I assume this thread was a troll, but if it wasn't the OP is a *****

Colorado, if you have never kept chickens, then you don't know that vermin and hen houses go hand in hand. You have to have a strategy to control them, and no, shooting rats at 3am is not going to work for me. Live traps have not worked.

I'm going to move to those big black bait stations or the rat zapper. Or maybe both. I'll have to have ongoing measures to control rats as long as I have chickens. Including potentially buying a rat proof feeder. Grandpa's Feeder is one that is sold commercially. I may be making my own treadle feeder.

I may be incompetent and a fool, but I am not a troll.

[This message has been edited by shiftyandquick (edited 11/16/2012 10:55a).]

Ok, I think I can finally wrap up this thread for those who had any interest.

This should take care of it. The only question now is whether an even worse smell is going to be found in my home when these suckers die (worse than the broken sewer line in my crawl space).

tie a rope to the trap, toss said trap in a body of water, drink beverage of choice, drag trap up, dispose of rat....done

Get the zapper - our cabin at the ranch, being out in the country we always battle mice/critters and even with poison, many a rodent has stunk up the place....and it's ripe!

*or a pair of maine coon cats! Aunt has a few at her horse barn, they are some rat-killing machines!

If you stayed up until 3AM

[This message has been edited by Skubalon (edited 11/21/2012 11:01a).]

first rat I have caught since the start of this thread and losing that first one, and having put out bait traps. I don't feel bad about drowning a rat. wish there was a better way in the city....

Why does killing it have to be humane. It's a rat.

I kill anything in as humane a manner as possible.

But it does work for shifty's purpose.

You can borrow Roscoe, my Jack Russell.

I caught a mouse in a sticky trap one time and we set it on the coffee table while we tried to figure out best way to kill it. Roommates and I were going to use the microwave but decided it'd be too messy. We settled on backing over it with the truck. Quick smush seemed pretty humane to me.

Mice in sticky trap: stomp on it (place in bag first if squeamish)

Drowning is not painless

Subsonic .22 would be good

For mice on sticky traps I use my fingers or pliers and crush their neck kind of a cervical dislocation/destruction


A rat in a live trap would get a pellet gun

just had this problem last week...a twist for city folk:

Havahart caught them, thought a bucket of water would do, found err in my ways on #1...then got an old cooler and filled with water...4 rats in 2 days, problem solved so far

my luck though they moved from outside to inside, so that's why trap hasn't caught any in last few days

What's wrong with a hoe or a sharp shooter shovel? Quick and to the point!

you have to release the rat from the trap to kill it with a shovel. maybe if you have two people. one to open the trap and one waiting with a shovel. plus it would not be 100% results.

That is a LOT of effort to catch one rat in a year's time! Ok, not including the one that escaped your failed execution attempt.

I caught one. Dropped tout of trap into metal garbage can. Kinda fun trying to catch it with the sharpshooter as it ran circles in the bottom of the can.

[This message has been edited by angry beaver (edited 10/13/2013 6:36p).]

You need two marine batteries and this website.

http://m.instructables.com/id/Barbie-Doll-Electric-Chair-Science-Fair-Project!/?ALLSTEPS

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just leave it sitting there until this thread is done. I bet it's dead by then.

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Is it dead yet? Lol

So I'm having more varmint trouble. We had raccoons in the chimney. Thought they left. But discovered these pups had become adults and were still living in the chimney, the roof sounds like a superhighway at about 5am. I went into the backyard and counted at least 6 raccoons. So have started trapping again

To my dismay last two night I caught rats. I don't want to drive and release a rat. I don't want to go through the hassle of drowning a rat like I did before. The first rat died before I had time to drown it (20 hours in the trap). For the second rat, I finally broke down and bought a .177 pump air handgun. Did the trick. Now I can get the rats out quick so I can catch coons.

Last coon was given to animal control, whom I understand have a special sanctuary in the country where these raccoons live out their lives in luxury and ease. Right? That's what my kids think. They were were very upset about us giving the coon to animal control (those guys are the bad guys in several kids movies).

Just kill the dam things and tell your kids you dropped them off on a backroad.

That is their story (and one I don't agree, tell people what happens), but......no.

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So animal control really IS taking them to the country and dropping them off! Lucky you!

However you do it,OP. Make sure to put its body on a spike to serve warning to the others.

My friend in Terlingua sets the trap in the sun for a bit.

Just shoot it's nuts off.

My havahart needs repair due to how many times I have shot the wire mesh with my pellet gun. That trap has caught well over 50 rats in the 3 years I have lived on this creek.

just flush the rat down the crapper, that will kill it for sure. Be sure to cut in half 1st, so you don't stop up the crapper

Insert worm hook through the skin on his back. Cast into the nearest stock pond and wait for a five pound bass to swallow him. You get to dispose of the rat and catch a bass in one transaction.

Doesn't matter how, just make em dead.