g'day kombi,

haven't seen you around for a while?

for us 'tomcat' block baits from the produce agency work consistantly very well.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

best rat trap in my garden? Nuggett the staffy cross - he's the one that has kept the crows out of the yard

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:2111529}}

Peanut butter smeared on the trap - they just can't resist the stuff.

On the trap..try pumpkin seeds with linseed oil works a treat...MM.

As Robyn says, peanut butter is great on rat and mouse traps as you don't have to keep replacing it. I use it successfully whenever I have to set traps. My father used pumpkin seeds all the time and the rats loved them but it was hard to stop the seeds disappearing so he now uses peanut butter too.

Yes PB works here, I have to say (touch wood) that the rats finally moved on or were eradicated after their bush habitat was disturbed and caused months of probs. The mice still tiptoe through occasionally unfortunately the dog is no help, she'd rather be trying to kill the lizards (poor lizards). Nuggett looks like he'd be pretty fast when not lolling round on his beautiful bed!

i've used peanut butter on the old back breaker traps before and have got them out and set them tonight. previously had limited success with peanut butter before, been more liberal with it this time.
how about the cage traps? since i've lopped off the remaining tomatoes so the rats had less alternative food i've put out poison, both bro~(whatever) and bro~(the other one) at about 6m distance. instead the rats have started on the passionfruit. set some nectarine in the cage traps tonight.

any ideas about best bait for cage traps?

read on a web site that roof rats prefer moist foods and norwegian rats dry foods like cereals.

len, saw the tomcat info on a website, same chemicals as the household baits from bunnings i got. are they higher concentration of active ingredient or cheaper?

re "haven't seen you around for a while?" - did you here about the premier?

I find the cheaper baits from supermarkets do not work, I mean the blasted vermin do not touch them. I use the grain baits from Nights and sons (local farm suplier). We buy 2kg tins @ $40. The price has not changed for a number of years. I will verify it as we need to buy another one.

Keep well Kombi :-).

meggs, i could write a book or post grad thesis ... perhaps i am. gardening is my opportunity to escape. pulled myself back from the conclusion reached by many men in particular. collating my thoughts about the shortcomings of currently available programmes and spotlight on public figures coming out. been working in the field for some time now and have an opportunity to see and share insights not often considered by the media and public

Well my pc tells me that this site is not secure , I always thought it was pretty safe .
Back to the trap /mouse thingie , if mice do not go for the rat poison crush it up and put sugar in with it , this all mice and rats will always go for .

garden_worm

Cats are not too fussy about whether the verimin are norwegian, english or transylvanian. The more cats the merrier in fact. Of course then you have a cat problem - they use a lot of cat litter, drink a lot of special lactose free milk, eat a lot of eukanuba specially prepared, expensive cat food and prefer soft, velvety bedding.
An interesting, poison free rat trap can be made from a cardboard box and a razor blade. Cut a rat head sized hole at one end of the box and fix a razor blade at the base of the hole. Place a piece of cheese inside the box. The first 2 or 3 nights, let the rat take the cheese. On the fourth night, don't put any cheese in there. The rat comes along, pops his head through the hole, looks back and forth several times for the cheese, and hey presto - dead rat!
Can be reused.
Skin the rat, cook until tender, dice and feed to kittens. Cheaper than eukanuba and probably less time consuming than driving to the distant pet shop that sells the stuff.
Cure the skins - they can be sewn together to make nice fur lined cat beds.
Anyone want an 8 week old kitten? Or a dog that doesn't like kittens?

Are you prepared to kill the rat if u use a cage trap?? tough bacon rind tied to the prongs of an ordinary wooden rat trap seems to entice and engage the rat long enough to set off the trap. I have read that you must place the trap along the path the rat follows ie somewhere along a wall or a beam (not in the middle of the room) and once you catch one move the trap to another place - apparently rats are very clever and not risk takers at all so will not break cover to go to a suspicious trap. I have had reasonable success with the above. Plastic traps have never worked. Sticky traps are great for catching chooks but no luck with rats even though the produce said they were great. We have rats because we back onto a macadamia plantation and they are like a rat magnet. Yours may respond to the exotic macadamia. Our rats are quite taken with bananas at the moment ( might be worth a try) Good luck and may you be more cunning than your rat.

Are you prepared to kill the rat if u use a cage trap??
YOU BETCHA!!! had to do it many a time.

Plastic traps have never worked.
AGREED, can't get the Aussie timber ones any longer, imported timber traps have very weak mechanisms.

Saw a multi rat trap at Knights & Sons, visited them after Meggs post reminded me of them, but $75, not too sure if they would go for it, like Plantsplus says, apparently rats are very clever and not risk takers at all so will not break cover to go to a suspicious trap, I think a panicked rat in a trap would scare off others. Picked up some Racumin paste poison sachets the guy at Knights said are very good.

