"You Dirty Rat......."

[maggie~hamilton]

We have a very huge, very sneaky rat hiding in our apartment.

The first sighting was by a friend staying the weekend a month or so ago - went into the kitchen in the middle of the night for a glass of water ... turned on the light switch ... loud, high-pitched screech, crash of glass to floor ... when he turned on the light, a rat "the size of a cat" was sitting on the counter.

Next was my partner who saw it in the living room, eating out of the dog food bowl (our dogs are high-class and refuse to eat in the kitchen); he too confirmed it was "huuuuuge."

So, exterminator called. Set out two old-fashioned wooden traps baited with, no, not cheese, but peanut butter. I checked the traps the other day, one of them had been set but ... no rat.

Exterminator came back, confirmed there were nibble marks on the peanut butter, said some rats are "really sneaky," set the trap and left.

Not an hour later I went into the kitchen. I saw a brown object on the floor by the baseboard out of the corner of my eye; assumed I had dropped a sock on the way to the washer. No sooner did that thought cross my mind than the "sock" went "WHOOSH" across the floor and disappeared behind the stove.

Yep. It was the rat. And yet, it IS huuuuuge. I mean wharf-rat size.

Now, I am sleeping all night with one eye open lest the critter make it way to my bed. {{{*shudder*}}}

Anyone have any other ideas for dispensing with this sneaky rat?

 

[goprog]

I had a roommate 30 years ago that used a .22 rifle...
in the house. Seems some sort of live trap would be
best (if they work with rats.) And I agree, peanut
butter works better than cheese (at least for mice.)

 

[ironrite]

Rats in my room

I've had good luck with that dCon stuff that kills them. I have them outside. Sitting in my pool in the evening we watch them doing their little rat dances across the fence and into the olive trees. I set the dcon out in an area that the dogs would not get into. It took a couple of days, but the dcon was gone and haven't seen the rats since.

When I had a mouse problem a few years ago, I did the peanut butter thing as well. But only just a very light smear of it, not enough they could actually eat it. It was the smell that got them to trap, then the trap did its job.

 

[maggie~hamilton]

I really do hate the idea of killing ANY living thing

I even cringe when swatting flies ... never kill spiders (they bring good luck you know, unless it's a black widow I guess and it bites ya, hahaha), and really do hate the idea of sending this rat to a gruesome and agonizing death. At the same time, I don't want my little baby doggies to get bitten if they corner it --- one of them in particular is very butch and aggressive, thinks she's a pit bull and WOULD go after it --- so I am caught behind a rock and a hard place here.

 

[washabear]

I have had problems with rats outside before but never in the house. I did have a serious mouse problem in my previous house, though. It was horrible. Traps worked sometimes, but often, they wouldn’t catch the mice entirely, and then the mice would drag the traps across the room. Eventually it got to the point where I would corner them and club them to death with wine bottles. My cat usually helped by chasing them under something (she just wanted to play), and then I would flush them out and go to work—so it was sort of a tag team. Yes, it was gross, and yes, I hated it. Don’t know if I would want to do that with a rat, though. Rat poison might work, although I don’t know if I would want to use it inside because the rat might die somewhere hidden and cause a nasty stench.

As a side note, Baltimore City, where I lived at the time, had a civic awareness and improvement campaign going called BELIEVE. The BELIEVE slogan was everywhere. One day there was a huge dead rat in the street beside my car. It was one of the largest rats I had ever seen. My friend said he was going to drape a BELIEVE bumper sticker over it, but I wouldn’t let him do it.

Good luck!

 

[goprog]

with wine bottles

How many bottles did it usually take? LOL!

 

[launderess]

It's Either You Or The Rat

But one of you has to go, otherwise where there was one rat you'll soon have lots more.

You must start with removing all other food sources so the rat will have no choice to take the bait. That means NO leaving out food and water for your pets. You should have your home "rat proofed" by either an exerminator or DIY. This involves a top to bottom search of your home to find and seal every potential entry point into your apartment. This includes but not limited to behind stoves, and under/behind sinks, steam pipe holes, gas lines, any place that has an entry from the walls into your home. You need to use the most coarse grade steel wool, with some rolled up finely crushed glass, then tightly packed into the hole.

Rats seldom are on their own, you may only see the one, but that may be an advance party looking for a new home base, and or a female starting a new family. In either case if you do not find and eliminate, you WILL have more.

You should contact your area's public health department and have them check the entire building. Again it is rare to only find one rat in an apartment building. Somehow they are gaining entry into the building from either the ground or sewers. Again if the entry way into the building is not found, they will only come back. At best you may be able to keep them out of your apartment,but they probably will be back, especially if the building becomes infested and new/young rats need to move further out to establish their own home turf.

It is vastly better to trap indoor rodents like large rats over baiting. Since the stench of a large rodent rotting away in the walls is horrible.

L.

 

[launderess]

Your other alternative besides spring traps is the extra heavy duty large glue traps made for rats. These must be purchased at an exterminator supply or from an exterminator, and they are NOT the same as the wimpy things you get at Walmart. They are much larger (about the size of a large shoe box), and have a powerful adhesive which should hold any rat. Your problem is however who is going to dispatch the rodent and dispose of the remains. If you think the squeaking of a live rat is horrible, you've not heard one in distress.

