Practice shows that if there is a rat in the house, and even more so several rats, then they will not leave on their own, and will constantly appear in the kitchen or basement, manage in pantries, spoil food and leave fleas and their excrement (often containing pathogens of dangerous diseases). In all such cases, it is necessary to catch the rat as soon as possible, and in order not to risk the health of the residents, it is advisable to begin this task as soon as the first signs of the presence of a rodent in the house are discovered.
Fortunately, today there are many ways to get rid of rodents indoors quickly and without much hassle. Moreover, for this it is not even necessary to buy an industrial rat trap or a dangerous poison - it is quite possible to catch a rat in the house with a homemade device or in a way that does not require significant financial costs.
Next, we will look at several effective ways to catch a rat both at home and in the office, warehouse, barn or, for example, in the garage...
All methods used to catch rats
There are several ways to catch a rat using a variety of means:
- Industrial live traps are devices that can be bought in stores or at the market, and which catch a rat without harming it. Their disadvantage is that in most cases they are quite cumbersome and relatively expensive. Their important advantage is complete safety for pets and people;
- Homemade live traps. Often such means appear when you try to copy a commercially available sample with your own hands, or take its principle of operation. Skilled craftsmen make such traps even more effective and convenient than industrial ones, but in general their manufacture is quite labor-intensive. Their only clear advantage compared to industrial means is their low cost (such a device can be made from scrap materials);
- Industrial mechanical traps - these means simply kill the rat when triggered. They are usually inexpensive, easy to use, effective, but, unfortunately, dangerous for children and pets;
- Industrial electric rat traps that kill a rat with a high voltage discharge (convenient, battery operated, but quite expensive);
- Homemade mechanical traps - analogues of purchased products, the main advantage of which, again, is the price;
- With the help of pets - this method does not lose its relevance today, despite technological progress and the development of more and more new means of fighting rats.
On a note
Also, sometimes they try to catch rats using glue (glue traps), but this method is not always effective. Rats are relatively large animals, and glue is often not able to reliably hold them on the hunting surface. At the same time, you can easily catch a mouse or a young rat with glue.
In general, of all the methods listed above, the optimal one is the use of commercial rat traps (popularly called simply mousetraps). They are quite cheap, easy to use and, if you follow the rules of use, relatively safe, and most importantly, if you choose the right bait, they are very effective and allow you to catch a rat in almost any room - in a private house, in an apartment, in a barn, in a cellar.
However, the most “cunning” rats cannot always be caught in such rat traps, since the animals sense danger and avoid them.
Fishing principles
- Rats get used to one familiar bait. This means that it should not be kept in a rat trap for more than 3 days in a row. It is better to replace it with a new bait more often in order to lure it out and not cause alertness or suspicion in the rat.
- Despite the fact that the animals are omnivores, they still like to give preference to their favorite foods, rushing into the trap.
- If mechanical traps are used, it is important to place them near the walls and block access to them for children and pets.
- It is worth keeping rat traps clean at all times. Handle them only with gloves.
- Regularly remove food products from the kitchen, leaving no food sources other than a mousetrap.
- Store cereals in glass or metal jars.
We catch the pest alive in the house: quickly and inexpensively
There are several options to quickly catch a rat in the house with homemade devices. The most effective of them, which have been repeatedly tested in practice, are described below.
Option 1:
- Take a saucepan (or other available container), attach a piece of sausage, lard or bread with vegetable oil to the middle of its wall;
- The pan is turned upside down and placed on the floor;
- One edge of it is raised, and an unstable support is placed under it (for example, a nail or a jar lid on the edge). The edge of the pan rests against the support.
When a rat crawls under the pan for the bait, it is highly likely to push the support, and as a result, the pan will cover the rodent. Even if the rat is very careful and does not touch the support, the animal under the pan will rest its front paws on its wall to get the bait, and will still move the pan from the support.
