Wife saw a couple rats in garage, will no longer park there. I knew they were there and thought I had got rid of them. NOPE. I am not currently able to fight the good fight, so will be bringing in reinforcements.

Place A stated $129 for 4 bait boxes and that their baits would make the rats want to go outside in search of air and water. Well there is air in the garage, duh, so thats bs, but I can understand the dehydration aspect. Also stated their bait is commercial and not like the stuff at do your own pest control.

What should I be asking an exterminator? What is a good COA? What should I anticipate spending?

I do believe they are only in detached garage now and house was sealed up before we bought it, so I'd like to get these suckered before they try and move in to the house.

Thanks for the info and experiences!

Warfarin. If you are in CS area I have a ton of rat poison left over from a previous infestation.

You can typically pick up a cat for free pretty easily - depending on location. Low cost of ownership. Neighbor stray lady will feed for free if the rats aren't keeping them full. Don't let that feeding get too out of hand - hunger is also motivation for a job well done.

Shock traps cost ~$50. Reusable and seem to be fairly effective.

Or go adopt an outdoor attack cat?

You'll want to include funds/effort to identify and seal the entrances they're currently using.

Also, I've never successfully poisoned a rodent(s) -- professionally or DIY -- that didn't choose to die in the walls.

+1 for the shock traps and then your not worried about poisoning something else or have them dying and stinking up the place when you can't find the body.

Seal up holes with a combo of metal flashing and copper wool. They can squeeze into the tiniest crack, so use that copper wool liberally. Then kill them the old fashioned way by setting rat traps inside and out. There are DIY bait boxes designed to hold manual traps so that you aren't catching unintended creatures.

I honestly think I effectively sealed them in. There was an old dog door with bricks covering it ans they got messed up and so I sealed the hole up with wood. House was sealed prior to my purchase otherwise. I'm pretty sure they are lovong in a mass of carpet we saved when redoing our floors up in the rafters of the attic. I had also previously sealed anywhere I saw daylight around the bottom of the garage with foam.

I agree on bait not being my preferred option, but my wife will not set the shock traps and be responsible for removing dead rats and I am unable to get after them at the moment.

Probably should have looked at these before ruling them out. How do you entice these smart asses to go in? Anyone have experience with either of these?

This cleaned out our hay barn. It's cheap too!

How does the Mrs. feel about snakes?

Left one up for a week and NOTHING. not even ants.

Sea Speed said:

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Left one up for a week and NOTHING. not even ants.

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Wow! I am surprised! Worked great for us.

Yea man, I was so stoked to go check it the first morning and was so disappointed. I thought I was so cool rigging it up.

We set a shock trap on a fence line that was frequented by rats. Got nothing. That was years ago, so maybe they've gotten better. As long as you're collecting bodies, snap trap may be a better choice, IMO.

Ate the bait out of all snap traps and didn't set them off. Cleaned up all poop and sealed the garage and didn't see any more poop for about a week, so figured they were only coming for a visit amd I kept them out. Guess not, or they severely altered their paths around the garage.

Sure it's not mice then?

ETA: What was the bait? Peanut butter or something the could lift off the trap?

Poop is huge and wife is adamant it was the one she saw was the size of a puppy.

Poop is huge and wife is adamant it was the one she saw was the size of a puppy.

The key to trapping rats is trap placement. They have bad eyesight and find their way by feel and smell. They tend to travel along walls and baseboards so that is usually the best place to set traps and poison.

Get rid of any food sources (ie. Pet food) and places for them to nest. Years ago we thought we would be eco-friendly and started a compost pile in a corner of our back yard. It didn't take long for that to become a rat condo.

All traps were in areas that were high traffic, as proven by the baits missing from the traps

Meant

tlepoC said:

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You can typically pick up a cat for free pretty easily - depending on location. Low cost of ownership. Neighbor stray lady will feed for free if the rats aren't keeping them full. Don't let that feeding get too out of hand - hunger is also motivation for a job well done.

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Paging agsalaska

Sea Speed said:

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Poop is huge and wife is adamant it was the one she saw was the size of a puppy.

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Opossum!

Sweet! This thread sent me on a wonderful Youtube wormhole of live action homemade electrified rat traps.

Most effective trap:

Sea Speed said:

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All traps were in areas that were high traffic, as proven by the baits missing from the traps

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I use old fashioned snap traps, but I put extra effort into securing the bait. I try to make sure they will have to work hard and can't just snatch it without triggering it. I usually use a twist tie to attach pecan halves that have been smothered in peanut butter.

Rodent love nuts, especially DEEZNUTZ

Not bad. I did cheese smoothed in to peanut butter.

Either way, consensus is try some electric traps? I cant justify paying someone 130 bucks to put 4 traps when I could get my neighbor or a friend to do it for a 12 pack and the material.

I fuggin hate rats. They are probably using the raceway from your garage to house as an entrance into your home.

Its sealed off unless they ate through the wore mesh, foam and wood. That avenue was sealed before, but I reckon they could have found a new route through

Sea Speed said:

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Left one up for a week and NOTHING. not even ants.

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We had rats in the attic when we first moved in. Literally sounded like they bowling up there when we were trying to sleep. Set several different types of traps and they wouldn't touch them for a week or more. When they finally got a rat then that trap would never catch another rat again. They see the one rat in the trap and the rest of them know exactly what the trap was and what it's for.

We finally found the opening they were using when we re-roofed. That was the only thing that worked, although I set out several poison cubes that were consumed. If it made a dent in the rat population I couldn't tell. But we didn't have one die in the walls as far as our sense of smell could determine.

If all else fails, get a frog...

Buy free beer for the OB. Everybody bring a pellet rifle and we can have a good, old-fashioned rat killin.

I'm not against this idea. Garage fridge is full of beer.

https://goodnature.co/collections/shop