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.