No, really. This rat crawled up out of my toilet last Sunday night and he's been running around my bedroom for over a week.
If I hadn't been deathly ill for that same period of time---that's why I haven't been around for a week---I might've been laying for him, but, as is, I've only been able to get a couple supposed humane traps down. No bites.
posted
Get a terrier. Or an owl. Conversely, you might just have to be patient with the traps, maybe bait them with something else, and make sure you have no other food available. You could bait with water if there's no other source around.
[This message has been edited by annepin (edited January 21, 2008).]
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Well, I don't have many problems starting in the POV of someone other then the protagonist. Harry Potter did it after all....
To be honest I have no clue how you would catch a rat. Since this topic isn't about writing anyway I'll contribute my own little tidbit of oddity. I am one of the few people in the world to have broken another person's bone playing Duck-Duck-Goose. You could actually see it poking through the flesh - it wasn't pretty, but hey, I play to win.
Edit: Try mimicking a female rat in heat.
[This message has been edited by smncameron (edited January 21, 2008).]
posted
Get a big glass jar (Economy size if possible) and pour the grease from your hamburger, sausage, and whatnot into it. Be sure to coat every bit of the sides, thickly. Leaving a few chunks of food in the hardened grease at the bottom wouldn't be a bad idea. Leave the jar--sans the top--in an area you've known the pest to travel in. In a day or two, you should find a geasy rat in the bottom of a jar too slimy to climb out. Simply screw the lid on and take him to wherever you want to be rid of him.
Just keep in mind Rats are much larger than Mice, and plan accordingly...
And this topic could very well be about writing, if your charactr needs to trap a rat, or if your antagonist/protagonists alludes to his enemy as a rat and gives orders to subordinates accordingly: "You let him in and make him comfotable, then you lock the lid down." Or, a cliche: "You catch more flies with honey than sh##."
[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited January 21, 2008).]
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There used to be a profession called "ratcatcher" (to make this a more writerly topic--though any kind of conflict question is grist for the mill, people). Ratcatchers had at least one terrier (the more the better), and at least one ferret. He would station the terriers at all the known ratholes except for one, then send the ferret down that rathole. The ferret would chase the rats up into the jaws of the terriers, and that would be that.
In fact, the verb "ferret" refers to the way ferrets would "ferret" out the rats.
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There are rat poisons you can put out that make the body dessicate so it doesn't smell (the animal dies and dries up) - just be sure to put it where your own pets and children can't get to it. There are live animal traps for rats and mice. There are dead animal traps for rats and mice. There are exterminators. There are rat terriers, Irish setters, cats. LOADS of ways to get rid of rats and mice. Or you could hire the Pied Piper . . . or was it children he got rid of instead of rats??? Hmmm. You could flood your house - rats always leave a sinking ship, so I've heard. Getting silly here, guess I'll move on to another thread . . .
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posted
Well...let me see what I've done and how it compares...
I put out a waste basket with a stepladder of books piled up to it, with some stew beef in the bottom...the rat went in and got the meat and got out again...I put out a taller can with more beef, but the rat wouldn't go near it...
I got a small commercial humane trap and a large commercial humane trap, bated successively with stew meat, tunafish, and peanut butter...the rat triggered the large trap once but didn't go for any bait inside...the ants did, however...
Right now, I'm catless...the only one I could borrow from family members is rather elderly...
I won't be above using less-than-humane traps sometime soon, though...
posted
One I've heard of, which was tried by another writer and, to his surprise, worked, is as follows:
Put some peanut butter in one end of an empty paper towel core (you know, that cardboard tube). Balance that tube with the peanut butter OUT off the kitchen counter (or bedroom desk, or wherever you think the rat is) with a TALL trash can immediately below. The rat goes in, the tube falls off, and he lands in the trash.
If the rat is big enough, you might want to use a small mailing tube. I'd also think it would be useful to block the sides of the tube so it couldn't roll away from the trashcan before tipping. You might also want to cut it somewhat short, to keep the critter from using the tube to climb out of the trashcan.
In the case I heard of, the trap worked perfectly, but the cat (who had been useless previously) came to investigate the noise and knocked the trashcan over, letting the rat out again.
quote: Sunken ship, no sillier than a grease-coated jar. I'm still laughing about this one. Thanks, folks.
Just so you know, KayTi, that wasnt a joke (about the greased jar). It's actually a tried and true method. When I was growing up, on a Michigan farm, we caught plenty of rodents that way. I was usually given the job of disposing of them--and in a less than humane way.
Of course, that wouldn't work for a wharf-rat (which are indigenous to seaport towns in Maine), those get to be as large as small dogs.
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I had no idea a rat could crawl out of a toilet! How interesting.
I say cat. I've lived in the same house for years and had never seen any traces of a rat or other rodents. Until I got a cat, I am shocked to see all the little things he brings home, possums, mice, rats, even a frog once!
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My cousin, who has a cabin in a very rural setting, uses this technique: she takes a bucket of water (large bucket), runs a string straight through a pop can about 1/2 from the bottom, and ties the string tightly to the handles on both sides of the bucket. Then she smears peanut butter on the bottom of the pop can. Rats LOVE peanut butter. The rat climbs onto the string, makes it's way to the center, and as it grabs for the peanut butter, the pop can rotates under its weight and dumps it into the water. The rat can't climb the sides of the bucket and it drowns, or at least makes enough noise that you can come put a lid on the bucket and dispose of it as you see fit.
