Rats!

[Vermonster]

My wife and I have a rat hanging out in the barn, and unfortunately it's borrowing under the stall mats and causing some wavy floor issues. We may just pour concrete floors in there later this year to avoid this in the future, but we are not ready for that solution quite yet. I have tried to catch the rat in a have-a-heart trap for the past three nights, and I have a blink camera on the trap which allows me to check it.

Night 1: Peanut butter & bird seed = nothing.
Night 2: Peanut butter & more bird seed = nothing...but something dug under it and ate most the bird seed.
Night 3: Strawberries, peanut butter & bird seed: = SKUNK! Shat! I saw the trap was closed on the camera, but could not see what was in it. To make things more difficult, I was heading to work wearing a good suit...but I gambled as I feel pretty comfortable around wild animals. I approached the trap and told him I was going to let him go (because he clearly understand English) and I picked it up walking him away where he scurried off without incident. I noticed it had a plastic "dipping sauce" type of container around his neck, but I didn't go for trying to take that off - sorry Sea World. Maybe next time, as I was pretty ill prepared - I didn't even have a tarp to put over it.

So tonight I will lay out the trap with the same type of arrangement, but I will place the trap right in front of the rat's hole. Last time I was just near it. That might improve the odds. Any bait suggestions?

As an aside, I do also have snap traps / rat shot and while I don't mind killing one of these, I would rather move him elsewhere (miles away).

 

[911Tremor]

Skunk! Yikes!
I’ve found adding sunflower seeds to the PB helps if I need to take care of a rat at my cabin. But that might be a locale scenario versus yours?
Best of luck!

 

[Modman]

We have one of those traps for racoons and groundhogs and it seems like more of a deterrent. Put it out and they go away, almost like they know what it is!

I use peanut butter in the trap-door bucket traps for mice and it works well - caught five in one go one time. Those are a kill-type trap, though...

Your Vermont wilderness rats are probably too big for those:

 

[Donnie With A Dee]

SHOTGUN! You tried to be nice.

 

[overland]

I watched a documentary on this. Apparently what rats really like is French food, because they enjoy cooking. So fill the trap with a good Bordeaux, chateaubriand, and maybe some nice roasted potatoes. If that doesn't work, then call me and I'll come over and eat the food, and when the rat pops his head up, I'll bonk him with the wine bottle.

 

[Vermonster]

You guys are awesome!

Maybe I will make a bird seed (sunflower seed) peanut butter ball. We don't want to use poisen due to all the epic critters we love to watch around here (owls, hawks, fox, etc..)

I do use a 5 gal pale inside the house, and that's a mouse catcher, by far. This boy is pretty big.

 

[Vermonster]

Here is Zhe French Chef. Lol The bottom boards of the barn are 4X4s - so not overly massive - not Splinter from Ninja Turtles.

 

[HeavyAssault]

Tie a string on the trap latching mechanism. AFG mice/rats would get by the ol' snap traps till they got greedy wanting that string.

 

[thatdood]

Rat snakes should take care of the issue

 

[Vermonster]

On tonight’s episode of rat catcher. Peanuts and marshmallows. My son’s idea.

 

[gmoon]

I have some friends out east (Maine and NY) that deal with them a lot on their cabin properties. Apparently, the whole peppermint deterrent does actually work.
This trap is super cool because it can kill a million of them before it runs out of CO2, so one trap doesnt just equal one kill. I also like that they just die in place and some other critter can come pick them up (coyote, hawks, etc).

https://www.automatictrap.com/

 

[Optimus]

Rat bastard!

In Vegas, once we find the rat we just bury them in the desert. Some of them have popped up at Lake Mead.

 

[VB!]

Rat terrier and cats. Every other solution is just temporary.

 

[Vermonster]

I have some friends out east (Maine and NY) that deal with them a lot on their cabin properties. Apparently, the whole peppermint deterrent does actually work.
This trap is super cool because it can kill a million of them before it runs out of CO2, so one trap doesnt just equal one kill. I also like that they just die in place and some other critter can come pick them up (coyote, hawks, etc).

https://www.automatictrap.com/

View attachment 149105

Damn! That’s a beast! I may buy one.

 

[TRAMPER]

I have some friends out east (Maine and NY) that deal with them a lot on their cabin properties. Apparently, the whole peppermint deterrent does actually work.
This trap is super cool because it can kill a million of them before it runs out of CO2, so one trap doesnt just equal one kill. I also like that they just die in place and some other critter can come pick them up (coyote, hawks, etc).

https://www.automatictrap.com/

View attachment 149105

Holy shit I am definitely buying one of those!!!! I run a “trap line” outside my house to keep mice at bay and from getting into our vehicles. Come fall I am swapping and resetting at least two a day. This thing is bonkers and so much better I love it! Seriously I’m buying one.

 

[Potato Wilson]

For rats I use a slice or small chunk of apple. With victor snap traps I use a bread bag wire tie to secure the apple to the trigger, works awesome. For the havahart traps I put the apple in a magnetic spring clip and stick it to the trigger, also works great. But I don’t take them down the road and let them go, I throw the whole thing in a barrel of water . I friggin hate rats! Sometimes I load the revolver with .38 CCI shotshells and go into the henhouse with a streamlight and just start blasting them, good fun actually!

 

[Potato Wilson]

Also trap location is important. Rats and mice like dark passageways at the corner of the room. Try leaning a piece of wood against the wall over the trap to make it like a tunnel. But they’re wary, it might take a few days for them to get up the nerve to check out something new in the space.

 

[Jnelli]

Rat snakes should take care of the issue

But then he would have to burn the barn down to get rid of the snakes!

 

[Jnelli]

A fun Saturday night waiting for rats!

 

[overland]

There’s only one team that can handle this…