Rat Trap Recommendation: 24/7 Type Trap for Prevention

EricW

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My first post, but I been lurking for awhile. Then registered and still lurked lol. I try to search most everything, so maybe I missed this.

I am curious what you are doing on rat traps for prevention and recommendations on best trap you use? This is about putting traps out before they are in the area to get them when they arrive vs. combating them when they are present.

I do get rats from time to time, I have dispatched them via BB gun, traps, and my Russell Terrier. Usually, I see their scat and and then go on the "hunt." However, I prefer to get them as soon as possible and hopefully get them before I notice they are here. I been thinking of going down the route of electric shock traps, but they are baited. Concerned baiting will become an attractant, plus fire ants or other ants would more than likely get it before the rats do over a prolonged period of time.

I have thought that since rats run edges and will run into holes/tight spaces, I'd just leave electric shock traps un-baited. The thought (hope), they would just run in it and get zapped.

At any rate, looking to see what you all do as a rat preventative. This is for outdoor application.

Thank you!
 

wellington

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I'm fighting rats around my chicken coop and in my tort shed. I use the walk the plank bucket trap and the electric ones and the poison that sits in the bait box.
I'm not having luck at all. I catch a mouse or two but no rats yet. Been fighting them since last year. Never had them here until then.
My electric traps are baited and still nothing. Not sure an unbaited one would work.
 

DoubleD1996!

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Rats are pretty intelligent and are capable of teaching each other and learning. Once one of them get in a trap they spread the word. I had one on the property this year that somehow got in my box turtles enclosure and bit three of them. I set humane traps, knowing the others wouldn't work, but the door got caught on a stick. My dogs actually managed to take care of it in the end. The green Tom cat poison blocks has worked in the past.
 

EricW

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Rats are pretty intelligent and are capable of teaching each other and learning. Once one of them get in a trap they spread the word. I had one on the property this year that somehow got in my box turtles enclosure and bit three of them. I set humane traps, knowing the others wouldn't work, but the door got caught on a stick. My dogs actually managed to take care of it in the end. The green Tom cat poison blocks has worked in the past.
The green Tom Cat poison works for me reliably, but would like to move away from the poison if possible. Sure does last and nothing else eats it like the ants. Agree, rats are intelligent. They can be a challenge. Luckily they are dumb enough, especially when new to a property compared to established. Rats that have been able to settle in can sure be a challenge. Challenge I have with some neighbors is when they get rats, the prefer to put out mothballs instead of trap them. So the moth balls just deter them to other places like my yard. My yard is very appealing as well since I have lots of food for them (insects, berries, fruit, etc.).
 

EricW

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I'm fighting rats around my chicken coop and in my tort shed. I use the walk the plank bucket trap and the electric ones and the poison that sits in the bait box.
I'm not having luck at all. I catch a mouse or two but no rats yet. Been fighting them since last year. Never had them here until then.
My electric traps are baited and still nothing. Not sure an unbaited one would work.
Need you some night vision and a good air rifle, sniper time =). Have you seen the video's of Minks being used to hunt rats? Search it on YouTube.
 

wellington

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Need you some night vision and a good air rifle, sniper time =). Have you seen the video's of Minks being used to hunt rats? Search it on YouTube.
Funny you mention minks. Our local news this morning just had a story on a guy that has minks as pets. They mentioned that minks are good rat hunters.
I never knew that.
 

EricW

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Funny you mention minks. Our local news this morning just had a story on a guy that has minks as pets. They mentioned that minks are good rat hunters.
I never knew that.
Yes they are. They are essentially a feline/snake hybrid lol. Vicious and a hunter like a cat, snake like in that they can "slither" around and get into anywhere that the rats can go essentially.
 

wellington

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They look like a ferret. Which I think ferrets can probably do the same thing but they just don't lol
 

Tom

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The green Tom cat poison blocks has worked in the past.
The green Tom Cat poison works for me reliably,...
Poisons make your problem worse. Far worse. Most people see an immediate reduction in their rodent problem when they first use poison, but you are also incidentally poisoning, and killing, the local predators of the rodents you wish to eradicate. When the rodent population recovers, and it WILL recover, there will be no predators to keep their numbers down, and you will get a terrible rebound.

One owl will eat 30 mice every night. Imagine how many mice survive and breed in the absence of just one owl. Imagine two owls and a nest of growing babies... They eat a LOT of rodents.
 

