Making a Rat Trap: Effective and Humane Ways to Catch a Rodent

Once a rat invades your house, you can’t get rid of it simple: this is a fast, smart and disgusting. One its view scares many people to death, not mentioning harm it does and infections transmitted to it. Don’t despair – you can make a trap on your own, or learn to install ready ones.

Contents:

1 How to Make a Cage Rat Trap
2 How to Set Victor Electronic Rat Trap
3 How to Kill a Rat in a Trap?
4 How to Trap a Rat Without Killing It?
5 Where to Buy an Electronic Rat Trap?
6 How to Make a Rat Trap Bucket?
7 What to Use In a Rat Trap?

How to Make a Cage Rat Trap

This method of catching rodents is the most humane one, because the pet is not necessarily killed. This kind of rats trap works by enticing an animal to try the bait inside. When it walks inside, a door connected with a sensible pad shuts down, and the animal cannot get out anymore.

But before installing such a trap, you should consider the following:

A cage must be steel and fine: some rats are able of getting through spaces ½ inch wide.
About a dozen of traps should be installed to ensure its usefulness. One-two traps won’t help to catch all rats, and the rest free congeners may start gnawing cages and causing other problems. Besides, rats are intelligent – when it sees another rat imprisoned in a certain trap, it will try avoiding it down the road.
In fact, a rat within a cage may die very quickly because of harsh conditions, heat, etc. For this method to be really humane, check cage traps every 8 hours and leave water and orange peels inside.

A cage must be steel and fine.

How to Set Victor Electronic Rat Trap

Victor Electronic Trap is the best rat trap of its kind praised by many people. It kills caught rats, and may help to catch 2-7 rats within several hours! Besides, it is quite easy to install:

Put four batteries inside the compartment.
Put a bait inside (it can be peanut butter applied on the back wall, or dehydrated fruits and nuts). Use a special applicator to make sure your smell doesn’t stay inside.
Place the box along a wall, or by its back side pressed against it.
Switch the trap on (a green light will shine).
Check for dead mice and rats regularly, and dispose bodies. If a trap does not kill the rodents, check the indicator – it might be obstructed by dirt, hairs, etc.

Electric trap – effective against rats.

How to Kill a Rat in a Trap?

If you try to avoid glue, poison and other violent ways of rat killing, you can use more humane methods. For instance, prepare a plastic container with a hole for a small hose that will connect it with CO2 bag. Place a few spoons of baking soda in a plastic bag, and when everything is ready, pour a bit of vinegar inside. CO2 will emit, and a rat will pass out and die, slowly suffocating.

Another more or less painless way is head trauma. Attack precisely and quickly, and put on gloves to avoid being bitten. If you own a small gun and have skills, you may simply shoot a rodent. But in this case, it will cause bloody mess and noise, which can scare people around.

A rat can be killed by a blow to the head.

How to Trap a Rat Without Killing It?

Want to capture a rodent without stressing it and doing any harm? Try trapping it in a cage or any other container giving access to fresh air. Spring traps cause traumas and in some cases kill rats.

Another smart method is placing a board or a spoon covered by peanut butter on one end. Balance it and let other half be over a bucket or trashcan. An attracted rat falls down and can’t get away.

One interesting kind of homemade rat trap is a glass propped up by a coin. Put it with upside down and place some peanut butter inside. A small rat will get inside, but when a glass is shaken, it will fall down and block the rodent’s way.

read: How to Identify & Safely Clean up Rat Poop?

Where to Buy an Electronic Rat Trap?

Check for some traps in home depots – there are many non-electronic variants (cages and spring traps). More advanced and cheaper solutions can be found in online stores of official producers and marketplaces like Amazon.

How to Make a Rat Trap Bucket?

One of the least violent and cheapest methods is a bucket trap. It is done simply:

Take a middle-size bucket and make holes on two opposite sides of its upper part.
Drill holes in a soda can (upper part and bottom), put a dowel and inside and fix it on the bucket.
Put peanut butter bait on the soda can and install a ramp for rats.
They will go to the can, but its weight will move the object, throwing animals inside the bucket.

If you need to leave the apartments for a long time, atifreeze inside the bucket may solve the problem of rotting and bad smell.

From a bucket to make a trap for rats.

What to Use In a Rat Trap?

Most experts and experienced users recommend rat trap baits is peanut butter. It has a strong smell and attracts rodents even from other rooms and floors. Also they like dehydrated fruits, nuts, vegetables, cereals, bacon and different meats. In fact, they eat everything, so any foods with intense smell will do.