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JMH
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# Posted: 6 Oct 2013 10:48
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A couple of times each season we have a new visitor living under the cabin...pack rats seem to love it under there. They also love the engine compartments of vehicles; in the past we've driven them away to their new home in the forest a few km from our place.
Does anyone have any tips on trapping them? Please don't suggest any methods of killing them. We have pets so we won't be using any poison or anything like that. We have a live trap that we baited with food and shiny things but they won't go in it.
Any ideas?
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groingo
Member
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# Posted: 6 Oct 2013 11:19
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Best thing I found was to leave the hood open a few inches when not in use, since then no mouse problems under the hood.
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hattie
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# Posted: 6 Oct 2013 18:03
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Pack rats are extremely destructive and when they decide to move in, can make a cabin uninhabitable in a very short time. Our friend used to bait live traps and then shoot the rats that he caught in the trap. We have a large rat trap in the outhouse at our camp and bait it with tin foil. It seems to work well. We don't like to use food as that will attract bears.
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SandyR
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# Posted: 7 Oct 2013 08:32
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Reminds me of the time we had red flying squirrels in our house. They were so hard to get rid of!
We eventually set big rat traps after trying to get rid of them for two weeks. We used peanut butter as bait.
I didn't want to kill them ( we have a pet chipmunk now that lives with our hamster ) but they were ruining and eating everything in the house.
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PatrickH
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# Posted: 7 Oct 2013 11:42
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In Montana we shot them with a pellet gun, This was usually done in the crawl space
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MichaelMacias
Member
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# Posted: 1 Jul 2016 07:26
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Well, I believe the best way to say final bye to those rats is to hire the professionals from the pest control industry. The professionals know all the effective way to remove those breeds from their origin, so they won't come again. My neighbours was facing the problem of wood rats for a few months. They have tried everything by their own to remove them, but was unsuccessful. They finally took the help from the professionals of Pest Exterminator Harrison NY.
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Malamute
Member
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# Posted: 6 Jul 2016 20:22 - Edited by: Malamute
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Ive trapped them, helped the dogs catch them, and shot a fair number of them. Pack rats are evil creatures. They stink terribly, chew up all sorts of important things, can disable vehicles, and are a general nuisance.
No mercy.
22 CB loads are great. They were originally intended for indoor target practice. Not much noise so as not to scare the dogs, not much overpenetration, as they are in the power range of high powered air guns. They wont cycle a semi-auto, but the CB long loads can sometimes be hand cycled. The short and long case loads both work great in revolvers and manual operated rifles. Same loading, just a different case length. CCI makes them, as does Remington.
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burtonridr
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# Posted: 19 Jan 2017 16:53
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Had good success with using live traps baited with toilet paper or peanut butter. One thing I have noticed, I have better success if I can locate one of their travel routes. For example, they almost always dash out of our wood pile across about 10ft of open ground and then enter the crawlspace through an access hatch at our place. So I place our trap at the entrance to the crawlspace, and funnel them through it. our live trap opens on both ends, so they try to travel through the middle of it. Also, setting where they lay turds is a good bet.
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bldginsp
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# Posted: 19 Jan 2017 18:12
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I use a havahart trap to catch mice, always been very effective. Maybe you need to try different baits.
Here's a link to another thread on this site about catching mice.
http://www.small-cabin.com/forum/4_4951_0.html
You'll see a picture of a bucket with a revolving can on it. The intent is to kill the mice that fall into water in the bottom. I'm thinking you could use this idea a bit differently to catch rats alive. Use a bigger bucket, or small trash can, so the rats can't jump out once in. Put soft material in the bottom so they don't have a solid surface to jump from, or install a funnel trap, or put sticky traps in the bottom.
Sticky traps are little trays with very gooey glue in them, you set them where the rodents run, when they step in the goo they get stuck and eventually die. But you could remove them the next morning while alive, take them elsewhere and dislodge them from the sticky trap with a stick.
But I don't have a problem killing rats. They are not an endangered species, far from it, and they spread disease as well as what's mentioned above. Your safety is important too- mosquitoes and rats should be limited in numbers as much as possible for simple safety, unpleasant as it may be.
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 19 Jan 2017 19:48 - Edited by: toyota_mdt_tech
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Keep them alive if you want. As a Toyota dealer tech, as soon as it gets cold, we do no less than 2-3 rat chew jobs every day. Cost will be $400 to $2000 and I have seen one Camry, only about 5 yrs old totaled from rat damage. It was infested inside and a huge biohazard and the insurance company totaled it. They chew the knock sensor wires on V6 Tacomas, 18 hours labor to replace and a $20 part.
We had one chew on an engine fuel line, car burnt to the ground. Look into huntavirus too.
Hey, keep them around, there is "good money in rats". In fact, just yesterday, we had one jump out from under the car and is still in our shop until the electric rat trap electrocutes him.
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bldginsp
Member
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# Posted: 19 Jan 2017 22:08
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You can always have them for lunch
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sparky30_06
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# Posted: 20 Jan 2017 06:42
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Quoting: bldginsp You can always have them for lunchIMG_1001.JPG
I saw that when I was in Zimbabwe. They were roasting them over and open fire. I don't pass on trying many foods but that one I did!!
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