We’ve got a rat living under our deck, and catching this bastard has been a challenge (I’m aware that when you think you have one rat - it’s usually more).
We have a garden, and the neighbors have chickens so I’ve dealt with rats before, but I can usually eradicate a rat(s) without too much difficulty. We keep our BBQ grills clean, no bird feeders, no pet food accessible, trash cans covered and keep the landscaping maintained so as not make an inviting place for vermin. But, the neighbors chicken feed and our garden seem to be the reason we get some periodically.
In the past, at the first sign of a rat I put out a couple of snap traps with a dab of peanut butter and within a few days - I’ve killed all the rats. I‘ve put wire mesh around flower beds and the deck to prevent a rat from burrowing, but this rat has dug about 6 inches down underneath the wire.
So far I’ve been unable to catch this rat with snap traps, glue boards, 5 gallon bucket with a baited roller (rat steps on roller and falls into bucket and drowns), and even a Havahart live trap. I’ve gone as far as to boil traps to remove human scent and use gloves to set traps. Also, I’ve changed baits to ensure the rat hasn‘t associated the smell of particular baits with a trap, and allowed this bastard to eat the bait for a couple of days without setting the trap to get it used to eating the bait with no consequence.
I’m about out the of options. I have seen there’s a guy on YouTube that goes to dairy farms with minks and those minksare amazingly effective. *Google minks and rats and I guarantee you will be morbidly entertained watching this guy’s minks slaughtering rats. So, I’m down to putting out a poison bait station(Trying to avoid that), tearing up the deck, or buying my own minkto kill this rat.
This rat is outwitting me at every turn… Any ideas on what I can do?
Thanks in advance.
We have a garden, and the neighbors have chickens so I’ve dealt with rats before, but I can usually eradicate a rat(s) without too much difficulty. We keep our BBQ grills clean, no bird feeders, no pet food accessible, trash cans covered and keep the landscaping maintained so as not make an inviting place for vermin. But, the neighbors chicken feed and our garden seem to be the reason we get some periodically.
In the past, at the first sign of a rat I put out a couple of snap traps with a dab of peanut butter and within a few days - I’ve killed all the rats. I‘ve put wire mesh around flower beds and the deck to prevent a rat from burrowing, but this rat has dug about 6 inches down underneath the wire.
So far I’ve been unable to catch this rat with snap traps, glue boards, 5 gallon bucket with a baited roller (rat steps on roller and falls into bucket and drowns), and even a Havahart live trap. I’ve gone as far as to boil traps to remove human scent and use gloves to set traps. Also, I’ve changed baits to ensure the rat hasn‘t associated the smell of particular baits with a trap, and allowed this bastard to eat the bait for a couple of days without setting the trap to get it used to eating the bait with no consequence.
I’m about out the of options. I have seen there’s a guy on YouTube that goes to dairy farms with minks and those minksare amazingly effective. *Google minks and rats and I guarantee you will be morbidly entertained watching this guy’s minks slaughtering rats. So, I’m down to putting out a poison bait station(Trying to avoid that), tearing up the deck, or buying my own minkto kill this rat.
This rat is outwitting me at every turn… Any ideas on what I can do?
Thanks in advance.
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