I have a rat in my garage...help
 

We have a two car attached gararge where my wife keeps her two cars...along with tons of other crap for her gardening so there's plenty of places to run and hide. I found a hole in the side wall where he chewed his way in from the outside. There's droppings in a few places and evidence that he's been up into the cars....esp. her VW. This AM I discovered a pile of styrofoam 'pellets' and droppings under the VW. There is a cavity where he can get in and, I guess, chewed thru something and the foam came out. Dunno if he's living up there now or not.

I saw him on a shelf, briefly, the other night. I do carry a pistol with 22mag snake shot but doubt I could get a decent shot off. Have set traps in a few places with dog food as bait.

Any other suggestions muchly appreciated as they can do real damage to cars, as we all know. I was thinking of getting some coyote urine to spread around but dunno if it works...maybe bobcat urine...

I think the right bait is peanut butter

Just get a rat snake and set if free in the garage. ;)

Just set the traps. Get some peanut butter for a couple of them. Might as well set out a buffet. ;)

It'll be his last supper.

You sure there is just one?

Decon. it does a rat "good night"

a couple of traps with peanut butter should be good. Set them up in places he walks, very near the hole in the wall, near the pile of pellets, etc...

Assume that there is more than one.

Peanut butter.
Beer.
Flashlight.
Gamo pellet rifle.

I asked our pest control guy about peanut butter but he said that works on mice..not rats particularly but it's still a good idea to put out a buffet..as suggested. I can't use poison cuz of my dogs..unless I put it up on a shelf. Then one gets to find a dead stinky rat.

i used gummy candy a couple months ago when the mouse population went nuts. They couldnt jump into the traps fast enough:)

Unfortunately I have dealt with many of rat in the past. Traps with peanut butter work. If you have one rat, you probable have more. Place the traps at different levels of the garage. Floor, workbench, rafters, etc. places where your dogs can't get them. The rats I dealt with seemed to have paths that I tapped into. Home depot has a few different types of traps. I used the good old wood with spring action ones - kills them dead. (watch your fingers). I also added a piece of string on the trap so I could pull it out of its spot, once tripped, without having to get in tight spaces.

Good luck.

a snickers bar will send them running for the traps.

i just saw a rat last night in the backyard. i am going to try glue traps.

Careful when cleaning the droppings. A friend (multi-Porsche owner) passed away due to rat feces borne illness after cleaning up his storage garage.

Tip I received from a professional animal/pest control guy... best bait for rats is a small piece of Slim Jim (meat stick). It's tough and you can hook it on the trigger where they have to pull at it to get it off.

Extremely effective, I have trapped dozens using Slim Jims.

Also, tie the trap to something fixed with wire. Rats are tough and will drag the trap away where you can't get to them and die a stinky death.

put some of these Rodent Bait Stations & Trays: d-CON® Ready Mixed Baitbits | d-CON® around when i found them camping out in the BBQ one night last spring before the grilling season had started.

blocked all the known exits, a must if you dont want them coming back in the old way.
put them at any suspected paths and hiding areas.
there was no sign of them after a week or so. never had any dead animal smell so the den must not have been in the house or garage. there are a baits traps few around still just to keep them at bay.

keep the pets out of the garage unsupervised if you are concerned. my dog never disturbed the bait stations i set out, but they were not out in the open.

all the cats hanging out near the bird feeders this year might be keeping them in check for the summer.

mmmmmmmmmmmm...slim jims.

great tip!

I always used peanut butter with those wooden spring traps with the mice. I had it pretty bad a couple years back, ended up catching/killing a dozen and found a nest in a roll of carpet that was in the corner of my garage. I hate those little bastards.

Kind of funny story, before I started tying down the traps, the traps kept disappearing. A few months later a neighbor many houses down the street confided to me that he found a couple traps in his yard with dead rats. It was only then that we both "put 2 and 2 together". He thought someone was throwing them over the fence into his yard! We both got a good laugh out of that.

Can you borrow a few cats from the office? Rodents usually don't like predators around.