Best rat traps?

Danny2580

Hi all, just found out we have rats in the small garage area at the side of our house. It's not well insulated or protected and easy enough for anything to get in. It seems they've tried to burrow under the house too. Usually have mice every couple of years but that's easily dealt with. Can anyone advise what the best brand of rat traps are? From reading it seems best not to use poison. The area is a bit cluttered, I'd assume clearing it out is the right thing to do first? Thanks!

Stigura

Danny2580 wrote: »

The area is a bit cluttered, I'd assume clearing it out is the right thing to do first? Thanks!

Wrong! That's the last thing ye want to do, at this stage, Danny.

And, as for not utilising bait against an active domestic rat incursion? I don't know who's been writing the stuff you've read. Brothers Grimm?

Pasteur.

Use poison if it's outside the house and traps

Don't leave any food about

Danny2580

Thanks guys.

Just from reading previous posts on here the consensus was that traps are most effective Stigura. What do you reckon is the best path forward? Cheers for taking the time to reply.

Stigura

Danny; In case ye've spotted that I'm back in here and ye wondering why I'm not answering? I'm just eating my dinner! LOL! Back presently.

howsshenow

Large Wooden traps with peanut butter work best here.
Minimises risk to other wildlife.

Bobbins

Danny2580 wrote: »

Thanks guys.

Just from reading previous posts on here the consensus was that traps are most effective Stigura. What do you reckon is the best path forward? Cheers for taking the time to reply.

I think poison not recommended indoors as if rat dies the smell is apparently horrendous if you can't locate it to dispose of.

Putting poison outside doesn't pose that problem, obviously make sure it's safe if you have kids.

We have a rat in our attic at the moment, even typing the word rat makes me shudder. It's entry point was alluding us til yesterday so praying we catch the thing now. It has avoided taking any bait, cheese peanut butter, you name we've tried it. I saw on a post on boards from years ago that 50/50 antifreeze and water works well as highly toxic. We put that down last night so just waiting on husband to go and check now!

Good luck!

Pasteur.

Bobbins wrote: »

I think poison not recommended indoors as if rat dies the smell is apparently horrendous if you can't locate it to dispose of.

Putting poison outside doesn't pose that problem, obviously make sure it's safe if you have kids.

We have a rat in our attic at the moment, even typing the word rat makes me shudder. It's entry point was alluding us til yesterday so praying we catch the thing now. It has avoided taking any bait, cheese peanut butter, you name we've tried it. I saw on a post on boards from years ago that 50/50 antifreeze and water works well as highly toxic. We put that down last night so just waiting on husband to go and check now!

Good luck!

Melted chocolate onto a trap

Drives them wild

Antifreeze.is.deadly if any pets get it

peasant

The best rat trap IMO is this one:

Quick, humane, highly effective, long lasting.
Placed in the right spot it'll get them all

Not cheap though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHdTJ8XaPzM

Stigura

Okay, Danny. I've said before, on here, that I'm loathe to discuss rodent control on open fora.

Reason being that people tend to read what I may say to You. Then, think they know and will later regurgitate a part of what I said. Or in the wrong context. There's quite enough rot talked, out there, without me adding fuel to it.

I'm willing to discuss ye individual situation, privately. I've about cleared my case load, for now. Yours, on the face of it, sounds a pretty straightforward case anyway.

Your call. My PM box is at your disposal

Pasteur.

peasant wrote: »

The best rat trap IMO is this one:

Quick, humane, highly effective, long lasting.
Placed in the right spot it'll get them all

Not cheap though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHdTJ8XaPzM

Ya.seen them before have you tried it

Aren't they mad.dear

Pasteur.

Rats are more suspicious than mice

If you can mix up the latest gen poison with chocolate and peanut butter while avoiding hand contact that will do the job

peasant

Pasteur. wrote: »

Ya.seen them before have you tried it

Aren't they mad.dear

Yes, I own one and yes they are expensive.

I put mine on a home made stand that I can move around and have used it in several locations and cleared those of rats (compost heap, greenhouse, a rat run that somehow led to my attic)

Used to have a rat problem for years ..not anymore.

Why I think they are worth the money:
- They are set and forget. You may have to remove the odd dead rat now and then (if other wildlife doesn't take care of that for you) but that's it. As long as the trap has gas left, it will work.
- They kill quickly and cleanly. No maiming, no trapping of limbs, no prolonged agony.
-They are safe for other animals (cats, dogs, birds)
- not poisonous

The bait that comes with the trap does work, in some locations other bait works better though.

