This year I grew tomatoes, and found rats are stealing them. I am certain it’s rats because I have seen them. Have tried netting the tomato plants, but rats found ways in. Called an exterminator to bait in the roof and under house. Feel ambivalent about it, because if a predator bird takes an affected rat it may get ill. But I’m located deep in suburbia and have never seen an owl or eagle so I think it’s unlikely. Didn’t work though, still have rats. Have given up on the tomatoes, plants are destroyed. What are your strategies for ridding yourself of ratty pestilences?
Hmm, get some snakes? 🐍
Rats will completely ignore that poisoned food when they have other good food sources. I ended up getting a Gamo air rifle and shooting the rats in the head. Instant death, and somehow the other rats knew it wasn’t safe as soon as I shot one, so they’d disappear for 3 weeks, then I’d have to shoot another one. I hated shooting them, but nothing else worked. Eventually I just gave up and let them live in our backyard. They never tried to get into the house, so we just called a truce. If their burrow isn’t near or under the house, then you could use those mole bombs and smoke their burrow. That would kill them all at once if you can be sure to seal all the exits first.
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I recently dealt with the same problem using a live catch cage trap from Bunnings. The rat ignored the peanut butter I tried first but I bought the special rat attractant and had the little bastard within a week.
I had other kill traps out (nooski and electronic) but they didn’t work. He triggered the nooski a couple of times but got away unharmed.
Just stick the trap along your fence where you’ve seen him and wait.
Many years ago I used a trap that captured rats alive without any poison, just a bit of peanut butter, and then I had to dispose of them. Turns out a flatmate’s dog came in handy. I would release the rat into a big park near some bush. The dog would give chase, break the rats neck, get bored and come back whereupon birds would swoop down for a free feed.
Why not just use a kill trap then? Your process involved extra steps, and a lot more terror and pain for the rat.
Because I wanted to make sure what I caught were rats and not anything else. This was not in a city devoid of native fauna.
Ah, yeah I can relate to that. I was scared of killing squirrels with traps when I was trying to solve my rat problem. I ended up just shooting the rats with a pellet gun, and then eventually calling a truce. They were allowed to live in my backyard, as long as they didn’t try to enter the house.
