Sorry forgot to mention.I did use traps with not much luck.The rats have it all figured out and manage to go around traps to get into their opening I put the trap right next to it.Its a serious risk to the birds so I won't use them.As far as I know there are no traps to catch them alive ? They have them for other animals but not rats.That way I could release if there was a bird cought.Also that way I would know 100% that I am dealing with rats.I am yet to see a grown one.thanks for any suggestions...

Rat traps terrify me; even the hubby was leary of finger damage and the results none-too-pleasant. I used to carry them (set) like they were nuclear weapons. We have animal feed and sunflowers for the birds, so we have had rats in the past too. Not any recently, but last year it was worse.

I got directed to this wonderful, relatively humane trap that gives the entrants a quick shock and it's over. Great stuff (unless you're the rat.) And every time we got a 'guest'in the zapper I show it to my cats and raise my eyebrows, then threaten to take away their fleece blankets LOL.

So give it a read at the link. It is highly regarded by many, including me. Batteries seem to last a long time, depending on how often it's activated. The only thing to bear in mind is that it will take a few weeks to lure in those cunning rodents til they feel the new 'thing' is safe enough. Peanut butter and dog kibble make great baits.

Sorry if this offends anyone. It's never a pleasant subject.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ratzapper

I have one of these (see link), but have never caught anything.

I was told by an exterminator guy that you have to leave snap traps un-set for awhile and let them take the bait a few times. Then set the trap, but check twice a day, because the remains would put off the other rats and they would avoid the traps again.

Here is a link that might be useful: humane trap

23 bird stations around the house so lots of food for rats. Had 3 in crawlspace. 1 got trapped in snaptrap but escaped, then ate decon and died in flooring, awful stink all winter, phew. 2nd rat ate decon, no affect, then the brain exploding poison, got confused, went for hammer jaw trap in crawlspace, yard guy removed before too much stink. 3rd rat under there very smart, no amount of poison, glue traps, plugging holes, or neighborhood cats has phased him. Don't know what else to do to get rid of smart cautious rat. Have yard guy go down there every week and move glue traps to try to snare this thing, reset snap and hammer.

Love the birds too much to give up on that -- 100s of birds always flying around yard, really fun to watch. Now we finally have a squirrel visitor too. Our baby trees aren't big enough to house squirrels yet so this one runs down the street from several houses away.

Watching this thread to learn how to catch rat ...

Thanks to all who relied.BTW I did leave traps un-set.Maybe cought two that way, but the birds is my concern.I even put the trap in enclosure so that the birds would not get in.Did not work the birds are here and they feel at home.
Would the RaT zapper also attract birds? Aslo the rain? Would that get damaged? My area as outside so its open to all elements.I have never seen that one do you know who carries it? In BC vancouver.
Has anyone had much success with this gadget? Please let me know.I even tried to put peanut butter on the bait no luck.Thanks a lot.

I used the rat zapper and it went off with ... slugs! Those slugs got to the peanut butter and the weight of them set it off. Fried slugs. No rats. Used it outdoors but when no rain. Would use it in crawl space but that fills up with water.

That's funny about the slugs Cascadians. No danger to birds, I wouldn't think, but a small kitten or very small breed puppy could enter the box. Being an electrical device, you don't want to let it get wet. Great for use in a garage, shed, barn etc where it would be protected from rain. We've put ours up on workbench shelves where the little monsters traipse to get into the attic.

We enjoy the birds too and won't give up feeding them. Now the black bear who ripped down the feeder the other night, I can do without his/her visits!

Scarleta, the Ratzapper is stocked at our local farm and feed store. You might check there if you have any of those in your area.

There is a small animal live trap that can be used for rats, which is what we use it for. We got it at Buckerfields.(farm supplies) Have caught several that way, trouble is what do you do with them. My husband drowns them in the pond.(ugh!) Those spring rat raps are too scary. We also use poison, which is put into a length of PVC pipe that has a screw-top lid in the middle. That way the dog can't get at it, we weight them with big rocks, have several around the house.
We have to be constantly vigilant - we have pond, woods, compost, bird feeder-lots of rat temptations!
Your rock garden nest is a strange thing, Scarleta! Good luck, I hope you find a solution.

Thanks for that.Looks like I can only use the rat zapper under cover.We don't have Buckerfield stores locally and the shops I called that are associated with them are not able to order it...Any other suggestions? Please, please

For more on this topic...

