Best rat traps?

[catembi]

We have a problem with rats. They are living under the decking around the house, which is near the stables. We are going to have all the decking pulled up & redone with wire mesh, properly buried, to stop them getting under it again, but in the meantime I need to get rid. I have tried the snap traps, baited with peanut butter, baited with chocolate spread - only caught a couple of mice. I don't really want to use poison in case the dogs were to somehow come across a poisoned rat. My stable hygiene is as good as it can be - all food kept in rat proof bins & everything kept tidy. I am not sure what to try next. All suggestions appreciated. The decking is going to be fixed asap, but it's tricky with tradesmen atm & I really hate rats.

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

I've had pretty good success with the rat snap traps baited the same as you Catembi, smeared onto a little bit of biscuit. In dire straits I've also used the glue pads, not pleasant but I was desperate! Still ended up bashing 2 with a spade, as were firmly trapped but stuck..... revolting to use tho.

 

[catembi]

I am not sure I could use the glue pads! My ex used them at my old house once & they caught a v cute little mouse who had just sat there & died, & I cried about it! Perhaps a bit of biscuit is the way forward...

 

[cremedemonthe]

I've tried the snap traps, same as you mice only, tried flushing the holes out with a hosepipe, some success in disturbing them so much they sod off, terriers are good , if I have time will use an old chainsaw engine with added oil to make it smokey, shove a pipe down the holes, that will flush them all out. I have an air rifle too, best thing is to find their source of food and remove it, I have lifted my hens feeds up off the floor in the evenings, that's helped and I cover any remaining up over night.
There is an electric trap I have seen, delivers so many thousand volts and kills them dead, maybe my next option.
Oz

 

[HappyHollyDays]

Get a professional rat catcher in Cat. They should bury poison using long blue pipe and block off all escape holes and the rats have to eat their way out. I had them in a few years ago as home remedies just weren’t working and they were in my loft. I think it cost £100 and worth every penny because for every pair of breeding rats in one season they will produce 2000 new rats. That was enough for me to get the pros out ?

 

[Honey08]

The glue traps are absolutely disgusting. Why did your awful ex let a mouse sit there and die?? Why not put it out of its misery? Anyone cruel enough to use one of those things should at least have the decency to check it at least once a day and dispatch anything stuck. (sorry but reading that made me angry!)

The spring traps are good if you could get something tempting enough to put on it. Our local gamekeeper used to put them in tunnels he’d made out of bricks. The rats were attracted to the tunnels too.

we had a real rat problem, and even a pro pest control couldn’t catch them (didn’t want to risk poisoning as we had cats and hens). Shooting at night worked a bit. The only thing that got rid of them was actually regaining the hens. The rats left within a week. You have to work out the food source for them. May not even be on your property- could be a neighbour’s.

 

[catembi]

The glue trap caught a mouse overnight, i.e. between evening stables & morning stables. He did actually work in pest control for a bit & explained that they die easily because...I forget. They need to eat all the time? The trap was in the tack room so v checkable.

I think they are eating horse poo. I saw one last night eating a poo on the drive & one was eating a poo on the field. It is all picked up 2 x day & is taken off the property weekly.

 

[MagicMelon]

Glue traps sound absolutely disgraceful, how cruel.

I have used humane rat traps whenever Ive had an issue, one night I caught SIX of them all squashed into the same trap! They're the wire mesh traps (pretty big) with a funnel type entrance, you put food in, they crawl in but then cant get back out. Then I simply drive to the middle of nowhere and release them. Very humane. Please do not wack them with a spade or use poison or glue traps, awful.

I've had pet rats in the past and they're very intelligent and actually really sweet things (obviously not the wild ones but they certainly are amazing little things that dont deserve to be killed just because they're an inconvenience).

 

[catembi]

Thank you, MM. I really don't want to kill them. I hate killing anything & always try to avoid it, but can't be overrun with rats until I get my decking fixed. I have been v conflicted over this.

