@revenant My brother would probably be sitting out there waiting all night with a pellet gun. I have my own caddy shack experience going on with one that travels from my neighbors yard to my yard. The dog is in at night so this is when the rat comes out to do his damage. I have set up a few Vietnam booby traps and caught a few small mice and lizards but no rats.
TomCat rat trap baited with peanut butter. Set it up in the evening. Check on it in the morning. If you’ve caught nothing, put it somewhere no critters can get at it, then put it out again in the evening. Rats are more nocturnal, so setting it up at night makes it less likely other animals are going to be killed by the trap.
Wow! Huh. I’ve at times had to go searching for the trap but almost every time it has killed them. Not sure what else to suggest. There are youtube vids on building rat traps that drown them if you’re handy, have tools, etc. @revenant
It’s actually a length of wood that goes out over a drum or trash pail half filled with water (don’t know why I said bucket first time. My bad.) Where the wood is attached to the bucket there is a spring that keeps the length of wood horizontal. A rat runs out onto the wood toward the end where peanut butter bait has been smeared. The weight of the rat makes the spring release its tension, the wood bar tips down and the rat falls into the water. Since the sides are smooth plastic, it cannot climb out and eventually drowns. This vid shows a variation on the same idea but for smaller rodents (mice). [media=https://youtu.be/YwAfp9QB5mk] @revenant
Years ago we had a mother rat nesting under an unused dog house with her young. The kids and I ran toward the nest, yelling and pounding broomstick handles on the ground. The rats scattered. After doing that about three times they decided to move somewhere else.
Watched a video yesterday. A man was having a problem with rats and he took Jiffy Cornbread Muffin Mix and Baking Soda and mixed together and put in cheap quart-sized covered containers with a round hole cut in the side for them to get inside and set them around for the rats and mice to get into. He said that took care of the problem. You can get those cheap containers at Dollar Tree in a 3-pack or use whatever you have. I have plastic boxes that dates come in that could be used. (Put about 4 tablespoons of muffin mix and 4 teaspoons of baking soda in each box)
Stand out in your garden in a crane-style Kung fu stance. It’ll be absolutely terrified and move to someone else’s house who doesn’t know any martial arts.
Have a heart trap loaded with peanut butter. He will go in but won't get out. You do have to drive him off to the country somewhere, however, and set him free.
