Electric rat traps - Has anyone had good experiences with these traps?

[Pet Duck Boy]

There's been a slight rat problem in my backyard for quite some time now. We've set out poison numerous times, and in the end only had one confirmed kill even though the chunks disappeared everytime. I eventually gave up that, when I discovered my girls snacking on a rat stick that my dad forgot to tell me about before letting the chickens out. Freaked me out, but my girls ended up fine. And after that, we set out classic snap traps, around 3 of them baited with peanut butter or almonds glued to the trip board. Not a single one during the week and a half we had those up, almost all were triggered but were baitless. The ones with glued almonds on them had the trip board actually knawed off. We ignored them for a month after that, but lately my dog has been running outside barking, when we let him out after dark. He never does that unless there's something out there. Signs of rat poop, and the chickens freaking out in the middle of the night also prove I might have a new set of rats that moved in. So my dad went to Lowes and picked up a victors electronic rat trap - it's supposed to work great for small infestations. I baited the back of the trap with peanut butter, and a dog kibble stuck in it, turned it on, and placed it against a wall I've seen rat droppings before in my patio. Now I just have to wait, but in the meantime does anyone have anything to add about these types of traps? Good or bad experiences?

 

[buggie]

I work in the pest industry. here is how you need to get rid of rats. Traps are the safest around other animals, but first and foremost is exclusion, you need to find out where they are getting in and seal all openings the size of a quarter or bigger. Then trap them, you may have to experiment with different baits (the one that works the best for me is peanut butter). Also place the trigger end (the end that catches them) against a wall, because rats run along walls when ever they can. I hope this helps.

 

[calista]

How about one that's used in rural Chinese villages, supposedly foolproof?

"Trapping, to be effective, requires a better trap than most. There are very many different types of rat traps, but few of them work well. We found one that works very well indeed. We've caught many hundreds of rats with these traps, probably thousands (we lost count). They never failed, they're perfectly safe to use, and they're simple and easy to make at village level."

Here's how it works:

http://journeytoforever.org/at_rattrap1.html

And here's how to make one:

http://journeytoforever.org/at_rattrap2.html

The problems I've heard with electronic rat zappers include not enough juice to do the job, corrosion from bait leakage, and trap wariness. They're incredibly smart critters. Good luck!

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

It's mostly in my backyard, and the frequent visits to my patio (Which is not screened) and the nests under the tread-mil. They dig under the fence. I typically take the chicken feeder inside everynight. I'm pretty sure there's no way for the little buggers to get inside the house at the moment, but I'd like to get rid of the residents ones to make sure we never do get an infestation inside the house. I do realize more will replace those killed, but as long as we have traps up that work my parents nor I would worry too much.
Calista - that's a neat little trap you have there, if there's no luck with the one we bought I'll definately look into it. Being the daring guy I am, I tested the trap out before I placed it in the patio. It gave quite a nice jolt, nothing near enough to knock a human down but something as small as a rat would easily be killed.

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

I used electric mouse traps when I lived in Alabama. Very effective with peanutbutter bait. Just don't forget to check them regularly.

 

[Tropical Chook]

Here in Thailand there are generally two types of trap used. The first one is the one mentioned by another member, which is commonly known as a Chines Rat Trap. They do work, but rats are quite smart, and after a while they start avoiding the traps. The second, and in my opinion, the most effective, is glue. We get the ready made glue traps here which look almost like a book. You open them up and there's glue on the inside. Bait is then left in the center of the glue, and once a rat puts even one foot on it, they're trapped. Of course they struggle, and within seconds they're completely stuck. The only problems is that the buggers aren't dead. You also get tins of rat glue which you then use to make your own traps. Simply pour some onto a peice of cardboard and spread it out, add bait, and if there's a rat about, it will be stuck on there in the morning. Very, very effective, which reminds me, I have to get some myself today as we have also started spotting a few around our coop/run at night.

If you Google "glue rat" you'll see what I'm referring to