Rats have been around with mankind from the beginning of time. We are told that nobody is further away from a rat than six feet, at any given time. I do not believe that is necessarily true, however there are a lot of rats around.
Apparently there are 60 species of rats in the world. The smallest one is about four inches long and the biggest one is called a Bosavi woolly rat that weights in, at over three pounds, about the size of a cat.
Rats are not your "simple" little animal, they are very intelligent. This is proofed by the fact that they are used to sniff out gunpowder and are very clever at solving puzzles and can find they way round mazes.
17 species of rat are known to transmit fatal diseases to mankind: weal's disease, plague, viral hemorrhagic fever and Q fever. Rats do not sleep a lot and most of their activity takes place during the hours of darkness.
Apart from me, rats enemies are many; cats, foxes, dogs, snakes, large birds like falcons, hawks, kites and, of course, the owl.
I have no experience of catching rats in a house, because, as far as I know I have never lived in a house with rats. However, my sister, who lives in Washington, had a neighbour who kept a python lose in the house that lived on rats. You could try that if you like, I would rather not because it might well eat you one day.
My serious rat hunting days began three years ago (2017) when rats eat all my beetroot and apples crops down on my allotment. I knew they were around because I used to see them running around on occasions. I thought nothing of it, just a few rats. How wrong I was:
2018 I caught 53
2019 I caught 84
One night in 2019 I caught two young ones in one trap ( cleaver 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 allotment has been flooded for nearly two months at the start of the year and they have been drowned or moved away for the time being, however I did see one the other day. So they are back, but so am I.
So, how do I catch them. Well, first off, I do not use any form of poison. I think that is not safe and the rat takes three to four days to die. When you poison a rat it will hide somewhere and die, and then there is a possible that something will come along and eat it and that animal will also die. So by using poison you lose control of what happens and you could be responsible for two or three very painful deaths.
I use rat traps, the wooded ones, not the plastic ones because they will break up in the sun. The bait I use is peanut butter, I find this best because the rat has to spend some time under the spring licking the bait off. I always wear gloves when I handle the traps, the reason is to keep my scent off the trap.
Rats, like us, are very much on the ball however 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 everyday, but I do not set the trap. What I want is the rat to come get used to taking the bait. So, every third day, I set one of the traps and always catch a rat.
People always what to know what I do with the dead rat, why I do not know. Although, it is interesting, because it shows up another animal behaviour.
As I said, I always wear gloves so when I have a have a rat to get rid of, I put my gloves on and take the rat in the trap to an open pice of ground on my plot and drop the rat on the ground and go and have a cup of coffee to await what happens next.
This all takes place between four and four-thirty in the afternoon: while I am sitting in my chair, a red kite appears in the sky, glades round and then swoops down, picks up the dead rat and flies over the near-by trees. This has been going on for the last couple of years, summer and winter.
So to catch rats, you need: rat traps, peanut butter, gloves, patience and a routine.
Richard Haigh writes regularly at http://the-organic-grower.blogspot.com/ and invites you to read more of his articles about organic gardening there.
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