Had similar problems and spent quite a bit of time working with an exterminator. He gave me the the following wisdom. Poison has the problems mentioned above. Also, it may lead to dead rats rotting in your house. If they die in your house, all their fleas and disease migrate off. Spring traps work well. As indicated earlier peanut butter makes a great bait. Smear it UNDER the trigger plate. Makes it more likely their neck is in the right place when the trap springs. Exterminator also put a peanut on the prong on top of the trap. Finally, he wore surgical gloves when he set/baited/handled the traps. Put traps adjacent to walls. Trigger plate goes closest to the wall.

Once they are gone (you haven't seen/heard/trapped any despite having 5-10 traps baited and out for two weeks) pull and replace all the gross insulation. It is full of stuff you don't want in your house and may attract others. Find/plug all entrances with hardware clothe or steel wool and spray foam.

Rats fear light and change. He recommended I string up LED lights in my attic and put them on a timer to go on for a bit every day. They don't like sudden light, feel uncomfortable and will likely not hang around.

Good luck. Did I mention that I HATE rats?

The rats I've seen wouldn't fit in that bottle.

This one looks more user friendly. Leave it to the Chinese....

Laffin'

I would have fun dumping that trap and a rat in a 5 gal bucket full of water.

I have had great success with this: http://www.thehuntinglife.com/html/sections/articles/ferreting_trapping/victor-rat-trap.html

The one on the left with all the mods. I also cut the plastic tab about a 1/8 inch above the V so the rat must get his head in further before he gets wacked. I use pencil led for the chin bar.

Victor's are must because the wire is heavier and stronger. Use peanut butter (not chunky). If you don't do the mods and use Victor traps, apply peanut butter all over a small piece of cardboard and slip it in the V on the plastic tab. This will prevent them from licking it all off and getting away. They eventually will start biting the cardboard and WACK.

[/quote]

New cat is more dangerous than the plague.


let the bodies hit the floor. [/quote]





I figured that any pussy hanging out with the Staminal would have a bit of attitude. . . . . . .. .

Awesome, I have a lil Sparrow Hawk that haunts the feeders. But it takes the
occasional Sparrow or House Finch, I got no Jays, darn.

I have about 11-13 Stellar Jays that come looking for their Peanuts, I probably go through 5-6 pounds per week. Talk about gregarious Birds, and their beauty is unmatched. Most can swallow one peanut down their gullet and another in their beak. They are a hoot to watch.

I get to see em in deer camp every year but they don't come around here in Spokane.
Wish they did. I get a few Cedar Wax Wings occaisonally, but mostly Sparrows, House Finches, Gold Finches and Flickers.
The Oregon Juncos are ground feeders and don't hit the feeders, just the fall out.
Oh, and there are always the Red Breasted Nut Hatches and Chick-a-dees.

Cedar wax wings are cool birds, I heard when they eat berries off trees they pass them down to one another so they all get to eat, also when courting. There's a place about 5 miles from here that has tons of Gold finches, it's quite a sight when you see a flock of 30 or so.

Set up many many many traps and bait them with peanut butter. I had one exterminator recommend setting up 12 traps. If you're going to get the wood traps, get the ones with the yellow plastic trip on them and put enough peanut butter on it to keep the rat engaged.

I was going to get a 22 when we had rats, but, the misses didn't want me to miss and hit something I shouldn't,... like our water tank. Probably a good thing I didn't take the commando approach.

I remember my dad using his 22 single shot pistol. He bought bird shot for it so he wouldn't penetrate the roof. Well, it didn't penetrate the rat either.

I never had cats until we had one start showing up at our doorstep a couple years ago. She was apparently born in the outdoors and had learned to fend for herself. Since she came around, I have had ZERO rat/mouse problems. She brings all kinds of stuff to the doorstep. Wish she would quit killing the "good" birds, but otherwise, she has been a Godsend.

Before I had a cat, I had trouble with rats. They are smart bastards. If you catch one with a given style of trap/bait, it will usually be the last. You have to change up your tactics frequently to take out a small colony. You can choose to have fun with the war (can be maddening), hire an exterminator (will be expensive, but probably not as expensive as a cat over time), or get yourself a FEMALE cat (males tend to be lazy).

Can't trade the Pitty for a Kitty, so I'm thinkin' a borrowed female cat, a litter box, and closing the crawl space door for a week. Should make for good MMA audio....

Rats show up around here occasionally. They are after the dog food mostly. I use a wire tie and tie a piece of food to the trap trigger. Never misses.

A Rat Terrier will take care of the rats. Put one of these under your casa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Terrier

I think Salmonella has a RT Pup.