How Do You Catch A Rat?

So a few weeks back one of my feeder rats escaped when I wasn't paying attention. He is confined to the animal room but they are lots of places to hide. When to try to actively hunt him, he is just way to fast. He can be across the room in a flash. So we've resorted to using traps. We've tried sticky traps and kills traps.

The sticky traps he gets caught on but he always managed to drag in half way across the romm, get it hung on something else and pull himself free. I've witnessed this myself. I thought "Yay! We got him!" and then he'd get away. So now he completey avoids them.

The kill traps are baited with peanut butter which I was told was the best to use and he just doesn't go near them.

It's getting stressful now because he is scaring the guinea pigs and stealing their food and has chewed a wire.

I don't want to use poison because I don't want him to die somewhere we can reach and start stinking up the place.

So any advice on how to catch/kill a wayward rat?

Thanks.

i'd keep trying the peanut butter, he should go for it eventually, or try some kind of flavored oatmeal, ive heard of that being effective

The odd chances a feeder rat gets away, my cat usually brings it back to me... most of the time still alive... sorry I am not much help

You can also try Dog/cat canned food. I don't think I've ever seen anything work as effectively.

Also - if this is a common occurrence, you could get a hav-a-heart trap, that way, you still have a live animal at the end that you can still feed off.

A cat on a leash? LOL. Actually tried that with one of my escaped pet rats and our younger cat found the general area he was in.

If he's climbing into other cages then maybe set up and easy to get into empty cage with food and whatnot and see if he ends up back in it. If you can shut him in it, cool. If the food goes missing, try putting one of the traps in next to the food dish. Other than that some places have kill traps which actually electrocute the rat/mouse, no escaping from those.

Set one of your snakes free in the room?

Sorry...that's absolutely no help but it was my 1st thought. Kill two birds with one stone. Get rid of the rat and feed your snake!

Have you tried maybe herding him into a large cardboard box turned on its side? Then once he's in just tip it right-ways up?

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Originally Posted by Xotik

Also - if this is a common occurrence, you could get a hav-a-heart trap, that way, you still have a live animal at the end that you can still feed off.

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Good luck catching your misplaced rat. However if you do get him back alive I would NOT feed him off or put him back with other rats. You have no idea what he has been eating or running through. It could hurt your BP's or contaminate the other rats.

If I catch him alive he's gonna die. My wife is very insistant on the matter. And at this point since I've had to spend money replacing a chewed wire I don't mind doing so.

I've read of those electric traps but they are like $50-$60. But I may be willing to spend that if we can't find another way.

Try a bucket? He might come to a water source rather than food. The way I finally caught a escaped ASF was in a 1/3 full pitcher of water, but they're smaller. If you can put a 5g bucket where he can get to the top rim, he might fall in and not be able to get back out(if it's empty, he can jump out, but with the water, he has nothing to push off of to jump).

Good luck, and I second the "Don't feed it to anything or put it back with your feeder rats". Never can tell what he's eaten or touched. Even the residue from the sticky traps might be harmful.

i offered my 3 kids 20 bucks to the first one that caught one last time that happened. You cannot underestimate the wife factor during one of these occurrences ;)

Take some canned peas, crush it into a paste then smer it all over on the trap. Rats LOVE LOVE PEAS. It will find it that night

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Originally Posted by Adam Chandler

Good luck catching your misplaced rat. However if you do get him back alive I would NOT feed him off or put him back with other rats. You have no idea what he has been eating or running through. It could hurt your BP's or contaminate the other rats.

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I agree, a rat that's gotten away should be put down and disposed of. I've had a few get away on me and have had great luck with kill traps. I've used bread to bait them and stuffed it in real good. I've found that rats can get bait out of the trap without setting it off if they don't have to work for it.

I'd also have a look around the edges of the room and under anything you can look under for droppings, and place your traps where you see most of them.

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

Try a bucket? He might come to a water source rather than food. The way I finally caught a escaped ASF was in a 1/3 full pitcher of water, but they're smaller. If you can put a 5g bucket where he can get to the top rim, he might fall in and not be able to get back out(if it's empty, he can jump out, but with the water, he has nothing to push off of to jump).

