Live catch (humane) rat traps

BrianD3

I have a small problem with a rat (or rats) at the bird feeder. Cheeky rat is appearing in broad daylight and hoovering up seeds that drop from the feeders. Would the following trap be any good or would he laugh at it
http://www.activehuntingireland.ie/modern-live-capture-14-family-rat-trap-.html

or how about this one
http://www.activehuntingireland.ie/monarch-rat-trap.html

Anyone got any other suggestions on where to buy a live catch trap in Ireland and what type is best.

Thanks

stevoman

we'l start this discussion to help out the OP again and if anyone wants to take it stupidly off topic they'l be given a break from here.

-fin-

Kess73

Those type of traps do work. Just be aware that they will take time as rats are very skittish around anything new.

My main problem with those traps is the fact that birds will go into them, not might go into them. So you would have to be checking those traps pretty much on the hour to avoid any birds getting stressed inside of them, and do not put out the traps if they will be going unchecked for hours on end.

Robins, dunnocks, and blackcaps are the main culprits for going into them, and house sparrows are not far behind.

I gave up on the trap I bought because of birds going into it, and was very frustrated by a rat that was coming to grab any spillage from my feeders.

In the end nature sorted it out as my regular female sparrowhawk was about one day when the rat came out in the open, and she made very short work of the rat.


Also make sure your trap has a handle to carry it safely once the rat is inside and that you have strong gloves on. I have removed a trap for a friend with a very disgruntled rat inside it, and they got hell for leather when you move the cage with them in it. Also if releasing the rat, you will have to do so a good distance from the garden it was caught in otherwise it will simply return to the garden. Most people recommend a distance of at least a mile.


One last thing, go for a trap with a drop door rather than a spring loaded door. Next time you are in a shop that sells the cages, shut the door on a spring loaded trap and imagine a rat is inside. Then try to open the door to let the imaginary rat out. If you are anyway nervous around an angry rat, then the spring loaded door is a good way to get a nip.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Kess has a very valid point about birds becoming trapped. Please keep that in mind. The down side is that your frequently visiting a trap may put the rat off investigating it.
Releasing the Rat will be a problem, as in fairness you can't just move the problem to someone else's area. You are never really more than a half mile from a house so don't be fooled into think the Rat is being released into a wild isolated area. Releasing it on a remote bog or mountain and letting it starve to death isn't exactly humane either. I'm sorry for going this way again but I honestly feel you need to kill rats. I make my living protecting wildlife but rats are such a danger to humans and generally not great news for many other species either. Killing rats found in daylight around your garden will not have any impact on overall numbers but will leave your garden a safer healthier place. But please don't dump your problem on someone else.

Kess73

Matthias Vast Warehouse wrote: »

Kess has a very valid point about birds becoming trapped. Please keep that in mind. The down side is that your frequently visiting a trap may put the rat off investigating it.
Releasing the Rat will be a problem, as in fairness you can't just move the problem to someone else's area. You are never really more than a half mile from a house so don't be fooled into think the Rat is being released into a wild isolated area. Releasing it on a remote bog or mountain and letting it starve to death isn't exactly humane either. I'm sorry for going this way again but I honestly feel you need to kill rats. I make my living protecting wildlife but rats are such a danger to humans and generally not great news for many other species either. Killing rats found in daylight around your garden will not have any impact on overall numbers but will leave your garden a safer healthier place. But please don't dump your problem on someone else.

The problem with wanting to kill them is that unless you are willing to kill the rat once you have got it inside the cage, which is not an easy thing to do for most, you would have to use more lethal means of trapping them which in turn risks killing birds and the like. Most lethal traps either involve poison or electricity.

The other option is the sit with an air rifle and plug the rat when you have a clear shot. This option may still require the person to go out and club the wounded rat to death.


One thing about moving the rat to another area is that rat will most likely be put into the territory of other rats and will be dealt with by those rats. Not a nice ending mostly, but that's nature. Either the displaced rat will be killed by the local rats, which is the most likely outcome of such an encounter, or it will get lucky and kill one of it's attackers and become a part of that hierarchy. Either way the outcome is at least one less rat.


Another option I suppose is to catch the rat in the cage and drop the cage into water and drown it. But again not a humane way to kill.


I must admit when I had my rat visiting I started out trying a cage, then moved onto a sling with ball bearings etc, so if the sparrowhawk had not stepped in, I would have most likely kept going until I found a way to kill the rat without harming any of my other garden visitors.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Kess73 wrote: »

One thing about moving the rat to another area is that rat will most likely be put into the territory of other rats and will be dealt with by those rats. Not a nice ending mostly, but that's nature.

But, that's not Nature. It may be the nature of the beast to kill the intruder but it's not natural when a human plucks a Rat from one location and drops it in another where it does not belong.


I agree completely that there is no easy solution but I use lethal traps placed in a pipe or tunnel of tiles or slates. I have yet to trap a bird or anything other than a Rat. I have to do this only 2 to 4 times a year at various locations and have always sorted the problem quickly with instant death for the Rat.

Kess73

Matthias Vast Warehouse wrote: »

But, that's not Nature. It may be the nature of the beast to kill the intruder but it's not natural when a human plucks a Rat from one location and drops it in another where it does not belong.


I agree completely that there is no easy solution but I use lethal traps placed in a pipe or tunnel of tiles or slates. I have yet to trap a bird or anything other than a Rat. I have to do this only 2 to 4 times a year at various locations and have always sorted the problem quickly with instant death for the Rat.

When I said that's nature,it was what the rats do that I was referring to, not the man influenced displacement of the caught rat.

For the person that is not willing to kill the rat themselves, then the catch and release is the only real option though, short of paying silly money to get a pest control firm out.


For me the ideal solution would be to have the female sparrowhawk on retainer to come in and do a job when I need her, but that ain't going to happen. And don't get me started on the male sprawk, that fecker has an attitude problem and thinks stare downs with me are part of his job.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Robin Wren

BrianD3 wrote: »

I have a small problem with a rat (or rats) at the bird feeder. Cheeky rat is appearing in broad daylight and hoovering up seeds that drop from the feeders. Would the following trap be any good or would he laugh at it
http://www.activehuntingireland.ie/modern-live-capture-14-family-rat-trap-.html

or how about this one
http://www.activehuntingireland.ie/monarch-rat-trap.html

Anyone got any other suggestions on where to buy a live catch trap in Ireland and what type is best.

Thanks

I had a problem with a couple of rats during the snow in december as I was putting out extra seed for birds.

I bought the first of the 2 featured traps in my local hardware store
and it worked a treat with a bit of bacon.

Caught them both, never seen any since.

The first 1 was live and was drowned by me.
The 2nd one was dead as I had left the trap over the weekend.
Maybe she froze, but the cage was upside down and half her tail was missing. Cats maybe.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Robin Wren wrote: »

The 2nd one was dead as I had left the trap over the weekend.
Maybe she froze, but the cage was upside down and half her tail was missing. Cats maybe.

Hardly a humane trap then.