NFR Rats.... @#$%ing rats.

Non-fishing related
Josh

Josh

Dead in the water
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Got rat burrows in the duck yard and around the duck house. I am not pleased about this.

Wife won't allow real poison because of secondary risks to raptor/wildlife. Traps are slow and ineffective. RatX bait (a sort of poison with non secondary risks) gets mixed reviews. The Ratinator live trap gets a lot of good reviews. But it also then requires disposing of a cage full of rats at once. The bucket trap idea seems to work better for mice than rats. I'm thinking of trying the dry ice method.

And yes, I know. Get rid of the available food. Clean up spilled seed, bring in bird feeders, etc.

Any other advice, I'm all ears.
 
I never had a problem again once I got rid of my bird feeders. I liked watching the birds, but I liked not having rats more.
I remember getting up one morning and seeing two rats going to town on the suet, so that was it for me.
They ended up getting in my crawl space which lead to a two week holly war with them, but finally got rid of them. Nasty critters they are.
SF
 
The worst. Last summer they were eating my tomatoes off the vine as they ripened. I got several of them in snap traps by baiting with tomato. That stopped the problem. I still bait traps and will get one from time to time in the alley, I don't have any dens on my property, but there are some neighbors that probably do.
 
cascadian said:
Sell and move.
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I mean, my wife might take this option if it was available...

CRO said:
I have used the large Victor traps for decades.
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Do you use the newer ones with the fat "cheese" looking trigger or the old school ones with the metal trigger? I can't get the fat pedal ones to stay armed once there's some weight from bait on the trigger.

Stonedfish said:
I liked watching the birds, but I liked not having rats more.
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My wife and I are on different sides of this issue, I believe.
 
I also like the neck breakers. I keep a few in the crawl space. I check them Randomly and find 1 every 18 months?
 
Josh said:
I mean, my wife might take this option if it was available...


Do you use the newer ones with the fat "cheese" looking trigger or the old school ones with the metal trigger? I can't get the fat pedal ones to stay armed once there's some weight from bait on the trigger.


My wife and I are on different sides of this issue, I believe.
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I use the ones with the metal pan. Don’t over bait. You don’t have to hide the pan from view. Watch out for your fingers as you set and move the trap
 
Everything You Need to Know About the Ruger 10/22

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CRO said:
I have used the large Victor traps for decades. I bait with a piece of cheddar(squirrels dont like cheese, but they do like peanut butter) I attach a short cable to stake em out so a rat doesnt drag the trap away. put it outside the hole and partial cover to help keep birds away.
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Oh interesting about the cheese. I was using peanut butter but injured a squirrel and had to finish him off so stopped setting.

Had zero issues last year with our raised beds but they are burrowing in the one with raspberries this year. Game back on!
 
I like the bucket traps because they just keep fishing. That said I need to check them regularly (once a month) to keep from hauling ratatouille soup (mice in my case) out of the crawl space :sick:
 
Be aware if you are trying to poison rats that a number of the available rodenticides function by dehydrating the rats. This makes them insatiably thirsty. They will even chew through Pex piping in your house to access water. You do not want that to happen. Ask me how I know. I had to replace all the insulation in my crawl space after a rat or rats put little pinhole leaks in my plumbing, some of it hot water plumbing, and the entire crawl space became so humid that the insulation was soaked and some of my hardwood flooring warped from the humidity. The leaks were so small that water flow was not affected and they were not apparent until too late. I'm glad I had good insurance as it was about a 35-40 K fix.
 
albula said:
Be aware if you are trying to poison rats that a number of the available rodenticides function by dehydrating the rats.
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Yeah, that's how that RatX stuff works, apparently. It's good because there's no secondary poisoning if a raptor eats a dead rat, but I have read similar warnings to yours about the insatiable thirst.
 
The best way to not have a rodent issue in your home is to have a professional you trust do an exclusion study. I happen to live with an old abandoned Rayonier mill site just over the bluff from my house. The remaining structures, which they promised to get rid of many years ago and the piles of debris left from the so called effort provide an on going base of operations for the large neighborhood rat population. I had absolutely all possible routes of access into my old house sealed off with heavy duty rodent screening even under the eaves on the roof. It cost me a bit to have it done and still costs a bit to have it monitored yearly but none of the traps or bait stations in the crawl space have shown any signs of activity for a number of years. Best way to deal with rats is to not let them in.
 
Josh said:
Do you use the newer ones with the fat "cheese" looking trigger or the old school ones with the metal trigger? I can't get the fat pedal ones to stay armed once there's some weight from bait on the trigger.
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I have some of those and have found them to be totally ineffective. Caught a bunch of tomato eating rats using a couple of “Bigfoot” traps, and zero with the victor ones set right next to them. Victors would either be sprung with no rat, or not sprung with no bait.
 
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