There is also this, although I don’t know how widely available it is yet. The developers think it’s going to be a gamechanger of historical proportions. Rat birth control.
and their website;
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The only way to make sure is to take off and nuke the site from orbit.
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I am sure they are great for dealing with (say) a feral capybara problem.
I can relate to this - my cat does the same thing with spiders. She gets my attention, then points them out by moving within a foot of wherever they are lurking. At that point, she either stares at me or meows as if to say, “Are you gonna do something about this, or what?”
After reading about the dogs, maybe I should be grateful that she’s lazy - because sometimes she licks my hands. If she ate a spider and then licked me, I’d do my best impersonation of Lucy van Pelt after a kiss from Snoopy. 
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I really don’t know how some people lose their empathy when it comes to vermin.
I mean, I don’t understand people who don’t love animals, but that’s not what I’m talking about here.
If you like rats/animals–and empathise with them–when they’re not causing trouble, how do you stop feeling that once they become an irritant? How can killing them suddenly become freed of the burden of remorse and sympathy?
If I had a rat problem, and had to do something about it, and non-lethal methods were simply impractical… it would eat me up inside.
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My local owl population is booming (hooting?), i haven’t seen many local rodents lately. Bad year to be a squirrel around here at least.
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Why do you assume that we don’t feel remorse while dealing with them? Jason’s previous thread on this problem was full of posts condemning cruel methods of eradication (like glue traps) and suggesting humane alternatives.
I usually use a nonlethal trap for mice, and then relocate them to a nearby park. Rats, however, are problematic; they are pretty good at avoiding live traps, and if you do live trap one and transport it a block or two away it will find its way back to (and into) your house. I prefer the zappers, aswhen they work they are quick, but the goodnature traps look even better in this regard.
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Maybe I skim-read this article too fast, but what I got from it was a frank description of death (plus gore) with zero emotional response to it.
Besides, I have seen people who seem to enjoy killing vermin, and others who–while being animal lovers–become utterly pragmatic, matter-of-fact, and (barring irritation) affectless when the topic or act comes up.
And I honestly don’t understand how they do it.
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Also, you need it to be STICKIER on the pedal. Raisins that have been squished onto it are incredibly sticky. You can mix raisins, PB, honey, jelly candy, etc in a mortar and pestle then squish it onto there hard, so it can’t be licked off. You want the rat to bite and scrape with its teeth, not to lap with its tongue. The more strenuous action, the likelier it will spring the mechanism.
Also, nail or screw the trap to the floor. It’s a shed, so who cares if you put a couple holes in the floor. But if you care, then nail or screw the trap to a heavy board or chunk of plywood. That way the rat can’t carry it off. Often, if it’s not a neck shot, the rat will limp away and find a narrow place to try to strip off the trap. If it’s fixed to the floor, it won’t be able to. I had a three legged one once. It chewed its own leg off and managed not to bleed out from the wound!
I’m a 25 year veteran of dealing with vermin in New England. I have a few tricks up my sleeve.
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The only thing I regretted about keeping rats was that they live just long enough for you to get really attached to them. Those rats must have been poorly socialized and or your friend must have smelled like food. Fancy rats are very intelligent and kind. Whenever I hear someone talking about getting their kid a hamster or gerbil I try to steer them towards a rat instead. Those little guys, especially hamsters, are real bastards; they are grumpy and bitey and refuse to adjust their nocturnal schedule the way a rat will.
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This may not apply to the shed in question, but squirrels and rats used to infest my attic for years–both in the open areas, and going from there into the walls. No way was I going to put in lethal traps or poisons, but humane catch-and-release ones didn’t work. I finally tried a strobe light–it pulses about once a second–and they were gone in two days. After five years, still gone. It went out once, and they were back within a week–replaced it, gone again. So, at least in my case, a strobe light (some companies make 'em just for the purpose) was 100% effective in humanely dealing with my vermin problem.
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If worse comes to worse, you can try chocolate laxatives. We had that when mini mice were clearing off our peanut butter traps. They didn’t set off the trap, but they crapped themselves to death a few feet away.
You should try a 5 gallon bucket rat trap. There are plenty of videos on YouTube showing how to make one.
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I used to work with a quiet, skinny, unassuming guy who surprised me when I went to his house once. We were partying away when he grabbed a .22 rifle and beckoned me to follow him outside. He shook a bag of feed corn and picked off the rats as they ran out with rat shot (kind of a shotgun shell that goes in a .22).
Never partied with that guy again …
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These are rats; nuking the site from orbit only ensures that it will be a battle between them and the roaches for postwar hegemony.
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rat traps? you people must have some lazy-assed snakes in your country.
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For most of human history, the default condition has been protecting and providing for some of the creatures that they encounter, while battling others. Of course animals raised for meat can be treated with love and care right up until they are slaughtered. This is not really a contradiction, it is a sign of a healthy understanding that there is a food chain, and you are part of it. You just do what you have to do. People who are closer to the process of producing their own food very quickly become used to it.
But I always try to use live traps when possible. I have one set right now for a fox that keeps menacing a neighbor. Neither of us has anything against the fox, or wish it harm. It just needs to do its thing somewhere else.
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Nah, a minimum of 50 kt/km2, evenly distributed over a large area, will nicely take care of any problem.
