I have a few dirty rats (rodent type) hanging around the outside of my house. Want them gone. What is the most effective method for getting rid of them?

Went on the Bunnings website and they have everything from baits, Nooski's (lacky band thing), electronic sound emmitters...all the way to the good old fashioned wooden trap like the one featured below.

P.S. I hate cats so I am not getting one of those to solve my problem.

A cat and a gun
catch rats with cat
shoot cat after

Tenterfield Terrier Terrorist ticks all the right boxes!

Ours loves "playing" with the neighbours rats, and can outrun and outlast any cat silly enough to cross our fence line

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sn said..
Tenterfield Terrier Terrorist ticks all the right boxes!

Ours loves "playing" with the neighbours rats, and can outrun and outlast any cat silly enough to cross our fence line

I was about to buy one but relocating east in a few months so put it off. How are they as pets? The dog.

I lived in a place once with lots of rats. I liked the old fashioned trap. There's a grey plastic version with lots of power bit more durable than the wood one. Baits work but they can die and smell. One died on the roof of the shed and I couldn't work out where the smell was coming from. If you leave out some water you might have more luck. (If the area is very dry). the biggest issue was getting rid of the bodies. I used to double bag them and stick them under my windscreen wiper drive down the shop and throw them in the skip bin

If you have a friend with a pet snake get some of the snake droppings and put them around, apparently the smell will keep the rats away?

Peanut butter is a great bait for mouse and rat traps. It almost never fails to attract them, and they can't remove it from the trap.

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Harrow said..
Peanut butter is a great bait for mouse and rat traps. It almost never fails to attract them, and they can't remove it from the trap.

My experience with peanut butter on mouse trap. Every morning peanut butter gone, trap still primed. Sneaky buggers.

TOMCAT All weather bait chunx. Seriously good stuff.

Actually, I have a suspicion that it might be getting into the roof. Not going to bait it as the last one made a nest in the roof insulation prior to dying. Took me ages and to find it after it started to rot.

Might go the trap.

If your neighbors are filthy carnts you will find it hard to get rid of rats, put the bin out for next door when they went on holiday and about 6 rats jumped out of the bin as I wheeled it down the driveway.

pvc pipe 500 long ,sit on bench just on point of balance ,place bucket of water below pipe ,bait with peanut butter .

The biggest reason to get rats and mice away from your property is rodents damage etc.

It's that they attract snakes.

Use traps and baits, but if you have other animals, get the baits that you can nail though the centre to a wall or a bit of wood etc . So there are not stray bits of poison left about.

Father in-law had a farm....shooting a snake (king brown, and tigers) around the house and sheds was almost daily in summer. Really got rid of the rodents....next summer not one snake.

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Cambodge said..

Harrow said..
Peanut butter is a great bait for mouse and rat traps. It almost never fails to attract them, and they can't remove it from the trap.

My experience with peanut butter on mouse trap. Every morning peanut butter gone, trap still primed. Sneaky buggers.

Having the same issue. Tying a piece of bread to the rat trap lever with cotton and then smearing the bread with peanut butter. In the morning the trap is still primed but the bait is gone. I've bought a plastic mouse trap made in Ourimbah which is not far from where I live. Hopefully it works better than the big rat trap. I think the issue I have is its a mouse taking the bait and its too delicate with its eating to trigger the trap. Hopefully the plastic mouse trap will work.

Its a bit of an issue here. There are rats around the area I live. I am into gardening and am composting stuff. Composting and gardening vegetables does unfortunately attract rodents. I've killed a few over time with standard rat and mouse traps. Due to them I bought one of those plastic compost bins. This bin really has evidence of their activity, they have attempted to eat their way into the bin. Its a bit demoralising but I'll keep fighting them.

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saltiest1 said..

sn said..
Tenterfield Terrier Terrorist ticks all the right boxes!

Ours loves "playing" with the neighbours rats, and can outrun and outlast any cat silly enough to cross our fence line

I was about to buy one but relocating east in a few months so put it off. How are they as pets? The dog.

Ours is a ripper, if he [Chopper] wants to go outside he head butts the door, he can give us around 10 minutes warning that the grandkids are on the way,
He doesn't walk anywhere - he is either [barely] stationary, scrabbling for traction, drifting around corners or bouncing off the walls.
He has a pet ragdoll cat, and they both spend much of the day either ambushing each other, or winge-ing because they are separated by a door or wall.
He has a habit of winding up his cat by darting in and nipping her fur, while the cat sinks in the claws and gets towed around the house by the silly bugger.
If the cat is asleep [or pretending to be asleep] he will bounce in and sit on her head - resulting in an almighty yelp as he gets airborne.......

Chopper is magic with kids - like most dogs he knows a sooky face will cadge a free feed, and he even gets dragged around in the grandkids radio flyer trolley, the cubbyhouse, and on the swings.

Even though he is a "walking stomach" he doesn't eat that much compared to any other dog I have had - and his landmines are no way as offensive as a Labrador or rotties

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Harrow said..
Peanut butter is a great bait for mouse and rat traps. It almost never fails to attract them, and they can't remove it from the trap.

That explains the sore penis and the dog's sore snout - did I do something wrong?

Not sure about rats, but these ones are dynamite on mice:


I get them from woolies. Bait with a little peanut butter. Excellent design, they really are a better mouse trap.

Good luck with the rats.