We had rats congregating around the bird feeder. The supplied bait got one or two ... modified the bait to birdseed and got a lot more.

Have had mine now for three (or four?) years, always outside, still works flawlessly.

Which reminds me ...need to find a source for CO2 cartridges locally...buying them from Goodnature is stupidly expensive. Don't mind paying for the trap, but a CO2 cartridge should be cheap

Pasteur.

peasant wrote: »

Yes, I own one and yes they are expensive.

I put mine on a home made stand that I can move around and have used it in several locations and cleared those of rats (compost heap, greenhouse, a rat run that somehow led to my attic)

Used to have a rat problem for years ..not anymore.

Why I think they are worth the money:
- They are set and forget. You may have to remove the odd dead rat now and then (if other wildlife doesn't take care of that for you) but that's it. As long as the trap has gas left, it will work.
- They kill quickly and cleanly. No maiming, no trapping of limbs, no prolonged agony.
-They are safe for other animals (cats, dogs, birds)
- not poisonous

The bait that comes with the trap does work, in some locations other bait works better though.

we had rats congregating around the bird feeder. The supplied bait got one or two ... modified the bait to birdseed and got a lot more.

Have had mine now for three (or four?) years, always outside, still works flawlessly.

Which reminds me ...need to find a source for CO2 cartridges locally...buying them form Goodnature is stupidly expensive. Don't mind paying for the trap, but a CO2 catridge should be cheap

I liked the idea when I saw them

How many rats have you killed with it?

What attracts them to it , what's the bait?

Scrap that last bit I see u answered it

Bass Reeves

As long as they are not in the house you can use poison. Use blocks with holes, put light tying wire through them and put them in 3'' pipe. Biggest danger is they will find a way into the house.

In future put the poison out in late September and keep an eye on the bait points Rats generally will return to where they come from if they get suck. Therefore if you poison them on first coming into your yard they will go back to the outside to die

Pasteur.

Diggers moved in across the road recently

Next thing I had a small rat on the house , first time ever, I had the doors open a bit working so my fault

Got him with the plastic trap and melted chocolate under the floorboards

Stigura

peasant wrote: »

Which reminds me ...need to find a source for CO2 cartridges locally...buying them from Goodnature is stupidly expensive. Don't mind paying for the trap, but a CO2 cartridge should be cheap

A word to the wise there? They reckon there's something about their canisters that sets them apart?

Forgive me; These are just 'after my time' so, I'm not completely up to speed with them. But, yeah; I've seen the lads discussing them. Can't remember what it is now. Silicone? Graphite? Something about the seals? Dunno.

I remember someone saying 'Surely ye could apply it yeself?'. But, all things considered ....?

peasant

Pasteur. wrote: »

I liked the idea when I saw them

How many rats have you killed with it?

I've gone through four cartridges now.
There has been some loss due to testing and I think one cartridge leaked a bit.

So that should be about 80 rats - x for loss, say 50+ or so (I physically disposed of about 20 or so, the rest something else got ..we live in the country)

That's over 3-4 years

The major breakthrough was when we finally got the big suspicious territorial daddy rat. That had been resident here for quite a while and constantly started new families with new females. Since he's gone, everything is pretty quiet.
I don't hink we have residents anymore, just occasional scavenging visitors.

Lewis_Benson

A cat works wonders.

CJhaughey

I have one of those A24 for a long time now, the Baits have changed over the years, they used to be a plastic bottle full of long life peanut butter, the new baits are self dispensing with a chemical propellant that forces the chocolatish bait out.
The Cartridges are Co2 with a 5g dose of silicone oil in them, I haven't found them available with the threaded neck anywhere apart from Goodnature.
Airsoft cylinders are available with silicone oil but are not threaded DAMHIK.
I tend to alternate between one genuine and one plain Co2 and my trap is still working.
Its killed plenty of rats and there is no risk to other wildlife like you have with secondary poisoning which is where another animal eats a poisoned rat and dies.
I have the optional counter on mine because I often found the cylinder empty but no bodies due to scavenging and wanted an accurate count of shots fired.
In NZ they have released a new part called Chirp which is a bluetooth linked cap and that gives a lot more information back to your phone of events and times and areas for multiple traps.

whisky_galore

Poison is destructive to other wildlife, such a last century method. Can't believe people haven't moved on from this.

