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I have found neosorexa gold works very quickly, so hopefully the rats and mice just go a bit sleepy and die, they eat so much of it because of the way it has been made. I make sure nothing else can get the poison round here, I make bait boxes out of two orange juice cartons with the tops cut off, push one inside the other and make a hole in the middle of one end, chuck in the bait and put it out of the reach of hens and other birds, it stops the bait being spread around all over the place.

I'd catch them in a live trap and shoot them

personally

yep - shot another this morning, but again it took 3 pellets. Is that more humane than drowning? I don't know. Is rat poison humane?
one snuffed it by just by being left alone in the trap for a day.

I've been down the council pest control route before - all they do is leave bait boxes out and come back two weeks later. You have no real idea how effective it is. Now I have my own bait boxes and buy rat poison in bulk.

All this may temporarily have an effect but the problem is never "solved"... wiping out the current rodent residents just leaves an empty ecological niche for the next bunch. Its a continuous thing. I thought I was doing well keeping down the numbers in the chicken coop, but saw another in there yesterday - a small one - and it ran out straight past me. I was unarmed at the time !

The score is now 8 in about 5 or 6 weeks.

The humanity of pest control is a thorny issue

I don't like poison, partly because of the way it kills, and partly because of the risk of scavengers eating the poisoned corpses

i agree that it is enevitable that rats will be attracted to human activity, but good ration management and hygene will help some

a good ratting cat or dog is a good investment

Do you have a live trap dave?

And for the record, the film Ratatouille SUCKED!!!

I have a couple of these :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RAT-CAGE-TRAP ... 3f3e42260e

mouldy cheese bait works well

Update... currently on rat 17. These traps are ace. I feel like I am clearing vermin from Lancashire!

The buggers are getting smarter though - they have tipped the trap on its side to stop it triggering. I responded with a brick. They have triggered it without getting the food or getting trapped. And they have managed to trigger it AND get the food out... Persevere, reload, and it seems to get them in the end though :-)

Or are the smart ones still alive?

They are now digging holes in the upper compost heap.. think I need some more traps

dave45 wrote: Or are the smart ones still alive?

You are witnessing evolution!

Just re-reading an old thread here as we have a rat problem of our own at the moment so are trying to find the most humane options (there don't seem to be many!).

Slightly horrified at the thought of drowning or causing unnecessary suffering I must say. We have opted for super - beefy traditional snap-shut traps. I hate the thought, but I want it to be a quick and reliable death. Apparently with this brand, the only way the rat can get the bait is by literally putting its head right where it needs to be in the correct alignment for an instant death. Do you think we are right in this thinking? What a grisly choice.

Don't like the idea of it being trapped in a cage for a day and don't know what we would do with it even if we did catch one.

Should say we have also implemented scrupulous food hygiene measures at the same time - although they first appeared in the compost bin, burrowing great holes into it. I am about to turn it into another bin, so hopefully this will put them off too. Not sure what attracted them as we only put in raw vegetable waste, the odd eggshell and tea bags. The chicken poo does go in there though - do they like that sort of thing?

Reducing food availability is a good step to manage rats although I have had them chew through a plastic bin to get at grain. I needed to solve a growing rat problem after removing the 20 odd feral cats from around the old house & sheds. I used a mix of cleaning up (including keeping grass & weeds down), judicial baiting in closed containers (containers only had a rat sized entrance) and some shooting using a .22 with sneaky ammo (see pic) and a 410. A .177 airgun is a little light for a rat unless you hit something vital. The new red heeler X Kelpie is very effective too.

About a month ago it hit the news in our city (rotterdam, the netherlands) the rats are immune to poison. Got a serious problem all over the city. The news showed rats running around in the park next to the market where I do my weekly shopping.

Thank goodness ours are not immune to poison.
I get them every year from November to about March. I lay down poison every night for three nights, which is enough to kill the lot. Then a new lot moves in a few weeks later and I do it all again. I probably get about 4 lots during the winter months, and as Weedo says, they will chew through feed bins if you don't get 'em first.
Unfortunately if you keep chicken you are guaranteed to get rats.

we had a rat problem, I found out where they were coming in and used a break back rat trap, much more humane than poison imo.

...and doesn't get into the food chain of course

becks77 wrote:used a break back rat trap, much more humane than poison imo

So did I for a while, but I then found that they got wise to the traps and ignored them. That's the trouble with rats, they are highly intelligent creatures.
With poison they tend to die in their burrows so in effect they bury themselves.