NFT: How to trap/kill a crafty rat in my garage?

and an air rifle.

Sounds like the perfect occasion for a stakeout.

with peanut butter and a piece of stinky bleu cheese.

In comment 15649059 pjcas18 said:

Quote:

and an air rifle. Sounds like the perfect occasion for a stakeout.

Lol!

Seriously, though.

:unsure:

.

In comment 15649061 DC Gmen Fan said:

Quote:

with peanut butter and a piece of stinky bleu cheese.

Tried the peanut butter.

Maybe need a larger trap?

:mad:

.

In comment 15649061 DC Gmen Fan said:

Quote:

with peanut butter and a piece of stinky bleu cheese.

I bought the smallish trap I have from amazon a while back. I doubt they would accept a return as this point.

In comment 15649068 robbieballs2003 said:

Quote:

.

HA!!

Not sure where it is.

:mad:

In comment 15649062 Grey Pilgrim said:

Quote:

In comment 15649059 pjcas18 said: Quote: and an air rifle. Sounds like the perfect occasion for a stakeout. Lol! Seriously, though. :unsure:

I am 100% serious and how do you even know it's a rat?

Maybe if you don't want to start out with the stakeout, at least get a trail cam - they're out there for $25 - $50 in the base entry level models and set it up across from your garage pantry and see what you're dealing with. It could be mice not even a big rat.

In comment 15649072 Grey Pilgrim said:

Quote:

Not sure where it is. :mad:

Question ... you live in Suffolk, right? I think I remember that. If so, Suburban is the best. I love them. Best customer service. I pay for the year and they handle everything.

droppings in the area? Mice droppings look like tiny black rice, rat droppings look similar but bigger.

If you don't see droppings in the area, I wouldn't be so sure it's a rat or a mouse. Maybe raccoon or squirrel or neighbor's kid, who knows.

a few years back when the dug up the field behind our house.

Was not an infestation but there was at least 4 of those little bastards.
A buddy let me borrow his ferret for a night. Problem was solved in that one night. If you think a cat hunts well. Watch a ferret got to town.
Calm and friendly as a dog but vicious little monster when it came to the mice.

then large glue traps also work very well.

.

So you have to fall back on superior intelligence and superior firepower.

In comment 15649079 pjcas18 said:

Quote:

droppings in the area? Mice droppings look like tiny black rice, rat droppings look similar but bigger. If you don't see droppings in the area, I wouldn't be so sure it's a rat or a mouse. Maybe raccoon or squirrel or neighbor's kid, who knows.

The droppings look fairly large to me.

So prolly a rat imo.

In comment 15649078 robbieballs2003 said:

Quote:

In comment 15649072 Grey Pilgrim said: Quote: Not sure where it is. :mad: Question ... you live in Suffolk, right? I think I remember that. If so, Suburban is the best. I love them. Best customer service. I pay for the year and they handle everything.

A possibility, but I'd rather not spend an arm and a leg.

couple of rat traps cost? $12/$15? Just get the old reliable spring loaded traps as mentioned above and use peanut butter as bait.

I've done the stakeout thing before, it's very fulfilling/rewarding if you pull it off. You don't even have to do it with the air rifle if you don't have/want one or don't want to kill whatever it is.

I would really prefer to know what I'm dealing with, before forming my plans to eradicate it, and I don't know how you know without a stakeout or trail cam or something to get that visual confirmation.

In comment 15649059 pjcas18 said:

Quote:

and an air rifle. Sounds like the perfect occasion for a stakeout.

This is definitely the most entertaining solution.

Sticky pads. Put some peanut butter on it. Works all the time.

the cat has fun and its cheap. Maybe buy the owner some food or whatever. I would have lent my mouser (and birder) out to anyone for a day or two.

If you're not sure if its a rat, set up a cheap battery-operated camera, like a Blink. You can use it for home security when you're done.

In comment 15649079 pjcas18 said:

Quote:

droppings in the area? Mice droppings look like tiny black rice, rat droppings look similar but bigger. If you don't see droppings in the area, I wouldn't be so sure it's a rat or a mouse. Maybe raccoon or squirrel or neighbor's kid, who knows.

If it is a squirrel, I would suggest you attempt to capture it by climbing up a tree and acting like a nut.

large glue traps in a square with the stinky cheese and peanut butter in the center

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSOD7m4XYg0

Amazing Rat Catching With Farm Dogs Kill About 500 Rats!

but you have to finish the job yourself. I’d do a few of those and some snap traps. Rats are a lot smarter than mice so sometimes you need to mix up your approach. I think a combo of traps and poison is the way to go. Don’t be surprised if a trap gets cleaned out and the bastard doesn’t come back.

you can find. The little ones are crap and the mouse/rat will just drag it away.

