few human beings either.

The only realistic solution is to remove their food source and they leave in search of other supplies. Is someone near you failing to dispose of food waste properly? That's a public health issue, and you will probably get help from that department in that case.

 

[FFV8]

That's rich, no more rat bait in CA. Thank the pest control lobby - THEY can still use it...

Use any one of these:

http://www.havahart.com/store/animal-traps/rats

They are small enough to exclude adult cats, and should you trap a small cat or other welcome animal, you can release it unharmed.

Once you have a rat, you must deal with it. I use a bucket of water, just put the whole trap in. I have heard more creative ways, but I won't repeat them.

Bait with peanut butter. Or any other garbage they feed on.

.

 

[Mike B]

Get a Rat Terrier.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Terrier

 

[Ludwig II]

What's feeding them? No food = no rats.

 

[Lungcookie]

I have been battling big pack rats out here in the desert for the last 15 years.

They eat anything and every thing and find their own food naturally even without human help, rat are damn smart.

You Have to nail or screw down the neck break traps so they don't move.
Jam a half peanut in the trigger, so they have to work at it.
Keep at it, every night.
Mice can still eat the peanut without setting off the traps.

You need to track down and remove/destroy their nest site.
They have a distinct smell out here, piss and juniper.

Another method I have had success with mice is a 5gal bucket with water.
Cut a 5gal in half, drill a hole in both sides of the top edge.
Then a rod or dowl with a can stuck in the middle, so it can spin.
Coat the can with peanut butter.
Put the cut one on top of the one with water in it.
Add a ramp to the edge of the bucket.
Some guy out here was using a 55gal drum for rats.

They don't seem to like vanilla, smell, extract whatever. Jucyfruit gum too.
The rats here just poop green or yellow, the color of the poison, dosent even kill them.

The best rat poison was this stuff called Rode-Trol, it was patented and removed from the market by one of the big poison companies, from my understanding.
It was good because it just dried the rat to death, not actually a poison per say. Didn't effect other animals up the food chain.
We have a lot of raptors and owls that I would hate to poison second hand.

Now if I could figure out how to get rid of the scorpions...

 

[Agreen]

I second the bucket trap. I have had success with them, and they're reusable. They just fall off and can't swim, so they drown.

 

[Tony01]

Whoa! That bucket is a great idea!! I will definitely try that. Looks like the mass production easy method of gettin em. Thank you!

Yeah the neck break traps work but you do have to secure them. I have not had problems with rats surviving them, but other animals such as raccoons will drag the trap with the free lunch on it. Made the mistake once, didn't secure it enough and found it 10 ft away in the bushes after a long search.

Ludwig, these rats find their own food. We are very careful not to leave anything but there are a number of fruit trees that the local animals like.

 

[Chaz]

Sounds like it's time to set up a bucket for the neighbor.

You can also play some Slim Whitman really loud. That will either drive the pests away or draw them in to your kill zone.

I just try to be helpful.

 

[Dave31]

I'm having a problem with pack rats. They have many tunnels underneath my rear porch concrete slab.

I've been sticking the garden hose in one of their tunnels, leave one hole open and block the rest.

Then I sit there and pop them with my .22 riffle when they come running out. Been doing it for weeks but it does not seem like I am gaining any headway.

Pumping water under there is not a good ideal but traps and rat poison does not seem to be working either.

I hate killing them I am such a animal lover. But I cannot have these suckers get into the house or start nesting in my truck.

 

[Lungcookie]

That bucket method works good for mice but you might have to scale it up some depending on the size of the rats.
But it helps because the mice can get the half peanut with out setting off the neck break traps.

I have gone out to check it in the morning and the rats will sometimes clean the peanut butter off the wheel part.

Squirrels and chipmunks are nut to smart and like peanuts too, so don't leave that bucket out during the day.

I have had the best luck with the neck break traps, drill a hole in it to nail/screw it down.

Sometimes they work good without bait if you can set it in the trail that the rats follow, a hole entrance or along a wall.
They don't notice it and SNAP!


You cant give them a break off from trying to eradicate them.
Really need to get rid of the nest site or others keep coming back.

I HATE rats!

 

[FFV8]

I'm having a problem with pack rats. They have many tunnels underneath my rear porch concrete slab.

I've been sticking the garden hose in one of their tunnels, leave one hole open and block the rest.

Then I sit there and pop them with my .22 riffle when they come running out. Been doing it for weeks but it does not seem like I am gaining any headway.

Pumping water under there is not a good ideal but traps and rat poison does not seem to be working either.

I hate killing them I am such a animal lover. But I cannot have these suckers get into the house or start nesting in my truck.

Yeah, water is not the best thing under a slab. Using carbon monoxide does a better job with no erosion.

Use a generator or lawnmower with a piece of flexible conduit from the exhaust to the hole in the ground. Pack dirt around the conduit, and leave the farthest hole open. Start the engine, then use the choke to slow it down from the governed rpm. This gives about 12% CO. Let it run for 20 minutes after you can smell exhaust at the far hole.

Use expanding foam to close any existing tunnels when you are done.

Or you can cultivate a population of non-venomous snakes - a ground snake loves tunnels...

 

[Ludwig II]

What about pumping concrete or using expanding foam into the tunnels?

You could always get a new hobby and keep ferrets.

Edit: not allowed in California.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferret

 

[2door]

Small tactical nukes would do it. Of course your back porch would be uninhabital for the next 200 years, but the rats would be gone. Or, they'd mutate into the size of Saint Bernards.

Tom

 

[Mike B]

A cat should do it for those little things. Get one from your shelter that looks a little "beat up", like it knows how to fight.

But still, no match for the "Rat"

http://ratattacknc.tripod.com/ratattackofnorthcarolina/id2.html

2500 rats in 7 hours. That's a dead rat every 10 seconds. Friggin' amazing!

 

[Allen_Wrench]

Old farmer trick - this works better out in a barn for reasons that will become apparent:
Mix one part corn flour with one part Portland cement (powdered, no water added yet, just the dry stuff). Leave the mixture in a bowl.
About 5 or 10 feet away, leave a bowl of water.
Eating the flour/cement mixture makes the rats very thirsty. Drinking the water, and moving around, mixes and sets the cement and causes terminal constipation. It works well for getting rid of rats, and farm cats won't touch it, but finding the bodies is often problematic. Do not use if you have goats around.

 

[TheNecromancer13]

When I lived down there, I'd shoot them with my bow and arrow. Nobody could hear the shots so I didn't get in trouble. You have to be a really good shot for this though...

Or you could take a hose from your 2 stroke bike exhaust and stick it in their hole...

 

[Ludwig II]

I'm surprised a rat would stay still long enough for you to do that

 

[TheNecromancer13]

I'm surprised a rat would stay still long enough for you to do that

If you're talking about using a bow, I go into the forest behind my house with my bow and a pitchfork and tear apart rat nests, then shoot them out of the trees when they run away.