I have a neighbor who has been hearing scratching noises in the walls and
ceiling.
They apparently got in through one or more broken vents
Her exterminator suggests two approaches
One is to set out poison. The downside is that the critters will die in the
walls and smell up the house.
The other is to set traps. The downside of this approach is the higher cost
of checking and rebaiting traps.

What is the best way overall of handling this problem?

Charlie

As they're too large to let them die in the walls, I'd use just one or two
traps, check and bait them every day until the problem is gone. Make sure
their entrance has been sealed first


"Charlie Bress" wrote in message
...
I have a neighbor who has been hearing scratching noises in the walls and
ceiling.
They apparently got in through one or more broken vents
Her exterminator suggests two approaches
One is to set out poison. The downside is that the critters will die in
the walls and smell up the house.
The other is to set traps. The downside of this approach is the higher
cost of checking and rebaiting traps.

What is the best way overall of handling this problem?

Charlie

Charlie Bress wrote:
I have a neighbor who has been hearing scratching noises in the walls
and ceiling.
They apparently got in through one or more broken vents
Her exterminator suggests two approaches
One is to set out poison. The downside is that the critters will die
in the walls and smell up the house.
The other is to set traps. The downside of this approach is the
higher cost of checking and rebaiting traps.

What is the best way overall of handling this problem?

Think cat.
http://www.moggies.co.uk/misc/glenturret.html

"Stephen King" wrote
Think stupid, as in "HeyBub" you're stupid.

If cats are good enough for homeless people to eat, they should be good
enough for a rat's breakfast.

If cats are good enough for homeless people to eat, they should be
good enough for a rat's breakfast.

A big cat, probably male, can eat rats.

Charlie Bress wrote:
I have a neighbor who has been hearing scratching noises in the walls and
ceiling.
They apparently got in through one or more broken vents
Her exterminator suggests two approaches
One is to set out poison. The downside is that the critters will die in the
walls and smell up the house.
The other is to set traps. The downside of this approach is the higher cost
of checking and rebaiting traps.

What is the best way overall of handling this problem?

Charlie



I have well over two hundred customers that I have bait out for rats and
I will maybe get a dozen, probably fewer, calls a year on dead odor. The
rats can die and cause an odor but more times than not it doesn't
happen. As mentioned for customers that insist on snap traps the cost is
more. Most exterminators base their time $100-$125 an hour.

Lar

On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:10:50 -0400, "Charlie Bress"
wrote:

I have a neighbor who has been hearing scratching noises in the walls and
ceiling.
They apparently got in through one or more broken vents
Her exterminator suggests two approaches
One is to set out poison. The downside is that the critters will die in the
walls and smell up the house.
The other is to set traps. The downside of this approach is the higher cost
of checking and rebaiting traps.

What is the best way overall of handling this problem?

IN order to get the best answers, please put all the facts in the body
of the post. Several of us usually don't read the subject lines.

how do you know it is a rat and not a mouse? Mice scratch too.

Charlie

"Charlie Bress" wrote in message
...
I have a neighbor who has been hearing scratching noises in the walls and
ceiling.
They apparently got in through one or more broken vents
Her exterminator suggests two approaches
One is to set out poison. The downside is that the critters will die in
the walls and smell up the house.
The other is to set traps. The downside of this approach is the higher
cost of checking and rebaiting traps.

What is the best way overall of handling this problem?

Charlie
Forget the poison, the rats will indeed die in the wall. They likely use the
wall interiors as nests, and forage at night. Find out where they are
leaving the house, and set and bait with peanut butter, a Havahart trap
(squirrel sized one) against that escape route, if it is near the ground.
Then you might catch successive incoming and outgoing rats. Once the rats
are gone, and no more trap action, cover the entrance to the house. The rats
in my area are extremely wary of conventional spring traps, and avoid them.
Roger

"mm" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:10:50 -0400, "Charlie Bress"
wrote:

I have a neighbor who has been hearing scratching noises in the walls and
ceiling.
They apparently got in through one or more broken vents
Her exterminator suggests two approaches
One is to set out poison. The downside is that the critters will die in
the
walls and smell up the house.
The other is to set traps. The downside of this approach is the higher
cost
of checking and rebaiting traps.

What is the best way overall of handling this problem?

IN order to get the best answers, please put all the facts in the body
of the post. Several of us usually don't read the subject lines.

how do you know it is a rat and not a mouse? Mice scratch too.

This was the opinion of the exterminator. He was there.
Could have been a squirrel.
In terms of the question, what difference would it have made?
Are you an exterminator?

"HeyBub" wrote in message
...
Charlie Bress wrote:
I have a neighbor who has been hearing scratching noises in the walls
and ceiling.
They apparently got in through one or more broken vents
Her exterminator suggests two approaches
One is to set out poison. The downside is that the critters will die
in the walls and smell up the house.
The other is to set traps. The downside of this approach is the
higher cost of checking and rebaiting traps.

What is the best way overall of handling this problem?

Think cat.
http://www.moggies.co.uk/misc/glenturret.html
Lay off the single malt for a while and describe in careful detail just how
you would get the cat into the walls.

And then how would you get the cat out?

:
: What is the best way overall of handling this problem?
:
: Think cat.
: http://www.moggies.co.uk/misc/glenturret.html
: Lay off the single malt for a while and describe in careful
detail just how
: you would get the cat into the walls.

CY: Sausage stuffer syringe.
:
: And then how would you get the cat out?
:

CY: Shop Vac.
:
:

Stephen King wrote:




Think stupid, as in "HeyBub" you're stupid.

Towser caught 28,000+ mice (plus rats, rabbits, phesants, and other stuff).

