rats

[coop]

i have rats in my garden so i put 2 traps out. i have tried cheese then dog food in the traps but they dont seem 2 like it. any ideas what food would really attract them. i dont want 2 use poison. please help cos they are using my pond as a swimming pool.

[worfman]

what you want to do is tie a bone, such as a leg of lamb bone, to the trap, it's best to wire it ...what was you going to do with the rat's after?? i would drown them in a bucket of water, happy hunting...

[burnhal]

Afraid I find the best answer is a dose of lead poisoning ......from the barrel of a .22 air rifle

[smudge]

This might help:

http://www.mrbrains.com/how-to-get-rid-of-rats /

[Thunderbird+]

Grian is their natural food but they also find chocolate irisistable.
I tend to use burnhal's method which is very fast especially if the rats are suspicious of traps.

Would it be possible to contact your lacal council, who should send round a profesinal pest controller with all the latest equipmend and desposal aids.

[goosing]

milk chocolate usually works according to our local "ratman" or you could borrow my cats if you dont mind corpses lined up outside your dining room window!

[thugulike]

Rats need to get used to the trap being there undisturbed. It should be in a rat run, somewhere hidden and along a wall for example. The will go in the trap when they are sure it's safe! Drown in a bucket of water if still alive. The ones I've caught always seem to die of fright once in the trap. The deaf mastiff used to bring me rats. Lovely to have one dropped on your feet in the morning, Of course she couldn't hear me scream....

[kwicky]

Poison under a shed usually does the trick

[boobunnie]

i agree with thunderbird and goosing chocolate is your best bet,i tried for weeks trying to trap a mouse using cheese,biscuits ect then a guy from rentokil told me to use chocolate as the sweet smell is strong and they cant resist it,low and behold i caught it that night within half an hour of putting the chocolate on the trap.goodluck

[Kleiber]

I had a similar problem last autumn. The cats (all 5 of them) were useless - I think the rats were too big & aggressive for them. I resorted to poison ("Tom Cat") in the end - well concealed to stop the local (welcome) wildlife from getting to it & if I found any bodies, I burnt them to save the birds of prey from eating them (we have red kites & buzzards here). The only other thing I can suggest is if you know anyone with a terrier (Jack Russells are great ratters), could you ask them to bring it to your place for a bit of sport?