I lived in Egypt for a number of years and they have huge rats. These types of traps were brilliant.



www.ebay.com.au/itm/Rat-Trap-Sydney-Seller-Australias-top-selling-rat-trap/252067497201?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908110712%26meid%3Dfb1a417bf8604f179fa9621267324d82%26pid%3D100677%26rk%3D7%26rkt%3D30%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D261306064058%26itm%3D252067497201&_trksid=p2385738.c100677.m4598

www.ebay.com.au/i/261306064058?chn=ps&dispItem=1

I used seeds smeared in peanut paste. Re not going off - When u load the trap you have the chicken finger holding pin don't put it in too far. Make it a hair trigger - right on the edge so you only need to look at it and it goes off. Loading should induce fear and be a slow and delicate operation - do it from the rear to minimise ouch. Those plastic conventional ones I mentioned were good because everything is more rigid and the tolerances tighter. The wood ones twisted and moved with all the force and binded up a bit.

Make sure you do them in as nicely as possible. Rats are a most caring and sharing creature. They get an awfully hard time in the lab. (
Which is probably why we know so much about how they are such little thinkers). There was the experiment where they put the test rat's best mate in a stressful solitary cell. The test rat was able to release his mate when the stressing device was activated. When simultaneously presented with a treat and a stressed mate the test rat would always release his mate first so he could share the treat with him. Except if the treat was chocolate, then his mate could wait.

Plenty of rat intelligence experiments to google.
www.independent.co.uk/news/science/rats-are-capable-of-feeling-regret-scientists-say-9510038.html

I catch them alive in something like Richard's trap and release them in the classy end of town.

Rats (& mice) hate steel wool, won't go near the stuff. If you know where they are getting into whatever you don't want them to get into, put some steel wool in the opening, they will look for another way in, if there is one.
My wife prefers her pellet rifle for killing rats and gophers, she's become very proficient at it. I've had to warn my neighbors that if they see her walking around our property carrying her rifle, not to worry, it's only for varmints, and doesn't shoot bullets. The "penetrator" pellets are best, they have a nice sharp pointy end.
Of course I'm assuming that you can still buy pellet rifles in Oz.

I tried the noose/elastic band style trap. Rubbish. Caught nothing. Hard to trigger.

"throw bags" of poison never got eaten either.

simple, cheap, old fashioned rat trap or cheap, pellet style poison i think is the way to go. If you trap something, and it's too gross to handle you just chuck rat and trap out.

I prefer a dead, stinky rat in the roof in summer than winter. In summer they stink for a few days then dry up but winter, they fester for weeks, sometimes months.

Poison them quick before winter sets in.

Mint.
Mint is the answer to your rodent problems. I kid you not.
Grow & harvest it, or purchase a bunch of the stuff from your local green grocer/IGA/Woolworths/where ever you shop. Rats & mice HATE mint - get a bunch, bruise it (as if you are mixing cocktails) to release the scent & leave it in/around the area(s) you have the problem....rodents will take off.
Chemical free; environmentally friendly & no hot sweating carcasses rotting in your roof space.....best of all, you'll be rodent free.

Take some "tea and tomatoes" after getting yourself a good 2 foot baton after everyone's gone from the house (not after dark or you will disturb the neighbours) and have some fun getting rid of them !

I think it was Elon Musk that invented the portable flame thrower a little while ago, but they all sold out really fast.

All of the above, although poison baits is the easiest and hits hardest fast.

Trouble is, the whole area is probably full of them so once the old families are gone others will move in.

Like mafia.

You'll need to poison every three months.

IF you have 1 rat- you have 10.
I ended up catching 11 over 4 weeks.

I used about 15 traps where they like to run. I never used bait. Windo cills, near the dog biskets ect.

What I did was glue some plastic to the trigger, then when the rats ran over the trap. Game over.

I also used the cage trap. With the fake floor. That was great - however, wasn't a fan of drowning the rats after & also sent the dogs mad once I caught one.

I used baits once. ( years ago) But stunk the house out for a few weeks. Plus I found dead ones in the garden and came home one day with a rat in the dog mouth.

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Underoath said..
I used baits once. ( years ago) But stunk the house out for a few weeks. Plus I found dead ones in the garden and came home one day with a rat in the dog mouth.

This is where it can get serious if you have pets. Avoid anything bar Racumin if you care about your pets as it doesn't cause secondary poisoning.

All you can really do is bait and/or trap (zapper, snap, cage, bucket of water all work so vary it up) regularly and try and remove their food source. If you or your neighbors have chickens or birds it'll be next to impossible and remember a new trap will upset them for a few days so don't be disheartened if you don't get one on the 1st night or 2. I use tracking powder as well, it poisons them when they lick their feet and shows you where they are coming from.

You also must use gloves as once they get an unusual scent near a new bait, they'll piss around it to warn their mates and it's useless. For all the problems and damage they cause, they are smart bastards

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Adriano said..
All of the above, although poison baits is the easiest and hits hardest fast.

Trouble is, the whole area is probably full of them so once the old families are gone others will move in.

Like mafia.

You'll need to poison every three months.

To the contrary, i know from experience a good hardwood baton hits them hardest fast, moreover if they get behind objects or under the bed or sofa you can tease them out then have a slam, then a belt !

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shi thouse said..
I have a few dirty rats (rodent type) hanging around the outside of my house. Want them gone. What is the most effective method for getting rid of them?

Went on the Bunnings website and they have everything from baits, Nooski's (lacky band thing), electronic sound emmitters...all the way to the good old fashioned wooden trap like the one featured below.

P.S. I hate cats so I am not getting one of those to solve my problem.

Meow - get a kitty cat or two

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nebbian said..
Not sure about rats, but these ones are dynamite on mice:


I get them from woolies. Bait with a little peanut butter. Excellent design, they really are a better mouse trap.

Good luck with the rats.

I've had a few of these ones and generally catch the mouse in some way, but I've had a quite a few catch the mouse's leg or not killed it instantly, and I think they tend to suffer for a bit. found one that had crawled right across the camper floor with it attached