Option 2 – allows you to catch a rat alive using an unstable bridge over a container:
- A stool is placed next to the empty open barrel, on which a small plank is placed, about half of which will hang over the neck of the barrel;
- The bait is placed at the very edge of this overhanging board.
- The rat will try to get to the bait, the board with it will tilt and fall into the barrel.
On a note
This principle will also work with a bucket, but the rat will be able to jump out of the bucket. Sometimes the animal manages to get out even from a ten-liter bucket half filled with water.
Option 3 – original trap made from a plastic bottle:
It is also useful to read: The best baits for rats and mice: what do these rodents love most?
In addition to the free nature of the described traps, their beauty lies in their complete safety - neither pets nor children risk injury if they accidentally stumble upon such a device.
The main problem with a live trap is the need to decide what to do with the caught rat. It’s good if there is a cat or dog living in the house, which will gladly save the owner from this problem. If there is no such pet, then you will either have to kill the rat yourself (which not everyone can do), or spend time and effort to release it away from the house.
If you don’t want to do either one or the other, then you shouldn’t catch a rat alive.
On a note
An exception to this recommendation is when you need to catch a live escaped ornamental rat. In this situation, live traps are an ideal option.
It is also important to remember that a caught live rat may well bite until it bleeds if you try to pull it out of the trap with your bare hands or wearing thin gloves. Such bites are quite painful, and, in addition, when bitten, the animal can infect a person with a dangerous infection. Therefore, all manipulations with a triggered live trap should be carried out wearing thick construction gloves.
Humane methods of rodent control
Catching a large rat in an apartment is not an easy task. This requires ingenuity and competent calculation. Remember that you are not dealing with a timid mouse. Rats are much more intelligent creatures than we think.
They know how to deliberately circumvent a threat or warn their relatives about it. It is very, very difficult to poison them: the bait must interest them so much that they decide to take the risk.
Advice! The first thing that comes to mind is traps and various mechanical devices for catching an animal. In order for them to be effective, they must be placed along the rat's routes, which must be calculated in advance.
However, it is difficult to do this at home: a pet may approach one of the traps you set (for example, due to the smell of bait). Even if your dog or cat stumbles upon a rat trap by accident, the consequences can be more than serious.
DIY traps
How to catch a rat in the house without extra effort and very effectively? A good remedy is an ordinary sticky trap, which you can make with your own hands. To do this, use a cardboard or plastic surface: pour it with glue, and place an appetizing bait, for example, a piece of sausage, in the center.
Another method, quite simple to implement, includes the following components:
- jar;
- sunflower oil.
Everything is quite simple: a small amount of sunflower oil is poured into a jar, then it is placed on any surface (table or even the floor) in a horizontal position. As soon as you notice that a pest has looked into the trap, you must immediately turn the jar over.
Among many other means, special attention should be paid not only to sticky traps, but also to traps, but you need to be careful with them. If you don’t want to put in the effort, contact the pest control service, and the professionals will do all the dirty work for you.
We must not forget about rat-catching cats. If your cat caught a rat that accidentally got into the house, the problem is solved. However, not every furry pet can cope with the situation.
In the house . The traditional rat trap is a method that has been proven over the years. The principle of its operation is known to many: as soon as the mechanism is triggered, a metal clamp presses down the pest. Such devices are effective, but they need to be checked often so that you don’t have to suffer from the stench in the house later.
Caught a rat using a trap? The optimal solution that allows you to remove the pest from your territory without reprisal against it. Wood, metal or plastic are used in the manufacture of such traps. The features of their designs may differ, but the key principle is unchanged: the rat “bites” on the bait and, once it gets into the trap, cannot get out on its own.
Folk method
If you don’t want your cat to catch a rat, and building traps takes a lot of time, use a mixture of gypsum and flour in a 1:1 ratio that is lethal to rodents. This mixture is poured into a container, which is placed next to water.
Attention! The whole point is that when a rat tries such a powder, it will immediately need to drink it down: that’s where it dies.
