The Big Rat Diary

[Johnny Appleseed]

peanut butter and chocolate digestives are rats and mices fave food

OMG - I must have rat tendencies after all - both chocolate digestives and peanut butter are always in the Appleseed larder ........ and now they are in the garden and shed as well - but for other reasons.

[Alice]

You might have to be patient Johnny. Rats are quite suspicious of new food sources. They will only try it in very small quantities to start with , may just from the edge and not get caught. That is why they are difficult to poison. But if they try it with no ill effects they will gey in there for a feed and you will get them.
The other problem with rats is the rate at which they breed. 2 this week, do nothing, and next year the place will be running with them. Good luck.

[womble]

Yes I had this problem, tried to get them with an electric trap, works great on mice, but only one rat caught in it. In the end I gave up and went to poison, worked a treat.

[Nicos]

We have a couple of spring loaded rat traps and have only caught one so far- we sprinkled fine sand on the surface underneath the traps to see which route they took. Only mouse prints now- and no 'dragged tail' marks which rats leave.
Clever little things.

One word of warning though....I can imagine the sprung loaded rat traps could easily break one of your fingers or thumb.

[Hilary B]

The traps that look like a giant mousetrap may not be as effective as the cage type, because one dead rat scares the others away from the trap. With the cage type, not only does the rat die somewhere else, so the same trap-location remains viable, but some types have a 'one way door' at the back, so that if the first rat caught is not TOO scared, others can join it, and you may get 2 or 3 in one night. You need to dispose of the rats once you've caught them. A traditional method (not exactly kind, but could be worse, and safe for the human) is to drop the trap into a large bucket of water..... Thi also prevents the trap picking up the 'death smell' and thus scaring the next rats away from it when reset.

[Nicos]

No-wonder there's no second rat caught...didn't think about the scent
Hmmmm....

[Hilary B]

No-wonder there's no second rat caught...didn't think about the scent
Hmmmm....

Rats are NOT STUPID! In some ways they can be a lot like humans, which is part of why we tend not to like them. They share most of the least agreeable traits of human nature.....

[HayleyB]

Hi guys

Found out at Hen School about a Rat/Mouse killer called Eradibait. It's not a poison. Apparently rodents have a different digestive system and this stuff sticks to the villi in their gut which stops them from ingesting fluid so they die from dehydration. It means that there is no secondary effects from animals eating the dead rodent including hawks etc. Also means that any pets eating the bait are not affected as well

[HayleyB]

Here's a link

EradiBait Rat and Mouse Killer 500 gram Tub - Rat and Mouse Bait

EradiBait Rat and Mouse Killer 500 gram Tub Ref: HS61
EradiBait contains no poisonous chemicals and is based on ground maize combined with wheat and a sweet molasses attractant. EradiBait is effective even among rodent populations that are completely resistant to conventional anticoagulants. No risk to children or pets no risk to livestock or birds and no risk of contamination to crops or food no environmental pollution - fully biodegradable.
It works - Eradibait has undergone the same testing as all other rodenticides in the UK, it has proved as effective as conventional chemical rodenticides. Use 40 to 60 grams per rat and 10 to 15 grams per mouse,

[lynda66]

we got rats under the floor in our old house, there was a derelict house at the end with an open sewer in the back, we had to resort to poison, as the traps just didn't work, the pest control people came twice a week, and they had eaten the lot, it seems there were an awful lot of them, lured by the smell of a restaurant a few doors up.

all was well, till they died under the floorboards and we couldn't get to them ...... the stench was awful for weeks, and one day, we came in and there were about 2 million (no exaggeration) flies crawling up the back of the radiator and all over the windows .... it's definitely not something i would like to repeat

[Nicos]

In our first rented flat together we had a rat above the false ceiling. At night it would go into the bathroom and eat the soap!

Hayley..that's VERY interesting info! Ta!

[Johnny Appleseed]

Day 4 - 28th October

7:00am - checked the traps and apart from the peanut butter being frozen onto the gauze in the garden - no change.



6:00pm - Shed trap - still primed.

Garden trap activated and occupied by one very large and angry grey squirrel. Apparently, the Wildlife Act requires me to treat it as a rat , "dispose of it humanely" and not release it back into the wild. I didn't expect this to happen Squirrels were not on my hit list.

Quote "It is an offence to release any trapped Grey Squirrel back into the wild. Therefore any Grey Squirrel caught in this trap must be destroyed in a humane fashion"

[lynda66]

noooooo ignore that and release it, there will be some old granny who feeds it who will be most distressed when her squirrel doesn't come

[Nicos]

Who would know if you released it??

Alternatively ...this may be useful....

http://www.backwoodsbound.com/zsquir.html?NF=1

[Johnny Appleseed]

Many thanks for the link Hayley - very interesting

[QUOTE=HayleyB;300906]Here's a link

EradiBait Rat and Mouse Killer 500 gram Tub - Rat and Mouse Bait