Rats

[velocityg4]

I’ve got a rat in my house. I’m looking for ideas on how to trap it.

I’ve got no kill traps. Nothing I try lures it in far enough to catch it though.

I’ve tried putting bait in front of the traps to get it used to them. It eats it readily enough. Then I started putting bait further inside. It’ll eat that too. But no matter what. If I put bait far enough in to trigger it. The rat won go that far.

I’ve tried trailing morsels in. Piles inside. Stinkier baits like peanut butter and cheese. Food it’s used to squirrel feed and cat food. Which caught my cat.

The traps are along walls in passages it uses. Nothing will entice it inside.

I’m trying everything I can to catch and release. The last thing I want to do is step up to something which will harm it.

 

[eyoungren]

I’m trying everything I can to catch and release. The last thing I want to do is step up to something which will harm it.

You may have to if you want to get rid of it. The longer this game continues the bolder the rat is going to get. If your cat cannot or won't take care of the rat (a suggestion I was going to make) then stronger measures are probably needed.

I know you're trying to be humane, but it's a rat. They carry disease and they breed like crazy. Is your health and safety and that of your family less important than the life of the rat?

 

[yaxomoxay]

I’ve got a rat in my house. I’m looking for ideas on how to trap it.

I’ve got no kill traps. Nothing I try lures it in far enough to catch it though.

I’ve tried putting bait in front of the traps to get it used to them. It eats it readily enough. Then I started putting bait further inside. It’ll eat that too. But no matter what. If I put bait far enough in to trigger it. The rat won go that far.

I’ve tried trailing morsels in. Piles inside. Stinkier baits like peanut butter and cheese. Food it’s used to squirrel feed and cat food. Which caught my cat.

The traps are along walls in passages it uses. Nothing will entice it inside.

I’m trying everything I can to catch and release. The last thing I want to do is step up to something which will harm it.

You want to get rid of it asap.

Despite my then five cats (now four…), a couple of years back I had a rat that decided to cause mayhem. And he also decided to have a nice little family. It was a mess and had to call experts to finally get rid of the animal.

 

[Mousse]

I know you're trying to be humane, but it's a rat. They carry disease and they breed like crazy. Is your health and safety and that of your family less important than the life of the rat?

I agree with this assessment 100%. Catch and release of rats will only make it someone else's problem. Not cool. If you release them somewhere they can multiply, it can quickly become a major problem.

I use the easy to set, plastic jaw traps. I use creamy peanut butter as bait. No bruised fingers like with the old style, metal and wood mousetraps.😬 Stay away from the glue pad traps. They're inhumane.

 

[satcomer]

I’ve got a rat in my house. I’m looking for ideas on how to trap it.

I’ve got no kill traps. Nothing I try lures it in far enough to catch it though.

I’ve tried putting bait in front of the traps to get it used to them. It eats it readily enough. Then I started putting bait further inside. It’ll eat that too. But no matter what. If I put bait far enough in to trigger it. The rat won go that far.

I’ve tried trailing morsels in. Piles inside. Stinkier baits like peanut butter and cheese. Food it’s used to squirrel feed and cat food. Which caught my cat.

The traps are along walls in passages it uses. Nothing will entice it inside.

I’m trying everything I can to catch and release. The last thing I want to do is step up to something which will harm it.

Easy answer, get a CAT!!

 

[eyoungren]

Easy answer, get a CAT!!

OP has a cat.

It's just not doing it's job.

From OP's first post…

Which caught my cat.

 

[scubachap]

Agree with Mousse, decent trap baited with peanut butter or something meaty. One thing I don’t think has been mentioned is that Rats have a built in survival instinct which makes them very scared of ‘new’ objects. If the trap doesn’t catch just leave it for a few days - don’t mess with it. I often find they get the rat from the third day onwards.

 

[Shanghaichica]

It’s a rat. Use a glue trap and be done with it.

 

[yaxomoxay]

Easy answer, get a CAT!!

My five cats (five!!!) just stared at the rat, entirely charmed by it. Useless felines.

 

[madrigal77]

I had that happen a few years back. My cat brought it in and then released it lol. It was living in a pocket behind my cupboards and getting into my kitchen garbage. I even left the garbage outside for a few days thinking he'd move along. Nope!!

