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Rats
- Thread starter burtie
- Start date
with good PR... brilliant haha
Soldato
- Joined
- 13 Jun 2011
- Posts
- 6,053
Don't buy a cat whatever you do. You would be just exchanging an animal thats currently annoying you for one that would annoy everyone else.
wut
The problem is that they are indiscriminate to any animal that touches them.
https://www.hsi.org/news-media/majo...glue-traps-following-unstuck-campaign-121615/
Soldato
I’m sorry but what part of “put them in a rat box” and monitor them regularly is escaping you? While I can’t guarantee that you won’t trap a vole or a non-domestic mouse, the most likely animal that will go into a rat box is a rat. If you put them in a rat box you won’t trap kittens, cats, puppies, dogs or rabbits although you might get the odd grey squirrel (also pests by the way).
The entire toxic bait approach has exactly the same non-target-species issues. Possibly more so because you’re never going to find a raptor in a rat box.
There are people who are mentally suited to pest control and there are people who are not. Killing something is a fairly brutal activity. It’s unfortunate that your food supply isn’t being challenged by them, had them chew through your power cables or experienced them attacking a baby otherwise I suspect you’d take a bit firmer view.
I'm not a fan of either poison or glue traps, but the latter is just barbaric.
You can guarantee that many won't bother with a rat box and/or just forget to check. Cheap enough to just dump them wherever they see a problem, as you see from replies showing other animals caught.
Even from the website:
generally considered to be a last resort method for dealing with rat infestations
Even poison has a limit on what feeds on it. Glue traps is anything.
You can guarantee that many won't bother with a rat box and/or just forget to check. Cheap enough to just dump them wherever they see a problem, as you see from replies showing other animals caught.
Even from the website:
generally considered to be a last resort method for dealing with rat infestations
Even poison has a limit on what feeds on it. Glue traps is anything.
Soldato
The OP has tried break-back traps and doesn’t want to use preparations so unless you have the Pied Piper’s mobile number I’d say we’re close to the last resort.
Soldato
- Joined
- 11 Sep 2013
- Posts
- 12,440
Neither is the flippin' price of the damn things, either...!!
Jeez, I could get a graphics card for that...
My company basically deals with all the sewers across a quarter of the entire country, including London. You don't know what a real rat infestation looks like until you've taken a sewer walk in Wandsworth!
The issue with the sticky boards is what else might get stuck, even in dedicated rat boxes. There are various non-pest creatures that are at risk from such things, some of which are also protected species, so causing them to suffer and/or die can land you in legal trouble. This is why most pest controllers won't use them.
The best method IMO is airgunning, but not always practical.
Selekt0r mentioned the Roshield traps - We use a lot of those ourselves with very good success, but they have to be placed on known rat runs, usually faced against a wall to encourage investigation of the bait, and baited with something semi-liquid like peanut butter so they have to stay and eat instead of just nicking it and running.
Soldato
Are you able to source this in relation to Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949 where relevant to OP, outside of local authority requirement or where "substantial" numbers are mentioned? We're not talking about a thousand sewer rats.
This is partly subjective and also relative case by case. There are ways to be "proactive" to protect from damage in the first place too e.g. by means of using correct cabling, securing building etc. We've not had any evidence of damage in our garage the 5 years we've been here, they're free to use it. It's too much of a risk to do anything about it due to the range of wildlife we have, from hedgehogs to stoats. Our single storey extension loft is another matter, we trap them where required.
To see them as a pest straight off the bat without causing an issue or attempting to prevent one is sad.
Subjective, mice and rats can be (and are by many) seen to be cute (people keep them as pets you know....it's not a reach to consider them in the wild as "cute") and an important part of our natural ecosystem. They are other animal's food for one and we are morally obliged to ensure ecosystems and all life is sustained. Sure, sometimes there is a need to control species, but we can and should do this as natural and humanely as possible.
As for germs, barely even worth mentioning unless a cause for concern with agriculture, food production or concerned about a new Great Plague or Black Death scenario...
Ultimately, protect fixings and prevent buildings from a potential "pest" in the first place and should you need to kill, do so quickly and humanely with a snap-back trap (there's multiple types and different way to use the bait) or gun. Otherwise, you're pretty much sub-human yourself, IMO.
Soldato
Fill with water, wait, throw dead rats in bin.