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bryan_needs_help

Rats-The home invasion-plz help

bryan_needs_help
17 years ago

First, Let me say. If this is the wrong place for this I apoligize. The forums here are quite extensive.

Recently rats have become an issue in our house. To the fact that i've removed 2 with my bb gun. I wouldnt say its an infestation..in both cases my dog has been better then the cats here..she lets me know when they are in the house..and she wont stop till she catches it or i do something about it. Usaully this entails ripping something apart. yesterday i had to remove the dishwasher so i could get under the cabinet to shoot it. The time before, the heater in my kids room. Now, I live in an old house, with a stone foundation. I cant imagine a really effective way of stopping them from getting in for that reason. We believe they are living under the garage were garbage used to be placed to be removed. This however has been changed and they now have no source of food. Cold weather..so on..now moving in the house. I certainly dont have the resources to have them professionally removed, if thats even a possible thing. what im looking for is, other than food...what is it that draws them in...and is there an effective way of trapping them, say, in my basement, from where i believe they are entering my home. I been doin some reading about bucket traps..are they worth the effort..they seem like an inexpensive way of trapping them. Ive read that only young rats, the older "smarter" rat wont fall for it. I appreciate any help in this... Bryan

Comments (16)

  • bryan_needs_help
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    Just to clarify... they measure 10inches nose to tail tip..maybe 12"

  • superhank
    17 years ago

    In Western NC they are called wolf rats. Buy the big spring loaded rat traps use peanut butter. They are not breeding now but will start soon so you want to put the pressure on. Listen whre they they are using if on a wood or linoleum floor. Put the traps next to the base board. They will find them. Keep them baited and check early they will some times spring but not catch the rat. With a dog around I would think hard about poison, Go out side and put hardware cloth at any entrance. Put expandable foam in small access point. You are correct about keeping food unavailable. Stay with it until you don't see droppings and the dog doesn't bark. If you can get into the basement turn the lights off in the day time and look for light leaks. It took a week but we got them gone 2 years ago.

  • Maggie_J
    17 years ago

    I posted on this topic recently... Scroll down a bit and read "Winning the War on Rats."

    I hate using either poison or snap traps because of our cat indoors and the chickens outdoors. The bucket trap might have worked but it froze. The good news is that we have live trapped six rats in the past week or so and the noises have stopped. I like the Have-a-Heart trap because it poses no risk to other animals. Just be sure the wire in the model you choose is small enough to contain the captives. Rats can get through a hole the size of a quarter. I dispatch them with a pellet gun at point-blank range while they are still in the trap.

  • Miss_Kitty
    17 years ago

    There is supposed to be a way to "poison" rats without actually using a chemical.

    Get the mashed potato buds, they expand quickly, and supposedly the rats can't throw up. Won't harm the dog. We use a similar thing for roaches: half powdered sugar half baking soda. I got used to finding "popped" roaches.

    Good luck
    Kitty

  • Dibbit
    17 years ago

    Also, if you want to try the Havaheart traps for little outlay, the local animal control or humane society might well have some to lend you. I know they did it for my brother who had 'possum problems in Polk County NC.

  • bryan_needs_help
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    thank you all...im going to give the havahart trap a go. As soon as i figure out which one to get. So many CHOICES for a damn rat. lol thank you all again Bryan

  • swvirginia
    17 years ago

    Here is a link that may be helpful:

    http://www.acmehowto.com/howto/pest/rats2.php

  • bulldinkie
    17 years ago

    Get yourself a jack russell thats what they were originally bred for you would be amazed great little dogs.Mine gets groundhogs some bigger than her.

  • Miss_Kitty
    17 years ago

    Today while I was cleaning out the chicken pen, I flushed three wood rats - my jack russel got one, barely missed the second one. Dead it was probably 8 inches long, not counting the tail! And it was HEAVY!

    My dog spent the next couple of hours digging out tunnels and generally sniffing them out. I think he will be ignoring the chickens in favor rat hunting for the next few weeks. They had extensive tunnels under the straw. I removed all the straw, it will not go back in. I'm going to use just sawdust so the dog will have a better chance at the other two rats.

    And btw there is a jack russel rescue network you can find on the link below. Lots of little rat catchers waiting for gainful employment. Don't know what the adoption fees are, but there are a heck of alot of them.

    Most are nutered, or spade, have all shots, are micro-chipped and some are already house broken. I signed up for a dog with the idea of having a pair of ratters for the barn, and lap dogs for the house in one package.

