How to trap rats or mice???????????????????????????
I recently got noise from attic at night. The pest control guys said it should be rats and mice.
Then I put some snap traps (the big size rat traps) in the area with the noise.
The bait I used is peanut butter.
It has been about 3-4 days but I have not got any rats or mice yet.
Today I checked with a HomeDepot guy and based on my description of the tunnel size and dropping size, he said it should be mice instead of rats.
By the way, the droppings are in cylinder shape and the size is a little bit bigger than rice (or almost the same size as rice).
I have a few questions:
1). Should I keep setting those rat traps? Will rat traps work for mice as well? The home depot said rat traps won’t work for mice. If so, should I put both mice traps and rat traps in the attic?
2). Should I keep using the peanut butter as bait? or should I change the bait to something else? any recommendations?
3). If I still couldn’t catch any rats or mice in the traps, should I hire a professional pest control company to do some treatment in my attic? They charge pretty expensive treatment fees (a few hundred bucks) and I heard they also use snap traps and glue traps. Will it make big difference?
I am looking for some advise.
Exterminators will charge you a bundle! Here’s what to do. This is going to sound weird, but, it works. Mice and rats cannot pass gas. You need to put out something to attract them that will give them gas. This is not a joke.
Get some bubblegum, beer, or, some bacon grease. Put the beer or bacon grease out in saucers or jar lids on the floor. Put some behind any furniture and/or appliances. Just unwrap the bubblegum and put it behind things. The mice will eat/drink these things and the gas will cause them to die. I’ve even heard that they blow up.
If you want to go with the traps, the peanut butter is good if you mix it with rat poisoning. Don’t do this if you have pets. You can also tie a piece of bacon to the rat trap. Good luck.
Wrap string around the trip plate on the traps and rub the peanut butter into it. This forces the rodent to chew on the plate and ensures that the trap snaps on the rodents neck rather than the rodent licking your bait off and making a clean getaway. Secure your traps to the floor with small brads or double face tape..this keeps them from jumping and missing the mouse when tripped. A mouse could conceivably set off a rat trap w/o getting caught and a rat could survive a mouse trap snap although it would probably drag the trap away with it if it caught an ear, foot or part of the nose. If none of your traps have been tripped try setting them in areas where the floor meets a vertical surface like against a wall, box, baseboard etc. Check the article below for further tips.
If you think you have both rats and mice I’d keep using the rat traps and get some mouse traps as well. Mice are small and their weight isn’t enough to spring a rat trap. They could possibly clean a rat trap of peanut butter without springing it. Peanut butter is good bait. So is cheese and if your using spring traps bacon. You wrap the bacon around the spring so they have to tug to get it loose. If you don’t catch enough and you still see dropping call in the professionals.
You really do not have to do anything weird or fanciful to get rid of these mice. By the description of their droppings it is definitely mice that you have. The solution is easy and you will soon begin to rest easy at night.
Go to your local hardware store or DIY store and buy some mice and rat poison. This comes either in the form of sachets or in a plastic child proof bottle. It is not expensive. About £5 for several applications. Buy two lots. When you get home pour some of the poison (tiny grains of wheat covered in a green poisonous covering) into the lid off a jam jar, or a plastic top off a butter container or anything else that you have which is low sided but easy to contain these grains. Just put a small pile in the bottom of these containers and pop them up into the attic. Put about four or five up there.
Tomorrow, go up there again and see how much has been taken. Re-stock the lids or whatever it is you have used and then repeat this every day until the grains stop being taken. That’s when you know that the mice are all dead.
They come along, take the bait back to their nests and consume it there. That is also where they die and do not believe what people say about them smelling once they are dead. I am sure they do, but it will not affect you. They are tiny creatures and will decompose and shrivel up very quickly. The good thing about poison is that they also feed it to their young. So stop fretting; you don’t need an exterminator or fancy, gourmet baiting traps; you just need poison.
Best of luck.
Make it easy on yourself and purchase a rat zapper. They work off of batteries and will electrocute your rodents dead every time. Whatever you do, do not use products that cause them to explode. The smell will be terrible for about a week.