Had had 2 pest control guys come in and throw bait round in ceiling and put bait stations round the property, found one but have heard more noises up there, not sure if it’s a younger one as a lot more quiet, the ceiling has so much insulation and the ceiling space is not very big so that I can’t get to where they travel, i tried putting traps with bait e.g peanut butter, cranberries, chocolate and not setting them but haven’t they never touched it, the poison the pest control put every where hasn’t been touched since, now I have put 2 pied piper bait stations around the property but have no idea where their getting up, the property in also covered in native trees, any advice on where to place the traps would be gladly accepted, I so want a good night sleep and sick of wasting my money on these companies, I took a photo of the one that died and was told it was a Norwegian rat but haven’t worked out how to post a photo on here, sorry I’m a newbie,
I thought it was a roof rat as the tail seems longer
If the rat’s tail is longer than its body, then it’s a ship rat. Brown/Norwegian rats make burrows, because they don’t climb as well as ship rats. Brown rats also grow much larger than ship rats, up to 500g.
Trapping rats at their nest, is rarely successful. You’re probably wasting your time with the traps in the attic. It wouldn’t hurt to leave 1 trap up there, though.
A major problem when poisoning ship rats, is that they might die in their nest in your attic, leaving a terrible smell as they rot, and the smell can last for a long time.
To trap rats, you have to find their travel routes. Do a thorough search of the ground around the borders of your house and any other buildings, like a carport, garage, or shed, looking for droppings. If you have to prune a bush or two to have a good look, so be it.
If you find any droppings, position your trap tunnels several metres away from them (if possible), parallel to the wall, fence, or underneath a hedgerow. This way, rats will encounter your traps as they travel. On their way to gather food, a hungry rat is far more likely to investigate your lure(s) than when they’re full.
You’re right to offer rats a variety of edible lures. Mayonnaise is a very good lure, but it can be really messy. Use a small spoon, if you try it on/in a snap trap.
Make sure that you’re tunnels are stable. Rats don’t like things that are wobbly. A brick is perfect.
Are any of the trees making contact with the house? Ship rats will climb up a tree and use branches to climb onto the roof. Pruning the branches that they use, will make reaching their nest harder. A saw on a stick or a chainsaw on a stick might work, depending on the height of the tree(s) and how hard the wood is.
If tree branches aren’t available to them, rats will often climb up drainpipes, so they’re a good place to look for signs of activity. You can buy metal rat excluders for drainpipes - a very worthwhile investment.
Do you know which native tree species are in the bush nearby?
Some species will have finished fruiting by now, while others may be producing a glut of food. In the bush here, everything’s finished fruiting, except fot the Karamu, which are laden with orange berries.
Rats may still be eating and caching the seeds that fell on the ground earlier in the year. Scout the bush, looking for potential food sources in the trees and on the forest floor. In the bush, rats prefer to store Hinau and Miro seeds for winter.
As far as siting traps in the bush, look for the safest routes for rats to travel, because they’re constantly on the look-out for predators. Fallen logs and large branches are good spots, as are spots where there a lot of small seedlings/shrubs that they can travel underneath. Ship rats have the luxury of traveling through the canopy, depending on how close the trees are to each other.
If you don’t own a dog, it would be good idea to have one come over for a sniff around, because they will be able to detect the scent-trails that rats leave as they travel, as well as droppings.
I hope that this helps.
Thanks for that info, have looked for rat droppings around the garden but haven’t been able to find any, the only thing that is fruiting at the moment are the dragons trees, but the fruit isn’t ripe, we have both a dog and cat but their both acting normal so much that sometimes I would think it’s my imagination but then I hear the thump in the ceiling, we are getting gutter guards put on but might look at what I can put on the down pipes in case their crawling up inside.
Yes, have looked at that, but just have to find something to put in it that they’ll eat.
We have a rat trap and a mouse trap permanently set up in our ceiling by the manhole cover - attached to weights so they don’t vanish! We just use plain old peanut butter and maybe a bit of fat off the roast if we remember. Seems to work.
I don’t have a “roof-cat” but they seem like such a great idea. I’m hoping to get one at some stage. The d-rat traps that are part of the “roof-cat” are simple and easy to use and passed the NAWAC humane trap testing guidelines.
Thank you will try the fat idea, honestly driving me crazy, not loud like the original one, so guessing it’s quite young, really hoping it’s the one.
There always after food make them come to you!
Yea, thought of that, but don’t think their game enough as we have a dog and cat and they know it, their obviously very timid and I’m thinking their still young and not as noisy as the fully grown one that we managed to get.
Do you use mousetraps? It’s a good way to kill juvenile rats. The last thing you want is successive generations colonizing the attic.
Around the house, I use a ratio of 2 mousetraps per rat trap. Once small rodent numbers drop, the odds of rats discovering intact lures increases significantly. Luring your traps late in the afternoon also helps, because small rodents have less time to raid your rat traps, before rats become active.
I hope that you’re able to kill the re-invaders.