Gruesome Task...

So, I have a rat problem. We just had a neighbor move in who has a food truck and he leaves the leftover food around and it has been attracting rats. Yeah, I know, I'm thrilled. They have made their way over onto my property and I have been trapping them with some success. It turns out they have found their way into my shop. I really wasn't thinking they would go into there because there was nothing to eat, but... We heard a bunch of scurrying and I realized it was time to get them out of the shop.

I knew where the hole was they were using for access, so I pulled the board from the wall and sealed the hole and set some snap traps. After a day one of the traps had two rats in it. No biggie until I realized one had not expired. All the rats thus far had been dead when the trap was retrieved, but this one was caught in an unusual way. I am looking at the trap and trying to figure out how I am going to solve the trap surviving rat problem. Do I let it out and stomp on it? Not really keen on letting an injured angry rat out next to my hand, so I leave it on the ground and figure with a little more time the breath will be squeezed out.... Wrong! Two hours later I head back out and the thing is squeeking. I decide the quickest and most humane thing to do is to drop it into some water. I do that and give it twenty minutes and the uncomfortable solution has done the trick.

Today I go out and here I have another rat that must have backed into the trap and has gotten caught by the butt. I pick up the trap and set the front of the rat onto another trap I have set and it snaps across the shoulders of the rat and I figure, "problem solved". I throw the traps into a pail to let the rat expire and come back a couple hours later and the thing is still alive. So now I have to use the drown the rat solution a second time. Not liking the task at all, but having to do it none the less.

That is three from the shop and I am hoping I have gotten them all and if not, I am hoping the traps do the job for me upfront and I don't have to dispatch the pests myself in the future.

DOUBLE POST!
It would be a shame if a health inspector found dead rats and rat turds in his truck.

One of the caretakers that i know was having a squirrel problem. He said that .22 cal rat shot worked pretty well. I used to use the kind with the crimped brass ends ages ago and had spent shell ejection problems but the new kind has a plastic end.

I think i would be more likely to put out D-Con rat baits around the property. We've been using it here for mice for decades. Does a bang up job and you don't have to fuss with the traps.

The Have a Heart rat traps can be fun. You live catch .... from there you just relocate them to somewhere else. Maybe your neighbor's trash can ?

Unfortunately, shooting the trapped rat would destroy the trap, and I really don't see them enough to get a shot off. I also live in a residential area, so gunshots would not be welcomed. As far as squeamish, I will admit to being a bit uncomfortable to have to kill an animal that is just doing what it does for no other reason than it being an irritant. I am actually more uncomfortable that the animal didn't expire quickly and that I must resort to additional means to dispatch. I don't imagine a hunter who is pleased to chase an animal they shot to find it still alive and have to shoot it again. As far as a pink gun, I prefer walnut stocks.

I have considered the health inspector route, but that seems a bit too tattle tale-y.

I have considered poison, but it is a little to indiscriminate for my liking. I don't mind the squirrels and I wouldn't mind the rats if they stayed outside, and poison wouldn't differentiate between them. I am also worried a poisoned rat may wind up being eaten by a bird or fox or raccoon and wind up also poisoned.

At this point, I am satisfied with trapping them and if I have to dispatch them because the trap did not finish them off, ya do what ya have to do. I have also used glue traps in the past but those things are just horrid.

Humm .... i was thinking .... the simplest thing might be to go talk with the neighbor. He probably doesn't like the rats any more than you do. Remove the food source and the animals move on to greener pastures ?

It works pretty well with black bears in this area. (That's preferable shooting them in the hind quarters with a LTL 12 ga. round.)

I've bought different types of traps over the years and I like the old style wood base traps the best. Once we got an outside cat we never saw another mouse except for the few she brings to the back door. When she was younger she would catch rabbits and moles also. She didn't just kill them..she ate them also.

Originally Posted by hills

Humm .... i was thinking .... the simplest thing might be to go talk with the neighbor. He probably doesn't like the rats any more than you do. Remove the food source and the animals move on to greener pastures ?

It works pretty well with black bears in this area. (That's preferable shooting them in the hind quarters with a LTL 12 ga. round.)

No. They are just trash. They can't tell the rotten meat stinks? They don't already know they have rats? I own, they rent. I'm the one who has something to lose.

Originally Posted by jimicrk

I've bought different types of traps over the years and I like the old style wood base traps the best. Once we got an outside cat we never saw another mouse except for the few she brings to the back door. When she was younger she would catch rabbits and moles also. She didn't just kill them..she ate them also.

I have used the old style wood plank traps, and they work well, but I bought a bunch of easy set plastic planks that are safer and easier to set and have a bigger landing pad trip lever. They have performed as well as the wood traps and I don't have to worry about the trap snapping as I put it in place..... I don't do cats.

Supposedly there are rats in the apartment building where I live and adjacent ones as well. I have cats. So I have no rats.

Originally Posted by t00nces2

I have considered the health inspector route, but that seems a bit too tattle tale-y.

Awww ... C'mon ... you know you wanna RAT them out.