I need help! There’s a rat (maybe more than 1) in my house and I can’t catch it. It crawls around beneath my kitchen cabinets, underneath the dishwasher, etc. It’s eaten house plants, bananas from my kitchen counter, bar-soap, a soap dish… uggh. It’s driving me nuts! I’ve tried old fashioned snap traps, new alligator-like snap traps, and glue traps. I caught 3 babies on the glue trap… so who knows how many more are around.
I have 4 dogs so I wont use poison. Also I don’t want the rat to die somewhere inaccessible.
Any suggestions? I’ve gotta get this creature out of my house! :eek:
The most important thing is to find out where the rat is getting in. Unless you can plug it up, he/she has already told his/her friends where to come and get food.
I had mice and I found glue traps were all that worked. I tried, poison, didn’t work. I tried snap traps, nope. I tried electronic zappers, the mice refused to go in them. Same with the humane traps, they just simply won’t go in them.
The problem with bait traps is they rely on the rat being hungry to use them. When rats/mice have many sources of food they learn fast what to avoid.
When I started using glue traps, the mice learned to jump over them. The would literally run bounce side off the wall and avoid the trap. That’s when I started putting the glue traps on the wall. I also put mazes made of cardboard up and put glue traps above them. The mice would naturally follow the maze and then I’d fix it so the glue trap fell on them.
Glue traps are not a nice way to go, but you can’t live with vermin. And a rat/mouse will simply not eat the bait off a trap, unless it’s very hungry. And if it can go outside the house, it can come in search for food, and avoid the bait trap and go back outside to find food it feels safe eating.
First thing is to find out where the rat is coming in and plug it up. Use steel wool to plug the hole and then plaster it up. Also keep an eye so the rat doesn’t just chew another hole nearby. That’s what my mice did. I found the hole, plugged it up. The the mice chewed another, I plugged it and they chewed another, and that one finally <knock wood> seemed to be at the main point, 'cause they stopped after that.
Also make sure NO FOOD is left out period. All of it goes into the fridge. I found even with glass, the mice could smell it and will hang around the glass container looking to get at the food.
We had rats in our house for awhile. I second the idea that you need to plug the entryway. If you have one, you definitely have more than one. I was catching two every morning for awhile in traps. (not the way you want to start your day, believe me). Peanut butter in the traps works great, but you’ve got an endless supply of rats if you don’t figure out how their getting in. Our dogs and cats were worthless, btw.
About 15 years ago, we actually had just one rat. His initial appearance was in our garage, and once we were aware of him, we made sure to plug up a couple of holes from the garage into the house, so he never got inside the house proper.
Eventually we drove him out of the garage by cleaning the garage with the doors open. There was still stuff left in the garage that he could have hidden behind, but faced with having to make an instant decision, he headed for the open door rather than the piles of stuff on the other side of the garage.
However, he found a home in our woodpile, and we went through a few cycles of realizing he was in the woodpile, dismantling and reassembling the woodpile to chase him out, then finding he’d re-established himself there. One time we dislodged him, we saw him run all the way to a neighbor’s house, two doors down on the opposite side of the street. We figured he was finally somebody else’s problem, but it wasn’t long before he found his way back.
The last time I dislodged Ratbert, as we called him, I had a piece of firewood in my hand that was the perfect size to use as a club, and amazingly enough, I was able to club him with it, solidly enough that he was slowed down sufficiently that I could finish the job of clubbing him to death.
And there really must’ve been just one of him, because that day marked the end of our rat problems.
I doubt that this gives anyone any guidance in how to deal with their rat problems, but I couldn’t help but remember that bit of ancient history.
I can’t believe I forgot to make an update on this thread… We’ve caught about 9 medium size rats since I posted. :eek::eek:
The first rat somehow injured his leg and was found trailing blood across the kitchen floor. That was strange.