I believe i have had some success! broke up a nest in a woodpile yesterday with 3 mature rats went scampering away. put out the Racumin paste sachets and they all showed signs of being eaten! just a matter of keeping it up now. the poison with bro~1 and bro~2 have not even been touched, think the rats know now what they are.

BTW the sachets are easy to put around, can wire them in trees, nail to pergola timbers.

Wow it is like openning the floodgates. My daughter's partner just rang me for advice as they have rats, my telephone lines were down, the guy from telstra said caused by mice, but it might have been rats. Have to go to Wangarra to get more poison. Will try the sachets this time. No I will not kill a rat in a trap but I found some baby rats in an old pot behind the shed, well ... hope they will be reborn as a tree or tomatoe.

One of the best rat baits is whatever is attracting them in the first place.
The best trap is a plastic trap marketed by Tomcat. It works differently than your conventional wooden type. In order for the rat to set off the trap it has to stand on a plate that surrounds the bait before it can reach the bait.
To set the trap you simply push the back of the trap down, easy.
The downside to Tomcat traps is the plastic breaks after a while and at $15 each. Ouch!
But they do work well.

Doug.

Have you ever tried Rat Zappers? They are a very humane was to kill the rats. It's an electric chair for rats. They go in and never come out. They are a bit pricey but they are worth it. The problem with bait is that the rat suffers to death. The occasional problem with the wooden snap traps is when the rats are not instantly killed. I want to be humane as much as possible.

The problem I'm having is that in my garden where there is lots of good food, why would the rats want to go inside the Rat Zapper? That's why I'm here. Everywhere outside the garden area I catch rats and mice every night. It looks like tonight I'll put some peanut butter in the traps and see if I can start getting them in the garden. (BTW - I have 8 of the Rat Zappers.)

making an owl box or 2 is a good way of cutting down the rat population.

I had a rat trapped in a small bedroom for over 8 days.I have a red cattle dog she has killed 18 in the last three months have a dirty house near by yard needs cleaning.Tried two traps (FACTORY TRAPS STANDARD) peanut butter and seeds nothing for 5 days.Tried ratsack took the packet nothing happened for 2 days.At night went along the bottom of the exit door destroying the woodwork AND MASSIVE HOLES IN THE CARPET to get out so I put a steel plate under door hoping he would take the bait.Sunday I made my own trap cost about three dollars.Got a board say 30cm x 30 cm covered in glue (wood working glue) then got gaffa tape. Covered the board in gaffa tape sticky side up then underneath the stuck with right side up to secure it.BOARD ABOUT 8MM THICK SO IT CAN STUCK UNDER THE DOOR IN WHERE THE RAT IS BUT 30MM UNDER DOOR (WHEN RAT GOES ON BOARD BOARD STAY'S STILL).Then in the middle one piece of dried dog food.Today we have a dead rat and please don't let the dog finish it off in the trap as you will have a bald dog.A very smart animal its a shame it's a pest.18/19 for the red dog

I've had good success with this rat trap. I like the fact that it doesn't harm the animal.

Here is a link that might be useful: Humane Rat Trap

About 7 years ago we moved into an open space area with a mile to the nearest neighbors. Trapped 6-8 rats/day for a couple months clearing the property. Victor traps tend to go off in your hands and the wood gets messy quickly after a kill. Found a better mouse/rat trap invented at Bell Labs of all places called Big Snap E. High impact plastic, very cleanable and reusable. Has bait well for peanut butter. Never snaps on you when you set it so your nerves dont get frayed. Easy to find on Internet but varies considerably in price from seller to seller. At present less than $5 many places on net. Victor now makes a look-alike trap but they don't seem to work as well.

Thanks everyone, I hate rats. Last year they attacked my giant tomatoes and giant pumpkins. They seem to thrive in my compost heaps and under weed matting. I found plastic owls deter rodents but they don't stop the birds. A year or so ago my dog ate bait so I'm a bit phobic of it.

On the old wooden snap traps I find when cooking meat with fat on it (eg bacon, chops, etc), add some cheese to the fry pan after meat removed. Allow cheese to melt. Then mold it to the metal tag on trap and let cool (ie harden). Impossible for a sneaky critter to remove bait without getting trapped. They love the smell of animal fat.

We were plagued with rats, the cats were afraid of them. I went to the feed and seed to find something to use and talked to an old farmer about it. What he told me was brilliant. Get a five gallon bucket fill it about half way with water, then dump a small bag of cheap dog food in it. The dog food floats. Put it where the rats have access to it. The little suckers will drown thinking its a free meal. I tried it and it worked! Must have trashed 2 dozen rats over the course of a week.

Ok I typed that out wrong, not a five gallon bucket, thats not big enough. What I used was a big white paint bucket, the kind contractors use, (ten gallons?. Sorry I had a blond moment.

still find the block baits from the produce agency the most consistent, tomcat brand best.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page