Here is a link that might be useful: Rats & Mice

A length of PVC pipe as previously mentioned may be your best approach. Rats/rodents like to run in narrow spaces so if you create such a path and place your trap inside you're guaranteed success. Barring that borrow a friends terrier for a week (cats won't usually kill rats) - we have a Fox terrier cross who makes quick work of rats. Also rats run in pairs, where there's one rat there's two. Derek

Thanks once more.I am really getting educated on rats here.Derek where are you and your dog located? No kidding need a dog like this one.We do have a dog here but the rats are never seen must be active at night.My dog helped me out when we had rabbits infestation.He is not a terrier but he would do anything I ask him to do.We don't let him out at night.Rats also carry diseasses so may not be a good idea ? Don't you think? PVC pipe to put a poison in? I have couple of stations here with it ( securely covered but no takers.They are just so smart and won't touch it.Initially the did take the expensive one only.Tom Cat it was, but I can't find this one any longer.Thanks will give it a try.I guess I have to make a opening somehow so I can put the bait in it...

We have had rat problems too and they are certainly wiley! My DH handles the traps, etc. He tries to keep human scent off the traps -- even burns them a little and uses old garden gloves to handle them. Rats go along edges of things so make sure your traps or bait is along the edges of walls. We left one trap in place for weeks before catching the last straggler once. These are furry beasts I don't like co-existing with but in the PNW they are a fact of life. One funny story: my DH and I came home late one evening and there was one in the garage above the garage door. He ran into the house and got his BB gun and was shooting at the rat as it ran back and forth on the top of the garage door -- sort of like a video game. He wasn't quite tall enough, so he climbed on the lawnmower for a little more height. Sure enough, lawnmower skidded, DH fell and rat won.

Let's hear it for the valiant, rat-battling husbands! That sounds like a scene from a movie, Dotty! Our rats must be very stupid ones, they eat all the poison and go into the traps! I think I want one of those fox-terriers.
By the way, Scarleta, the live trap is called "Have a Heart" and should be available at any farm-supply store.

Dotty- funny visual with your rat shooting tale. Your poor husband! Your poor garage door! Lucky rat.

I was trying to search online if rat-poisoned rats then eaten or bit by pets are a danger to the pets, and didn't come up with anything too reputable, but please keep that factor in mind if using poison. Seems I've heard the anticoagulant can be passed off onto pets secondhand.

One question on the live trap: what do you DO with the rats once trapped? One of my more ambitious cats apparently broke the spinal cord of a little vermin who was so terrified as I mowed the lawn around him where he lay. He tried to move but all pretty much in vain. I felt terrible and wondered what I could do to put him out of his misery quick (I hate rats, but I still felt really bad for it.) One quick little scoop into the Ratzapper and his suffering was over.

Other than the ratzapper, I'd say the rat terrier would be my preference in rodent control.

I wonder if rats take the bait out of the PVC and carry it outside or burry it for later use? I have little boxes to place it in and they did take it out and just left it on the ground.The rats we have are very, very smart and won;t even eat this stuff.Please let me know which product they like most?
As for live traps ( I haven't used one myself , still looking for it ) I was told to keep a bucket of oil and put the trap and all into the bucket.Automotive oil should work fast.

Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of the live trap... dropping it and the rat in oil?

The humane thing to do would be to drive the little rascals to the nearest forest (as long as it isn't too near) to become bait for predatory birds and snakes. By no means is this a perfect solution though.

Rats, slugs, weevils etc. seem to be a symptom of our loss of mid-size garden creatures like snakes and birds of prey. I wish we all had smaller houses and larger yards rather than the reverse. sigh.

This is the natural and good end I'm hoping for my too-smart rat:

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Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1078184}}

I totally agree wilth your solution to dealing with a rat in a live cage.How possible is this for people I don't know.I sometimes see injured birds on the street and people no matter how much they want to help out simply don't have that much time.We were travelling in S Diego once and found an injured bird under our parked car.We were going to the airport we took time to put him in a box and take the bird to a rescue place.The place was not open any longer .We asked people who were passing by if they could take the bird to a rescue place which we found was open ( we had no time to drive that distance )We found no one had time.We took him in a box to a veterinary clinic nearby and they would not take him.Told us to drive him to an animal rescue .We explained about our flight and rental car return and still they had no one to take the bird..In desperation almost missing our flight back we looked up another clinic drove there not even knowing the city .We had no choice but to put the box on the reception counter with a little note explaining above and simply drove away.I hope he survived. So I do agree with you , Eagle would be great...