The next one was much more exciting. Mr J and I were standing in the kitchen talking late at night and we saw the floor vent in the living room raise up. It was the creepiest thing! The rat came out of the floor vent and Mr J hurled a shoe at it. We spent the next 45 minutes chasing it around the living room until it darted out from under the sofa. I actually stepped on it! “Eeek!” We both squeaked! (The rat and me.) I kicked it and it scurried across the room again and back behind the couch. At the moment Mr J was flipping the sleeper couch on it’s back so the rat couldn’t crawl under again. He lowered it down and the rat disappeared. We heard it rustling and thought it was in the couch… Mr J grabbed the flashlight (big mag-light) and was looking under the couch. There was a wiggling lump trapped under the fabric back section of the couch. It was caught just as he lowered the couch! He still had the flashlight and thumped it a couple times… uh, thumped it to death.
The following night we caught 2 more in a similar fashion. Got 'em in a trash can and thumped them. I felt a little bad, though I didn’t do the thumping. Well, I didn’t feel *that *bad after cleaning and rearranging the living room for the 2nd night in a row.
The worst was the one that got caught in a bit alligator type snap trap (like this). I don’t know how it happened but was a horrible gruesome death! His spine was totally ripped out like the old Mortal Kombat game. Uggh. I’d like to erase that from my memory.
It’s a good thing you’re not rat-phobic.
We have Roof Rats in our neighborhood (they love all the free food in the form of ripe oranges), and I have set out 8 of those “alligator” traps in bait boxes around our yard. So far, I’ve caught around 6 rats. I haven’t told my wife, because she has a terrible phobia about creepy crawly things. She said that if she ever saw a rat in the house, we would have to move - and I believe her. So, I’m trying to catch them while they are still outside.
We’ve blocked a couple potential entry holes but they’re somehow getting into the floor vents and under the dishwasher too. We haven’t figured that out yet.
Another vote for Markxxx. Man. I cringe at this, sorry to hear that you’re having this problem, Mrs. Johnson.
Rats are evil critters to have in one’s home.
A rat is a “Rodent” which is derived from a Latin word meaning “to gnaw”. This Order of animals are characterized by two front incisors which continue to grow throughout the lifetime of the animal. They have a thinner coating of enamel (what makes teeth hard) on the back side of their incisors than on the front, causing more wear on the backside of the teeth when they bite down.
This creates a natural self sharpening effect. It keeps rodent’s teeth razor sharp.
Because their teeth continue to grow, rodents need to keep their teeth from becoming too long. So to say they love to chew is an understatement. Like other rodents, chewing for the sake of chewing is necessary for survival, an evolved instinct to do this. Rats have been known to chew through concrete if needed, they are one hell of a critter to have in your house. They can do a *lot of damage.
Hire a professional if needed, do whatever it takes to locate their port(s) of entry and get rid of them asap.
Best of luck to you.
If you’ve CAUGHT and killed that many rats, I’d say that it’s time to call in a professional. You got yourself a colony there (or whatever a group of rats is called). The professional will know what to look for and what to do.
Another echo for call in the big guns. If you’ve caught nine (:eek:!) already, it’s time to call in the Orkin Man. Sorry you’re going through this, and I’m sure you probably don’t want to pay an exterminator an arm and a leg, but sometimes you have to pay the sanity tax. I’d be afraid to sleep. Hell, I’ve been afraid to sleep after seeing spiders inside. Good luck.
Our neighborhood had a beginning rat problem. I saw them in many yards when I walked the dogs.
I found a baby feral cat in the park who decided I should take care of him. I did. When he grew up there was no keeping him in the house. He had to go outside.
He solved the mice and rat problem. Everyday there was a dead rat or 2 in my driveway, until there were none anymore. He also solved the bird problem.
I *almost *wish I could get a cat but we’re not cat people/I’m allergic/we have 4 high-prey greyhounds. Unfortunately the “high-prey” drive doesn’t seem to extend to rats. They’ll chase a rat for 2 seconds until it disappears, then they lose interest.
The house next door has been vacant for about 2 years. I’m sure that is contributing to the rat problem. We don’t leave any food out and make sure the dogs don’t leave any food out either.
Another problem is the house. It had foundation/pier issues in the past so there are some cracks and probably gaps we don’t know about.
I wonder if my landlord would cover the extermination costs (or even partial). I’ll look into that too. :dubious:
