Tom here today, continuing our story of the Rat Recycling Zone™. Just like the last post, if you don’t want to think about rats, then perhaps we can interest you in a nice post about tomatoes.
First things first – we’ve had some requests to discuss the rat tunnel traps in more detail.
When we had rats in the attic or the crawl space, it was a straightforward enough affair to set out traps, but outdoors is a different situation. You want to trap rats, sure, but not run the risk of injuring other suburban fauna – cats, raccoons, etc. As with many things in modern life, I went to YouTube for inspiration, and found this video:
The ominous music alone sold me on this design.
Here’s a view of one of the traps that I’ve made:
My first traps used some scrap wood, but for the more recent traps I just used some inexpensive fence boards, cut to length to form the top, bottom, and sides, and held together with some deck screws. The top isn’t attached so that it’s easy to get in and inspect the traps. There’s a small barrier on either end to discourage larger animals from going inside, and the whole thing is weighted down by bricks to minimize the chance of something trying to open the whole thing up.
Here’s a view of the inside:
You can see the two traps set back-to-back, facing outwards. As Elizabeth mentioned, I’m mostly just using bird seed as bait – our local rat population has developed a taste for bird seed.
The traps I’m using are Tomcat brand snap traps. They’re just as effective as the traditional Victor traps that look like they’re out of a Tom and Jerry cartoon, but are much simpler to set and are a lot less prone to going off accidentally as you move them around. (We used the traditional Victor traps with our home rat problem, but after getting my fingers snapped a few times I’m done)
We’ve got the traps generally placed along fence lines and other straight edges, as rats like to follow along fences.
As Elizabeth mentioned in our last post, we’ve taken to putting the ex-rats out in the open, and something has absconded with them overnight. But what could it be? An owl? A raccoon? For about $40 we acquired a small trail camera - the Apeman H40 - capable of taking photos and videos as things pass by. Here it is, set into position:
And here’s the footage it caught around 9PM on Sunday night:
A possum! At least for that night, that’s what’s made off with the ex-rat.
Turns out, possum are fairly omnivorous creatures, snacking on insects, fruit, slugs and other garden pests. They’re also fond of carrion, which is what’s helping us out here. The possum (or a relative) came back several times that night, seemingly nibbling on other bugs that were around, hoping for other rats. We also caught sight of a cat lurking about.
After several successive nights in a row of successful rat trapping, the traps came up empty last night. We’re not sure whether that means we’ve put a serious dent in the local population, or whether we need to move the traps around to keep them off their guard. At some point we’ll train the trail camera on the fountain to see what else is visiting in the middle of the night.