I tried everything I could to be humane about it too as I used to work in a pet store that sold rats and they are really cool and intelligent, but after a couple of weeks I had to break down and get a snap trap. Baited it with a Dorito and it got him that night. I felt awful but it broke his neck and killed him instantly.

As much as I love animals, you just can't have a stray rat living in your house. One way or another, he's got to go.

 

[unixfool]

Sticky/glue traps will definitely catch that mouse/rat. I once caught like 5 mice with one sticky trap. At first they avoided the trap, then I put a bit of peanut butter beside the trap to entice them to eat the peanut butter, which they ate. The next night I put a bit of peanut butter in the middle of the sticky trap. They wanted the peanut butter so much that they committed to getting to it, and that glue is no joke.

 

[eyoungren]

My five cats (five!!!) just stared at the rat, entirely charmed by it. Useless felines.

Our late feline would have seen the rat and ran for his life. Got frightened by every little thing. SMH!

 

[yaxomoxay]

I had that happen a few years back. My cat brought it in and then released it lol. It was living in a pocket behind my cupboards and getting into my kitchen garbage. I even left the garbage outside for a few days thinking he'd move along. Nope!!

I tried everything I could to be humane about it too as I used to work in a pet store that sold rats and they are really cool and intelligent, but after a couple of weeks I had to break down and get a snap trap. Baited it with a Dorito and it got him that night. I felt awful but it broke his neck and killed him instantly.

As much as I love animals, you just can't have a stray rat living in your house. One way or another, he's got to go.

Well, he died in his quest for a Dorito. It’s a good way to go.

 

[Ruggy]

Best bait is Nutella.
They like to have their back to something so it's best to put something over the top: half a large plastic bottle something like that. Put the trap perpendicular to the run with the trap part facing the wall.

 

[velocityg4]

This got more responses than I thought it would. I'll try to address it all.

Yes, I do have a cat. It's just completely useless about the rat. It doesn't even seem to be aware of it. It's always waiting by the window when the birds, squirrels and chipmunks are feeding. Running into the window and stalking the window. I guess it was all a bluff.

I'm not sure if my handling the traps is affecting it going in. I've had the traps for three weeks. It eats the bait I've handled at the entrance and part way in (every night). So, it should be used to the traps and my scent. It actually goes into the traps. Given the bait is missing part way in. But seems know how far it can go without triggering them.

I've got two kinds. A fairly roomy Havahart 0745 and some plastic ones from Kat Sense. It'll go about half way into the Kat Sense. In the Havahart it goes all the way to the main bait tray. But won't touch the smorgasbord on the tray.

Anyways, I'll go with the advice of leaving bait at the end of the traps (only). No more food trail going in. I've set them with peanut butter, vermont white cheddar cheese, seeds and corn. All stuff I've been priming the rat to eat and recognize. Hopefully, that works.

Personally, I was hoping there was some tech solution. Like Safe-T-Beam that triggers doors to slam shut. 😁

------

Why the no kill traps? There are two issues.

My main concern is my cat. It's already sprung the no kill traps. The last thing I want is for it to break a paw. Poison is out for a similar reason. There's deeper traps the cat can't get a paw in. But then the same issue exists of getting the rat far enough in to trigger it.

The second is I feel like a hypocrite. Which is silly. I bought the traps because I thought one of the many outdoor squirrels or chipmunks got caught inside. As it was eating the squirrel feed only. I only realized it was a rat. When it flashed by for a split second when I came down to the basement. So, I thought I was trying to catch a cute squirrel or chipmunk.

 

[Madhatter32]

The best things to use is a glue trap. Buy many and place it over an area the rat must traverse. It will get stuck. Then you need to summon up the courage to deal with a living stuck rat.

 

[yaxomoxay]

I had that happen a few years back. My cat brought it in and then released it lol.

 

[yaxomoxay]

The best things to use is a glue trap. Buy many and place it over an area the rat must traverse. It will get stuck. Then you need to summon up the courage to deal with a living stuck rat.

Agreed. Glue traps are the solution.

 

[scubachap]

It actually goes into the traps.