Humane to release live rats in wild areas? to what?? Not to the rats, although frankly I am not too concerned about rats. Rats are social family oriented critters and would not feel you had done them any favors by removing them from their home and family and dropping them alone in a strange place.

Not to the other animals already living there either. Rats are nasty invaders. They'll eat anything and are very disruptive to invaded ecosystems. They eat animals, birds, insects, eggs, plant matter, fruit, anything. They eather eat things directly or eat their food and leave others hungry.

Don't release rats or mice in the wild.

We have lots of rats living in the shrubbery in Olympia. I've had to hang the bird feeders so the rats can't get in, fortunately they're the burrowing rats and not the climbing roof rats so they'll only climb so high. Roof rats are impossible to keep out as they can climb anything. My pit bull mix catches rats, ratting is one of their original occupations (not fighting, that's an afterthought). Rats burrow under the house and throughout the garden so I can't grow root crops. they burrow into the compost pile and eat whatever they find. No more composting kitchen scraps.

Rats are not native so you just can't count on predators controlling them, especially in town where there are few predators. Owls, hawks, eagles, coyotes, mink could eat some but there just aren't that many of them compared to the number of rats. No mink in town anyway! and fewer and fewer of the others as every last scrap of land is clearcut and built on. Cats are not great ratters and they kill so many birds and native rodents. Terriers (such as my pit mix) are good ratters but you can't let dogs run loose at night, they cause too much trouble and annoy people and die young from injuries and poisonings.

I use bait, put it right in their tunnels, outside of the fenced area where the dogs are.

Rose canes and blackberry canes, with big thick thorns, shoved into the tunnels discourage them too, as will steel wool. But they just make new tunnels usually, especially if their babies are on the other side of the obstruction. Wouldn't you?

Thanks Reg well said....FYI they do have a bird feeder that only birds can access.It cost quite a bit more , but works 100%.I have had mine for 4 years , it can be put in dishwasher to keep it clean. Works like charm.Just fill it up not too full and let the birds take care of the droppings so no temptation there.Its quite big ( 5 or 6 cups of seeds ) so initially I was topping it up the moment it was empty.That left sees on the ground always.Now I put a cup or two and when empty I wait for the birds to clean up the ground from the droppings.Only birds can access the feeder.Only one I know works and I tried many.

Reg is right. The rats that are in our cities and homes are not native and should not be released into the wild.

"A smooth looking hole in your yard that reappears when filled could indicate a break in the sewer line and a rat problem." That's from the City of Portland Maintenance Department. If you do have a hole in the sewer the rats will continue to be a problem no matter how many you catch. Rats use sewer lines like subways.

I don't know where you live but most communities have some sort of vector control, & will come out & do an inspection at no charge. In Portland, if the sewer is broken on your property you are responsible for the repair; if it's past the curb the city repairs it. Keep that in mind before you call any city agency. My neighbors had all kind of rat holes in their yards, until one of them did a bath remodel & replaced his sewer line, and the other called the city & they found a hole (thankfully on city property) & repaired it. It seems to have really helped.

No break in a sewer line.The area where I am has lots of rats in a near by wild park setting where they happily multiply as some people go to feed the birds ( so they think) The rats come out at night and eat all leftovers and then travel to near by homes to look for more..

Some cats DO kill rats, one of our cats, one we inherited when our neighbors moved and couldn't take him with them.
'Basil the Terminator' thinks it's his duty to rid the whole neighborhood of rats, mice, voles and the occasional rabbit. The only trouble is being an outside cat for most of his life (we are trying to change that) brings some of his kills home in the wee hours of the morning, caterwauling at the top of his voice at the back door. He wants to trade it in for a treat.... Needless to say our neighbors love this guy, he has put a big dent in the vermin population around here.

A......

Can you loan him to me please, please , please,I will take good care of him and no problem with food supply...No kidding you are lucky..

I have lived in this old house for 32 years and always had rats. However, something new and unpleasant is happening. The rats, I think, never saw, are eating my plants on the porch. So far, all succulents and primroses gone and today I freaked when I found one of my cymbidiums totally uprooted, roots chewed up on the floor. There are still a few stubby roots left. Is there any chance it will survive if I try repotting it? As for the rats...what the hell is going on? Could it be that we haven't had any rain for a long time and they are thirsty? I even got 2 kitties from death row and they eat the birds but not the rats. I seem to have created some sort of total UN-Eden.

I don't want to use bait as that kills the many raptors we have. Any help, ideas would be appreciated.

