oh dear... sweet j please help!!!

omg. the wife has been verry supportive so far of my rat / mice breeding... I went to feed one of my stuborn breeders.... thre an ASF in there.. very small... probably the runt.. he was in there for about 30 minutes.. i opened the tup to check on him and... HOP... the little *^$%($^ escaoed, into the couch he escaped.... dam near tore the couch apart... then spotted him accross the room and man he did a superman move under the ENTERTAINMENT CENTER!!!!!! I dove, hit my chin on the tile, got a bloody lip, an no rat to e found.... Oh dear.... If i don't find that lillte )*^%^*(&^&%&^%&*%%^^& before she does, I am Q#$%@#@#$$^@@$%^$ &#$^%^@$%^@$%R^@#$%@$%&@$%^@%^$%^@$%^@#% (^&^*&$%^#%@#$%&* .
!!!!!

Maybe time to go to the hardware store and see what they have to catch rats? Mousetrap? Cage? Those sticky boards?

I was lucky once with some adult mices escaped in the living room. They were white and was easy to spot and catch.

But with hoppers??? Man, I can't even grap those in their own tub.

Good Luck.

I take it you don't have a cat? :-P

Yup, traps are the way to go. I've always had several set in my rodent room all the time, but also in the basement, closets and other places that they dog and cat can't get to. (behind book cases are a favorite) Mice loose in the house aren't that bad, but rats can be really destructive. I'm not sure about the ASF's but I suspect they'd be somewhere in between. I'm always surprised by catching the occasional wild mouse in those traps despite the fact that we have a cat. darn lazy cat....

You'll likely have to set some traps but you could also try my trick for catching ASF's. I've only had three get away on me but this method worked very well at capturing them.

Get a big empty margarine container with lid. Figure out where the ASF is currently hiding and arrange things so you block all escape routes bar one. Place the open container at that place. Keep the lid handy and make a sharp noise behind where the ASF is hiding (use a broom or whatever if you don't have help). Normally they will run away from the sound and vibration and straight into the dark "hide". Then you just quickly snap on the container lid and dump them back in their enclosure. It might take a couple of tries but so far for me it's always worked.

This is necessarily the most humane way to do it, but it has worked very well for a friend of mine (I have not had to try it yet). Set a five gallon bucket somewhere in a quiter place, and fill the bucket half way with water. Set some type of ramp up to the top of the bucket from the floor. The rat will try to get to the water and fall in. Now, if you check the bucket often enough, you will be able to rescue the rat before it drowns (if you don't get to it fast enough, that is where the inhumane part comes in). All that said, I don't think that this is any less humane than a mouse trap.

p.s. I know some people that have tried the standard mouse traps for ASF's, and told me they have had a 0% success rate, probably due to their inherent speed.

Hope that helps,

Sounds like your wife is like my hubby, I can only imagine if I had an escapee :O

Go check your local Walmart, Lowes or Home Depot to see if they have live trap.

And good luck getting the little bugger back !

Id try to use one of the catching type traps where you put some food in one end and after they walk in the door closes behind them. I used to have pet mice years ago and I tried the sticky traps and when I checked one there were some were bloody messy things and I eventually caugh him and sure enough he chewed off all of his feet to get away :O I felt so bad

Humane and easy, set a bucket or garbage can up by the edge of a coffee table. From the coffee table overlap a peice of cardboard so it barely balances with a nice blob of peanut butter on the edge.

The rat will go for the peanut butter, toss it off balance and fall in the bucket. So long as the ramp isn't tall enough or angled when it falls in with it - you've got him.

Worked in less than half an hour every time I've tried it, but don't be out and about while you're waiting.

I caught my one escapee with a pitcher of water(i.e. the water bucket stated above). Found him paddling around in circles, warmed him up and he was fine. Fed him off two days later, little *#&(^#