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Good advice. Once I didn't even know I had an escapee until I found him drowned in the basement toilet. I don't know how he managed to get in there but sure couldn't get out.

If the peas don't work for you, I've had great luck with bacon grease.

I agree with not feeding him off. I recommend the no-bait snap traps. Just line the traps with the pads against the wall and I caught my ASF within a day. A different species, but the same problem. I reused mine too. :)

Hi, this is masonc2k's wife Chanin. We caught the rat tonight!!!! I went to Lowe's today and bought larger sticky traps and clam shell like kill traps. He got caught on the larger sticky trap and the clam kill trap killed him. Hooray, no more terrorizing the guinea pigs!!

I'm sort of old fashioned in my rat catching.

I take a plain old snap trap and tie a small piece of string to the trip lever. Make sure the string only goes about 1/2 inch past the end of the lever. You don't want it very long at all. Once it's tied on, BEFORE you arm the trap, coat it with peanut butter. Put it on sort of thick. When the rat is licking it off the trip lever he'll find the string and pull it, snapping the trap on his neck. That's why the string needs to be short.

Some rats are gentle enough to lick the lever clean if you don't put the string on it. If it's a particularly smart rat, put the baited trap out a few times WITHOUT arming it. Lull the rat into a false sense of security. Then when you do arm it, WHAM.

Works pretty good for me.

If he has been climbing on things get a large container (bucket, garbage can, etc.), fill it with enough water so the rat cant jump out or reach the top, tape paper over it tightly, cut a T in the middle and add bait. Keep it close to something he can reach it from. When the rat goes for the bait it falls through the paper into the water, hopefully you can check on the bucket every few hours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV9woxUshuA

i know you caught it already but i always keep a BB gun handy in the snake room. no need to be close.
adam jeffery

I had a rat that was out for at least a month, possibly more. I couldn't catch her to save my life. I tried live traps for a long time -two of them bated with different things, but she managed to get out or just eat the food without getting caught. Then I tried some sticky traps, and one of those black plastic snap traps -the tomcat trap. Still nothing. I even caught her twice by hand in a homemade trap I made out of a tub, but I didn't have gloves when I went to catch her and she bit me and I dropped her. We went away for the weekend to go to Tinley and I came back to a washer that was completely destroyed, she chewed every plastic hose she could. I was so mad!!! The only reason I "caught" her was because I stopped free feeding our cat that things he's special and he killed her within a few days. He still doesn't get free fed to this day... Rats are entirely too smart. I really don't know how to catch a rat like that.

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Originally Posted by wilomn

I'm sort of old fashioned in my rat catching.

I take a plain old snap trap and tie a small piece of string to the trip lever. Make sure the string only goes about 1/2 inch past the end of the lever. You don't want it very long at all. Once it's tied on, BEFORE you arm the trap, coat it with peanut butter. Put it on sort of thick. When the rat is licking it off the trip lever he'll find the string and pull it, snapping the trap on his neck. That's why the string needs to be short.

Some rats are gentle enough to lick the lever clean if you don't put the string on it. If it's a particularly smart rat, put the baited trap out a few times WITHOUT arming it. Lull the rat into a false sense of security. Then when you do arm it, WHAM.

Works pretty good for me.

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I like this strategy. Smart!

When ever one of my rats gets out I use a live trap to catch them. I almost always have them by the next day. My favorite live trap is the have a heart traps. And they are great to have around in case a rat ever gets out. I tried cheaper made traps and some rats can get out of them. The HAH traps has a bar that locks the door down. You may be able to rent on from a wildlife center. Or if you have time and nothing better to do you can try what I cousin did once. He got a laundry basket a stick, string and some bait. Tie the string to the stick. Propped up the basket with the stick and place your bait into the the back of the basket. Then hide and wait. And wait, and wait some more. When the rat goes into the basket for the bait pull the string, dropping the basket down. Or you can just try the live trap.

im not sure if you like the sounds of it but i do this when someone gets out too.. if they get out they are died.. i bought an airsoft gun( NOT one that you need c02 for) at wal-mart for like $15 .. its a pistol .. and when i see them i just pop them 1-2 times in the head.. make sure to get the bullet out if its going to a snakes belly..