There are situations when a pest is noticed in a house or apartment, but there are no means available to effectively combat it. Then use hairspray or some kind of spray, this will disorient the rodent.
And then use everything, including the use of a slipper. The main thing here is to disarm and catch the trickster before he hides and begins to settle in your home.
How to scare away
To eliminate the possibility of rats appearing in your house, apartment or in various outbuildings, for example, in a barn (and this will cause you a lot of trouble in the future), use ash. This is a surefire rodent repellent.
You can scatter it both in places where pests have already appeared, and around the perimeter of a private house or apartment (in case of urgent need). Peppermint will also repel rats from your home: it should be spread in dried form throughout the apartment or in those places where the risk of rats is much higher.
To avoid having to catch rats, worry in advance about the lack of a favorable environment for them in the house:
- sanitation;
- no open access to food and drinking water;
- absence of cracks in the walls and all kinds of holes.
Industrial live traps
A typical industrial rat trap is a small cage with a spring-loaded door that opens upward. When opened, the door is secured with a guard, the lower part of which is located inside the cage and has a loop. The bait is hung on a loop.
When the rat gets into the cage and begins to pull the bait, the guard moves, releases the door, and it slams shut.
This principle of operation has proven to be the most effective for live traps, and therefore the vast majority of rat traps work this way.
On a note
Professional rat traps, used by scientists to catch animals in the wild, work on the same principle. The only difference is that professional devices have a folding design and, when disassembled, take up no more space than a compact tablet. This allows you to take several dozen of these traps on scientific expeditions. The most remarkable thing is that catching a wild rat in such a seemingly unusual device is not at all difficult - the animal’s desire to eat the bait turns out to be stronger than the fear of an unknown object.
A cage trap allows you to catch a rat very quickly: sometimes the pest is caught on the very first night after installing the rat trap in the house. To get this result, a rat trap is installed where the pest has previously been seen, or where the animals constantly leave traces of their activity - chewed food, wool, excrement.
It is advisable not to enter the room where the trap is installed, so that the animal gets out of the shelter as soon as possible and becomes interested in the bait.
On a note
An analogue of such a rat trap can be made with your own hands from a plastic bottle, in which the neck is not completely sawed off, turning into a door. This door is lifted, secured with an elastic band and a guard with bait is made. When the rat pulls the bait, the rubber band slams the door shut, trapping the animal in the bottle. The video below shows a corresponding example:
A standard live trap in the form of a cage costs about 400-500 rubles.
How to make an effective homemade rat trap
A simple homemade rat trap with a suffocating effect can be made of a wooden block with sawn “tunnels”, in the depths of which the bait is placed. A spring with a wire loop is attached above the block at the very entrance to the tunnel.
In the middle of the tunnel, a hole is drilled at the top and bottom. Here a thread is pulled, which is tied above the spring and presses it against the block, and the loop coincides with the passage in the tunnel itself. When the rat tries to get close to the bait, it stumbles upon a thread that gets in the way. The animal chews the thread, the spring unclenches, tightens the noose on the animal’s body and strangles it:
The advantage of such a rat trap is its safety - neither a cat nor a dog will be able to release the spring. The downside is that it is labor-intensive to manufacture.
In general, traps are good because they solve two problems for a person at once: they catch a rat and kill it. You no longer have to rack your brains about what to do with a caught rat.
You can also make another version of a suffocating trap for catching a rat with your own hands - from a cable tie:
Where to set the trap
The rules for placing rat traps are extremely simple. On the one hand, this should be a place where a rat is likely to appear - a closet with food supplies, a pantry or a barn. In an apartment, these could be hard-to-reach places behind furniture, nooks behind the kitchen stove, or under the bathtub and sink. On the other hand, we must not forget about safety, because a rodent trap poses a real threat to pets and small children.