Rats are damn clever animals - it might just be your trap. In the past I've tried out around 3 live catch traps where you can't use other sorts but only one of them ever seems to work. (As you say they can be experts at nicking the bait but not triggering the trap - I personally think they must have figured out how to levitate...) This is the one that has worked for me in the past - it seemed pretty flimsy but perhaps that is what helped? Don't know if it's available in the states but you never know.

 

[JW5566]

I live in rural England and I can assure the OP that rats and other vermin are great examples of the saying "the road to hell is lined with good intentions" if you try and be nice to them. First, assume if you can see one rat there are probably 20 others you can't see. Second, don't assume it's the same rat every time. Third, while you are trying to be humane, it's breeding (making more rats), soiling (leaving nice scent trails for other rats to find a route to food) and potentially spreading disease.

If you don't deal with this in a manner fatal to the rat, you're just making the problem worse.

 

[icanhazmac]

View attachment 2041433

While that is all warm and fuzzy remember this...

Dogs have owners, Cats have staff. I have a dotted line reporting structure to 3 boss cats.

 

[velocityg4]

Okay. Y’all convinced me. I’m ordering some snap traps and glue traps. I’ll just hide them in little alleyways around the furnace the cat can’t reach. As the rat, hopefully not multiple. Hangs around it.

Hopefully. a snap trap gets it. I don’t relish manually killing it.

 

[yaxomoxay]

While that is all warm and fuzzy remember this...

Dogs have owners, Cats have staff. I have a dotted line reporting structure to 3 boss cats.

Good article actually.

I currently have four feline bosses. My oldest one has cancer; she is now very fragile and weak. She still eats and drinks, so she is still enjoying some sort of acceptable life. Once she’s gone, it will be the end of an era since she’s the last cat we got when my kids were still children.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

This got more responses than I thought it would. I'll try to address it all.

Yes, I do have a cat. It's just completely useless about the rat. It doesn't even seem to be aware of it. It's always waiting by the window when the birds, squirrels and chipmunks are feeding. Running into the window and stalking the window. I guess it was all a bluff.

I'm not sure if my handling the traps is affecting it going in. I've had the traps for three weeks. It eats the bait I've handled at the entrance and part way in (every night). So, it should be used to the traps and my scent. It actually goes into the traps. Given the bait is missing part way in. But seems know how far it can go without triggering them.

I've got two kinds. A fairly roomy Havahart 0745 and some plastic ones from Kat Sense. It'll go about half way into the Kat Sense. In the Havahart it goes all the way to the main bait tray. But won't touch the smorgasbord on the tray.

Anyways, I'll go with the advice of leaving bait at the end of the traps (only). No more food trail going in. I've set them with peanut butter, vermont white cheddar cheese, seeds and corn. All stuff I've been priming the rat to eat and recognize. Hopefully, that works.

Personally, I was hoping there was some tech solution. Like Safe-T-Beam that triggers doors to slam shut. 😁

------

Why the no kill traps? There are two issues.

My main concern is my cat. It's already sprung the no kill traps. The last thing I want is for it to break a paw. Poison is out for a similar reason. There's deeper traps the cat can't get a paw in. But then the same issue exists of getting the rat far enough in to trigger it.

The second is I feel like a hypocrite. Which is silly. I bought the traps because I thought one of the many outdoor squirrels or chipmunks got caught inside. As it was eating the squirrel feed only. I only realized it was a rat. When it flashed by for a split second when I came down to the basement. So, I thought I was trying to catch a cute squirrel or chipmunk.

That's quite a nice menu you have been preparing for the rat. I imagine the rat would also enjoy a cup Souther Australian cabernet wine with the cheese. You can spend more on wife, if you prefer

Anyway, find a larger and comfortable cage for the cat, and bait the traps to catch the rat. If you don't hurry there is a chance that soon you will have a bunch of little rats to worry about.

 

[velocityg4]

I finally got it. It was a big one. The snap trap was definitely not as instantaneous as they claimed in the ad. I wish I could've caught it alive. But you all are right. It would be wrong to release one for the next person to deal with.

I tried many foods for bait. Ultimately, it was a peanut in it's shell which proved irresistible. I'm just glad I didn't have to resort to a glue trap. Still I feel bad for little Emile.

I don't think there are more. But I'll keep traps out and try some more bait deposits around traps. To see if anything gets eaten for the next week. If nothing disappears. I'll assume that was the only one.