Rats!

[jcwade]

The rat infestation up here in the mountains is out of control. We were gone almost all this month, so they ran wild and colonized everything, although I have not seen any evidence inside the house itself.
I have wood rats in the woodpile, in the basement and on the back deck.
They have chewed through some wiring in my wife's car, torn down insulation and left droppings everywhere.
We cannot poison them and put the poison into the food chain. They might be eaten by bobcats, mountain lions, bears, raptors or condors. The coyotes I don't care about.

I have tried sonic generators, various scents and oils, ammonia and traps. Nothing seems to work.
Does anyone have any other suggestions on what to do?

[Dixie]

Atomic Bomb - Explosion GIFfrom Explosion GIFs

[jcwade]

I'm almost there.

[dad911]

There was a repellant we used to put in our pool equipment, and I used to use it in the enclosed trailers in the winter. I think it was "mouse away"

Having said that, we also use poison. I was told that enough to kill the mice/rats would not be enough to kill larger animals if they ate a dead mouse.

[stevej37]

Set out a few/dozen rat snap traps baited with peanut butter.

[wswartzwel]

Yes Rat traps with Peanut butter. Tie a short string to the trigger. smear the butter into the string. they chew on it and it gets them. fewer missed pops

[Baz]

Snap traps with a Slim Jim piece impaled onto the prong......make sure you set up a trail camera to review.

[LWJ]

I had a rental house with rats. The exterminator sealed the perimeter and put snap traps inside. ALL GONE. We have a family farm with millions of mice. The trap that has a rotating rod over a bucket of water seems to catch a bounty of mice. Probably too small of a trap for a rat.

Rats suck. Good luck.

[masraum]

How about some of those traps that they make out of 5 gal buckets? I think most of them will hold a bunch of rats vs snap traps that will only hold one dead rat at a time.

[dad911]

There's a reason farmers have barn cats......

[3rd_gear_Ted]

Doesn't get any better than a Terrier.
Ultimate rat apex predator

https://www.thehuntinglife.com/html/sections/articles/working_terriers/ratting-with-terriers.html

[Bill Douglas]

An air rifle or a .22. As a kid we used to go to a rubbish dump at night with vast amounts of alcohol, 22's and put the car headlights on the dump. The dump was almost moving with rats at night. Not kid was harmed or injured - but I am surprised.

[Jeff Higgins]

These are now some pretty old photos, thank God, because they do indicate (through their age) that we "won" in that there are no longer enough of them to offer good shooting. So, yes, we "won", but not by shooting them. While great good fun, shooting rats in an effort to eliminate them is a fool's errand. If there are enough of them that they actually present targets, you will never get on top of them by shooting.











A more realistic and effective approach is, actually, poison. There are a number of eco-friendly poisons available that will not harm predators that eat the dead rats. I cannot remember the one we used, but just do some "googling". While the poison spoiled my fun, it did finally eliminate the rats. Good luck.

[Bill Douglas]

Speaking of rats and fun

When my cat was a kitten he brought in a huge dead rat and lay down next to it in the kitchen. The dogs looked at it in astonishment and the cat was as cool as a cucumber about it. It was nearly as big as the kitten and perfect other than a couple of dots of blood on the back of it's head. Even as a kitten it's genetics told him were to bite the rat.

[trials935]

[QUOTE=Jeff Higgins




I have both of these air guns, the rifle for 55 years, still works perfectly.

[Racerbvd]

Rat is good eating.

[Evans, Marv]

They've driven me almost crazy. I have them in the garage. A couple of times I've forgotten to close the garage door at night, so the blame is on me. Tried everything including traps with peanut butter and slim jim. No success. The thing I've had that worked the best was/is the sticky strips/pads. I place a couple along the walls and get one or two on occasion. That's the only thing I've had success with. Had an outside cat for about six months, but a coyote, bob cat, or mountain lion got it. I also had a big problem with them eating the insulation off the wiring in the front of my van to the tune of about $5K. That was a hard one to swallow.

[Bill Douglas]

I speak many languages, including Brooklyn. "You doity rat."

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

These are now some pretty old photos, thank God, because they do indicate (through their age) that we "won" in that there are no longer enough of them to offer good shooting. So, yes, we "won", but not by shooting them. While great good fun, shooting rats in an effort to eliminate them is a fool's errand. If there are enough of them that they actually present targets, you will never get on top of them by shooting.











A more realistic and effective approach is, actually, poison. There are a number of eco-friendly poisons available that will not harm predators that eat the dead rats. I cannot remember the one we used, but just do some "googling". While the poison spoiled my fun, it did finally eliminate the rats. Good luck.

"Trophy Hunters" suck !

Did you get the full body taxiderm... or just the heads mounted?

[oldE]

If you are lucky, a weasel will move in. Twice in 20 years we have seen rats take advantage of the bird feeders or move into the barn. There must be a resident weasel close by, because suddenly the rats are history.
Failing that, the dose of poison required to kill a rat won't harm a larger predator unless they eat a bunch at once.