Thought I had a mouse. A week ago I noticed the bag of bird seed I had in the garage had been chewed open right at the floor. In 20 years, that has never happened.

I set 6 mouse traps and some poison bait stations. Except for some sprung traps with nothing in them, nothing. I'd clean up the seed, reset the traps, and it happened again. Then again. So I've been setting up my game camera to find out what's going on. Went out to check the traps today. Nothing. A few minutes later, my camera snapped this picture.

So, I've retired the mouse traps. I cleaned the garage. Made sure no seed on the floor. Put the remaining seed in 5 gallon sealed buckets. And ringed the garage with 8 large glue traps with sunflower seeds in the middle, 4 large rap traps baited with cheese and peanut butter, 2 rat stations near when I think he's coming down from the open attic above. And poison rat baits strategically placed in the attic.

It's war. I can deal with a mouse. Not having a rat. He's got to go.

I use the big plastic TomCat rat traps.

They work flawless.

Yeah, Raccoons are bad at times. Rats the size of raccoons are worse.

And not one mention of a double barreled 12 gauge with one end of a string tied to the triggers, and the other end attached to a sticky trap.

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
I use the big plastic TomCat rat traps.

They work flawless.

I second that. I've caught 3 squirrels with them that were tearing the insulation off my truck's firewall. Also, I'd reconsider storing the seed in bags in your garage. Put them into a trash can or some other container that won't attract the rats. Think of the seed as bait -- so remove the bait.

I just picked up a case of .358 Winchester. I think I can take it with that.

If this rat survives all the shit I've put out for him, I don't know what I'm going to do next.

quote:

Originally posted by PKFan:

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
I use the big plastic TomCat rat traps.

They work flawless.

I second that. I've caught 3 squirrels with them that were tearing the insulation off my truck's firewall. Also, I'd reconsider storing the seed in bags in your garage. Put them into a trash can or some other container that won't attract the rats. Think of the seed as bait -- so remove the bait.

And that's exactly what I am doing. 8 large Tomcats are out baited with seed.

As far as moving the seed, I will do that. But it's sealed in buckets now, and it wasn't before. I got complacent because I never had problems in all the years I've lived here. But you can't be complacent in an area with rats. I live near marshland and marinas. My cat used to bring rats home all the time, but I never had one at my house.

There’s never just one rat.

One other strategy you might consider is to bait the traps but not set them for a couple of nights.

If you see the bait removed from the traps you know that the rat(s) are no longer "trap shy".

Then bait and set the traps as usual and hopefully that will do the job.

I hate rats.

Good Luck!

quote:

Originally posted by bcereuss:
There’s never just one rat.

That's a fear of mine. Even if I kill one, all the hardware and poison will remain. I'm just hopeful there is just one in the garage since this just started happening.

I get Palm Rats every year, there are 46 palm trees and 3 live oaks on my property and another 8 palms on the other side of the fence. They have successfully eaten 2 Wiring harnesses. Honda and BMW.

Besides my Female Aussie (she killed 46 last year) I went to the DIY professional grade chemical insect store and bought the poison baits. I put 10 pieces on a wire and hang them on the trees on the other side of the fence so the dogs don’t eat one

Rats. I worked for years as a electronic tech at large grain elevators across the country. Worked on weighing equipment and installing temp monitoring systems in the large grain silos. Preventive explosion system basically. Part of that required you to go into the tunnels underneath the silos to install thermocouples on the large pillow bearings that drove the conveyors. Those tunnels were dark, wet and full of rats. Big rats. These things feed on the best grain available their entire lives and there is a absolute endless supply available to them.

I got some rat stories that will curl you're toes.

Maybe a larger version of this idea.

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...0601935/m/8090081974

Burn it down, start over.

Yikes! I’m with wolfe

quote:

Originally posted by EZ_B:
One other strategy you might consider is to bait the traps but not set them for a couple of nights.

If you see the bait removed from the traps you know that the rat(s) are no longer "trap shy".

Then bait and set the traps as usual and hopefully that will do the job.

I hate rats.

Good Luck!

This is great advice. Rats are very nervous about anything new in their environment. Also you must eliminate any competing food source or they will just ignore the traps or rodenticide.

I made that mistake once.

Thought we had a mouse in our garage so I set out that sticky mouse trap paper.

Found the sticky paper with a 6” rat tail stuck to it with blood all over the garage.
The dang rat chewed his tail off to get away from the sticky paper.

When I was a kid and lived in Tampa, we had grove rats...the whole neighborhood was an old orange grove that had been built in the 30s...everyone had orange trees in their backyards...those guys were fairly big.

Then I joined the USCG and saw some Norway rats along piers....

Then I went to GITMO. They have banana rats...jeebus!

Years back when I stored a lot of grain in my barn I had rats, I would see them occasionally. I will give you a tip about setting rat traps. I learned this from experience. Secure the trap with a small chain of some sort. I lost two rat traps before I started doing that. Those buggers are tough. Use chain or metal wire as they can and will chew through fishing line..don't ask me how I know.

I would think the bucket trap I showed in another thread (linked above) would work OK for rats. I would raise the water level to six inches and keep the soap and anti-freeze.

Hey, you might even catch a mouse or two.

I feel for you Micropterus! Do I ever hate rats. You know I lived in my house more than 20 years a few mice here and there but no rats. But Dec was different, started seeing a Norway rat around outside, soon it was into my shop and it liked under the hood of my Corvette. I rtv silicone one of those TomCat bait blocks to the top of the battery. Next night half it was gone. 2nd night it was all gone thinking I got him. LOL... was I wrong it ate another one like it was a good warm up snack. It ate 4 of those TomCat bait blocks. It was still around my vette. Soon had traps all over the shop. 2 weeks I finally got him with a big rat size Kensizer Live Cage Trap with cardboard on the bottom and some crunchy peanut butter. That was one big ass rat. Did I say I hate rats.