I have noticed how many people I come across that never heard of this one, and I thought I would share.

First of all, about hell, 25 years ago, when I was a kid, we had a chicken coup where I grew up. And any of you that has had one, or lives on a farm, knows that when you got that type of livestock, you get RATS. and LOTS of them. We tried poisoning the bastards, shooting them (I shot the momma five times with a 22 one night and still had to chase it across the field with a shovel and bash it to death), setting live traps, large mouse traps, you name it. nothing began to quell the onslaught of rodents. A local farmer my dad knew through the fire department suggested a different type of trap. It worked SO good, it literally erradicated the rat population inside of a couple months. I just set one up next door in the building I live in, where I am renovating the entire half of the building, because we have a small number of mice here. I caught two in the 6 hours since I set it up this afternoon. It works WAY WAY better than anything, and wont poison your cat if they eat one, or smell up your house. Nevermind the females of the house when you catch one in a trap and it starts screaming like a bitch at 2am.

Here is how you make one:

you need -

a NEW 5 gallon bucket without crap in it or scratches in the inside
a 1x4 or 1x6 board, a few feet long
a small STEEL rod that spans the bucket top
a cork and some peanut butter
a gallon of water

what you do, is set the bucket in an area NEAR the infestation. you put the water in it, and float a cork or small piece of wood in it with some peanut butter on it. you lay the rod across the top of the bucket (a tiny stick or wood dowel will work, and with rats, you dont even need one), and put the board on the edge of the bucket so that they have a little ramp to get to the top of the bucket. you can even eliminate the cork or wood chunk in the bucket and just smear a little peanut butter on the rod.

thats it. those stupid bastards will jump in and then not be able to get back out again, and drown nice and quietly. you need to check it every day or two, because they will smell in short order. I have had success against rats without water, a dowel, or bait, actually, but all the above works WAY better and faster. you can NOT use water, and you wont kill the suckers, if your female half doesnt allow "innocent" animals to be killed. you can use it as a live trap if you want, but Im not sure why you would want to, really.

this works SO good, that every time I set one up, it has literally erradicated any infestation of any amount when Ive used it. the largest rodent I ever caught in one was about a foot long rat not counting the tail, and I caught several of them with this trap. I HAVE caught a couple of chipmunks before, but never any squirels, I guess because they can jump high enough to get out.

just thought I would share some more of my common knowhow that I often forget a lot of people dont know. let me know if any of ya'll use it, and your results.

-Ben V.

seen a simlilar set up, but used anitfreeze instead of water.....worked great, caught about a a dozen mice a night in the hunting cabin i saw it in.

im telling you, it is the greatest thing since sliced bread if you need to use it. think atom bomb, but for rodents, and you will be close to its effect.

Im sorry that I didnt post this sooner.

RangerM9 wrote:

"seen a simlilar set up, but used anitfreeze instead of water.....worked great, caught about a a dozen mice a night in the hunting cabin i saw it in."

I think I would stay away from antifreeze. It would attract many animals (such as dogs and birds) that you may not be targeting. That's very toxic and enticing stuff to many animals, and I would not be too surprised if humans didn't find the taste palatable..Not to mention that proper disposal of antifreeze is a bit problematic.

JMHO....
respectfully posted,
guido2 in Houston

Sounds to me like maybe some clown killed off all the snakes that should be taking care of that problem naturally. I went in my workshop the other day and had to stop quick to keep from stepping on a 4' black rat snake right under my workbench. I had left the door open and he wandered in there. Since my roomate's a pussy about snakes i took him out to the barn and let him go but when i got back I found mouse turds all over my workbench. He was just tryin to do his job.

Yup awesome cheap trap.

My 10 year old nephew showed me that. It's absolutely amazing how well it works.

If you don't use water, the bigger ones can jump out...

Good point, Cobra....It's amazing how well things work if we don't upset the balance....

Guido2 in Houston

Yes, you are correct. I have accidentally tasted several brands of antifreeze over the years.....lol. I find that the more expensive brands have a sweeter, fuller taste than thier cheaper counterparts which leave me with an acidic, watery and chemical aftertaste. Kind of like the difference between a bottle of Boon's Farm and Purple Thunder!




Nice trap idea, thanks for shareing.

no problem, PR. it does sound like cobra needs one in his workshop.

