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There's a large brown rat working its way through the husks and spillage around the bird feeders at Chez Lawman, and Mrs Lawman is getting a bit peeved at its antics.
We have two breakneck traps out in dark corners, and have tried baiting with various household foods - peanut butter, ripe cheese, bacon/leek/pasta sauce, salmon-flavoured dog food etc, all with no luck so far. I can't put them out in the open any more because a) the dogs will get at them and b) previously they've caught a dunnock, which wasn't the plan.
So what can the collective (sensibly please, although I acknowledge this might be a big ask...) recommend that a rat will find irresistible and hopefully fatal? More seeds and husks in the traps probably isn't going to cut it.
Have you left the traps alone for a week or two after setting them? They normally take a while to go near them.
Yeah, left well alone for several days both unloaded (ie to get him/it accustomed to it being apparently harmless) and subsequently loaded.
I have more patience than the other half, who wants it dealt with PDFQ
Catapult and wait for the rat to appear
Air rifle? With the caveat of can you actually shoot? Need a 1x shot
Lady rats? In a Bugs Bunny style?
Failing that, I've heard of one chap who works with a mink and lurcher combo to devastating effect.
We had a problem with rats - they were burrowing under the house and were in the wall space. We removed bird food overnight and filled in the burrows with steel wool, spray foam and instant concrete. We laid a couple of traps out mice would clean the bait without triggering them but Nutella was pretty well liked. Eventually the rats disappeared, but we did see a stoat doing his rounds in the garden the other day so can't be 100% sure whether a stoat is the solution.
Chocolate. Not sctrictly fatal, but they do like it.
My bro had a family in his garden, he had an air rifle and waited hours for each one to appear. Sent me the photos, like a ratty Vietnam it was.
What airgun for shooting rats?
Stardom. 😉
Nutella and chocolate are both good suggestions, thanks. Will keep those up my sleeve, metaphorically.
Sadly I don't have an airgun, nor do I know anyone with one to borrow, but have used one effectively for this very reason quite a few years ago. Can I shoot straight? I used to be rather handy with the old LeeEnfield .303 as a cadet at school. But I think one of those, even if I could source one now, is going to be a bit of a sledgehammer/nut situation. It might also upset the neighbours somewhat.
clean up all the mess, so there's nothing to eat, rats go bye bye
What airgun for shooting rats?
Dunno, I’m a rubbish shot, but both my brothers are killers. Older bro used to shoot birds out of the window when we were kids. Next door neighbour went bezerk when a sparrow landed at his feet once.
Bad boys.
The rat killer had a proper telescopic sight on it n everything.
Lure them into your kitchen. Then blast ub40 at it.
Offer them a place in Johnson's Cabinet. They'll be off to the big city in seconds.
Or just offer them a light airy place with a lot of food.
Don't tell the chaffinches though...
Buy/borrow a Jack Russell, most effective rat solution.
I wanna shoot the whole day down
Down, down, shoot it all down
I once caught a bothy rat in a mink cage using pepperami as bait.
montgomery
I once caught a bothy rat in a mink cage using pepperami as bait
Best Cluedo answer ever!
And I killed it by drowning...
Serious answer, get rid of the bird feeders.
Would the bucket trap above, be hazardous to squirrels?
clean up all the mess, so there’s nothing to eat, rats go bye bye
The feeders are over some loose stones/slate, so cleaning up beneath is a bit problematic. I realise that's a big part of the problem and that moving them over the patio would make that easier, but then we'd end up losing too many birds to the sparrowhawk that appears periodically.
I've stopped filling the feeders for the last few days in order to reduce the spillage temporarily, but I do feel rather conflicted about stopping feeding on account of the current cold conditions.
pepperami as bait
Good shout, sir. Saw that idea just as I was heading to the Co-op, so there's now a pack of Peperamis in waiting in the fridge. Will put a couple of loose pieces out later, on the groundbait principle.
Put the traps inside 100mm soil pipe.
Rats will feed more confidently in enclosed spaces. If you have put your traps in a run, tjey do tend to run past.
Peanut butter is pretty good bait, maybe your handling the traps too much and tainting them, wearr marigolds.
My trap was loaded with peanut butter and was sprung on the first evening. No rat though. Have put the trap inside our waste food bin. That must smell lovely.
A drainpipe.
Waves @ TSY, long time, no see.
In the past I've successfully baited traps with bread or American hard gums.
From memory it was bread for rats and hard gums for mice.
I only set traps when they were in the house. My rule is,within reason nature can do what it wants outside my doors, but come inside and it's open season. Except spiders, they're ok.
Well I doubt it would like this but it would be gone 😉
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Peanut butter smothered over chocolate caught me the one that ate through our dishwasher outlet and the one that ate a whole freezer in the cellar. The actual freezer. Not the contents of the freezer.
Get a snake or two. Oriental Rat snake, or cobras are good
Instant noodles are pretty good/bad. Had a rat come into my hut, chew through my £200 rucksack, and gnaw through a thick tupperware box just to get some . Mind you, it was an indochinese rat, so that may account for its sense of taste
You could skip to 2.30 but the whole story needs to be heard .
Small cubes of some sort of cheap tinned meat works well, spam or luncheon meat or simmilar.
Or a 50cal sniper rifle to take out the rat and the wall behind it.
Buy/borrow a Jack Russell, most effective rat solution.
This. Quick and effective. The rat barely knows what’s happened before he heads to the great big bird feeder in the sky.
Although we have a stray/visiting tom cat that we keep fed and fussed, in part for his tremendous ratting skills.
You'll hopefully be onto something with the pepparami as my anecdotal evidence of 1 was going to suggest pepporoni pizza or possibly some cured/smoked meats.
Lured the one out of my skirting in my last cottage that the cat had brought in some days earlier, regular occurence to have 'visitors' for a few days until the dumbass cat caught them again.
Plate with remains of pizza put on the floor whilst slobbing on the sofa, some time later I'm alerted to the little ****er dragging the last half slice off the plate.
Dunno, I’m a rubbish shot, but both my brothers are killers. Older bro used to shoot birds out of the window when we were kids. Next door neighbour went bezerk when a sparrow landed at his feet once.
Bad boys.
The rat killer had a proper telescopic sight on it n everything.
That's nothing. An ex friend at comp school locked 70 odd pigeons in a barn and murdered every single one of them with an over and under shotgun. It wasn't like Vietnam, it was like Hannibal Lecter.
Rats are just grey Squirrels with skinny tails...we all know the best way to dispatch them
Give them a trap to catch carrots with, then when the carrot population is under control let them find out for themselves it still has one shot remaining.
Lab rats are rather partial to condensed milk.
Wild ones, try whatever you are feeding your birds.
That’s nothing. An ex friend at comp school locked 70 odd pigeons in a barn and murdered every single one of them with an over and under shotgun. It wasn’t like Vietnam, it was like Hannibal Lecter.
A shotgun in a barn!? Questionable moral practice aside, the roofing bill after that must have been pretty substantial.
Peanut butter should lure it in. Expect the rat to go nuts in the cage before you shoot it; tried biting the end of air rifle which made the job a bit easier...
Robert Palmer? 😉