by Debbie “The Rat Lady” Ducommun
The best way to keep rats off
your property is to remove any access to food or shelter. Rats are attracted to pet food and bird
seed as well as garbage and dog poop.
Garbage and food should be stored in metal or heavy duty plastic
containers. You need to seal any
access to your house, even very small holes, as young rats and mice can squeeze
through any opening they can fit their head through.
I have heard that one way to
repel rodents from an area is to use fabric softener sheets for the dryer,
especially the Bounce brand, scattered around the area. I’ve also heard you can use
Lifebuoy soap (which contains phenol) cut into pieces and hung in muslin or
other cloth bags (you can also buy a package of cheese cloth at a grocery
store, cut it into squares and gather up the edges and tie them to form a
bag). I’m not sure how often
you would need to replace these products to keep the rats away.
Also see the article at http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/02/06/want-to-know-how-to-get-rid-of-rats-ask-the-peeman/
If you need to remove rats from your home or business by
killing them, please use snap traps, and do not use poison or glue traps which
are inhumane. Snap traps kill
instantly and so are more humane.
Using
a Live-Trap
If
you want to remove wild rats from your home without harming them, you can use a
live trap. Live traps are usually
available from humane societies and feed stores. The best thing is to put the trap out
and fix it so the door won’t close at first so the rats will get used to
eating out of it. The best bait is
peanut butter put directly on the treadle.
Once you know rats are eating the bait, you can set the trap. Doing it this way insures that the rat
doesn’t accidently set the trap off before he
goes in. If that happens, he would
never go in the trap again.
Now,
the tricky part is where to release him.
You can’t just let rats go in forest or field. They must have source of water, and
around water they will be able to find things to eat such as insects, worms,
snails, fish, frogs, etc. So the
best place to release them is at a permanent source of water such as a creek,
river, lake or pond.
In
most parts of the country, the common wild rats are
Birth
Control
Field tests are currently being run on a chemical that would sterilize female
rats when eaten. The company
developing this product is called SenesTech in
Rat of the Week | News | Rat Info | Adopt a Rat
Reviews | Rat Books | Merchandise | Special Events
Meet the Ratlady
| Links | Home
Rat Fan Club
Copyright 1999-2009