I think I'm just gonna toss another couple of snakes in there

I am thinking of making one of those to put in my barn and catch some extra snake food though (for my pet).

you should be good with small mice without water in there, if the sides of the bucket are nice and smooth.

Pics? I smell a rat in the garage. I shot one some time ago but I think they are back.

sorry, no pics. just put a few inches of water in the bucket, float some peanut butter in it, and lay a board on it to act as a handicap accessable ramp for the vermin. about a gallon of water should do it. its real simple and a basic setup. rats are a little smarter than mice, so you might have to have a little patience catching them all.

if you can, put it in thier path they take through the area, and they will check it out. its pretty fail-safe, really. there isnt enough water in there to drown a little kid if they fall in, either. the bucket WILL tip over, because it doesnt have all that water weight holding it in place. its still not a real good idea around toddlers, so you should keep they out of there. they might just want to pet the thing that you caught and fall in. and that would be a tradgedy.

Italian rat trap.

My mother grew up upstairs from her father's Italian store in DC. She says that they never had a rat problem, her dad killed every one.
In the middle of the basement floor he would put an army blanket. A plate of food in the center of the blanket. Wet the blanket.
Sprinkle quick lime around foor beyond blanket. The rats don't have any trouble getting to the food, their paws are dry and the lime dosent stick.
BUT on the way out, their wet feet get covered with the quick lime, and it BURNS. The rats roll over and lick their feet and die quickly.

Thanks for those really good tips. Having lived just outside Baltimore city for 5 1/2 yrs. I can see the how effective those would be. I once caught two mice on a glue trap in under an hour and a third within eight hours all on the same trap. Nasty! I'll use the bucket if there is a next time, BV. GOB....cool idea.

Thanks B, we don't have rat and mice problems here in TX, but I wish I had known that before I went to my "home away from home, away from home" (Iraq). We could never catch those fuckers, the one I got I stabbed with a mil-spec KA-BAR. (I was proud).

Back home home, (WA) we had mole troubles all the time. I haven't seen this setup since I was about 8 years old, but my neighbor rigged this monstrosity that he welded up that killed moles with extreme prejudice! The basics were - 2 inch shotgun barrel welded to a "locking breech", a spring loaded firing pin, and a long lever that went down to the mole hole blocking the exit with a golf ball. If the mole tried to move the ball out of the way, KABOOM! It helped me sleep better at night. Not very effective big picture wise, you had to load another shell for every mole, but man was it fun to see it in the morning!

I can't draw plans, but if you want it bad enough, you could probably figure it out. I just don't know if that would fly these days, even where I grew up. (Born white trash and proud! )

Shane

Did you know that they could add a ingrediant to anti-freeze for 2cents per gallon, that would make taste so bad, That a adult, child, and most animals couldn't drink enough of it to kill them. But they are to cheap.

Burmese python, perhaps?

I shot a Vole on the move that got in the house with my Red Ryder!
One shot, One kill!

yeh, we know you dumped a handfull of BBs down it, jugg! LOL j/k

Thanks for the post, I'm going to have to try this!!!! In my father's barn-converted workshop we had alot of mice turds showing up and decided to put the big blocks of poison in various places. To our surprise, the entire blocks were being eaten overnight. Turns out there was a raccoon living in the overhang, but we didn't know it because it crapped in the eaves. Finally caught that one after I placed a live trap to see what I could find. A couple of days ago he was working and heard banging around in the soffet (or however you spell it) and popped a piece up and it was another huge freakin coon. Six shots from a .22 later and that one was gone. Off that subject, I've had alot of mice popping up in my house and I've been taking care of them with a .22 with the birdshot rounds. I have a tile entryway so it doesn't really bother the flooring. I've killed 3 that way, just sitting on the couch with the gun close and waiting for them to run across the entryway.

I use the "Low-Tox" stuff myself, Propylene Glycol? maybe....An animal or human could drink a lot of it before even getting sick, while the ethylene glycol will kill a bird with a single sip. Don't let dealers or pro mechanics change my coolant, they pretty much refuse to use anything but hi-tox, sice they generally buy in bulk.