Very upset in Mill Valley

See page I linked to above.

I posted this over a year ago and still getting responses.Lots of us here have the same problem.I am still fighting to win the wars with rats and finally I think I am getting a bit ahead of the game.
Here is what works for me:
Remove all possible food sources ( secure garbage cans,if you have bird feeder get the one that seeds won't drop on the ground and also get the kind that rats can't get to the food.If you have composting bin make sure they can't get in in rats will dig under to get to it.
These steps will remove any food sources and the rats are to smart to hang around your property if they can't feed their babies.I still have some issues but much less now.The bird feeder cost over $100 but if you want to continue feeding the birds you have to get it.It works.Good luck to all and I hope this bit of my success story will help someone out.

I just came across this thread and thought I could add ideas. I fought the rat battles for 3 or 4 years, collecting over 80 rats in snap traps along the way (yes, I actually kept count).

I tried most everything and have concluded that there is only one effective, sustainable solution: eliminate their food sources. They WILL move into your home if there is food nearby, and if not, they will eventually move on (some of my neighbors are now fighting the rat battles). At one point, the rats were so intent on using my attic as home and breeding grounds that, after I sealed off all access points, they literally ate a hole in a cedar shake to regain access. That's when I concluded that you really can't block all access routes - you have to eliminate there reason for wanting to be there.

For me, it was mostly bird feeders. I intend to follow up on scarleta's post about the $100 bird feeder. I miss the birds, but each time I put the feeders back up, the rats are back. I've been without feeders for a year, and the only time the rats returned is when I started putting food scraps into my unsecured compost bin.

Good luck!

We had a rat in our garage once, probably for weeks, and it gnawed out the aluminum plate in the garage door (probably 1/8" thick) in trying to get out. You can see the teeth mark on it!

I'm wondering if folks have problems with dropped fruits in the orchard and it attracting rats. I'm going to plant some fruit trees, and maybe some alpine strawberry, and hate to lose the fruits to the rats as well as invite them into my yard.

We live close to water so rats will always be a given. We try to put a dent in the population during the winter months as they try to move in with us.
Having Basil the terminator (our cat) helps a lot, he is more than earning his keep, brings them to the doorstep and trades them in for a treat. Our Bas is the pride of the neighborhood, he accidentally got locked in the neighbors garden shed one night, when our neighbor opened the door in the morning he found 5 dead rats. Cats like Basil are worth their weight in gold. A

My cat Bobcat also kills rats. I've found two recently. Unfortunately one was under the dining room table and I got a bit of a shock when I reached to pick it up when vacuuming thinking it was his toy rat....

They were both adult rats of the vermin variety, not any kind of cute woodland critters.

Put the posion in the shed and lock it when your not using it. Also if you find a hole in your yard put your garden hose in it and go inside.(Might take awhile to fill den/flood other holes.) This will flood the den,(cruel but effective.) This will also show you where the other holes are so you and your neighbors can fill them.

(Best bet is to use small pebbles/rocks then pack dirt over it, or cement the top of the pebbles/rocks with
quick creat, if nothing else put a heavy rock over the filled hole so they cant get to it.)

Anything to keep them from re-digging their way back in.

>I'm wondering if folks have problems with dropped fruits in the orchard and it attracting rats. I'm going to plant some fruit trees, and maybe some alpine strawberry, and hate to lose the fruits to the rats as well as invite them into my yardI have seen wharf rats in fruiting apple and fig trees on Seattle properties even during daylight hours. One time I saw a wharf rat come out onto a branch on an apple tree that was hanging over a busy street, while we were sitting there in our cars waiting for a traffic light. It was a sunny day, the animal quite visible.

Having poor luck with the old-fashioned snap traps, I borrowed a friend's RatZapper and got great results using it in my garage. I now have my own & figure my cost-per-rat is down to about $3...and dropping.

The RatZapper is a quick death - in my opinion a much more humane solution than poisons. But I fully subscribe to the idea that the only good rat is a dead rat. I would never catch and release one!

>I now have my own & figure my cost-per-rat is down to about $3...and droppingIs this what the term "rat droppings" refers to?

Wharf rats spread disease and have actually killed people. Lots of them. Another name for it is plague rat.

I have found the best bait on a rat trap is a dried pumpkin seed with a few drops of vanilla essence on the seed and some drops over the trap itself. We can still buy the old wooden traps and they are the best. We get the odd rat in our wood shed and this bait never misses.