Getting Rid of Rats

I live in an old Victorian house. Now that it is getting cooler rats have become a problem. I have a big Pit Bull that is sweet to people, but hates cats, so the obvious solution is out. And poison is out because of my dog as well. What are my options? These rats have got to go!

By P A from Point Richmond, CA

Answers:

Getting Rid of Rats

After catching an episode one of the show "Verminators" I think I would call a professional. It was an older, possibly Victorian home, and they chewed through the wiring and caused several fires in the attic. Seems like nothing to mess around with. They used traps, mostly as the homeowners were vegans.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/verminators/episode-guide.html (10/22/2009)

By KL

Getting Rid of Rats

Please do not waste your money on those Riddex things that you plug into the wall. They don't work! I haven't had rats or mice in years. I use the same thing my mother always used. Take some Coca-Cola Classic and pour in mayonnaise lids and put underneath your cabinet sink and around in the kitchen and bathroom.

This works and there is a reason why it does so well. When you down a Coke, what's the 1st thing you feel like doing? You burp. Well, rats and mice don't have the capacity to burp or pass gas so after they drink the Coke it creates gas in their stomachs, and their insides explode. I hope this helps.

Beverly (Havana, AR) (10/25/2009)

By Beverly

Getting Rid of Rats

If you can get a large amount of rosemary from the bulk food section of a store take and burn it in a frying pan. Take the burnt rosemary and put in your crawl spaces, etc. Rodents hate the odor and will leave. People did this during the middle ages because of the plague that was spread by the fleas on the rats. Coke and Alka Seltzer also work as, safe for pets and children, poisons.

You can also make a very effective trap out of a five gallon bucket, two small boards, and some heavy duty plastic wrap. Tightly cover the top of the bucket with plastic wrap, cut a slit in the middle. Put some peanut butter or cat food in the bucket, then put the bucket where you see the most rats, and put the two boards on either side of like a ramp. Being careful that they go only to the edge of the bucket so the rats have to walk on the plastic wrap they will fall into the bucket and be trapped.

From here you can either drown them in the bucket or the most humane method would be to put the bucket inside a large black garbage sack, tie it around your car's tail pipe and run for ten minutes or so. This will put them to "sleep" from carbon monoxide poisoning and they will have a painless death. I have lived for many years in a big Victorian ranch house and we get lots of mice and field rats and this is what I do.

Also set rat traps (bigger than mouse traps) in places your dog can't get to them close to walls, under furniture, the sink, etc. Check at least twice a day and reset. You should get rid of most of your problem. (10/26/2009)

By Anna Shobe

Getting Rid of Rats

I just got rid of four "rats" at our Victorian house. Ours were not really rats, but huge beefed up mice. We had set several mouse traps and they would set them off and get the food, but not get trapped. Finally we set a live trap and caught two at the same time. However, by the time I got my husband to dispose of them one had died (heart failure?) and the other had figured out how to escape. So we could see that we were dealing with intelligent large mice.

Finally I bought a rat trap. Houdini mouse actually threw a sock on the trap and got the food. A friend of ours who is in extermination told me to put a mixture of cornmeal and sugar all over the trap and the mouse would try to get every speck of it. It worked. We have caught four mice, all very large, as big as rats, but without the rat look. I think now I will put out the smaller traps again and see if there are any regular mice lurking around. (02/17/2010)

By Ladonna