Advice on controlling rats

[Dave Cullen]

I have rats living under my patio (broken concrete slabs) and I want them to go away. Poison will work, but they'll die and stink especially in this summer heat. Plus I don't want to kill the squirrels or the neighborhood cat.

Is there something that I can put in a garden sprayer and hose down their nest with that'd make them go away forever?

Or another idea?

They are outdoors for now, but dangerously close to the house. It's where my grills are and I'm afraid of dropping food on the ground.

Advice, please.

[Al Launier]

Get a cat?

[Peter Kelly]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Terrier

[Joe Kieve]

What's wrong with killing squirrels...they're just rats that live in trees! Google "D-Con" rat poison and see if that will work for you. It did for me when I had one in my shop. I keep some in there all the time now.

[Mike Wilkins]

Good old fashion rat traps. With something tasty in the snare.
In my neighborhood there are several cats that patrol the area, which is adjacent to farm land and a protected wet land. So rats/mice/pests are all around us. These roving patrol sentries keep the area clean.

[Jon Nuckles]

In Chicago, which has LOTS of rats, we use poison bait traps. The rats can get inside the traps, which cats and dogs cannot, and eat the bait. They don't die immediately, so you rarely see or smell dead rats near the trap location. I can't opine as to the safety of the squirrels, though!

[George Bokros]

My understanding is that using rat poison such as D-Con when they die they do not stink. It makes them want water and some people provide them with water so the die near the water and can be disposed of. I have used D-Con Mouse Proof and have never had a smell from a dead mouse. There are other positions I have used like Tom-Cat and they work like D-Con with no smell from the dead mice.

[Dave Cullen]

Thanks for the replies. I picked up a couple Tomcat bait traps and I'll put them out tonight. I was just afraid that they'd go back into their hole to die and I'd smell decomposing rats for a couple weeks.

[Robert Engel]

Get one of these meancat.jpg

or try moth ball crystals.

[Ken Platt]

D-Con and such are anticoagulants. Very similar to good old warfarin, also known as coumadin. Nothing to do with stinking, or wanting water, although I suppose they do since they are dying from bleeding.

I've found that, depending on size of mouse and environmental conditions, they sometime just dry out and basically mummify. Very little smell to those. Bigger/moister/more maggoty, they all stink. I am always amazed how the wife can catch a whiff of a teeny tiny dead mouse way back in the corner of the basement from upstairs and 50 feet away.

Summertime, I'd bet those rats would stink pretty good.

Ken

[Bill Neely]

A few years ago we has a rat die under our back porch. The smell took quite some time to go away and I could not find the thing. Since then I've used traps instead of poison, but we adopted a kitten last summer and she's turned out to be a ferocious ratter.

[Larry Frank]

I do not have rats but have the same sized striped ground squirrels. They dig up everything and reproduce quickly.

I use "The Better Rodentrap" with peanut butter and bird seed into the peanut butter. This was recommended by the local feed store. They are effective and I get lots every year.

[James Gunning]

I would not recommend poison. I used it and one died up in the attic, buried in blown in insulation in an inaccessible spot right over the master bedroom closet. I had to empty the closet and seal it up until the stink finally abated. Trust me, they may be thirsty and want to get out for a drink, but some will not make it.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Coincidence- this was just seen by a friend at the local university. image.jpg

[John A langley]

410 shotgun