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I was wondering who ate my last Magnum today
Best way to catch a rat?
- Thread starter JP_
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I was wondering who ate my last Magnum today
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I'm hoping that as all food is kept in the new extension, this won't be possible ...
Yeah, not sure. I did spot what looks like a rat hole in the garden too. I know we've had some mice in the garden, but they tend to stay near the back and don't come near the house.
Neighbour has seen a rat in their garage where they keep fishing tackle, I assume some bait might be in there. I've only ever seen it crossing from out rockery, which is on the side where their garage is, and go under the shed.
Might go for a rat trap box with bait option, Don't want to leave anything out where the dog or hedgehogs might get to it.
Rats around here don't come in ones, they come in nests. Seen outside daytime when they find food a bit on the short side. I usually phone the council. Poison gets carried back to the nest and the lot get killed off. Having a dog is a bit of a problem so when they started appearing a few week or so ago a neighbour put poison down. Not seen any since.
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Judging by the reviews (the older ones are much better) the spec/reliability has changed and more recent versions don't perform as well.I have one of the mouse sized version of this device.
Pest-Stop Plastic & Metal Battery-Powered Rat Killer - Screwfix
Order online at Screwfix.com. Smart electronics device. A rat or mouse trying to take the bait reaches a point where it touches 2 plates and completes an electrical circuit, killing it in seconds. A light signals when the device has been activated so that the remains can be removed and the trap...www.screwfix.com
Very effective and I have loaned to several people who also found it very effective,
Blup
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Their pee fluoresces in UV light, and they pee everywhere. £5 400nm torch from ebay will show it up if it's had a chance to dry out.
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yeah, I almost bought one, but there was a lot of bad reviews.
Not caught anything yet. One trap was triggered, but nothing in it.
Not seen any sign of the rat though - could hot weather force it to migrate if it can't find water?
Honestly a good rat catcher is money well spent, we had an issue a wee while back in this place and this was the process.
Firstly you need to know a few things about rats.
* They have poor eyesight
* They come out to play at night.
* Where there is one, there will be more and they can breed fast.
What you need to do is identify it's run, a rat will hug against walls till it finds routes, the other rats will use the pheromones from that rat to follow its path and they will stick to those routes soo long as nothing prevents it (bad eyesight y'see) ... so when you identify that run you will need 2-3 good strong spring loaded traps at the entry point... bait them with peanut butter.
If there are multiple routes discovered, fill in the entry points with steel wool and leave only one free.
When you hear a snap, you have the unpleasant job in the morning of emptying them into plastic bags for disposal. You want to have a good look at the dead rat when you do this, look for bite marks because rats are also cannibalistic and that tells you if there's more left. You also want to check whether the rat is a youngster or an adult by its size.
When you stop catching rats after a week or more it's time to fill the last hole.
You also want to inspect the outside of the property for other places they're nesting, under sheds, under decking areas, etc and leave bags of rat poison in suspect areas and check on these each morning to see if they're gone.
Honestly, the pest control guy we had was great, visited every day for a week and a half and took very little money for it. Watch these big companies that charge hundreds for 1-2 visits. They're at it.
Our story was that a previous owner who put the electric supply into the shed had drilled a hole through the wall at ground level, stuck the cable through from the underfloor space and never filled the hole. It wasn't big but it's enough for a rat... and then probably the same people fitted the plumbing for the kitchen sink/washing machine by creating a massive hole in the floorboards under the sink unit and just left it open.
We had several other small holes in the floor dotted around but they weren't using them. Filled those with steel wool and cannister foam. Filled the hole in the external wall with some mortar.
Firstly you need to know a few things about rats.
* They have poor eyesight
* They come out to play at night.
* Where there is one, there will be more and they can breed fast.
What you need to do is identify it's run, a rat will hug against walls till it finds routes, the other rats will use the pheromones from that rat to follow its path and they will stick to those routes soo long as nothing prevents it (bad eyesight y'see) ... so when you identify that run you will need 2-3 good strong spring loaded traps at the entry point... bait them with peanut butter.
If there are multiple routes discovered, fill in the entry points with steel wool and leave only one free.
When you hear a snap, you have the unpleasant job in the morning of emptying them into plastic bags for disposal. You want to have a good look at the dead rat when you do this, look for bite marks because rats are also cannibalistic and that tells you if there's more left. You also want to check whether the rat is a youngster or an adult by its size.
When you stop catching rats after a week or more it's time to fill the last hole.
You also want to inspect the outside of the property for other places they're nesting, under sheds, under decking areas, etc and leave bags of rat poison in suspect areas and check on these each morning to see if they're gone.
Honestly, the pest control guy we had was great, visited every day for a week and a half and took very little money for it. Watch these big companies that charge hundreds for 1-2 visits. They're at it.
Our story was that a previous owner who put the electric supply into the shed had drilled a hole through the wall at ground level, stuck the cable through from the underfloor space and never filled the hole. It wasn't big but it's enough for a rat... and then probably the same people fitted the plumbing for the kitchen sink/washing machine by creating a massive hole in the floorboards under the sink unit and just left it open.
We had several other small holes in the floor dotted around but they weren't using them. Filled those with steel wool and cannister foam. Filled the hole in the external wall with some mortar.
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I am reluctant to get a rat catcher in as I've only actually seen a the rat once, and my wife once also. Both times looking like it could be crossing our garden. So still not convinced we have the rat to be caught! Although something did trigger one of the traps. Been a week though, and the peanut butter, and the chicken and rice (leftover curry) has been ignored.
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I tried a rat trap and it caught a mouse instead, in the time it took me to go get surgical gloves and walk back to the trap, trap+dead mouse had been dragged into the hedge leaving nothing but the mouses crushed head the rest eaten i guess by the rat!
A friend of mine shoots them, similar to this guy. Not for the squeamish some great headshots though..
A friend of mine shoots them, similar to this guy. Not for the squeamish some great headshots though..
I'd like to do that for a living. "Right between the eyes". Such fun! 
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