Bobbins

Pasteur. wrote: »

Melted chocolate onto a trap

Drives them wild

Antifreeze.is.deadly if any pets get it

Thanks Pasteur, we will try the melted chocolate. Yes the antifreeze is in the attic so nobody but the rat in danger from that. This one would qualify for Mensa, hasn't touched a thing, can't cope. 3 smallies here so petrified of it getting into the actual house

Calahonda52

whisky_galore wrote: »

Poison is destructive to other wildlife, such a last century method. Can't believe people haven't moved on from this.

Not as destructive as homo sapiens

whisky_galore

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Not as destructive as homo sapiens

No sh1t, sherlock.

Danny2580

Have had plenty of success in the past catching mice by using a piece of a chomp bar mixed in with cotton woll (pulling it off earbuds will suffice) and using it as bait. They tend to pull at the cotton to try and remove the toffee and chocolate from it, often setting the trap in the process. Has worked very well for me. Tried it with the first set of rat traps I put down last night and caught one. Will report back, thanks for all the replies so far.

Bobbins

Danny2580 wrote: »

Have had plenty of success in the past catching mice by using a piece of a chomp bar mixed in with cotton woll (pulling it off earbuds will suffice) and using it as bait. They tend to pull at the cotton to try and remove the toffee and chocolate from it, often setting the trap in the process. Has worked very well for me. Tried it with the first set of rat traps I put down last night and caught one. Will report back, thanks for all the replies so far.

Let us know how it goes. We got a guy with ferrets to call today but no luck finding the fecker! Going to invest in the cartridge thingys.

John_Rambo

peasant wrote: »

The best rat trap IMO is this one:

Quick, humane, highly effective, long lasting.
Placed in the right spot it'll get them all

Not cheap though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHdTJ8XaPzM

We're beside two parks, one is 290 acres with a river 50 metres away. We've never had rats in the house, but we have them wondering over to the gardens all the time, we feed birds too. This looks like an excellent solution.

delboythedub

Bobbins wrote: »

I think poison not recommended indoors as if rat dies the smell is apparently horrendous if you can't locate it to dispose of.

Putting poison outside doesn't pose that problem, obviously make sure it's safe if you have kids.

We have a rat in our attic at the moment, even typing the word rat makes me shudder. It's entry point was alluding us til yesterday so praying we catch the thing now. It has avoided taking any bait, cheese peanut butter, you name we've tried it. I saw on a post on boards from years ago that 50/50 antifreeze and water works well as highly toxic. We put that down last night so just waiting on husband to go and check now!

Good luck!

Try baiting with a small piece of well cooked rasher

gozunda

peasant wrote: »

The best rat trap IMO is this one:

Quick, humane, highly effective, long lasting.
Placed in the right spot it'll get them all

Not cheap though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHdTJ8XaPzM

Its the huge fecker at 2:02 who drags the dead rat under the adjacent gap :eek:

Btw what kills the rats in that device?

Edit. A word to those with a problem with rats etc. Stay away from poison bait if ye can. Poisoned rodents will get eaten by wildlife and pets. Rats & mice can also cache bait away from the baited area and into sheds and houses. They can also contaminate hay and feed with the poison they cache.

John_Rambo

gozunda wrote: »

Its the huge fecker at 2:02 who drags the dead rat under the adjacent gap :eek:

Btw what kills the rats in that device?

Edit. A word to those with a problem with rats etc. Stay away from poison bait if ye can. Poisoned rodents will get eaten by wildlife and pets. Rats & mivlce can also cache bait away from the baited area and into sheds and houses. They can also contaminate hay and feed with the poison they cache.

100%, excellent advice.

Henryq.

John_Rambo wrote: »

We're beside two parks, one is 290 acres with a river 50 metres away. We've never had rats in the house, but we have them wondering over to the gardens all the time, we feed birds too. This looks like an excellent solution.

Don't go fixing them to the house and drawing in rats if the rats are out in the field atm

?Cee?view

CJhaughey wrote: »

I have one of those A24 for a long time now, the Baits have changed over the years, they used to be a plastic bottle full of long life peanut butter, the new baits are self dispensing with a chemical propellant that forces the chocolatish bait out.
The Cartridges are Co2 with a 5g dose of silicone oil in them, I haven't found them available with the threaded neck anywhere apart from Goodnature.
Airsoft cylinders are available with silicone oil but are not threaded DAMHIK.
I tend to alternate between one genuine and one plain Co2 and my trap is still working.
Its killed plenty of rats and there is no risk to other wildlife like you have with secondary poisoning which is where another animal eats a poisoned rat and dies.
I have the optional counter on mine because I often found the cylinder empty but no bodies due to scavenging and wanted an accurate count of shots fired.
In NZ they have released a new part called Chirp which is a bluetooth linked cap and that gives a lot more information back to your phone of events and times and areas for multiple traps.

