Humane Rat Traps

Thread a bit of Slim Jim^® onto the toggle of a regular trap and put it up where the snakes can't reach it.

Hello Tippycanoe, Here in Australia there is NO "Slim Jim"...as far as I know...What are the composition/contents ????? Thks Yves

http://www.gruub.com/img/food/slim_jim_jerky.jpg

Hi Tippycanoe , OK ...for the Slim Jim ...the old Biltong ...e.g. beef Jerky...

You got it mate. Spicy beef jerky. They find it irresistable.

It's a bit of a pain to tie it on (carpet thread and needle) but it holds up nicely.

Take a metal garbage can. Put seed at the bottom. Make a small hole in the top, at the edge, and give them access to the top. Remember to check at least once a month or they get mummified.

A variation of this, if you don't want live rats slowly starving to death, is to use the metal can, or a large plastic pail, and put several liters of ethylene glycol (antifreeze) and water mixture in it. Put a board leading up to the top, and float sunflower seeds on top. The rats and mice think that the pail just has sunflower seeds in it and jump in, paddle around for a while, then drown. (I think they die quicker in ethylene glycol, but I cannot say for sure.) If there are dogs around, use plain water without ethylene glycol, or float some oil on top of the water. Dogs will drink ethylene glycol because it is sweet, and will die from it.

Another variation is to suspend a metal can (like a large soup can) on a wire run through a small hole in the top and bottom. Attach the wire to the pail so the can is near the middle of the open top. Fill the pail with a few liters of water or mixture. Place a board to the edge of the pail from the ground. Smear peanut butter on the outside of the suspended metal can and place a few seeds on the board to lead the rats up the board. They see and smell the peanut butter on the can and jump onto it from the board. The can spins and the rat falls off the slippery surface of the can into the water.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/how-to/how-to-build-a-diy-humane-mouse-trap-051742

I take some cattle sweet feed and mix it with rat poison and just set it behind the water heater in rental houses before renting them, after a while any snakes appear looking for a way out of the house. Most snakes will not eat a posion rat or mouse. I just open the doors and the snakes leave the rental houses. Had a rattler once living in the house I bought. Scary!

I do the same thing in the barn, hiding it in a box with very small cracks the mice get in. or my dump truck on the floor board when it is parked a long time. I set some of the mix under 1/2 steel barrels in the field and in under my water vaules covers. I hate to go turn on my irrigation and have a snake in there.

oh you crack me up as if being eaten alive is humane

Humane in the eye of the beholder. Any way possible to kill a rat in my opinion is reasonable and justified .

This is what I have used in the past where there you have dogs. Most likely, the rats are eating the dog food and will find this irresistible and this can be used in their demise. Pick a spot to locate an open top drum where you can place the open top drum in the only path accessible to the stored dog food. The drum should have a piece of thin cardboard placed over the open top and supported by a stick across the top in such a way that the cardboard will support the weight of a mouse or rat, run 10-12" of water into the drum. The vermin will use this pathway for several days to access the dog food. When they get use to the idea of free food and they all know where the late night snack will be, just remove the supporting stick from under the cardboard, leaving the cardboard path still erect. Your meal guest will jump on the cardboard as before but will drop to their demise and be drowned "like a dirty rat". You should be able to clean out most of the population in one night.

Tons of rat poison will do the job. Now to make it humane I suggest you put a sign saying:

"ALL RATS TRESPASSING WILL BE SENTENCED TO DEATH"

" YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED"

It appears that you are looking for a very complicated solution (like training dogs and snakes) for a simple problem. I too was having similar problems with rats, but I just got a cat for a pet and the mice have disappeared. In fact, my neighbour told me that my cat drops into their house for a visit now and then and the mice in their house have disappeared

SAMUEL CHELLIAH

Cats are much reliable anti rate workers than dogs and snakes. So change the animal part.

The other possibility is keep periodically playing some sudden shocking drums noise, which scars rats.

The prevention remedy is to seal out all entry points for the rats, like grills and all possible openings.

If you have the habit of keeping snacks, biscuits and eatables inside your car please totally avoid or clear from the vehicle before you leave. These are potential welcome signs for rates. After all they try to munch something.

Sorry. I have no mercy for the carriers of the black death (Yes it was the bacterium in the fleas on the rats). They will do what they do, and we enable them to do so. I landed up with two rats in my house as a result of an appliance delivery. They made the squirrels and racoon's I have dealt with look very polite.

Construct a fair large container which can be fitted with a one-way opening; rat path of no return, stock container with dog food and fruit.

Leave it to the captive rats to dispose of each other, then add a desiccant and or lime close opening; fleas, lice etc. will dry-up.

I usually put out DECON a name brade poison that makes the critters thirsty. I also put out a pot of water that I place two rulers on. The rat/mice eat the poison become thirst climb the rulers into the pot and drown end of mouse problem. I've done this several times to get rid of whole families.