Houdini the mystical rat!

[SHROP]

So i had a rat escape from my rack about a month ago. He was just weaned and im not too sure how he found his way out of his tub. At first i figured he would starve but ohhhh was i wrong. he has been surviving on a diet of rat block from the food hoppers and black oil sun flower seeds i feed my mice. His water he has been getting from the watering system, how you ask? by chewing holes in the watering lines. he doesnt mind if he floods a tub or the ground for that matter. he gets enough water and goes back into hiding. i fix the lines and we go through the process a day or so later. I am FED UP with this rat. i tried a trap i made. a sad excuse of a trap but hey, if i can trap it and feed it off i would be happy. Once i realized the trap was a joke i broke out the big guns, Glue traps!..... yeah right! after only 1 day i saw foot prints right across it. well who can escape from a snap trap right? Houdini cant escape.. but he can eat all of the peanut butter off and avoid a certain death... so i thought again lets think outside the box. what does Houdini want? duh, something to drink! So being the nice guy that i am i mixed him up a cocktail of water and mostly antifreeze. no dice. he didnt take it. Well at this point im just beside myself. so desperate times call for desperate measures. I brought out tar kitty. our giant half indoor/ half outdoor rag doll cat. this guy brings adult rabbits do the door, even birds!what can escape him! Houdini, thats who.... apparently Tar Kitty is on winter hibrenation and did nothing but sit in next to the heater for two days while my watering system was destroyed yet again! So 2 nights ago i was assessing the scene and trying to figure out how much airline i need to replace when i saw him! little black rat sitting on top of a rack under a 10gl tank i was storing. so i sloooooooowly lift the tank and he is trapped! my problems are about to be over. i ease my hand closer and closer and reach for that tail and POOF!!!! he is gone. no running past me, no jumping to the floor. no going inside of a hole in the metal fabric i may have missed, no hoping to another level of tubs.. just gone......... i spent an hour looking for him. he's still there, because another 20' of line is chewed threw... i need help. i AM NOT as smart as a rat, and i cannot keep replacing the line.he wont take poison bait, he wont fall into a trap, and he out smarted my killer feline.

please help i need him gone like yesterday!

[angllady2]

My only suggestion is to wrap the line with foil. I have heard they don't like the texture of foil and are reluctant to chew it.

In the meantime, get an empty 5 gallon bucket and loosely drape some window screen or nylon net material over the top. Place the bucket as close to the rat racks as you can so he can reach it easily. Very carefully place a shallow container of water along the rim of the bucket farthest from the rack, so he must cross the top of the bucket to reach it. The idea being, when he goes for the water he can see and smell, his weight will collapse the screen and fall into the bucket. I cannot guarantee he'll stay in there long, but I've used this with success before.

My only other suggestion is one a friend has used, try setting out a shallow dish of beer. According to my friend, the rat will consume enough of it to slow it down and allow you time to grab the rat by the tail.

Gale

[SHROP]

drunk rats,why didnt i think of that! might increase my breeding potential if i add a few drops to the water system lol. jk. ive got my wife picking up some more tubing and some different kinds of poison as well. i hate to kill it but this is WAR!

[Rhasputin]

My only suggestion is to wrap the line with foil. I have heard they don't like the texture of foil and are reluctant to chew it.

Gale

This does not work.

[SHROP]

This does not work.

darn i was going to try that.

[SHROP]

ive had two escape before but they drown in a reserve 5gl bucket i keep to fill a few that still use water bottles. Houdini however is too smart for that.

[Rhasputin]

darn i was going to try that.

Yeah, it sucks. I used it with mice and ASFs before, they just shred the foil like anything else.

I would go with the beer idea, haha.

[SHROP]

well i set out some poison last night and instead of fixing the lines i left them and put water bottles on each tub, what a pain filling them all but hopefully it will piss the little guy off not having any water.

[Rhasputin]

Should have gone with snap traps. Putting out poison could be endangering your other rats as well, and vicariously your snakes.

[SHROP]

i agree, it was a tough decision, but the snap traps arent working, Houdini has figured out how to eat the bait and not get snapped. ive been trying the snap traps for about 2 weeks and every day i check and all the food is gone and the trap still set. i even adjusted the activation bar so it was more sensitive, (almost lost a finger in the process) and it is a hair trigger. and he STILL managed to clean the plate! ive made sure the poison is not near any tub in any rack. ive been monitoring it twice daily.