Rats and mice in loft

[ellir0305 9]

Just moved into a new place, was a cow shed many moons ago and there are several crawl space/ lofts got mice and evidence of rats in all of them. Not sure if the rat droppings are fresh though and someone has poisoned previously. What is the best way to clear up both pests at the same time? I have trapped loads of rats and mice using fenns and breakback traps over the years but never both at the same time. How do I confirm if I currently have rats? The fenn tunnels I have won’t exclude the mice and they will rob the bait or fire the trap. All advice welcome. Thank you.

[Nicepix 5,650]

Use two live catch cage traps, one for mice and one for rats. If you bait the rat trap with something large and solid like two or three 20mm halibut pellets hung off a piece of wire  the mice that get into the rat trap will not be able to remove or eat all the rat bait.

Or, if you are comfortable using glue boards put some of those out.

[LuckOrJudgement 437]

Buy a trail camera and monitor areas of concern with it.

Saves a lot of guess -work.

[Nicepix 5,650]

So does a glue board and at a lot less cost

[LuckOrJudgement 437]

Trail cams are great. 

 

And a lot less controversial than gluing some random struggling little f****r to the spot till it dies of thirst/ stress/ exhaustion.

[Nicepix 5,650]

A lot less controversial? I think not. Have you seen some of the footage on here? Strikes me that these trail cams record images that could be interpreted as anything from a mouse to a moose.

[Deker 3,453]

On 26/09/2019 at 22:12, LuckOrJudgement said:

Trail cams are great. 

 

And a lot less controversial than gluing some random struggling little f****r to the spot till it dies of thirst/ stress/ exhaustion.

They have their uses but I tend to treat them as last resort.

The EU has been looking at banning them for years, but if checked REGULARLY, they can be useful!

[Rimfireboy! 1,463]

On 11/10/2019 at 08:13, Deker said:

They have their uses but I tend to treat them as last resort.

The EU has been looking at banning them for years, but if checked REGULARLY, they can be useful!

I think it would be difficult to ban them, couldn’t they be home made if necessary? The use of them, or not, would be almost impossible to effectively police surely?

[EDDIE B 3,120]

18 minutes ago, Rimfireboy! said:

I think it would be difficult to ban them, couldn’t they be home made if necessary? The use of them, or not, would be almost impossible to effectively police surely?

Been banned here in Ireland for some years now. 

[Rimfireboy! 1,463]

1 minute ago, EDDIE B said:

Been banned here in Ireland for some years now. 

Sorry, what I meant was, is a ban effective? Or I suppose nobody really knows as some will probably just carry on and say nowt.

[EDDIE B 3,120]

41 minutes ago, Rimfireboy! said:

Sorry, what I meant was, is a ban effective? Or I suppose nobody really knows as some will probably just carry on and say nowt.

A right, see what ya meant. Honestly I think it would be effective. Your average Joe soap will go to the local hardware stor/corner shop to get traps etc, if they have a rodent problem. They wouldn't know how to or even want to make a diy trap of any sort. You'd get the odd lad that would carry on regardless, but they'd have to buy online to even get glue boards after a ban

[Deker 3,453]

4 hours ago, Rimfireboy! said:

I think it would be difficult to ban them, couldn’t they be home made if necessary? The use of them, or not, would be almost impossible to effectively police surely?

Nothing is impossible but the GLUE is a weird and wonderful creation and VERY sticky without setting, they stay sticky for years.

 

 

[comanche 2,799]

A cheap monitoring option is to put a few chocolate biscuits in the loft and see if they disappear.  Terrible waste of Hob Nobs though