Tom

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My first post, but I been lurking for awhile. Then registered and still lurked lol. I try to search most everything, so maybe I missed this.

I am curious what you are doing on rat traps for prevention and recommendations on best trap you use? This is about putting traps out before they are in the area to get them when they arrive vs. combating them when they are present.

I do get rats from time to time, I have dispatched them via BB gun, traps, and my Russell Terrier. Usually, I see their scat and and then go on the "hunt." However, I prefer to get them as soon as possible and hopefully get them before I notice they are here. I been thinking of going down the route of electric shock traps, but they are baited. Concerned baiting will become an attractant, plus fire ants or other ants would more than likely get it before the rats do over a prolonged period of time.

I have thought that since rats run edges and will run into holes/tight spaces, I'd just leave electric shock traps un-baited. The thought (hope), they would just run in it and get zapped.

At any rate, looking to see what you all do as a rat preventative. This is for outdoor application.

Thank you!
You've got everything covered. My parents are using the electric traps at their place and love them.

I find that the best method is using all methods and just being creative and trying to outsmart them.

Also, put up an owl box. Owls positively destroy rodent populations.
 

ZEROPILOT

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I saw a rat trap on Youtube that was a five gallon bucket half filled with water with a sheet of wax paper duct taped over the top of it. The wax paper had a smear of peanut butter on it and had a slit it it in the shape of an X. Placed against a wall or a post for climbing.
I set one up and caught 3 rats in just one night. But 2 were still alive the next day. I stopped using it. But it works great! Trapping them is one thing. Killing them is another.
I can't use Poison because my RF tortoises will eat dead rats. The Snap traps work ok. But it seems like the rats learn not to trust them.
They're very difficult to control.
I just stopped leaving items in my tortoises enclosures that rats would be drawn to. Like Mazuri. And it has helped
 

EricW

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You've got everything covered. My parents are using the electric traps at their place and love them.

I find that the best method is using all methods and just being creative and trying to outsmart them.

Also, put up an owl box. Owls positively destroy rodent populations.
I would love to put up an owl box, but neighborhood is a new development. We lack mature trees. Owls do come through though. I have seen them.
 

Tom

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I saw a rat trap on Youtube that was a five gallon bucket half filled with water with a sheet of wax paper duct taped over the top of it. The wax paper had a smear of peanut butter on it and had a slit it it in the shape of an X. Placed against a wall or a post for climbing.
I set one up and caught 3 rats in just one night. But 2 were still alive the next day. I stopped using it. But it works great! Trapping them is one thing. Killing them is another.
I can't use Poison because my RF tortoises will eat dead rats. The Snap traps work ok. But it seems like the rats learn not to trust them.
They're very difficult to control.
I just stopped leaving items in my tortoises enclosures that rats would be drawn to. Like Mazuri. And it has helped
I think of images like that poor chewed up RF the other day, and I don't mind killing every rat I can catch on my ranch.
 

OliveW

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We have lots of owls here and have never seen a rat.

Wouldn't minks be dangerous to tortoises, just as a rat would?
 

EricW

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We have lots of owls here and have never seen a rat.

Wouldn't minks be dangerous to tortoises, just as a rat would?
Just bring in the mink's to get the rats. They are highly trainable. They are a threat to chickens too, but the folks that use them for hunting are able to go around chicken coups and keep the minks on the rats.
 

Maggie3fan

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I live on the edge of a grass seed field. Almost 17 years now and I have given up...I have skunks, voles, mice, rats, possums, raccoons, foxes, mountain lions, deer and turkey buzzards. I put all my chelonia away every night. I have given up on poison traps, and live traps and no traps, but the dead or removed pests are simply replaced by others. So I quit pestering them and they stopped destroying my property. Possums chase and eat the rats, and now the possums live under my house instead of rats. Now we are all living together in harmony...or at least they stopped bugging me...100_2897.JPG
 

OliveW

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@maggie3fan we have LOTS of possums, they breed every year and the babies are just the most adorable! 😘 I didn't realize they chased rats away, maybe that's why we've never had any despite living in the middle of the woods.

We haven't been able to leave our doggy door open for over a decade because I'm worried about my dogs going out and killing the possums that nib around for cat food at night. The raccoon can hold their own, but I want to keep the possum population high.
 

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