    With ours I really think he would be a great farm dog if he would leave the ducklings alone. We got started too late for that to change. If only he would HERD the ducks instead of SCATTERING the ducks.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Jack Russel Terrier home page

  • bulldinkie
    17 years ago

    They are great little,loving dogs.Mine is our 4 legged child Lol.We always had retrievers 4 already I thught that was the best dog but this russell has so much personality,she doesnt bother our animals.She gathers chickens up at night.If they arent in house shell get them in.so glad we got her.shes a great help on the farm.smart too.,Were thinking of getting another.My lab is 15 and in bad shape.

  • goodhors
    17 years ago

    Be aware that Jack Russells are No-Quit when it comes to being persistant. This will include both poor behaviour as well as rat killing. When a JR gets his mind set on something, you have a VERY hard time changing it. They are bred this way, what the breed is made to do. Folks often only see the cute face, not the devious mind of a killer, behind it.

    Terriers, big or small are bred to be varmint killers, no backing down, no matter how big or hard the varmints fight back. This mindset can make for a hard-to-live-with dog as a pet. They are often disobedient, get into things, just like to rip stuff up. They can be quite affectionate, but do have a "Dark Side." Know this before you get one for keeps. Maybe you could borrow one for a while?

    We see a lot of JRs in the pound, Humane Society, because folks can't deal with the non-stop busy-ness of a real working dog. They need jobs, can be quite destructive when expected to only be a pillow decoration.

    Another small varmint dog is a Dachshund. Hard to believe, but they can be EXCELLENT mice and rat dogs as well. Tough as nails in a fight. We have local Rat Terrier breeders, who sell a small black and white dog, smaller than JR. Supposed to be really good on barn rats, not quite as agressive or busy as the JRs. Not an AKC breed, but I do see them in lots of places. Happy owners seem to be mostly older folks. Kind of too sensitive for children, like bitty dogs can be.

    The rat suggestions given are good. Practice feeding them without setting traps, then set them. They get used to trap as food source, not harmful.

    I HATE rats!! Just creep me out, so I work hard at not attracting them. Keep things cleaned up, no places to hide. No spilled feed. Good luck with removal.

  • bulldinkie
    17 years ago

    Vet told me A jack russell is either very sweet,loving or nasty no in between.Weve had ours shell be 4 April,she knows what she can do and not.I fully trust laving her in our home alone never came home found anything destroyed,we have chickens we raise swans,cats she sits with the one cat in the yard theyre buddies,she rounds cgickens up at night.she hunts groundhogs,mice etc but she knows what to get and what not.Ive had her since she was born.Maybe that helped.But we have nothing to complain about..shes great.

  • nallie
    15 years ago

    I have a Jack Russell , and I got him from a shelter he is very lovable and is a quite dog, it depends on the breeding parents how the temperament is going to be.

  • velvet_sparrow
    15 years ago

    Our local city rat control guy gave us this never-miss technique: Get a spring-loaded, snap-type rat trap, some CREAMY peanut butter, a bit of wire (bread ties work great) and a cotton ball.

    Remove any other source of food.

    Tear off a chunk of the cotton ball that is about as big as the end of your thumb (or smaller), and massage a SMALL amount of the creamy peanut butter into it--just enough to moisten the cotton, NOT grease the thing all up. You don't want the rats to be able to lick the peanut butter off of the cotton (this is also why you DON'T use chunky peanut butter). Use the wire or bread tie to WIRE the readied cotton ball onto the bait area of the trap--this is so they can't just sneak the bait off of the trap.

    The idea is that they'll HAVE to grab the bait with their teeth, jar the trap and spend that microsecond in harm's way--it works. :)

    It's never failed for us.

    Velvet ~:>

  • runningtrails
    15 years ago

    Have you considered a boa constrictor for rat removal? They're quiet and non destructive?

  • julio01
    15 years ago

    Hello,

    I used a live Havaheart trap, caught about 6 rats over a few months using cheese just placed on the platform, but then started finding the trap set off and bait missing. So I tried the cotton ball with peanut butter smeared on it tied to the platform and was still losing bait and finding the Havaheart with its door closed.

    I couldn't understand how rats could get the bait, set the trap off, and escape until I added a couple of rat snap traps nearby baited with peanut butter.

    I then caught three small mice with the rat snap trap. The mice were the ones that apparently set off the Havaheart and then stole the bait. They could escape through the holes in the wire mesh in the Havaheart that were too small for the rats.

    Next I baited the Havaheart with an unshelled peanut tied to the platform with a twist tie, and without the mice around I started catching rats again. I've caught two with the peanut in the Havaheart. I also had a couple of glue traps and a live mouse trap in the same area and never caught anything on them.

    So try the snap traps and the Havaheart. The glue traps don't seem to work and for some reason the rats go for the Havahert with a peanut and bypass the rat snap trap that's two feet away, while the mice like the rat snap traps with peanut butter.

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