L.

 

[maggie~hamilton]

Rat Proofing

The exterminator did inspect the building; found no sources of entry. He seemed to be very thorough. He also showed me how there is no "evidence" of rats - droppings, chewed wood/wires etc. He said it is possible that one snuck into an open door or even slid underneath the doorsill. They can flatten themselves as flat as a pancake and can get through very narrow spaces.

Hideous!!

 

[goprog]

Just don't watch the end of the movie Species (or is that
Species II).

 

[scott55405]

Oh goodness I hope you get rid of it soon. What a freaking nightmare. Probably snuck in from the garage or something.

We had mice once in Minnesota. I think what happened was my roommate had come from the nursery, and set a box of plants in the kitchen for a few minutes to get something. I bet it was hiding in the box because I saw the first one shortly after. Then there were a lot and it took a while but we got rid of them. I didn't do particularly well with that and was glad I didn't have to deal with it.

 

[tlee618]

Charles I had one mouse that I know of when I lived back in Danville, I found that the very best bait was a small piece of bacon cooked just a bit in the microwave. Place this on one of the glue trays and had that thing in less than ten minutes.

 

[pulsator]

My best friend who lives on a farm uses coke to trap mice. I dunno if the same applies to rats, but with mice, all you gotta do it put a bowl of coke out at night. They smell the sweetness of it and go drink it, however, mice can't pass gas, so their stomach simply explode when the gas begins to come out of the soda! Not the cleanest way to get rid of them, but if you need it gone it's a great way to get rid of them!

 

[alr2903]

TLee is correct, a good friend always "wrapped a strand of bacon" on the trap whether you go adhesive or other wise, the struggle with chewing and pulling the bacon off the "trigger" is much more effective than cheese or peanut butter. Long ago in a previous home I had thought there was one mouse it was a common wall between a kitchen pantry and the utility closet, We nabbed 7 or 8 of the little devils in about 2 hrs with the bacon as bait.

 

[tolivac]

WOW Giant rats-what horror movies are made from.If you don't want to kill it-there are smaller "Have-A-Hart"cage box traps available.These will catch the beast(with appropriate bait)alive so you can release it somewhere else(that noisey neighbor that plays his Hi-fi at night)These box traps come in other sizes to catch things like racoons,possums,and the like.I would stay away from the glue traps-hateful things-the poor critter suffers painfully stuck to that glue covered board-and WHAT to do with that critter?At least snap traps kill the thing pretty quickly.Disposal of the body is easier.Oh-try baiting your trap with some of the things YOU or your pets eat!I trapped a pesky mouse(He was cute hated to kill him)with Cheerios.Put a few Cheerios on the snap trap bait holder and that was his last meal.I WOULDN'T use a .22 rifle to shoot the critter in the house or apartment-biggest thing its ILLEGAL to discharge a firearm in an occupied building..22 bullets slip thru building walls more easily than a .38 special handgun bullet!that little slug will endanger anyone else in the home.Use the guns only if you can shoot the thing outside and live OUTSIDE town or city limits.Seriously I have shot thousands of rounds of ".22's" and have seen these shoot thru 6" thick LIVE trees.The little bullet is traveling at just the right speed to penetrate deeply in many materials.also they can richochet easily.If you must use the .22 use hollowpoints.the rats I have shot at town dumps get nice holes blown in them from the hollowpoints.12Ga shotguns with #6 shot makes them DISAPPEAR!Rats do make good targets-but only outside where its safe or legal to shoot.That dump was near a very small South Dakota town.It was several miles outside of town limits.They didn't mind "dumpshooting"there-appreciated it really-good rat control.

 

[christfr]

GEES THAT IS NOT GOOD.. HAD A BUNCH OF MICE IN THE HOUSE THIS YEAR AND THAT IS THE FIRST TIME IN 45 YEARS WE HAVE EVER HAD MICE IN THE HOUSE.. BUT WE HAVE THEM AT WORK ALL THE TIME AND WHAT WORKED BEST FOR USE IS FRESH PIZZA. PEANUT BUTTER IS REALLY GOOD BUT SOMETIMES THE ARE ABLE TO LICK IT OFF BEFORE THE TRAP GOES OFF.. GOOD LUCK

 

[polkanut]

Get rid of it ASAP. Those vermin are disease carriers "Extraordinaire"!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Wild Images in a Twisted Mind

Pulsator: Can't pass gas. Exploding stomachs. Why is it not the cleanest way to get rid of them? Does the pressure equalize through either end after the stomach explodes or does the mouse just suddenly inflate? I wonder if any other animals have this feature or maybe, lack this feature. I guess a new term for a futile and endless job would be burping a mouse. Thank you for this information, really. Now I'm wondering if this would make them float in water.

 

[hoover1060]

well....

I know dogs have no problem with the gas thing, Jack belches like a frat boy!

Last year I had a mouse in my house, I found stuff under the kitchen sink that gave it away(I keep my trash can under the sink)
I tried glue traps, no luck...all I found was 1/2 his coat stuck in the glue(EWWWWW!!)
So I bought the decon pellets and put them under the sink, I think that did it, no evidence for some time now.
Charles Richard I wish you the best... I'd be packing if a rat that big was in my place!!