Calling Animal Experts - Is this a rat footprint?

[hcoles]

I've been hearing some noises near the bathtub in the hall bath. I put out some sticky pad types traps out in the garage because I saw some droppings months ago. The other day I got a "hit". Whatever got stuck got away with what looked like considerable effort and hair loss. The pad was moved 15 feet and bent up a bit - included some bite marks. I put down a new sticky mat along with a trap this time and got this footprint. Is this a mouse/rat/?. I don't know why he got out so easy this time. Note: quarter pictured for scale.

[Arizona_928]

I would say rodent.
Rat water feeder filled with antifreeze.
Your nose will help you sniff them out....

Now where's that green font

[john70t]

Looks like it. But could it be geckos or another small critter?

https://www.rentokil.co.uk/rats/signs-of-rats/
"To establish if an infestation is active, sprinkle fine flour or talc in the area near the footprints and check for fresh tracks the next day."

Push some steel wool into any perimeter cracks.
They won't chew through that.

[hcoles]

Sprinkling powder down is a good idea. Googling comes up with a rat front footprint. I hope he isn't eating Porsche wiring harness. I better see if the car starts.

[stevej37]

This stuff...also comes in bars

[CalE]

Originally Posted by hcoles

Sprinkling powder down is a good idea. Googling comes up with a rat front footprint. I hope he isn't eating Porsche wiring harness. I better see if the car starts.

Rats love Porsches, (ask me how I know ) Go and buy a half dozen Large Rat traps old school type with wood base and springloaded bar and use only walnut meats for bait can't miss It's War!! Good Rat poison is hard to find in California with all the new regs. Good luck.

[fintstone]

That would be a massive rat. Looks more like a cat (due to size and no nails).

[aigel]

Rat or mouse, indeed. It is raining like crazy, so they look for refuge. I would not use poison, it may kill a cat that would otherwise be welcome help.

I have always gotten them with traps, classic ones or the saw toothed polymer jobs. Peanut butter smeared on the trigger makes it tough for them to pull / run off.

I had one in the garage in LA. The rat was quite fast, so the trap merely hit it in the head. It passed out next to the trap for a while, leaving a large pool of blood and its silhouette. Then it was gone, fading footprints .... until I could smell it a few weeks later ... the dog pointed out it was in the 993. Rear area. I looked all over the car, jacked it sky high and the dog and I were looking, smelling, using a mirror etc,and finally found it on top of the transmission. Pulled it out with a coat hanger. It had worms coming out of every orifice and was almost liquid, breaking apart in a pile of fur, slime and worms. It stunk so bad, it was really disgusting. I cleaned it as good as I could and even though it was just sitting on top of the aluminum housing, the faint sweet smell of death only was gone after a couple years when I did my full transmission rebuild that included hot tanking the case!

I remember washing my arms up to the pits and washing down the smell and disgust with an 8 oz swig of whiskey.

G

[fintstone]

It would be a good sized rat if that were a dime next the tracks...so a sturdy trap will be needed for a rat with tracks the size of a quarter. One that size could do a lot of damage.

[wdfifteen]

Raccoon or possum. Too big for a rat.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by AZ_porschekid

I would say rodent.
Rat water feeder filled with antifreeze.
Your nose will help you sniff them out....

Now where's that green font

Since the green font is mentioned I'll assume (and hope) you're kidding about the antifreeze thing. If you feel you must kill them, please do it humanely with quick-acting traps (as painless as possible), gunshots or fast-acting poisons. Antifreeze ingestion is a horrific and painful way for anything to die - I saw it happen to a friend's dog as a kid who had accidentally lapped up some. Bloody awful. I know rodents are a PITA (I get sick of them chewing on my car wiring and random items) but at the end of the day they're just trying to survive - they're not doing it out of malice like human thieves or vandals. Show a LITTLE compassion (I hope that was the intent of the "green font" statement above).

[targa911S]

chupacabra

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by hcoles

I've been hearing some noises near the bathtub in the hall bath. I put out some sticky pad types traps out in the garage because I saw some droppings months ago. The other day I got a "hit". Whatever got stuck got away with what looked like considerable effort and hair loss. The pad was moved 15 feet and bent up a bit - included some bite marks. I put down a new sticky mat along with a trap this time and got this footprint. Is this a mouse/rat/?. I don't know why he got out so easy this time. Note: quarter pictured for scale.

I'm no expert but I also would guess raccoon or possum (either would have the strength to fight their way out of the trap.)

And +1 on antifreeze is a horrible idea, what if someones pet gets into it? Or a small child finds it and thinks it is lime cool aide?

FWIW many people think possums are beneficial, they mainly eat bugs and dead stuff.

[Sooner or later]

Coons have 5 toes.

Possum has 4 toes and an opposable like thumb.

Tree rat? (Squirrel)

[drkidneydr]

[

[scottmandue]

Raccoon:





Possum:





I'll be danged if I didn't have that backwards, thought raccoons had thumbs!

Come to PPOT and learn something new everyday!

[FPB111]

Looks like rat front footprints.
https://www.google.com/search?q=rat+footprints&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS786US786&oq=rat+foot&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l3j69i60.5608j0j8&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=XomAQGD1ff3CwM:

[hcoles]

I sprinkled some flour around the hole where he came in. We'll see what shows up indicating his normal path. I guess he'll like the flour - come to think of it.

[fintstone]

Opossum and smaller raccoons are the right size for that print, but it looks wrong. I don't know if you have them locally, but it looks like a ring tailed cat to me. I though I had some rats in my building where I worked/lived in NM. I would hear noise in the ceiling when I worked late at night (usually around midnight). Eventually realized that it was larger than a rat due to the amount of noise (then it left some tracks). Set a large box trap (humane) and caught it alive in the break room and had my peeps release it in the wilderness miles away. They are nocturnal...and good mousers and were keeping the population down...but it pooped on my desk (on papers like a nice kitty) so it had to go. After getting rid of it, the local rattlesnake population grew quickly (they were everywhere...even in people's offices) as apparently it was competing with them for food (mice).

They are not uncommon out west, but rarely seen as they are completely nocturnal. I have read that back in the day, some folks domesticated them to keep the mice down.

[hcoles]

Update - I got him. Sticky paper didn't work. Plastic clamping trap didn't work. Borrowed a cage trap from a buddy. That worked. Here is a picture of rat in cage trap.