Hi, I'm always concerned about gadgets such as these. They lure you in with an initial price which you can manage but then screw you on consumables. That said, the Co2 cartridges seems reasonable to me. One for £4.20 or 10 for £40, or am I missing something?

cpb

Look for the CO2 cylinders that cyclists use to reinflate tyres, they are threaded and much cheaper than prices quoted above. I think Aldi and Lidl do them now and again.

CJhaughey

?Cee?view wrote: »

Hi, I'm always concerned about gadgets such as these. They lure you in with an initial price which you can manage but then screw you on consumables. That said, the Co2 cartridges seems reasonable to me. One for £4.20 or 10 for £40, or am I missing something?

The consumables are expensive but there aren't many direct competitors in this market.
It all depends on what you want, if you want a trap that can fire 24 times and reset itself and keep working without having to be rebaited then its worth it.

These were designed to be fitted in wild areas for months at a time without having to be reset and checked which is the time consuming aspect of trapping.
The bait cartridges are fairly long lasting as well so all in all I felt it was a decent trap and given its advantages worth paying for.

That said I have used many other forms of trap as well such as live traps, Fenn traps and others but for simplicity and ease of use the A24 is hard to beat for a lot of people.
I know holiday home owners have installed them for peace of mind when they are away for extended periods.

CJhaughey

gozunda wrote: »

Btw what kills the rats in that device?

The horizontal part has a gas piston in it, its triggered by a thin wire trigger that is just above the part, the piston moves across the vertical tube and impacts a rubber buffer on the other side of the tube
The rat/mouse is caught between the piston and the rubber buffer and in my experience usually ends up with a headstrike which is lights out immediately.

These won't draw rats, if the rats are there they will be there for other reasons but these traps will usually eliminate them if present.

peasant

CJhaughey wrote: »

That said I have used many other forms of trap as well such as live traps, Fenn traps and others but for simplicity and ease of use the A24 is hard to beat for a lot of people.

There's another aspect to this:
Rats are extremely weary and circumspect of new things in their territory, sometimes it takes them weeks to finally muster up the trust/courage to investigate, especially the wise old residents.

With other traps you might have to go and check that nothing else triggered it/ freshen the bait every so often ...every time you do so you leave your scent and the weariness period starts afresh.

The A24 you can just place and forget and it will still reliably get the rat weeks later when they finally stick their head in to have a looksee.

MicktheMan

With the A24 is there a danger that other animals could be injured? I thinking cats possibly.

peasant

MicktheMan wrote: »

With the A24 is there a danger that other animals could be injured? I thinking cats possibly.

The cat could *potentially* stick its paw into the trap. But the entrance into the trap is at such an angle that the cat would basically have to back up to the trap, bend the paw backwards and then stick it in to get in far enough to trigger it.

So no, no danger really

We've always had cats (and rats) and the cats have never even shown an interest in the trap.

Other animals:

The animal has to be small enough to actually fit into the trap but also a bit of a climber to reach the bait & trigger, so that rules out birds and also anything bigger than a rat.
I have found a dead mouse at the trap once...t'was a big one.

John_Rambo

We've a good few grey squirrels visiting. I reckon they'd be victims, not sure how I feel about this. We've no reds unfortunately.

MicktheMan

John_Rambo wrote: »

We've a good few grey squirrels visiting. I reckon they'd be victims, not sure how I feel about this. We've no reds unfortunately.

I would put greys in the same category as rats.

peasant

John_Rambo wrote: »

We've a good few grey squirrels visiting. I reckon they'd be victims, not sure how I feel about this. We've no reds unfortunately.

As rats are pretty territorial, you'd have to find a spot where the rats are and the squirrels aren't.

So not near the bird feeder (or whatever else the common ground is) but on the rat run towards it.

CJhaughey

A24 isn't strong enough for Squirrels. There is an A18 designed for Mink and Grey Squirrel.

John_Rambo

peasant wrote: »

As rats are pretty territorial, you'd have to find a spot where the rats are and the squirrels aren't.

So not near the bird feeder (or whatever else the common ground is) but on the rat run towards it.

Yeah, I gotcha. The squirrels tend to avoid the tunnel like runs the rats use. We had a monster crop of sunflowers and the squirrels went nuts after the seeds, it was like a comedy show with their antics.

Can't really see a red revival on the East coast unless pine matins hear the news and start moving in on the greys.