Live Catch Rat Traps

[Rabid 1,936]

Bit of info if I may, I am looking for a couple of multi catch rat traps, what and where are the best to look for ?

 

Thanks, Rob.

[Matt 160]

If it's not a silly question, why would you want to live catch?

 

There are several makes out there, the good old monarch is still a firm favourite with many, and the Samuel Lewis Whole Rat Family trap is also popular.

 

A quick search on ebay will show lots of new and second hand ones; personally, I would rather buy a good quality second hand trap than a crappy new chinky trap.

 

Unless you have a good reason to want to catch them alive, I would opt for some of the good quality Snap-E type traps, or you could even modify some of the pro victors as shown in the pinned topics at the top of this forum.

[Rabid 1,936]

The only reason I mention live catch is I have never heard of anything else that will catch more than one in an evening. If there are some on the market I am all ears.

 

The place I am trapping is a friends garden, his neighbours have horses and chickens as does my mate, and early evening and early mornings his yard is alive with them. I wanted a few traps that would take more than one in an evening so was looking at live catch, and a .22 into the heads next morning.

[Matt 160]

A trap like the monarch is capable of catching anything up to 10 rats at a time. I have had 16 in one (not to be recommended; all covered in piss and shit), but most of the time you will catch 2 or 3 at a time.

 

For the cost of a good multi-catch cage trap, you could easily get half a dozen Snap-E's or Victors, which when placed carefully will (in my opinion) catch more per night than a multi-catch.

 

If there are that many rats you have to ask yourself why? What is attracting them, and more importantly, what is being done to stop the infestation?

 

They are there for a reason, and just killing a few off with traps will not sort the problem out long term.

 

You could also consider snares; take a look at the excellent articles on this forum by Glen Waters.

 

I'm afraid that I'm going to sound like a miserable old pest controller when I say this, but if you have a large population of rats living close to your family and your livestock, then perhaps a professional should be the right place to go rather than trying to sort it out yourself. Properly used, rodenticides pose little or no risk to people or pets, and most local authorities offer free or subsidised services to householders.

[Rabid 1,936]

The main reason they are there is food, the next door have chicken feeders everywhere with lose and spilt feed, and buckets of water so it's everything they need, the hay and straw barns are ideal nest sites, and once a year when they clear them out we hit them hard, but for the last 8 months or so they have not been touched, hence the huge increase in numbers.

 

Poison is certainly not an option, we regularly use it on the farm, and like you say, i advocate its use when handled properly and used with common sense, but a couple of years we baited his place, but a rat got into his garage and died, the stink was awful, his mrs went ballistic and it was agreed for the sake of his marriage we would kill and dispose of everything straight away.

 

To be fair, we are usually on top of them, and until recently it was a rare sight, but as I say, this last year we have both been busy and they have increased in number as they do ! Having farms and livestock all around its not unusual to have a few about, just looking for a solution to get the numbers back down again rapid, I have many box types set, but was hoping to add a few multi catch as well.

[04fox8 168]

There is a multi catch / kill trap on the market that I saw being promoted at last year's Royal Highland show at Inglestone.

Cannot for the life of me remember what it was called, but it looked fairly effective, but was NOT cheap!

It worked off a pre-charge of air and was capable of catching and destroying 10 rats I think it was.

Maybe someone on here can provide a link?

I have a 'brochure / leaflet' at home, but not there at the moment..sorry.

[randombadger 26]

The device 04fox refers to is probably the Dasher trap: http://www.dashertraps.com/index.html

 

A snip at £350 + VAT

 

If it worked as per the description then great, however after the one I saw demonstrated I have serious doubts over the ability of the gas piston to deliver a killer blow repeatedly (up to ten times they say), I have serious doubts that it would be humane after it's gone off a few times and the pressure has dropped (although they claim there is a shut off if pressure drops below a certain level). I could see that after a few goes the power was noticably falling off, maybe they've sorted that I don't know. But hey if you fancy trying it please report back and let us know how it goes!

[04fox8 168]

Yup, that's the one.

 

I would immagine that it works on a pilot sw. set up, and operates on a regulated air supply, hence delivering the same amount of 'force' with each 'hit'.

Should the supply of air go below a certain pre-determined pressure, the pilot valve would not operate, thus preventing the trap from cycling on too low a pressure.

 

Just assuming, but that's how I would see it working, or at least, that's how I would configure it to work.

[Rabid 1,936]

Thanks for the info, interesting to know there is one on the market, but at that price I can safely say it ain't gonna be for me.

[04fox8 168]

Aye, a bit steep eh.

Not sure how durable they would be, would be ok to start with I'm sure, but after 6 months or so exposed to the elements, rain / dust etc...

Nicely 'waffled' rats tho, they would get some smack off that board.