Escaped Rats!

[Brewster320]

I just walked into the basement where I keep my rats. While checking on the ASFs I noticed two were gone any they some how popped the top off their aquarium and are now loose in the house! I tore everything apart and brought my dogs down stairs with me hoping they'd notice something I wouldn't. But not even a sign. Being that my basement and garage is a mess I don't even know where to start. I'm also worried about them chewing electrical wires, fish tank plumbing, and breeding as they are both pregnant! Any help would be awesome

[Andrew21]

Do you want them alive? Mouse traps, or if they are big, rat traps. Just put the traps against the base of the walls. You don't even need to bait them if they have the big yellow pan. Bait stations would work too. I'm not a big fan of glue traps.

[satomi325]

I hate to say this, but you may have to kill them with mouse traps. Leave a couple snap traps on the edges of the room. Use peanut butter as bait. Rodents usually travel on the parameter of rooms out of safety. And they will be more active at night. I've caught a few wild mice in my roommate's room this way.

You could try glue traps, but that's not always effective.


Good luck!

Edit: Andrew beat me!

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[Brewster320]

I have located their general areas. Ones in the garage ceiling and the other in the basement. I'd prefer alive but dead is better than an ASF invasion

[satomi325]

Definitely lure them out with peanut butter then. If you don't want to use snap or glue traps, you can use a rodent size metal animal cage trap (like a miniature version of the cage traps used for feral cats). But im not sure if the asfs would be heavy enough to trigger the door to slide down...........

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[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

I bought a havahart live rat trap and I keep it in my reptile/rat room for just this reason. If you have any escapees, bait it with something irresistible like peanut butter. Problem is, once you catch a rat in it, you'll never catch the same rat twice in it. Plus if it's in a place where the other rats can see it, and can see that a rat was trapped in it, you won't ever catch any of them in it either.

They are incredibly smart!

[Andrew21]

Get a couple of those tin cat mouse traps.

[Coleslaw007]

Get a couple of those tin cat mouse traps.

We used those with pretty good success when I was little and my pet mice, who according to the pet store were "too young to be pregnant" escaped and had tons of babies in the walls. We were finding little white lab mice all over for a couple months.

Not sure if this helps but I thought it was a cool idea.... I once dropped a feeder mouse in the house by accident. I never caught it but assumed the cats probably got it. A couple months later I set a bar of chocolate on my bedside table and woke up to find it chewed open.
I read online about a pretty cool homemade trap for if the mouse gets up on tables or anything with a little height. You set a bucket next to the table and take the cardboard tube out of a papertowel roll, rub a little peanut butter at least midway in/ toward one end with a knife and then set it on the edge of the table over the bucket with the food end sticking out over the bucket, making sure about half the tube is on the surface. When the mouse/ asf goes into the tube for the food and gets to the unsupported end, it tips and falls into the bucket.
I tried it and it worked perfectly. It was pretty satisfying and def the cheapest trap ever.

Oh... And good luck!

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[wolfy-hound]

You can also set out containers of water. Water will often attract the rodents. I keep a dish of water on the rat room floor so that a rodent has no NEED to leave the room.

I've caught a asf in a pitcher of water about 1/3 full. It fell in trying to get a drink, then doggy-paddled around in circles until I found it. It actually was fine, dried off and ate and seemed healthy. So it's extended swim didn't even harm it. I've read that rats can swim for days before drowning, so I guess asf can swim a long time too.

[mustang91302]

Five gallon bucket with a board on it they fall in the bucket alive works every time for me i put some food in the bottom and on the top of the board and hope they fall in