Oh heck! Rat Trap gone missing

My neighbour reported seeing a rat go under our dividing fence near to where my shed is. I thought I should do something about it so I went to B&Q to look at the options. As my neighbours have cats I decided on a mechanical trap with the idea that I would place it in a fairly inaccessible place.

I baited the trap and placed it up against my shed and put some wooden panels over and around it so that it could really only be accessed by a small rodent approaching from under the shed. Nothing happened on day one. On day two - early in the evening I went to check and found that the trap had gone! Nowhere to be found.

I am wondering if a rat might have got caught and then maybe a fox or cat had been attracted sufficiently to squeeze into the gaps to drag it away - or whether an animal had got partly snared and managed to get away with the trap attached. Not a very pleasing outcome.

I am now not sure if the rat has been dealt with and I am wondering if I should have chosen a better remedy.

Reply to
John
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mechanical

wooden

410 shotgun is far more effective !

AWEM

Reply to
Andrew Mawson

We had an infestation recently - because we have hens it happens every so often.

Because we have hens we won't use Nipper traps but we've found the Rat Zapper expensive but effective and last month we used Eradirat which was excellent - but slow acting.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

Either, but most likely a fox/cat. I now fasten traps down, since I have "lost" one rat trap outside and a couple of mouse traps inside (the latter obviously dragged away by injured trapees). I've shot rats and left the bodies where they lay and they're inevitably gone in the morning - I do live on a farm, though.

Reply to
Huge

Lesson 1: Rats have been known to drag a trap away if partially caught or knaw a trapped limb off in order to escape.

Lesson 2: Fix the trap down and have a plan on how to deal with trapped live rat.

Trapping is probably the quickest death, most of the time. Poison is effective but it is a rather slow death. In buildings they also have a habit of dying in the most inaccessable place then stinking the place out for a week and finally filling it with flys...

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

We acquired a moggie a few months ago, came as a kit-ten of parts HoHo!,

Anyways he now brings a young rat or a mousy home every day!.

Just didn't think we had any live around here!...

Reply to
tony sayer

That's the beauty of Eradirat. It's a non-poisonous maize-based pellet which causes mice and rats (only) to dessicate no matter how much water they take in. You end up with no meat for flies.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

The kitten that adopted us as it's home brings in anything from 1 to 4 voles a day , the occasional shrew and very occasional mouse. She at least eats every last scrap of the voles, isn't that keen on the mice (tends to leave the back end) but only plays with the shrews doesn't even attempt to eat them.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

That should of course have been 'desiccate'.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

Hmmmm, I'm reading about Eradirat on their website, how it works, and I'm now feeling quite sad for the poor rats.

;-(.....

Reply to
Adrian C

Replace it with a Big cheese trap they are easy to bait and set

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effective trap I have ever used, but you need to tie it down so mr fox etc doesn't run off with the lot. I get a lot of rats even in daylight
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big cheese is the cleanest and most effective way of killing them.

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Reply to
Mark

Squirrel traps are good as rat traps. When you catch the Rat you can look it in the eye and tell it it's going somewhere else...............Heaven.......Hell..........Local Tip...........end of gun

Reply to
R

Mine was very similar - from B&Q. Perhaps even the same but without the markings. Foot pedal to open it.

Reply to
John

Reply to
Huge

Mine was:

B&Q Easy Set Rat Trap BQ115 Black

Reply to
John

my shed is. I thought I

neighbours have cats I

inaccessible place.

over and around it so

the shed. Nothing

found that the trap had

been attracted

had got partly snared

should have chosen a better

When this happened in our garden, my wife and I imagined a "rat school" where the teacher would take students through each of the types of trap, and how to beat them. "Ah yes, the B&Q M15 spring-loaded rat trap. Activates with 20 grams of pressure, and closes in 0.3 seconds with a force of 20 lbs-ft. A fine trap. but it has one serious flaw. Here's how you get the food off it without setting it off...."

You will probably find it somewhere in 10 years time, attached to a decayed rats tail, when he ran off after springing it.

Reply to
Dave Gordon

OP here.

Just a thought - how can I conclusively prove whether I have rats - without attracting them?

Reply to
John

Droppings, smell, gnawed things...

Owain

Reply to
Owain

Well "You are never more than 10 feet from a rat" apparently

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Reply to
Mark

An argument against having a reduction in frequency of bin emptying. Perhaps there'll be council employed pied pipers instead.

Reply to
Andy Hall

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