Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've got a problem with rats eating AP stuff, fruit off trees, making too much noise in the roof, generally just being plane annoying.

I have tried traps with very little success - the ones from bunnings are quite frankly CRAP and would take an elephant to trigger them. I don't want to use poison, hate them as I do, I don't like the death they are exposed to when poisoned.

So does anyone know of a GOOD source of effective rat traps, or some other method of controlling them? Pet Snakes, Cats, Goats and Eagles would be nice, but not a viable option.

Ditto for mice, though they are only annoying as they crap everywhere in the house.

Do a search for the peanut butter mouse trap. Humane and only targets rodents with no injury to pets.

For the mice I used to have a trap that was like a box with a wind up handle on the side. You stuck it up against a wall and when the mouse went through the hole in the center it flipped it into another part of the box, and curiously other mice seemed to be attracted by the first.
Sorry I would just poison the rats.

Does the bucket trick work on rats as well? When I use to go 'ratting' on the farm I was amazed what they could run up - corn bins, legs pretty much anything if they were trying to get away.

A Jack Russell?

Not sure about rats but we have some plastic mouse traps which do a good job. Easy to set, apply a little bit of peanut butter and away you go.

They don't hurt your fingers should they go off while holding one and provide a quick, clean kill.

I will get some pics when I get home.

my 6kg tomcat and some of his kills. get some pretty huge rats by the river







insert caption: what is the mouse saying?

Caption: Up a bit,up a bit,over to the right,up a little bit more. Yep,yep thats it,thats the spot. Aaah!! Thanks Ginge, you're a real pal!!

I have used the plastic traps, the ones that pinch together at the back to open, with some success on both rats and mice. I have found that you only need to catch one or two big rats to have some success with saving your Veges. A big rat can get through a lot of tomatoes!

We have two cats and they are always bringing mice home from the neighbourhood. There is a chicken coop over our back fence and they are always (much to our neighbours dismay) catching mice over there and bringing them to the back door step. I think... no, no... I know, that is ALL they are good for most of the time. Bloody eating and sleeping machines.

Matt... really? Go to your local shelter, and adopt a couple of healthy, mid-aged female cats. Males are ok, but the girls, they really knock 'em down.

You'll still have to dispose of bodies, but won't have to keep searching to see which traps are full. They always bring 'em home for some reason.

Males feel the need to fight, and wast valuable hunting time. Oh... and most of the kills will be in the early am. You'll wake up to the little corpses.

Cats would be handy, except for our cat hating dog! I'll try some of the plastic scissor traps.

Shame can't get air rifles easily ni Oz - used to snipe the buggers with an air rifle when I lived in the UK.

Traps , couple other types " Elliot" very effective folding type buy the best quality you can find there are some pathetic imitations availiable .

have a scratch around the poultry supply sites all sorts of traps availiable

i built a small version of the cat traps (cage type ) which is great but only catches one a time

Electric traps kill by charge from battery

Glue traps get stuck trying to cross them

Find the source of rats and the track they follow they are almost blind and follow a scent trail they will run along a fence rail for example so these are prime trap sites .

if you have them living under a cement slab you can gas them with carbon monoxide its a heavy gas that will go to the bottom and fill pushing all good air out direct gas down thier holes.

i used to catch up to 100 rats and mice per night when i was out working in the outback.

We just used a wine bottle, took the metal rings off the end so it was nice shiny glass.

Stuffed some peanut butter in the end then sticky taped the large end of the bottle on a table.

The neck was overhanging a bucket of water,

the mice and rats would walk along to eat the peanut butter and say 50% of the time would fall off into the bucket.


In the morning id have a full bucket of dead mice.

This looks like the mouse catcher I used to use (but without the little window) lasted for years, I gave it to someone after I got Feral the cat. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/GDH-200-Mult ... 0744018131

I use two of these traps linked below and a Jack Russell - the traps are in front as far as I know. The traps are galvanised so you can drown the rats in a bucket of water (fully submerged trap and all for 60 secs) then dig a hole out of eye sight of the dog and the cycle of life starts again.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/RAT-MOUSE-TR ... 925wt_1037

These are the best traps I have ever used and in some weeks I can get between 1 and 6 rats - I have caught 3 rats in the one trap at once.

I have chickens so the rats have multiple food sources, but after setting up some nightvision CCTV cameras and a DVR for two nights the majority of them are in the veggie garden eating my corn or tomato plants (they eat the stems and kill the plant, even if there is no fruit / veg on them).

I don't trap every week just one week out of 4 typically and the dog takes care of the slower or new comers that fill the gap...

Regards,

D.