[Nike Air]

Anyone had to deal with them, whats the best way to get rid of these pesky pests?

Traps
Poison
.......
?

[Jim]

think poison is the way to go first

[slackline]

Poisoned traps? 

[ducko]

poison and traps, leave the traps set in one place thou they take a while too 'warm up' to them then let the rats roll in, i had 7 last year horrible fuckers!

[Grubes]

 

[tomtom]

A friend who was a pest control person said rats and mice are quite canny when it comes to poison... they like to 'test' unusual/new foods first - by having a bit then if they're OK the next day its back to fill their boots.. Hence rat/mouse poison is designed to work after 24-48 hours of first ingestion so they think its OK and then...

So if you set poison down, dont be surprised to see none/little go at first, then it'll all go for a couple of days - then you've got em. Mouse/rat poison also makes them very thirsty when they are ill/dying, so they look for water sources, which are normally away from homes..

When mice die they dont make much of a smell as they're so small. Rats can stink though.. so it can be bad news if you poison them and their nest is under your floor boards etc...

Thats about all the advice he had... From my mouse experience !?!? I found the humane traps were a bag of shite, and good old mechanical back breaking mouse traps worked a treat. Bits of Mars bar was their favourite bait.. with a few crushed dorito's scattered around to lure them in..

[moodyboy]

Anyone had to deal with them, whats the best way to get rid of these pesky pests?

Traps
Poison
.......
?

As mentioned poison is the way forwards, although keep well out the way from pets & kids. If it's in a building have a skirt around and look to block up any holes etc that may be allowing them to get access. Even the very small ones, they fit through the tiniest of gaps. Remove any cover/food sources/rubbish etc. Don't know how bad a problem it is but you may want to have a think about Weils diease as well e.g wear gloves if moving  things around where the rats have been. It's rare but nasty and can be caught from rat urine/infected water sources Although from what very little i know, the numbers for  infection from a domestic rat problem is tiny.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptospirosis

[Krank]

what you need is one of these

[Nike Air]

All good advice thx, the problem is all outside of the house thankfully, the yard and garden. I did move the compost darlik(sp?) to above some flags. They had been digging under and living on our waste food it seems!! All four or them seem pretty brave little things, even trying to attack our little birds that chill on the bushes!
The old dude who used to live next door would sit patiently with his air riffle and have a pop at them. Thing is his barrel was bent so I think he scored pretty poorly.

[Jim]

I'm afriad the compost heap will have to go if you want rid of the rats. even when these are killed, more will come back to live of a free meal

[Nike Air]

Rat-ivity update:
Well I whacked some poison down and its all gone along with the weetos that were there to sweeten the deal. Must have worked as we have seen nothing of them..... 
Thanks for the info guys.

[moose]

If they do come back, the little bastards love peanut butter.  Though be careful, last time I used it as bait I ended up with a load of dead body-builders under my floorboards. 

Seriously though, rats aren't only carriers of disease... it's surprising the number of fires attributed to them knawing through wiring (though possibly by lazy fire investigators desperate for a possible cause that's pretty much impossible to disprove).

[butters]

No it is true that rats love cables for some reason. See a lot of instances where they gnaw on data cables though it doesn't make much difference whether they are fiber optic or copper.

[tomtom]

If they do come back, the little bastards love peanut butter.  Though be careful, last time I used it as bait I ended up with a load of dead body-builders under my floorboards. 

Seriously though, rats aren't only carriers of disease... it's surprising the number of fires attributed to them knawing through wiring (though possibly by lazy fire investigators desperate for a possible cause that's pretty much impossible to disprove).

No it is true that rats love cables for some reason. See a lot of instances where they gnaw on data cables though it doesn't make much difference whether they are fiber optic or copper.

Since the mid 80s, if I;ve been told correctly, all domestic eletrical cable has rodent-repellant/taste bad shit  added to it, so they dont eat it..

The classic used to be for people to go up into old lofts,  and the electrics would be stripped bare - but still working, so when you put your hand on a joist with a insulation removed cable....

At my house in Wales, one winter my MTB lost both foam handlebar grips and most of the rubber joints around the fork were done in.

an EVEN better tale is from a former Glaciologist colleague, who when doing fieldwork in the alps, parked up her (then) Lada near the base of the glacier (or where the road stopped) and went up onto the ice for about a month to take measurements etc.. not using the car (it was summer). When she returned a Marmot (they assume) had eaten every bit of rubber under the bonnet. All the coolant hoses, HT leads etc.. She had the 'international' AA rescue jobby. They scratched their heads and in the end shipped it back to the UK...

[Jim]

rats teeth grow something like 5" a year and they have to constantly knaw at things to wear them down, cables are perfect for this as the rat can easily get its mouth round it

[robertostallioni]

rats teeth grow something like 5" a year

Thats next to fuck all.

[Jim]

Double fuck-all^TM to be precise

[SA Chris]

Best bait we have found for mouse traps is raisins covered in peanut butter. Peanut butter has the smell, but we have found traps with the pb eaten off but the trap hasn't gone off. raisins are a bit harder to remove and enough to set off the trap. We've just had the fields behind out house harvested so expecting the annual mouse invasion any time.

I was told that rats won't go for compost unless you put cooked food into it. No idea if that's true or not.