re: I have a rat/mouse in my house

quote:

---

Throw a couple water moccasins in the attic.

---

I think they would rather be…..in the water

1) old school victor rat traps.

2) Peanut butter is fine, but use Slim Jim beef jerky. Rats can lick off that peanut butter w/o springing the trap. W/ the Slim Jim, it has that membrane around it, so they'll have to pull at it eat it. Much, much higher kill rate. Make sure before you put it on the trap that you squeeze some of the oil out and use it like a paint brush all over the trap. Really get that scent out.

3) Very important; When you set the traps, make that it is perpendicular and up against the wall of where you're going to set them, even places like under your sink. Make sure that the springing action is going towards that wall, because rats run along edges, and this will mean a quick kill. A whole lot less likely that you either miss it or just get its legs.

4) 100% do not use poison.


I've had my own pest control company for 14 years and have been in the business for 20.

Hope this helps:)

quote:

---

Had a case of those MREs from the 2016 flood up in the attic.

---

Ewwwww...

quote:

---

My cat has thumbs, polydactyl. I like to think he picks them up by the neck and chokes them to death.

---

Once my cat got rid of the rats, he switched over to mice. I would walk into the dining room and he'd just be laying there, all relaxed, with a single mouse sitting up right in front of him - completely still. I could reach down and pick the mouse up by the tail (they would be covered in saliva) before he would start to struggle. By then it was too late as the next step was to fling him out of the kitchen door into the back yard. The cat would be under him before he hit the ground. It was his favorite game. Eventually, all the mice were gone too, though.

But it was when the cat found a bat in the house that shite got real.

quote:

---

Rats can lick off that peanut butter w/o springing the trap

---

They can't on the electric traps. They get zapped and it's over. You keep using the same peanut butter over and over.

That's true.

quote:

---

Put some peanut butter on two of the old school traps

---

About once a year we’ll get a mouse in the pantry. I move everything off the bottom shelf except the old school spring trap.

I put peanut butter and a short piece of slim Jim on the PB. Works every time. Sometimes just the PB doesn’t work.

Don’t know about rats.

Screw sticky traps, get a real man's rat trap. The old fashioned kind. Put a spoonful of peanut butter on the trigger plate and put several around the perimeter of the room you see them in the most.

If they trip one and don't get caught, change the location of that trap because they won't go back that way again for a while. A good spot to set some is next to or behind the refrigerator. It's usually a narrow space that they have to navigate through to get around.

Like Fr33 said, there's probably more than one or two rats. Keep setting traps until you don't catch any more.

They are getting in somehow, and they leave a scent trail. You need to find the ingress and block it off.

Despite all my rage
I am still just a
rat in a cage

The black plastic Tomcat rat traps are a lot easier to set than the old school Victor traps and just as effective. About once a summer we have rats stop by to start a nest around the porch somewhere and out come the traps. Ill catch one or two for several straight nights and then they're all gone til next year. Ive tried slim Jims but peanut butter has always been the most reliable in my experience. Cheerios also have worked pretty well.

The sticky boards are good for small mice (especially juvenile ones). Place them against base boards, mice have poor eyesight, and frequently run along the walls. The old style spring loaded mouse traps are more effective for adult mice. Peanut butter is great for bait, since they have to lick it off, and it usually gets them right on the neck. If they don't like peanut butter, I have had luck with a small piece of raw bacon for bait (tie it on the trip lever with fishing monofilament).