Ahh Rats!

[Hemlock140]

I remember when on Maui a few years ago spotting a mongoose, and asking about it. Apparently they were brought in as predators to control the rats, back in the 1800s. Unfortunately, rats are nocturnal, and the mongoose hunts during the day, so it failed. We started to get rats around here due to people with bird feeders, and poisons are effective but also kill desirable creatures. The best thing we found is the black plastic
"Tomcat" traps baited with peanut butter. They are meant to be used once then thrown away with the dead rat,
but I found that the rat can be released and the trap reused many times. They are a lot safer for your fingers than the wooden ones that are like giant mouse traps.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/TOMCAT-S...566237#overlay

[terracore]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

I remember when on Maui a few years ago spotting a mongoose, and asking about it. Apparently they were brought in as predators to control the rats, back in the 1800s. Unfortunately, rats are nocturnal, and the mongoose hunts during the day, so it failed. We started to get rats around here due to people with bird feeders, and poisons are effective but also kill desirable creatures. The best thing we found is the black plastic
"Tomcat" traps baited with peanut butter. They are meant to be used once then thrown away with the dead rat,
but I found that the rat can be released and the trap reused many times. They are a lot safer for your fingers than the wooden ones that are like giant mouse traps.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/TOMCAT-S...566237#overlay

A lot of people resist the poisons out of a fear a non-target species is going to be killed. Usually hawks and owls. I resisted as long as I could for the same reasons, but after doing some research realized it was mostly unfounded. A good bait station is going to limit access to rodents and the bait blocks can't be removed from the station. The rodent has to gnaw the food off the block inside the station. They do make poison bait that is practically non-toxic. There is a type that kills via a vitamin D overdose, and another that uses sodium chloride (table salt). They also make bait with a product called bitrex which rodents don't mind but is so unpalatable to any other creature they won't consume it. The problem with these baits is that they aren't the most effective and if you have an effective bait station, it's a solution looking for a problem. So that leaves us with hawks, owls etc. The fear being that they are going to eat a poisoned animal and be poisoned themselves. I'm guessing since only (some) owls are nocturnal, that's really the species we're talking about because hawks and rats don't normally keep the same hours. In the case of the "Just One Bite", the rodent stops eating after it consumes a lethal dose, which destroys the liver. The rodent lives for a few days without a functioning liver before dying, in which time it's last meal has already passed through it. A predator probably couldn't eat enough previously poisoned animals to suffer any ill effects, on the off chance they would even encounter one. Most non-target deaths involving poisons are because they weren't used correctly, which is why the EPA is putting pressure to only have "professionals" use them. Which is why we can now only buy poisons in large quantities.

I did try different types of snap traps including the ones mentioned. Unfortunately their efficacy was low. They frequently got sprung without catching the rat, or I would find the rat in the trap but still alive, I even found one that had been sprung and when I went to reset it, almost grabbed the mangled, but still alive rat that was next to, but not in it (I have no idea how that happened). Another time I caught a tail, the rat had dragged the trap about 20 feet before finally gnawing it's tail off.

[Arktikos]

Originally Posted by terracore

..

I did try different types of snap traps including the ones mentioned. Unfortunately their efficacy was low. ..

Interesting. They've always seemed to work well for me. I've caught many with the basic snap traps sold at ACE. They now have a safer, more secure way to set the trap compared to the old style using a tiny metal pin.