The best way to catch a rat!!?

Question

Really, mice... I knew I had a problem in the attached garage this winter... we have been setting traps using peanut butter as bait... but these mice are very intelligent mice and they manage to either eat the bait without triggering the trap or they have decided during the course of time that they prefer not to eat it at all... we have only caught 3 or 4 of them and I know that there are a lot more than that in the garage... gloves are used when baiting the traps so no scent...

Problem now is, oh my goodness, I found baby mouse poop in the kitchen underneath the microwave and the toaster oven which are on my countertop... I keep breads, onions, etc around... I have no idea how a mouse could get up there... there are no cords hanging down to the floor or anything like that... the only cord in the vacinity hangs from the microwave over to behind the refridgerator and it does not touch the floor nor is it anywhere near the floor....

Answer 1

Okay...you COULD use poison, but that's some brutal way to kill a living thing. It's slow and agonizing for the animal. First, their throats constrict and they begin choking, then their bowels and bladder release, then their stomaches and intestines explode out of their bodies either through their mouths, noses, and bowels or worse, they just erupt out of their body like in the first Alien movie! YUCK! Plus, you could accidentally poison a neighborhood cat, birds, squirrels, or even dogs! If a bird ends up eating the poisoned mouse, then the bird will be poisoned too. Worse, a cat could eat the bird and then be poisoned. Poison could break down and get into the ground and then you're walking on it. Poison is the worst option for you, your family, your pets, and your neighborhood.

Another option is those glue boards. That's what a professional would bring. Those are almost as cruel as the poison. The animal sticks a paw or tail or nose to the board absolutely can't escape. I've seen then chew off their paws to get away and then bleed to death a foot away! If they don't do that, they eventualy starve and dehydrate to death. It's grim and gruesome! Also, a predator animal can come along, your cat or your neighbor's dog, and end up stuck to the board also, and then you have to take them to a vet to get the board off, because that glue STICKS!

A more humaine way to quickly kill the rodents is the snap traps you're currently using...but instead of peanut butter, try Butterfingers candy bars! I kid you not, that works the best. Probably any candy bar will work, especially if it's got nuts in it. You might try a couple different ones. The key is to get it in a place where the little monsters can't steal it off the trap!

They must be lured to the trap and peanut butter isn't incentive enough when they have access to EVERY dried food in your kitchen, and whatever bits and pieces you drop during a normal day (of course you sweep and mop, but everyone misses something, right?)

So make sure you double and triple Ziplock everything you have in cabinets. Now might be the time to invest in that storage container system you've seen and thought would be good. If you have a Smart and Final Iris near you they have industrial kitchen sized plastic containers in a variety of sizes and shapes, so you can do every cabinet!

Good luck.

Answer 2

When you set up the "Rat nite club," be sure to put some peanut butter at the entrance, they love it! MY boyfriend found this out the potentially costly way. He was leaving for work and he noticed things were messed up in his car. He looked in the glove compartment and there it was, A RAT! This rodent chewed up the leather on his stick shift, and shredded his title, registration, etc. to make a bed out of it! We called the "Rat catchers", and they suggested peanut butter. So we put a trap down with it, and we got it. Didn't want the poor thing to die in vain so we gave it to the crows! I would not have allowed this trapping, but we tried everything else for days. We also know of someone (not an isolated incident) who had a brand new sports car, and a rat got in his transmisson and chewed up the wiring, and it cost this guy Thousands of dollars for repairs! Seriously, why not take the advice and just go to the pet store to avoid any future rat incidences!!! :) If you think this question is funny, look under birds, and click on the question that starts "Why iz." I had a belly laugh!!!

Answer 3

Poisen is an option, just make sure you get the kind that dehydrates them so the die away from your house and dont leave any water standing around for them and keep the lid to the toilet closed. Or go to a resturant supply store, Im sure youve seen those small metel box traps around factorys and food places, there very effective.

Answer 4

just went thru a horrible 'rat attack' in my old farm house up in N Calif. we are slowly moving our things up there to live, so we had food, pet food, cleaning supplies, work clothes there already. it'd been almost two + months since a visit. they were still there in the drawers, three big ones and a fur pelt (dad?) for a nest in my kitchen towel drawer! we chased the last one for two days, with a dog & cat team. it kept running from foldout couch to tv cabinet (too heavy to move) to inside the backs of the stove & frig. leaving the doors open didn't help. what did help was finding his hole at last, a piece of floor cabinet molding that was forgotten to be put on! the night he was under the tv cabinet tho, he tried to chew straight threw the wall, sheetrock & all- he could've made it too! do not believe food in ziplocks or clothes in plastic crates or anything not in metal or glass will stop them. they ate everyting they touched, shoes, clothes,every scrap of paper and anything with ink or a petroleum or plastic product in it! even wood stove cleaning powder, plastic film, and peed up & down throroughly where ever they ran. it was one stinking, crying, trying time. Need new carpet, floors, paint- they tried scratching up the walls and even ruined wall surfaces! they did the out & easy stuff first, so if a cupboard was shut well, they moved on, so all was not lost. its sure hard to have faith it won't happen again! sorry, not sorry to say we hope we poisened'm good. bought hard geen rat bars from the feed-n-grain store, OSH, Lowes every time we went to the store, then cleaned up a few bodies, it was nasty, just like you said. you should see my rolltop!

Answer 5

a good way to set the trap so it should go off is stick the cheese or another type of food real good in the trigger thing that way there is no way of getting to food out without setting the trap off. Thats what i did and it never failed

Answer 6

Bacon. Put it on the trap and put the trap in a paper bag.You won't have to touch it after you catch it . It will already be in a bag.

Answer 7

Call animal control to get rid of them, or get the sticky paper... you know the stuff where they walk on it and get stuck? Or you could get a variety of traps to catch them. Or just don't leave your food out!

Answer 8

have a tube big enough for it to fit through and make sure a little piece of it can bend like a straw and put in large clear jarto tall for them to climb out and they will climb up the tube and into the jar, but make sure you put cheese their able to smell in the jar.

Answer 9

Keep cats till the rats exist .

Answer 10

Have My Cat Come Over.