Use a safe capture trap and make them listen to a wife.

 

Our Aussie rats are smarter? Nope, all rats are smart.

I think it comes down to the size of the rat population vs resources? If rats are scarce they are more wary, and there are more options for them to hide and source food. They are hard to catch and if the population is down because of predators they are also likely to be smarter as the smart/wary ones are the only ones remaining.

But if the rats are overpopulated/plague etc they compete harder for food, are less scared of a scent trail or a predator and will be much easier to catch. If the numbers are very high they might even run around past your feet etc, almost tame in your environment.

Where I live it is semi-rural with large blocks and there is much more chance of seeing rat droppings out in the back shed at the bottom of the yard where nobody goes, then in or around the house where a rat would be never seen.

Of course, some of the neighbours have chickens and dogs and their sheds have bags of feed, which can draw the rats. They are not getting into houses, which are brick with concrete floor slabs.

You can make a bottle-dungeon out of a ming vase.

 

When we were kids I saw a friend make a good (humane) mouse trap from a normal household bucket. He put the bucket wire handle up above the bucket and hung a piece of food from it, then a few spoons of vegetable oil in the bottom of the bucket. A thin piece of wood allowed the mice to walk up to the rim of the bucket, where they try to reach the food and fall in. And once their feet are slippery they can't get the run-up needed to jump out of the slippery plastic bucket so it made a good trap.

 

When we were kids I saw a friend make a good (humane) mouse trap from a normal household bucket. He put the bucket wire handle up above the bucket and hung a piece of food from it, then a few spoons of vegetable oil in the bottom of the bucket. A thin piece of wood allowed the mice to walk up to the rim of the bucket, where they try to reach the food and fall in. And once their feet are slippery they can't get the run-up needed to jump out of the slippery plastic bucket so it made a good trap.

A previous poster wanted them to suffer - use chilli oil to make the bucket slippery.

 

Fun is, shooting them in barns with a .22 pistol, and watching them cannibalize each other. Or, use a hi-power pellet gun.

I could shoot one, a few seconds later another one would start eating him, then you shoot that one......rinse and repeat.

 

When we were kids I saw a friend make a good (humane) mouse trap from a normal household bucket. He put the bucket wire handle up above the bucket and hung a piece of food from it, then a few spoons of vegetable oil in the bottom of the bucket. A thin piece of wood allowed the mice to walk up to the rim of the bucket, where they try to reach the food and fall in. And once their feet are slippery they can't get the run-up needed to jump out of the slippery plastic bucket so it made a good trap.

That is one of the best, and cheapest, traps.

 

When we were kids I saw a friend make a good (humane) mouse trap from a normal household bucket.

I am not trying to pick a fight, but I have to wonder if drowning a rat is more humane than electrocution, or shooting, or breaking its neck, or other relatively quick method of execution.

 

Hi Tracecom, the trap that RB described does not drown the mice. You have to read it carefully.

 

I'd say drowning is slower than a bullet, and at the size of a rat, a .22 bullet is a huge hole.

 

I am not trying to pick a fight, but I have to wonder if drowning a rat is more humane than electrocution, or shooting, or breaking its neck, or other relatively quick method of execution.

If you saw the damage that rats can do, you don't think in terms of "humane".

 

It was the RB who suggested a "humane" trap. Personally, I think quicker is better...for the rat and the ratter. I am loathe to see anything tortured, whether it's a rat or me.

 

Never heard of a rat/mouse trap only working once before. Ohio must have dumb rats, mice and chipmunks. I've got a couple of traps in my garage/shop, that have caught multiple varmints, over the period of 10 years.

 

Interesting, I never caught a chipmunk in a trap, though I once caught one with a towell.

 

I am not trying to pick a fight, but I have to wonder if drowning a rat is more humane than electrocution, or shooting, or breaking its neck, or other relatively quick method of execution.

(as others have said) There was no drowning, my friend used to collect the mice and sell them to other kids as pets. He was inventive and tried a few box/trapdoor type of traps, but had limited success, and a bucket found with an exhausted mouse in the bottom one morning led him to the idea of a bucket trap.

Never heard of a rat/mouse trap only working once before. Ohio must have dumb rats, mice and chipmunks. I've got a couple of traps in my garage/shop, that have caught multiple varmints, over the period of 10 years.

It's a big problem, if the rats are wary. That's part of the reason for the invention of disposable mousetraps.

If a trap sits for months between uses the scents will wear off or smell "old" and can probably work as good as a new one. But if you try to put a trap back into use the next day when it still reeks or fear and death than only a desperate starving rat would go near it.

But like I said before things change in plague conditions when they are all desperate and competing.

 

(as others have said) There was no drowning, my friend used to collect the mice and sell them to other kids as pets. He was inventive and tried a few box/trapdoor type of traps, but had limited success, and a bucket found with an exhausted mouse in the bottom one morning led him to the idea of a bucket trap.



It's a big problem, if the rats are wary. That's part of the reason for the invention of disposable mousetraps.

If a trap sits for months between uses the scents will wear off or smell "old" and can probably work as good as a new one. But if you try to put a trap back into use the next day when it still reeks or fear and death than only a desperate starving rat would go near it.

But like I said before things change in plague conditions when they are all desperate and competing.

Apparently that happens when a shark is killed, immediately it starts releasing a chemical compound that warns other sharks to scarper - they've even based a shark repellent spray on it.

 

There was no drowning, my friend used to collect the mice and sell them to other kids as pets.

Yeah, I had watched some videos on you-tube about bucket traps where the rats were drowned, and superimposed that memory onto your post.

Around here, most live mice that are sold are for pet...food.

 

Apparently that happens when a shark is killed, immediately it starts releasing a chemical compound that warns other sharks to scarper - they've even based a shark repellent spray on it.

Excellent! Spray that on the rat trap and the rats will come to see if there is shark for dinner.

 

Excellent! Spray that on the rat trap and the rats will come to see if there is shark for dinner.

Probably attract more rats with scrambled egg.

 

Probably attract more rats with scrambled egg.

Well, yeah...but scrambled eggs won't repel sharks.

 

Well, yeah...but scrambled eggs won't repel sharks.

You have to rig a slippery plastic pipe under the scrambled egg bait that slithers the rats into the sea where the sharks are.