Respectfully posted,
guido2 in Houston

LOL!
Indoor shooting range with live targets

I was sitting with my uncle in his house in the woods once and helping him reload some 12 ga shells. He had his Mossy pump right by the sofa and this big rat scurried, or rather, "swaggered", into the room and was heading down the baseboard across the room. He didn't say anything, just popped a freshly loaded shell in there (no pellets) and fired across the room and nailed that SOB with the wadding...LOL! After the initial shock wore off and I my ears quit ringing we both laughed our asses off.

agreed, if you have pets or small kids around, DONT USE the ANTIFREEZE.....in a hunting cabin on an island wiht no little kids and no dogs, worked great.....

I read of this sort of thing years ago to use without water if your pet hamster gets loose.

Dangit, I could have used that for my daughter's hamster too! That little sucker made a home in the insulation in the side of my dishwasher. Took me forever to find it, heard it gnawing on a cheerio in it's new home a couple of days later and pulled the whole thing out and found it. Then it was smashed in a door a day later, but it was still alive barely so I took it outside and took care of it. Then the cat got hit by a car and just started hemorrhaging when it got inside the house so I had to put it down as well. Note: I don't just go dispatching my animals everytime they get injured, but you can kinda tell when they're too far gone, and I don't need a vet to charge me $300 for something I can take care of. Anyway, the other day my daughter and I were walking to the park and she stopped to pet the dog of a passerby, and the female asked her if she had any pets. My 3 year old daughter replied, No, my daddy shoots them all. Needless to say, it was kind of awkward!

awkward, but damn funny story....sorry for the loss of your pets though!

my hamster got loose when i was a kid, and we found him floating in the tank of the dehumidifier.....he'd been there a while.....must have gotten thirsty and fell while trying to get a drink....poor little guy....

my last animal died from playing fetch, as I had predicted would happen when he got old. he had a few years left in him, but I guess thats just how things go. had a hard time functioning afterwards for about a week. anyway, his doctor came into work special to greet his body, and she individually cremated him for me for free, because I was moving, was broke, and couldnt bury him because of that. she was almost as upset as I was. I wish I could have had him cloned. out of the 9,000 animals Ive had, he was outright the best one. have yet to see or meet a pet that surpasses him. its been a couple years now, and there still has not been a single day that I havent thought of him. I guess the only guarantee in life is death.

Yes it's true, but only after the first shot killed it!
It's fun shootin' dead critters!

Cobra, you are a man of my own heart.

This reminds me of a yellow jacket trap we would set up. A stick across a bowl of soapy water. The stick had a piece of meat on it. The yellow jackets would land, grab a big piece of meat then try to fly off. The weight of the meat would cause them to dip just enough to land into the water. The soap broke the surface tension and the little shits would end up stuck in the water and drown.

Just put your 'pet' in the shop. Rodent problem solved. And my problem sleeping with a snake in the room solved.

I LIKE the bee trap.

I was bitten by a water moccasin when I was 12.
Was sick for days.
Needless to say, if I could dedicate my life to making the water moccasin an endagered species I would.
Down here we have lots of roads that run next to bayous and creeks with plenty of overhanging trees.
Saw a particularly large one napping on a tree by the road I was rolling down.
So I stopped, knew if I got out that I would probably spook him, so I rolled down the wondow and got out my 686 and capped him with it.
....Got my hearing back a couple of days later.........................................

I used to have a yellow jacket problem. I bought a commercial trap that worked great and could be easily made.
It was just a plastic 1/2 gallon pickle jar. It had 2 pieces of 1/2" pvc pipe going through it at right angles. fairly close to the top.
Each of the pipes had a hole on the bottom near the middle of the jar.
Hang some raw meat over the end of the top pipe(inside jar) and put 4" of flat soda, beer ,or sweet juice in the jar.
Damned thing gets FULL every few days for a whole summer. Next year no yellowjackets.

Oh man Thanks guys! I'm definately going to be trying both those yelliow jacket traps! I HATE those little bastards!!! They love to make nests all around here. I know my time is coming and it ain't gonna be good. I think I've developed an alergic reaction to them. The last few times I've been hit it really sucked. I can't imagine getting totally swarmed by em. I've come SO close so many times now I think I have a sixth sense to their presence almost. My feet start moving VERY fast long before my mind gets the whole message of the yellow tornado coming out...lol.