Roof Rats - how to eradicate?

[SquiddlieDiddly]

Looks like we've got roof rats. There are a few different poisons available, but I am concerned that the poisons will cause the rats to seek a dark corner to die in - 2 years ago they did that and I had dead rats all over my garage.

Is there a poison that will make them seek light? I heard there was, but none of them declare that - they are just full of warnings.

I could trap, but I would still have to dispose of them somehow, so poison seems OK to me.

I am not an animal rights/tree hugger, so I really do not care how I get rid of them. Just want it to be relatively clean and low cost.

Advice?

[jtnospam]

This was the problem with rat poisons for centuries. Warfarin changed that by the way in which it works. As a strong blood anticoagulant (thinner) it causes their lungs to bleed internally. Their instinctual reaction is to seek open air in which to breath freely to get the oxygen their bodies need. So they will die in an open space, but nothing will spare you the yucky task of collecting their bodies for disposal. -Jitney

[HeyBub]

Think cat.

[bill allemann]

Ordinary rabbit trap (made of wire, not wood) available from farm supply outfits. Bait with nuts or whatever, place trap and occupant in trashcan of water (keep fingers away from occupant), remove deceased occupant, repeat as necessary.

hth bill

[someone]

I know you don't like this sort of replies, but the word you want here is BREATHE!

Mixing up breath / breathe does not make you look good.

[Lar]

In my 19th year of pest control and have never heard that one before. It is however in the same line as makes em thirsty so they go outside for water.

[Lar]

For what it's worth, I have rat bait out in around 200 homes year round and probably do at least another 30-40 homes a year that just want rat control and I will get calls to look for a dead rat maybe a dozen times a year and several of those calls will be from the same house. Rats can die in the structure, usually found laying in the attic or crawl space, but due to the nature of their living habits, they don't. I would guess they died in the garage because they were actually living in the garage. Adressing the reasons why they were there can be enough sometimes to have them move on. Snap traps in a setting like a cluttered garage can be an aternative to make sure nothing dies behind a stack of boxes.

[jtnospam]

Here is some related material that I posted on an earlier, related thread:

>

[gfretwell]

The first thing is to find and seal up their access route, then trap them out. Poison sounds easy until you start looking for a dead rat. You can drown them but I usually just give them a load of .22 rat shot and throw their body in the river for the alligators

[Big Al]

I use oatmeal cookies with peanut butter on them. Kill them with car exhaust. They go quick.

Al

[Norminn]

I know nothing of the methodologies of killing rats, but only how crafty they are. Our condo had infestations a couple of times, and has been careless about keeping trees trimmed so rats can't access the roof/attic. I have found dead ones beneath palm trees a couple of times, and once right below a downspout. I have heard them in downspouts a couple of times, but was amazed to see one scurry across the ground, jump into the downspout and go UP the downspout. Might help to fix some wire mesh to the bottom of downspouts.

They allegedly don't like to travel on the ground, and go for fences, tree limbs, etc. to travel on. They have "runs" and it might work to bait or trap them if there is such a place in your yard.

[Stormin Mormon]

If you're going to be the net nanny and criticize a missing letter, at least trim the excess text. Folks like you wasting major bandwidth, so impolite. Back when Usenet was for real, an untrimmed message like this woulda got your account cancelled.

[RLM]

I've never wanted to be perfect. There are plenty of people that seek that. Unique is not a bad choice though.

Any and all spelling errers are only to add interest to my posts.

[Lar]

The antidote for rat poison is vitamin K1 which is derived from green leafy plants.... vitamin K2, which can be made from the digestive bacteria of animals, which is also is added to dog food to make the coats shiny has no antidotal qualities to the anticoagulants. (so rats aren't curing themselves by eating undigested food in dog feces) Warfarin is an early generation of rat bait, the newer generation of the anticoagulants work different than warfarin and rats don't seem to have a resistance to them.

[kellyj00]

Some fella posted on here last week about using antifreeze to kill them. It does have the undesired effect of killing pets or anything else that drinks it to.

[gfretwell]

That is the problem with most poison strategies. Non-targeted species get killed. That is why I prefer live trapping. Then I get to see what I am eliminating and have the option of releasing non-targeted animals.