Best rat trap

d5775927

Getting comfortable
Dec 11, 2019
401
326
Israel
I have a rat problem under my house.
They punched a hole in a Pex pipe and probably got to an electrical wire.
I left a trap, the one with spring door that closes once the rat bites the bait, but found it closed without a rat inside.
What is the best solution to kill/capture rats (preferably one I can reuse, rats are an ongoing problem)?

P.S
I think there is also a porcupine that visits the same place, but I don't care much about him since I don't think he causes damage (except for digging some holes in the yard).
I think the rat is big, judging by the feces I saw (I know the difference between porcupine and rat feces, shape and smell differ).
 
In the horse barn it'd be the cats followed by a pellet gun.
 
Cats didn't do squat for me with rats. The biggest they'd take on is mouse and chipmunk. I've had the best luck with the cheap old fashioned spring trap, learning a few tricks along the way. A few are to block off the back and sides so the rat has to approach the trap from the front, put a plastic sheet under it if you don't want a sometimes bloody mess on the floor, and tether the trap so they don't walk off with it. It was a huge help to have a game camera pointed at the trap to see what was going on. One of the funniest videos was the trap sprang on the rat's snout, it pried the trap off and walked away. I tried a few of the more expensive new-fangled traps and never had any luck with them. One I didn't try was the electrocution type and have no opinion on that one. A consideration with the spring trap is getting something you don't want to, like the lazy cats, dogs, and squirrels. Pretty nasty if you get your own fingers, too. I have the rat problem in a barn. It's not highly infested, maybe 5 or 6 a year, but the mess they leave makes having even one an emergency.
 
We didn't feed the cats. They fed themselves with the critters they found on their own.
 
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I think cat don't go to this area (house foundations):

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I don't have a cat, there are a few feral cats that rarely visit the area where I saw rat droppings.