The difference between a rat trap and a mousetrap
The main difference between these two devices is the dimensions. The rat is much larger than the mouse, some individuals reaching 35–40 cm in length. Therefore, a trap made from a 2-liter bottle, effective for mice, will be absolutely useless in the case of rats that freely jump out even from a standard bucket.
Security measures
When the trap is triggered and you have to remove a rodent from it, you must take all necessary safety precautions. Rats can be very aggressive and may well attack humans. Therefore, get to work by first putting on thick clothing made of thick material, and put on protective gloves on your hands.
Under no circumstances should you touch even a dead rat with your bare hands - the animal can be the source of numerous infectious or parasitic diseases.
Purchased traps, their advantages and disadvantages
Industrial rat traps are inexpensive, easy to use, but quite dangerous to handle.
The most commonly used rat traps are crusher traps. The operating mechanism in them has a powerful spring, which can break the paw of a cat or dog, and can even break a child’s finger. Therefore, it is advisable to use such products only in non-residential premises - in the underground, attic, garage, car or shed, but it is undesirable to use them in an apartment, in the kitchen or in the toilet of a private house, where pets and children can find a trap.
On a note
If it is necessary to use them in residential premises, such rat traps are installed in special containers with holes into which only rats can climb (these containers are called bait stations).
Rat traps should not be used outdoors or in the wild, where they could kill birds or beneficial mammals.
It is also useful to read: How to get rid of rats in a chicken coop if they have gotten into the habit of stealing eggs
The photo below shows how industrially produced rat traps are:
Folk repellents
There are many traditional methods of disposal:
- Cats or dogs of hunting breeds (dachshunds, terriers). Even a simple smell can repel rats. It is enough to spread out the hairballs and cat litter.
- Aromatherapy products. Rats cannot stand the smell of mint, eucalyptus, and laurel. It is enough to apply the aroma oil onto cotton pads and place them in the corners. You can use dried leaves and stems of plants.
- Naphthalene? Mix with sawdust and other bulk materials and spread on cardboard around the house.
- Ground black pepper has a negative effect on the respiratory system of rats.
- Onion. Harmful to rats' sense of smell and digestion. Chop the onion and place the pieces around baseboards, basements and attics.
Fans of exotic methods can use feathers from an owl, falcon or eagle. The smell of burnt wool will help repel rodents in non-residential premises.
Advice!
When storing vegetables for winter storage, it is recommended to place bunches of wormwood, which have a strong odor, in the room. You can scatter ash or boric acid throughout the basement. These products irritate the olfactory organs of rodents and force them to leave their home.
About electric traps for rats and mice and the advisability of their use at home
The principle of operation of an electric rat trap is that a rat climbs into it, attracted by the smell of the bait, and when it touches a metal electrode, an electrical circuit is closed on the animal - an electric shock occurs. The video below shows an example of how such a device works:
Electric rat traps are highly effective and easy to use, but they have a serious drawback - on average, such devices are much more expensive than a standard rat trap-squeeze (and some models cost tens of times more).
In general, such a device is well suited for those who want to kill all rodents in the room without blood and without the use of poison. Read more about electric rat traps in a separate article: Using electric rat traps to control rodents
What kind of bait to put in a rat trap to be sure to catch the pest?
To catch a rat, it is important not only to use an effective rat trap, but also to choose the right bait.
First of all, it is useful to remember that rats prefer food of animal origin - for example, they have a greater passion for meat and lard than mice. Therefore, it will be easier to catch a rat if you put one of the following products in the trap:
- Lard (ideally slightly singed with a match);
- Smoked sausage or meat product with a distinct odor;
- Minced meat (ideally with onions);
- A piece of fish.
If any bait is successfully used for some time, the most cautious and “cunning” rats may stop showing interest in it. Therefore, it makes sense to change the bait periodically.
Mustachioed-striped
Since ancient times, the cat has been considered a household talisman. They were entrusted with the function of protecting the home from mice and rats. Cats see rodents as a possible threat to their offspring and actively fight it. Cats are more imposing and lazy, although there are active “fighters” among them. In addition, pets will bring a lot of joy to all inhabitants (of course, if there is no allergy to wool).