Get ones that are like 12"x6" I think. Put a dab of Skippy in the middle and you will catch the varmint.

In comment 15649154 NNJ Tom said:

Quote:

you can find. The little ones are crap and the mouse/rat will just drag it away. Get ones that are like 12"x6" I think. Put a dab of Skippy in the middle and you will catch the varmint.

Agreed. I’ve gotten the Catchmaster traps from Amazon. They are fairly large and work well.

on a mousetrap.

It will be like it was never there.

In comment 15649145 dabru said:

Quote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSOD7m4XYg0 Amazing Rat Catching With Farm Dogs Kill About 500 Rats!

The video's this guy posts are awesome. Buttercup and Boss are killers!

In comment 15649169 Mark from Jersey said:

Quote:

In comment 15649145 dabru said: Quote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSOD7m4XYg0 Amazing Rat Catching With Farm Dogs Kill About 500 Rats! The video's this guy posts are awesome. Buttercup and Boss are killers!

Nevermind. I thought this was the mink guy.

pest control business.

work great for me.
Trap - ( New Window )

Really, Pilgrim? I see that you're upset, but to kill yourself over a stupid rat? C'mon man.

Acme products

In comment 15649201 Bill in UT said:

Quote:

Really, Pilgrim? I see that you're upset, but to kill yourself over a stupid rat? C'mon man.

LOL!

TBS I'd rather not poison the poor little guy. I'll prolly buy a larger trap.

Are we talking like Tom Silva/Norm Abrams levels of craftiness?

.

rats to me. I have dealt with them over the years here in the AZ desert. First thing you might try is a continual flashing light. They hate that. Many of us here use the lights under the hoods of our vehicles as pack rats love the wiring in them. I had one once in my garage. I put out rat dcon daily and it would disappear. After I got rid of the rat, I found an older golf shoe packed with dcon.:)).
The cat part has worked for me. But, a pet cat or domesticated cat probably won’t do the trick. Many cats will run from pack rats. Find someone with barn cats. You can usually get your hands of them. They are feisty and will leave the dead rat where you can easily see it, like a trophy.

.

Piers. The only way they could get the ferret back was to put a female ferret in heat in a cage. Sometimes both would escape escape so they imported killer Mongooses to kill the ferrets, but sometimes they'd escape so they'd use small alligators, but sometime .........

In comment 15649089 j_rud said:

Quote:

So you have to fall back on superior intelligence and superior firepower.

Yes this. You need to make an explosive shaped like a rat, so the rat on your garage thinks its his friend. Then blow it up.

It kills the rat a few days after they eat it but non toxic to other animals(does something to their stomach where they wont eat or drink).

with a plank or contraption across the middle of the opening? I think you bait them for a couple of days and then unlatch the plank so the next time the sucker falls in the bucket and drowns. The liquid may also contain poison.

if a rat just smells a cat, they will leave the area.
There was a story not long ago about cities making shelters for stray cats in rest infested areas and the rats clearing out in no time.

My house has six interconnected crawl spaces. We heard a critter in those. So I bought six cheap wifi cams and put each one looking through each crawl space. Wyze... comes with free motion alerting software. We discovered that we had one small rat.

I put out a few small live cage traps with sunflower seeds and peanut butter bait, including some outside the traps. The rat would sneak up to the trap, smell it, touch it, go all around it, but not go inside.

Then I put in its favorite spot, a bucket with a hole in the lid and a corrugated shop vac hose leading up into the bucket. The rat came out and looked at the big black hose which apparently really freaked it out because it sped away and we never saw it on camera again. And no more noise. There is a joke to be made there but because I was doing this with my son, I didn't make it.

In comment 15649147 Jimmy Meatballs said:

Quote:

but you have to finish the job yourself. I’d do a few of those and some snap traps. Rats are a lot smarter than mice so sometimes you need to mix up your approach. I think a combo of traps and poison is the way to go. Don’t be surprised if a trap gets cleaned out and the bastard doesn’t come back.

NO NO NO to poison. I have a friend whose wife works for Audubon and rescues birds. They get Hawks, Owls, Eagles, etc. all the time that suffer and die from eating poisoned mice. Same for fox etc. I have good luck with the snappers and the electric shock ones. The shock ones kill them (, Voles, Rats and Mice) instantly.

Then reduce 1/16 - 1/30th (depending on sprayer). Spray bottle/pump your foundation and/or problem areas.....I haven't seen any since.

It works : )


Search the like - ( New Window )