Just how many mice have you caught?

Charlie Bress wrote:


What is the best way overall of handling this problem?

Think cat.

And then how would you get the cat out?

Dogs, of course.

http://www.amazon.com/King-Mice-Chee.../dp/0394800397

On Aug 10, 8:10 pm, "Charlie Bress" wrote:
I have a neighbor who has been hearing scratching noises in the walls and
ceiling.
They apparently got in through one or more broken vents
Her exterminator suggests two approaches
One is to set out poison. The downside is that the critters will die in the
walls and smell up the house.
The other is to set traps. The downside of this approach is the higher cost
of checking and rebaiting traps.

What is the best way overall of handling this problem?

Charlie

http://i7.tinypic.com/2ex6kah.jpg

On Aug 10, 8:10 pm, "Charlie Bress" wrote:
I have a neighbor who has been hearing scratching noises in the walls and
ceiling.
They apparently got in through one or more broken vents
Her exterminator suggests two approaches
One is to set out poison. The downside is that the critters will die in the
walls and smell up the house.
The other is to set traps. The downside of this approach is the higher cost
of checking and rebaiting traps.

What is the best way overall of handling this problem?

Charlie

http://i7.tinypic.com/2ex6kah.jpg

Check the picture. Traps are not very effective.

Seriously, if you want to be done with them, put out poison and keep
it out even after the rats are gone.

Put it in places hard for kids/pets to reach

wrote:

On Sat, 11 Aug 2007 09:17:22 -0700, Terry
wrote:


Check the picture. Traps are not very effective.

Seriously, if you want to be done with them, put out poison and keep
it out even after the rats are gone.

Put it in places hard for kids/pets to reach



If you don't plug up the hole they are coming in you won't accomplish
much.
In spite of what I see here, I have had a dead rat in a wall and it is
more than a monor little inconvenience. That was a relatively small
roof rat. A Norway is a lot bigger problem.



Always though, plug the entrances once you are sure that the immediate
problem has been resolved.

Some think that the 10 days of an odor followed with the chance of a
week of flies is more than a minor inconvenience...others may think that
of breaking a thumb or finger while messing with a rat trap...even more
may think paying a carpenter to come in to patch the ceiling where they
put a foot through it while placing out the traps becomes more than a
minor inconvenience. And then there is no assurance that the rodent
won't kill itself by biting into electrical wiring killing itself anyway
or actually starting a fire during the time that setting and checking
traps may take.

Lar

wrote:
On Sat, 11 Aug 2007 09:50:04 -0500, "HeyBub"
wrote:

Stephen King wrote:




Think stupid, as in "HeyBub" you're stupid.

Towser caught 28,000+ mice (plus rats, rabbits, phesants, and other
stuff).

Just how many mice have you caught?


The problem with cats is they will kill or run off all the rabbits,
pheasants and other beneficial stuff but they will not make a dent in
the rat population. If Towser killed 28000 (who counted them?) they
had 280,000.

Okay. You want rabbits and pheasants in your house, don't get a cat.

In article ,
"Charlie Bress" wrote:

I have a neighbor who has been hearing scratching noises in the walls and
ceiling.
They apparently got in through one or more broken vents
Her exterminator suggests two approaches
One is to set out poison. The downside is that the critters will die in the
walls and smell up the house.
The other is to set traps. The downside of this approach is the higher cost
of checking and rebaiting traps.

What is the best way overall of handling this problem?

Charlie

Get a "Rat Zapper" at your local hardware store, or online. I wiped out
a family of 8 rats that was coming into my kitchen at night.

On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:10:50 -0400, "Charlie Bress"
wrote:

I have a neighbor who has been hearing scratching noises in the walls and
ceiling.
They apparently got in through one or more broken vents
Her exterminator suggests two approaches
One is to set out poison. The downside is that the critters will die in the
walls and smell up the house.
The other is to set traps. The downside of this approach is the higher cost
of checking and rebaiting traps.

What is the best way overall of handling this problem?

Charlie


A cat that enjoys hunting. Using more than one method is a good idea
too.

On Sat, 11 Aug 2007 09:11:28 -0700, Terry
wrote:

On Aug 10, 8:10 pm, "Charlie Bress" wrote:
I have a neighbor who has been hearing scratching noises in the walls and
ceiling.
They apparently got in through one or more broken vents
Her exterminator suggests two approaches
One is to set out poison. The downside is that the critters will die in the
walls and smell up the house.
The other is to set traps. The downside of this approach is the higher cost
of checking and rebaiting traps.

What is the best way overall of handling this problem?

Charlie

http://i7.tinypic.com/2ex6kah.jpg

What I like is the perfectly shaped mouse hole. AIUI, carpentry is
high-status occupation in the mouse world. And as real craftsmice,
they do all this without power tools.

On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 12:24:24 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 11 Aug 2007 16:34:19 -0500, Lar wrote:

Some think that the 10 days of an odor followed with the chance of a
week of flies is more than a minor inconvenience...others may think that
of breaking a thumb or finger while messing with a rat trap...even more
may think paying a carpenter to come in to patch the ceiling where they
put a foot through it while placing out the traps becomes more than a
minor inconvenience. And then there is no assurance that the rodent
won't kill itself by biting into electrical wiring killing itself anyway


The rat we had was more like a 6 month smell that just would not go
away.
I used a live trap and glue pads to trap them out.

It's really hard to trap them after they are dead. But I guess it is
worth trying.

It really wasn't
that hard. I never got one with a snap trap. They always managed to
trip it without getting caught, then they ate the bait. Glue traps on
the trails and a baited live trap seemed to be most effective.