I am a big pacifist, and tried the humane trap thing when I saw a mouse in my house. It took two weeks to catch anything, and when I took the trap outside to release the mouse, I opened it up to find TWO mice in the trap. Too late, I realized that what I thought was one mouse scurrying back and forth was in fact, many mice. By the time you find one, you might have an entire infestation. I ended up going to the grocery store and buying D-con. I poisoned 11 mice before we were done. I had mouse poop running along the baseboards in every room in the house that I had to clean up... it was a mess. I don't fool around with humane traps anymore. I have an agreement with mice, spiders, and flies... if you want to live, you stay outside of the house.
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So far, the rat hasn't gone for any peanut butter we put out...we tried some lying around just to see if he'd go for it at all, but he didn't...right now we're trying a chunk of a Philly cheesesteak sandwich because it's (a) very pungent, (b) fresh, and (c) beef.
I suspect there may be a source of food somewhere in my clutter, but still haven't had time and energy to poke through it...
posted
Well I know that rats hate rock music. A couple days of Metallica and he'll be jumping back down into the toilet. (Whether this is a good idea or not depends on how close your neighbors are and how tolerant you are of rock music.)
I've seen a board that was thinned on both sides like this. (hopefully this renders properly.)
you put grease on the edge of the wide parts and put it on a bucket of water. (the water level shouldn't be high enough for the rat to get out.) The rat goes out on the edge and tips itself into the water. Don't know how well it actually works, but my ancestors swore by it.
[This message has been edited by Pyre Dynasty (edited January 22, 2008).]
[This message has been edited by Pyre Dynasty (edited January 22, 2008).]
[This message has been edited by Pyre Dynasty (edited January 22, 2008).]
posted
Read in a science column the other day that rats can tread water for as long as three days, and yes, they can climb out of toilets.
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quote:Well I know that rats hate rock music. A couple days of Metallica and he'll be jumping back down into the toilet.
BAhahaha, Pyre Dynasty, thanks for the laugh - I really needed that!
I have no useful advice, sorry (I could offer my own rat story, complete with baby, freaked-out mom, loafing brother, and a snap trap, but it ends badly (for the rat and the brother who had to deal with it; baby was oblivious)).
... and still giggling about chasing rats around with Metallica...
posted
Yes, rats love peanut butter and wharf rats can carry off small children.
We had rats out at the barn. They checky things would scurry out of the walls and eat the grain the horses were dropping while the horse and I were still standing there. This ticked me off. The other thing about rats is they are darned smart. Tried the human traps. Stinking rats got the peanut butter out without triggering the door. Tried the electrocution chamber one. Same problem, they took the peanut butter and didn't trigger the trap. Ended up giving up and using poision. 15 dead rats (at least was as many bodies as I had to cope with. I suspect there were closer to 30 rats) later. . . . no rats in the barn.
So, the best way to get rid of rats short of terriers is not very politically correct. And even the terriers aren't particularly politically correct.
Speaking of which, we HAD groundhogs when we moved into the farm. They are darned big. We also had two dogs (black lab and a malamute). The dogs were frightening to watch. One would stand by the top of the tunnel while the other went further down and dug into it. Once they had the poor groundhog bracketed between them, they would dig towards each other until they had him in the center. After they dug out a few, the rest, thankfully, moved on.
They couldn't get to the rats because thier invisible fence doesn't go out to the barn. But they would have dug them out too.
posted
For a story, consider aliens being infested by humans. the aliens cannot seem to get the human for one reason or another. It could be written from the point of view of the human, doing his stuff while avoiding being caught, and also from the point of view of the alien, trying to get rid of the human. One can have fun at how the human plays with the traps to get the food in it.
With mice, I read somewhere, and it seems to work, sometimes, to use peanut butter, but stick a cracker on top of it. The mouse has to gnaw at the cracker to get to the peanutbutter, which causes force on the trigger, catching the mouse.
I read somewhere, possibly about POWs, where rats seem to be able to breathe a while through their tails. ONe has to get the whole rat under the water to get them.
I heard about a bank that put traps into the cieling. the people heard a rat bumping the trap around for several days.
quote:where rats seem to be able to breathe a while through their tails
What?
Anyway, just wondering, why go the "capture" route instead of just killing it? A spring-loaded trap kills quickly and humanely, unlike glue traps that are usually ineffective and can take days to cause death. Poison can be bad if the rat dies somewhere in the house or if a cat gets it and eats it.
Just make sure you buy a large-enough trap and perpahps anchor it down with a nail just in case it doesn't catch right and the rat tries to drag it away.
We have "river rats" in West Virginia and they get quite large. Even the largest of river rats is no match for a strong trap though.
This is an interesting site I found with a quick Google search...
Some people set out traps unset but baited for a few days so the mice lose their caution around them. This also helps you see which bait your mice like. The spring-loaded bar swings down rapidly and with great force when anything, usually a mouse or a rat, touches the trip. The design is such that the mouse's neck or spinal cord will be broken, or its ribs or skull crushed, by the force of the bar. The force may be great enough to decapitate the rodent. Rats can easily escape from a mousetrap, so a larger version is used for them. Rather than having real bait, some newer spring mouse traps only have a plastic trigger made to look like a cartoonish piece of swiss cheese that is the color of American cheese. Since this false cheese has no smell or taste, most regretful buyers end up spreading peanut butter or other bait on the trigger.
[This message has been edited by KPKilburn (edited January 24, 2008).]
Or at least chased out. My parents were stalking it---something I would've done if I'd had been robbed of all energy by this wicked cold, and also didn't work nights. Anyway, it got out of my bedroom at some point (earlier in the week, or sometime earlier this night), went to cover behind some bookshelves...and, after a few hours and some moving of stuff, it went right out the front door. (My mother says a possum started to wander in the open front door, too.)
Now, once I've rested some, and rallied, and rid myself of this hacking cough, I've got to reorganize my moved books, and clean up in and around the bedroom.
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