bleepin' rat

what to try next we've tried traps with chicken pellets on hidden in straw! with cat food on! with kit-kat on! eradibait! filling in holes!(but he just digs a new one!)pouring boiling water down holes!can't find dynamite on ebay! We clean the run every night put all the food away, empty the water what are we doing wrong! PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! any ideas desperate of derby

no we rent private and don't want to advertise we have a visitor

will he hurt the girls? he looks like a hippo running across the garden but he's so fast! will sit up all night with a shovel at the weekend if need be!

my worst nitemare, im really keeping my fingers crossed i wont get a visitor, hoping it will be easier that i am only getting two, and your right they are all around us, its a horrible thought, you know i was standing in my sons bedroom last nite looking out of his window as we have a line of houses backing on the the side of ours and i can see into their back gardens, and there is one house just about two houses off to mine and their garden is an aboustle state, theres dog poo all over the patio shes got rubbish in bags all out on the patio, do people not really think wot they can bring in.   I really do agree its all down to husbandry.   I keep pedigree guinea pigs, have about 25 of them, i show them and have great fun with them i keep them all in my garage and i swear to you i have had no visitors in there in 2yrs that i have been keeping them i truely havnt, i keep everything wiped down and spotless.         nicky

If possible watch for the little person coming out from the suspected site, they will use the same run over and over again Once you get the humane traps pop them in your corn bag/bin before taking to the rat run, place it as near to the place he's coming through as possible so that he has no option but to go in the trap. Depending on the type of trap the step on ones are good but there are some that have a hook inside for you to put bait. I have a couple of each sort, the ones with the hook i use fatballs as bait wrap the mesh surrounding the ball round the hook so it's as tight as possible that way ratty has to tug at it and sets off the trap
Fat balls also work in the step on traps with these I pull some of the mesh through the side of the trap and secure with wire, again this means he has to tug

Oooh if it's the one with the hook  set the trap very fine, there is a metal pole thingy that goes through a hole make sure that only a little bit on the metal goes through the hole, if you push the pole bit too far in he'll not set the trap off 

Sarah

get yerself a ferrit works wonders for rats

just out of curiosity what are the tell tail signs that you have a rat visitor, what are you to look out for that will tell you you have rats.   nickyx

Usually rat droppings and lots of holes(runs)
My Jack Russels are good at keeping the rat population down, fortunatley we moved recently and the rats haven't found us yet, but the dogs keep looking.