Got rats in the garden enthusiastically getting at any food I'm putting out for the birds.
Some do's and don'ts to get rid of them please. My first impulse was to look at air-rifles. Might be fun but doubt that I'd have the patience as winter draws in and probably not that effective anyway.
Thanks
Use a cage trap with a small lump of peanut butter, then shoot them. I used a CO2 pistol which dispatched them quickly.
Make sure you check the trap regularly or they'll die needlessly painfully of dehydration.
I had a false trigger caused by a mouse which I saw eating the peanut butter. When he saw me, he hopped straight through the bars of the cage which just didn't seem possible. I swear he gave me the finger before scurrying off.
Cheers
Get a professional in.
Don't put food out where rats can get at it. Simples!
Tim
Who will advise you that as long as you keep feeding the rats, you will have rats. Sure, he can kill the local ones but one needs to deal with the root of the problem, namely, human behaviour.
Tim
You must have had much more sensitive traps than I have. I had a couple of house mice that, at around 10cm long, were too big for the mouse traps that wouldreadily catch field mice. I had to pre-load the platform of the rat trap with several magnets before the house mice would trigger it.
Once I thought I had a mouse cornered, but the bugger squeezed through a 2mm gap under the door.
My wife still feeds the birds, but the bait traps the pest control guy puts down keeps the place rat-free, which is what is required. One neighbour keeps chickens, and he has rats.
Everyone has rats. Just differing numbers of them.
Your mice are magnetic?
I wish ours were, it would make life so much easier.
44 5 star reviews, but also 38 1 & 2 star reviews
Mind you, just about every other rat or mouse trap seems to get that sort of response.
You can buy rat traps and poison at places like Screwfix
I'd imagine the only "professional" element in using these things is in knowing where to put them.
The problem being, any dead rats aren't going to lie around where you can easily count them, and so judge their effectiveness.
However having seen evidence of rats in my shed I bought four traps
18 months ago laid around the garden perimeter and have seen none since.I've seen no evidence of dead birds etc. who would already be catered for in any case by neighbours cats were they silly enough to stay at ground level.
I believe they also make bait in blocks which would show evidence of it having been eaten.
From a humanitarian aspect* I've come to believe that even if they're not going to be poisoned or trapped, in their natural state rats still are going to die in a hospital bed under sedation surrounded by friends and family. Presumably they eventually die of starvation, disease or injuries as a result of fighting. None of it pleasant.
michael adams
...
You'll get bored with the air rifle.
Nuke the bastards! NEOSOREXA (Google it) and a suitable bait station.
Buy from Amazon, or maybe a local agricultural / horsey vendor.
You could use a huge electromagnet to catch them. :-)
I found that magnets were the only things that reliably stayed in position on the (steel) trigger plate. From a previous business I have a number of extremely strong 15mm dia x 3mm thick magnets that find all sorts of uses.
I used to use these;
Chained down, after one vanished completely, but the second time I caught a bird in one (even though there was a cover over it), I stopped using them (although the smaller but similar mouse traps work very well), and these days I use 1oz of #9 shot travelling at 1000 fps. (Actually, I use the .410 and I can't remember how much shot there is in a .410 cartridge, so that's the numbers for the 12ga. which is a bit big for rats.)
I assume the word "not" is missing there somewhere? :o)
And that's how I feel.
I bought mine from these people;
Haven't bought any for ages (indeed, they used to be called "farmrite.co.uk") so I have no idea if they're good value any more.
That sort of split opinion is pretty much par for the course for pretty much any traps. I can only assume that about half of people simply don't set them properly. They have to be in the right place (ie in a run and not somewhere that will trap other species), they have to be set for long enough for the rats to get used to them in the environment (though checked often), they have to carry no residual scent of either people or dead rats and, importantly, they have to be the most available source of 'food' in the locality, to tempt ratty into having a nibble. A little lubrication on the action (cooking oil or butter are good, as mineral oil doesn't smell inviting to a rat) may help a quick dispatch. That said, I agree with Adam and you'll never get rid of every rat in the world with traps, guns or poison. You just have to make sure they have no good reason (food, water or shelter) to be near you.
+1. There's something obscene about poisoning animals if you haven't stopped encouraging them in the first place.
Tim
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