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How To Catch A Rat


Summary: Catching rodents takes patience and some brains. Mice are easy to trap, but a full grown rat is intelligent and not easily tricked.

If you ever have to deal with trying to catch an adult rat you will find you are up against a clever adversary. With all the daily inherent dangers that a rodent must face in order to survive, it's no wonder that trying to catch one of these rascals is no easy task.

First, you must understand that rats are very suspicious of new surroundings. If they find their way into your property they will use utmost care when exploring their environment. Even when facing hunger or thirst a rat will not indulge itself on the first food or water it finds. It will approach any new food source with caution, often tasting only a small sample to see if it can be safely digested. With this in mind you need to know how to pre-bait your traps.

rat_smart.jpg

Look for fresh rodent droppings. Usually they will be found under a cluttered area. Let's assume we hope to catch our rat using a common snap trap. Put some fresh, clean food on the trigger mechanism, but do not set the trap to go off. Peanut butter is always a good choice. Then, replace all the clutter as you originally found it.

The next day return to see if any of the food has been eaten and look for fresh rodent droppings. Don't despair if you find fresh droppings, but none of the food has been eaten. Remove the old food and replace it with fresh. Rodents will only eat fresh, clean food.

Once you find that the rodent is eating the bait you must continue to repeat this process for another few days until you are sure you have noticed a set pattern of feeding. Then, and only then, can you set the trap with assurance of catching your prey. Trying a shortcut will result in a prolonged bout of hide and seek.





Comments

Sharon Wong
02 Jan 2010, 12:19
i didn't exactly do it slowly, but i went for a quick violent hunt. he's been hiding in my kitchen and feeding on EVERYTHING. Should have tried this before attempting hot pursuit =(
Ben Colla
12 Jan 2010, 21:10
I have covered a hole in my concrete floor with sand on multiple occasions, only to find it uncovered again. My guess is rats. I lay down a big ass rat trap only to find it cleaned everyday. Mice, must be mice... So I place some mouse traps and I catch many mice... Today I find a dead mouse in a trap a foot from where I set it, IN the hole. I pull it out and find only the mouse head in the trap, the body is gone. Rats!
Chucky
25 Jan 2010, 06:42
We have giant ass rats at my work eating hundreds of dollars of dog food each night. The rat Daleks came in and put down traps to exterminate them but nothing helped so I bought in my own guns.I set up water in a barrel with a false lid and food bait on top. Still awaiting results. Are there any traps where they can walk inside, and it locks so they cant get out? Or can you get mouse traps, that are the size of cars? Or possibly injecting some food with the most lethal substance you can htink of. Or try the left hand approach; if you cant beat 'em, join 'em. I will try putting a handful of dog food out at night and see if they bother opening up the bags. Anything is worth a shot to the bastards.
Ask the Exterminator
25 Jan 2010, 10:41
Chucky,

Post your question as directed by the bold red notice and you will receive an answer.
Ben
05 Feb 2010, 12:39
I have a rat in the attic.
I put a snap trap with peanut butter and when I went to check it, it had been sprung with small amounts of blood on the trap so I'm assuming the trap injured him. Then a couple of days later I started hearing the rat again in the attic. I put the trap back with some peanut butter and a piece of dog food. Will the snap trap still work after the first incident?

Thank you.
MOO
10 Feb 2010, 02:36
I KNOW FOR A FACT I SAW WITH MY EYES A NORWAY RAT IN MY ROOM UPSTAIRS.. DOWN STAIRS I SAW THEIR DROPPINGS BIG ONES AT THAT SO I KNOW THEIR HERE
HOW CAN I GET OR CATCH THEM
bahdmus
13 Feb 2010, 11:18
How to catch rat
frickn rat
20 Mar 2010, 01:30
Oh yea, good old box and string trap only with weights. I just watch and wait...for a while.
freakedout
05 May 2010, 18:17
hour ago, i saw a rat in a room where my cat and her babies sleep.. my brother says that the cat has brought it inside for her kittens...donno y..
yet the kittens didnt even touch it.
the rat didnt move when i got inside the room (i guess he had a broken leg or something - lucky me!! :D) , so i just brought bucket, and dropped it on the mouse, and then dragged it outside the house (he managed to get free at that point).
it was ugly... am still freaked out :D
Steve
10 Jun 2010, 22:45
this is a sure fire method

http://blogs.abc.net.au/tasmania/2009/04/how-to-catch-a.html
cgimusic
15 Jun 2010, 05:17
We brought one of those massive tubs of rat poison. It ate the whole lot and didn't even look sick. Damn invincible rat.
Ask the Exterminator
15 Jun 2010, 07:05
Don't know what "massive tubs" of rat poison you bought, but rats cannot vomit. If they ate an effective poison it would kill it.
promise this works
20 Jun 2010, 00:33
i have a bad rat problem so what i do is mix peanut butter and rat poison pellets in a peanut butter jar. i fill the jar about a quarter of the way full with an even mixture of poison and peanut butter.(mix well...cover all pellets with the penut butter. secure the jar with the lid off out of the way of pets. i wedge my jar between two decks and every night i set one out i find 1-2 dead rats the next morning
Nickii
23 Jun 2010, 08:12
my grandparents live in a mobile home and they have never had this problem.

But back home in Guyana they did so they mixed cement,rice, plenty of sugar, chocolate, and water on the side... they really got that sucker, by the time they found him, his stomach was really hard and he was dead!

If you would like to use this method remember that everything must be fresh, rodents only eat fresh food so change it every day.
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