 

[Equi]

I have no issue with quickly killing rats, mice etc but definitely would never consider glue or poison. If you are taking out the decking anyway, just take it out and things may happen naturally. They won't have anywhere to hide so will disperse if you have nowhere else for them to safely hide. Cats and terriers really are a god send when there is rats about...i have never once seen a rat here and i have a river right by me and i can't pretend i have the greatest food security lol but i always have 2 cats or more (4 now!!) and my staffy was a great mouser so i assume any ratty bastwats would not even have dared.

 

[Quigleyandme]

I had rats in the wall cavity of my weatherboard Queenslander in Australia and reported to the council. A few days later a man turned up with five terriers of questionable pedigree. All had bits of ear, face and hide missing and were straining at the leash and barking their heads off they were so desperate to get to work. They were dropped down manhole covers and shoved into the railway embankment retaining walls and would emerge elsewhere and found all the rat runs. Never had an issue again.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

A terrier man with ferrets as well, sorted our problem out. Then we gave our last hen to a neighbour and she took any rats with her. Even though their hen house is very near to our yard wall, we haven't seen any since but have seen mice occasionally..

 

[Bearsmum]

Rats are the one animal I will kill, hate them with a passion, though everything else I try to relocate - even put mole spikes in the allotment to try to persuade them to move into the field next door, I think it stems from mucking out as a child, I dropped the pitch fork, bent down to pick it up & one ran over my hand, 40 years later it still makes me shiver.
Have you looked into the 'rat pack' I think they are Norfolk based but may travel your way; a group of very keen terrier killing machines, there was a thread on here a few weeks ago, they have a face book page & certainly look a effective crew.

 

[irishdraft]

Terriers are your best bet not sure whete you are but there are various people with sealyhams who do this.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

Rats have to be the only animals I will willingly kill and only because they breed so fast and do so much damage, also carry disease. I used to keep doves in a big shed and ended up having to chicken wire all the inside to stop a rat getting in. They killed three of my doves which really upset me.

 

[Jill's Gym Karma]

I've never seen terriers in action, but have heard about how efficient they are when it comes to a rat massacre. We forget dogs used to be bred for specific jobs! They're good at their job and they love it.

I have to say, whenever I see decking on a house I think "RATS".

 

[MyBoyChe]

Weve been inundated this year, like you under the decking outside the house. They were coming from the allotments, through our neighbour one side, then under our decking, under the shed and into the other neighbour. I used some hard core bait down a funnel and under the shed out of harms way but obviously you dont know if it works. I was still seeing loads so resorted to snap traps, over the course of a month or so I must have caught about 20!! Caught an odd one or two since but the plague seems to have abated. They definitely seemed to be the most effective

 

[Griffin]

Decking is the perfect place for rats to hide unfortunately. If you can remove the decking, I would and you'll probably find they move on.

I try to resist killing anything and definitely wouldn't use traps (glue or otherwise) or poison. I have had success with humane traps with mice, where you release them but they need checking very regularly.

In a stables/farm environment, I would do everything you can to remove food sources and make sure they cannot get access to water either. People remove their food but forget they need water to survive too.

Feral/FIV cats can help with keeping the population down, so they might be an option. Otherwise, if you can get someone with terriers to come and let them have a run round, they often send rats packing.

 

[MyBoyChe]

Feral/FIV cats can help with keeping the population down, so they might be an option. Otherwise, if you can get someone with terriers to come and let them have a run round, they often send rats packing.

Unless you have a wimp of a jrt like mine, he refuses to even consider going in after a rat. He huffs and puffs a lot and looks all important, but when actually faced with being a hero, he cant do it

 

[Bearsmum]

https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/...-farm-of-rat-infestation.784788/post-14182496

here's the post I was looking for, hope this works

 

[Blazingsaddles]

I had rats in the wall cavity of my weatherboard Queenslander in Australia and reported to the council. A few days later a man turned up with five terriers of questionable pedigree. All had bits of ear, face and hide missing and were straining at the leash and barking their heads off they were so desperate to get to work. They were dropped down manhole covers and shoved into the railway embankment retaining walls and would emerge elsewhere and found all the rat runs. Never had an issue again.

I agree. I love rats (owned many fancy rats) but understand the issues wild rats cause. A good ratting dog will soon diminish numbers and it will be a very quick death for the rat.