To get effective results, it is important to choose the right cat. Yard Murkas are best suited. They have not lost their hunting instincts and are ready to catch prey. If you need help now, you can borrow a rat-catcher animal from your friends. For prevention, you should get a suitable kitten.
Cat or dog as a universal rat exterminator
As a rule, a good rat-catcher cat catches rats more effectively than traps, and the use of such an assistant does not require additional effort from a person. If you don’t have such a cat, and there are not many rats in the house, then it makes sense to ask someone you know for a cat. A hungry cat let into the basement or attic will quickly “deal with” your problem.
On a note
A dog of a burrowing breed - Jagdterrier, Welsh terrier, fox terrier, dachshund - can catch an earth rat in an open area (not in the house). It is interesting that these animals have the hunting instinct in their blood; they may not even eat the prey, but they will definitely catch it if they notice it.
It is only important to remember that if you rely on domestic rat catchers, then under no circumstances should you try to poison rats before this. There are many cases where a cat or dog caught a poisoned rat, and then they were treated for a long time in a veterinary clinic, and the animals were not always saved.
Therefore, if you want a cat to catch a rat, make sure that its prey is harmless to it.
Global problem
Special organizations are recognized to monitor the number of rodents in the city and prevent their mass reproduction. They receive money for exterminating pests. If a rat is discovered in an apartment in a multi-story building, it is necessary to sound the alarm, alert all neighbors, and contact the appropriate authorities.
Initially, it is necessary to conduct a survey to find out how many victims there are. You can find out who to call if there are rats in the entrance via the Internet. Most often found in apartment buildings are gray rats or pasyuks, but other types of rats can also appear. There is a hotline in every locality, call it.
It is much easier to fight rats in an apartment if the cause of mass migration has been established. Rodents live in sewers for years, and if food is available, they do not leave their nests further than 10 m. But under certain circumstances, they begin to move further, ending up in the basements of residential buildings and apartments on the first floors. Gradually rise higher. It is imperative to complain to the relevant authorities.
Knacker's methods of catching rodents in the house
People also know methods of catching rats, which cannot be called anything other than savage.
For example, sometimes they try to offer rats bait with fishing hooks on a fishing line hidden in it. The effectiveness of such gear is low, since the rat bites off small pieces of food and discovers the hook, but in those cases when it does swallow it, it experiences terrible agony until its death.
On a note
The above-mentioned method of catching rats with glue is also a flayer method, although not everyone thinks about it. When an animal sticks to a platform with glue, it then dies from thirst for several days. It is much easier and more humane to simply catch a rat in a trap, which will kill it almost instantly.
And finally, if you cannot catch a very cunning rat by any means at all, then it makes sense to seek help from a rat and mouse catching service (deratization service). Such companies usually have a very extensive arsenal of tools that allow them to quickly and effectively destroy all rodents in the house, even in the most advanced and complex cases.
If you have experience in catching rats in your home yourself, be sure to share the information by leaving your review at the bottom of this page.
DIY electric rat trap
An electric rat trap is a panacea for those who do not want to deal with a live rat and look for ways to kill the caught animal. There are a large number of designs that provide a high current discharge when a rodent touches an improvised mousetrap. Regardless of the structure of the device, a single principle is relevant - live wires are connected to the metal plate, which ensures the lethality of the event.
To make a rat trap, you will need to build a wooden frame, on which two aluminum or tin plates are placed at a distance of 2–3 centimeters (so that they do not touch, it is better to secure them with self-tapping screws). We connect the phase to one plate, and zero to the other, and place the bait on one of the traps. Now we need to ensure that the rat steps on both plates at the same time - for this we build a small tunnel. The structure must be of such a type that the rat must pass through both plates connected to electricity. In this case, the pest will become a conductor and the trap will work, eliminating it.
