For the past couple of weeks we have been watching rats skitter about in the porch/yard area of a church next door to us and saying, “I really wish they would deal with that rat problem before it becomes our problem.” but not really doing anything because it wasn’t cold enough for us to be too concerned about an infestation. Well, today it has become our concern. I am at home sick today with the head cold that will not die and all of the sudden both of my cats ran to the kitchen and started staring at the pantry and then a few moments later canned goods started falling off the shelf. I went over and moved some things around and, lo and behold, there are a few pellets back there indicating a recent creature moving in without paying a dime in rent.
I do not want to call the exterminator because it is very difficult to find a place to board the cats (and we recently had a horrible and expensive experience with that that makes us weary of doing it again) and I don’t like having strange people in my home if I can help it. So far I have moved all the non-canned food into the fridge and taken out the trash. All the dishes are clean and the catfood is in airtight containers so they can’t really get to it. I have laid out glue traps where the obvious rodent activity has been happening and my boyfriend is bringing home some additional glue traps and hopefully also some of the snapping traps as well for the outside of the house.
My biggest concern is that when that rat feels like it is okay to come back to the pantry and gets himself caught in that glue trap what the hell do I do with it? I don’t want to leave it there trying to gnaw off his arms or something but I also am not going to club him over the head or anything either. Should I just put him in a plastic bag and hope that he suffocates quickly? And how do I prevent his little friends from following him into our place?
I won’t address the humanity question but all the traps and cleaning in the world aren’t going to help much unless you block up all of the entry points. I had roof rats and had to go through that. Depending on where you live your county government may be able to send someone over who will check around your house and point out what needs to be done (for me it was the local “vector control” lady, she’s responsible for pests and health hazards of all kinds). Expect to trim back vegetation, repair vent holes (hardware cloth aka heavy wire mesh) and look for any other openings (I spent a lot of time in my attic sealing up holes with hardware cloth, plywood and expanding foam).
The most humane thing to do is just to put on some old shoes, lay the rat out on a hard surface, and stomp it as hard as you can on the head. Death is instantaneous but a little gory. I have done that with lots of rats, mice, and voles caught in glue traps. Lots of people don’t like the idea but it is the kindest and most rational thing to do.
I used to do animal research on rats and have killed hundreds of them if not more. We used the guillotine when we needed the brains for later study and a CO2 chamber just for sacrificing them otherwise. There is no non-messy way to kill small animals unless the goal is just to make yourself feel better. You could put it in a grocery bag full of rocks and throw it off a bridge or use hundreds of other creative ideas. When it comes down to it though, you still have to kill it and the fastest and most swift way of doing that is the most ethical even if it seems a little gory. The end result is the same.
This is also my preferred method of killing fish when I decide to keep a few while fishing. One good hit on the head will kill them instantly. I don’t get much sympathy for it though since it looks cruel and gory.
This is why you do not use ‘glue traps’ - invest in some good spring traps - death is (usually) instant, usually non-gory and you can dispose of it all without having to do anything.
They’re usually cheap enough that you dont even have to re-use them.
Glue traps - while effective - allow you to find the still squirming rat/mouse, and those are not friendly at all.
Since you have cats - I would not recomend poison in any way/shape or form.
Glue traps are horrible. Having dealt with lots of mice, I second the spring trap suggestion; kills 'em before they even have an inkling that the End is coming.
I caught one mouse in a glue trap, and euthanized him by dropping a concrete block onto him. I have never used them again. Spring traps have worked best for me.
I have requested that the SO stop and pick up some of those on his way home from work. I suppose that I will just pray that no rats come out of hiding before he brings those traps home.
This.
Glue traps are sickening, horrifying things, and I say this as someone with a perhaps much lower-than-usual sensitivity to killing small animals (as in, I work in biomedical research and I hunt).
I used to work in a pet store. We had a bunch of feeder rats escape and set up a colony. One night our owner laid out some glue traps without telling anyone, and the next day I came in to open the shop only to find a trap with a rat stuck to it. The rat appeared half-degloved, all four legs were broken, and it was* screaming.*
I had to kill it right then and there without being able to do it with a proper cervical dislocation technique. I was completely traumatized, even having been mostly inured to the humane dispatching of small animals. This was absolutely and in no-uncertain-terms not a humane method of disposal. I totally lost it, called my boss and screamed at him that if I ever saw one in the shop afterwards I would never be seen in that place again.
Snap traps do occasionally fail, but are designed for a very fast, very efficient kill. Thanks for asking your SO to pick a few up.
I wrote out a whole long paragraph about humane euthanasia techniques for rodents but if you’re going with snap traps anyway, you probably don’t need the details. Also, though cervical dislocation is absolutely a fast and very humane method of disposal, I’m not sure I would recommend an amateur try it on a rat without having some confidence at handling a rodent.
Anyway, at the very least, please steer clear of glue traps. They are no bueno.
Besides the horrible effects on rodents, I can confirm that glue traps are no bueno for a house with cats. My parents used to use them for crickets in the basement when the population became excessive, and even when they are placed under furniture the cats found ways to get stuck in them. Imagine a completely panicked, freaked out cat running through the house at 90 miles an hour going thwappa thwappa thwappa ktik ktik ktik. When you finally manage to catch them on their third pass, you can not get all of the sticky stuff off of their paws – you trim off as much hair as you can, ruining your good scissors, and the cat goes schlorpa … schlorpa… walking through the house until it finishes wearing off. I suppose we could have tried mineral oil or something similar, but have you ever tried dealing with a cat who has just been caught in a glue trap? You’re lucky to finish getting the trap off and snipping the worst of it off before the cat takes off again to hide under the bed for the rest of the evening.
Okay, we have gotten rid of the glue traps and replaced them with these and these though I don’t know how I feel about the second one because they appear to be for smaller mice and this is New York so the rodents here tend to be Godzilla sized but since we haven’t seen them they might be smaller than they are in my imagination. The other ones should do the job quickly and humanely though.
They can and I won’t lie and say I’m not worried about that. We have them behind canned goods and put in such a way that it would be kind of difficult for cats to get to them though and we bought the rat bait paste that comes from the store instead of using human food (which they will eat simply because they know they aren’t supposed to) so hopefully they will be smart enough to leave them alone.
I wouldn’t have poison in the house with cats.
The trap I killed a deer mouse with was in a closed drawer safe from the cats. I’d rubber band the cabinet doors closed. This is a rat trap.
