Rats have existed with mankind since the beginning of time. We are told that no one is further from a rat than two meters at any given time. I don’t think that’s necessarily true, however there are a lot of rats out there.
There are apparently 60 species of rats in the world. The smallest is about four inches long and the largest is called the Bosavi woolly rat that weighs more than three pounds, about the size of a cat.
Rats are not your “simple” animal, they are very intelligent. Proof of this is the fact that they are used to sniff out gunpowder and are very clever at solving puzzles and can figure out how to get around mazes.
17 species of rats are known to transmit deadly diseases to humanity: Weal’s disease, the plague, viral hemorrhagic fever and Q fever. Rats do not sleep much and most of their activity takes place during the hours of darkness. .
Besides me, the enemies of the rats are many; cats, foxes, dogs, snakes, large birds such as hawks, hawks, kites, and of course the owl.
I have no experience in trapping rats in a house, because to my knowledge I have never lived in a house with rats. However, my sister, who lives in Washington, had a neighbor who had a stray python in the house that lived on rats. You could try it if you want, I would rather not because it could eat you up one day.
My serious rat hunting days started three years ago (2017) when rats eat all my beet and apple crops on my plot. I knew they were close because I used to see them running on occasion. I didn’t think about that, just a few rats. How wrong I was:
2018 I caught 53
2019 I caught 84
One night in 2019 I caught two young men in a trap (blades, are they?). I also caught a very large slug.
This year, 2020, I have only caught two so far. The reason, I think, is that my plot has been flooded for almost two months at the beginning of the year and they have either drowned or moved out for the time being, however I saw one the other day. So they are back, but so am I.
So how do I catch them? Well, first of all, I don’t use any kind of poison. I think that’s not safe and it takes three to four days for the rat to die. When you poison a rat, it will hide somewhere and die, and then there is a chance that something will come and eat it and that animal will also die. So by using poison, you lose control of what happens and could be responsible for two or three very painful deaths.
I use rat traps, the wooded ones, not the plastic ones because they break in the sun. The bait I use is peanut butter, I find it better because the rat has to spend some time under the spring licking the bait. I always wear gloves when handling traps, the reason is to keep my scent out of the trap.
Rats, like us, are very attentive, but also like us, they are creatures of habit. I take advantage of that fact in the following way.
I have five traps and bait them every day, but I don’t set the trap. What I want is for the rat to get used to biting the hook. So every three days, I set one of the traps and I always catch a rat.
People always know what I do with the dead rat, why don’t I know. Although it is interesting, because it shows other animal behavior.
Like I said, I always wear gloves, so when I have a rat to get rid of, I put the gloves on and lead the rat in the trap to open ground on my plot and drop the rat on the ground and go and have a cup. of coffee to wait for what happens next.
All of this takes place between four and four thirty in the afternoon: as I am sitting in my chair, a red kite appears in the sky, spins around, and then swoops down, picks up the dead rat, and flies over the nearby trees. . This has been going on for the past few years, summer and winter.
So to catch rats, you need: rat traps, peanut butter, gloves, patience, and a routine.