Hi all, new in here, Rat advice please?

Hi all, new here.

Been shooting a few rats at my brothers property, lives on a farm which has more than it's share of rats, which are getting into his home, and making tunnels everywhere. He is not allowed to use poison, anyway he has pet cats and chickens which seem to peck at the baby rats, not to mention farm dogs running around.

Does have a gas powered trap which basically explodes their heads, got around 50 so far with this.

Have a few questions hopefully someone much wiser than me can help me with!

Any tips on attracting Rats, example food? Seems bread, chook and cat food do "okay" so far. Would love to know of anything irresistible to rats.

Have read Rats don't see Red. Tried chucking red cellophane over the bright spotlamp which helped a little, may try it on my small cree torch, as I'm only shooting up to 15 metres max. Using .22 slug guns around 20 ft lbs, too much I guess, but it's what we have. Using heavier grain pellets, certainly make one hell of a thud when they hit them.

I realise they have intense hearing and sense of smell, seem to be quite a hard prey to get, as they move so fast.

Any hints or tips from you guys? Keen to get as many as we can, as there are plenty of them round.

Cheers for any hints or tips.

Welcome to the forum!

Can’t really advise re rats. But I’ll be following w interest!!

Howdy Altair, welcome

Is the gas powered trap a Good Nature one ? I've had good success with one of those at a client.

Rodents (at least those around our house) love peanut butter

Hi, not sure on the brand, blue plastic, takes the small gas cylinders. Didn't take much notice as I'd rather shoot them...lol but I know it was $200 odd last year?

+1 on the peanut butter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3fNZbAhBKU

Do you know where they live? if you can find holes (very common at the farm dead hole) then you might be able to find a way to kill a lot on site.

I like the Goodnature traps. I think part of the success with those is finding what food they enjoy and then using that as bait. They are a bit pricey but they hammer blow about two dozen mice or rats before needing a new co2 cylinder. If the rat problem is that out of control you will need several of those traps to get it under control. Nice thing I find with the Goodnature traps is they kill faster than they can reproduce.

https://youtu.be/i2PSDVsZ38U
This guy breeds them so he can show you how to catch them.

Its not really a poison but google home made poison for rats theres one that uses bicarb soda i think that just fills them with gas

Peanut butter and plaster of paris 1:1 makes an effective rat killer its not poison they die of constipation so if it was put in drainpipe rat run traps would be safe around other animals.

Thanks guys, some good ideas in here. Yep there are holes all over. The peanut butter and plaster of paris sounds pretty painful, have a workmate I'd try that on...lol
Off to buy Peanut Butter today, also read they like chocolate so maybe Nutella too, and having it up on a post will allow good shots.
Cheers guys, appreciate your ideas.

I see a few rats but mostly they are dead in a trap - I don’t often see new numbers on the Goodnature registers but sometimes have a look if I go past - I have ten around the Park that I trap and changed all the gas bottles recently after six months in service - register numbers were 3, 8, 12, 3, 17, 11, 12, 3, 9, 4 - 80 odd rats for a near $2000 investment - but they save me going to traps in ugly spots
I have tested the GN A24 alongside a standard trap many times - the rats will almost always go for the standard trap
Best investment is a Victor Pro trap in a box - $30 each or buy the trap for about $7 and make the box - maybe $8
I recently saw a tiler working on a new house up the street - shooting rats at lunchtime on a 50m dirt bund round one side of the site - it looked like it was shot with a shotgun - it was full of rats he was using a Weihrauch .22 gas fired slug gun with a rotary mag - he got five while I was there - some jumped high and ran away - but he couldn’t get on with his real job - he just loved shooting rats - I put a GN A24 there for one night and didn’t get a single hit - a waste of time
I like GN Possum Paste as a lure on traps but I am running a few boxes around the street at present and bloody ants take the bait over night - so have reverted to peanut butter mixed with rolled oats - about 70/30 ratio - the ants get the PB but leave the rolled oats for the rats - it seems to work - cinnamon lure is powerful for rats but peanut butter is pretty good - and low cost
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22 cal air rifle. glue a small rifle primer on the tip of the slug. one shot kill but they smell like hell :)

or the good old trick of a rubbish bin full of water up to a foot of the lip, throw some chaff and grain on top of the water and the rats jump in expecting food but drown instead

You'll get a few with the Goodnatures but you need to back that up with maybe 6 or more Victors. We use core flute tunnels over the traps so kiwi and other birds wont reach the traps. Peanut butter and Nutella work well so does bacon fat etc. We even tried Schmakos the dog treats.
When there is a big infestation which sounds like what you've got you need to check traps daily and rebait.
Shooting will get you a few also but you need to keep up with the trapping to get on top of them. I personally wouldn't use the bi-carb of soda thing as its very cruel and takes ages for the rats to die.

Forgot to mention - if you mix the PB with rolled oats - you need to add some margarine and vegetable oil to keep it moist - the rolled oats soak up the moisture in the PB and it sets like concrete
Also heaps of information in our thread Bird Predator Control - https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....control-22269/

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My little Gamo 177 air pistol served me well for years... I used peanut butter and pre fed a location several nights in a row before setting up with the air pistol within 10m of the final bait. Surprisingly accurate, powered by the wee disposable CO2 Cartridges and had an 8 round cylinder from memory.

Your either a dwarf or that is a huge rat :thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by dannyb

Your either a dwarf or that is a huge rat :thumbsup:

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I'm 5'11" ha. That was the biggest one I got. Here are the runner ups

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Cheers guys, the trap in the above photo against a tree looks like his gas powered trap, but I'm sure its blue.
I've tried to convince my brother to allow drowning, but he won't let any animal suffer, which I respect..they are rats I know, but I too make sure I kill them outright..but if he would allow drowning we would get a lot more. They get thrown in the paddock for the local Hawks, so they look like flying rugby balls now.
Keen to try peanut butter, may do tonight if I get over there. Also grab some cinnamon powder, I'm happy spending money, as to me it's a lot of fun...lol... They go mental over bread, sometimes see a slice of bread "stand up' and walk away in the evening, so need to be quick with the rifle. Will chuck some chicken wire over the next bread which will buy us time. Have broken the bread up but the little shits are damned fast at running to get it.

I've heard that chocolate spread works well like peanut butter too. A guy from rentakill told me peanut butter is only good on a trap for a couple of days before it loses it's attraction ability.

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For what it's worth the duck shooters at my nzda built a pontoon on their pond. Put some grain on it for a night and then put some more the following night and spotlightd them

Terriers nature instinct is to dig out rats. They love it. Not sure if you want a new dog or not though. 😁