Pack Rats

[John Van Gelder]

I live in the mountains and have all sorts of interesting stuff, lots of bears during the summer months, coyotes, Mt. lions and wolves the rest of the year, but the bane of my existence, is the miserable pack rats, they get into everything. The best remedy I have found is a medium sized live trap baited with peanut butter.

The flaw in that solution is that mice like peanut butter too. I had a number of instances when the trap was sprung, the bait gone and there was nothing in the trap. I put a trail camera on the trap and it was the mice, they got the bait, sprung the trap and escaped through the mesh. Now I set several mouse traps around the live trap.

[Winger Ed.]

On youtube there are dozens of videos showing home made mouse and rat traps.

They run the scale from ingenious to hilarious.
Check 'em out you might see some that would help ya out.

We haven't had any rats here, but I almost wish we did so I could make some of the electric
ones using a gun show stun gun.

[William Yanda]

On youtube there are dozens of videos showing home made mouse and rat traps.

They run the scale from ingenious to hilarious.
Check 'em out you might see some that would help ya out.

We haven't had any rats here, but I almost wish we did so I could make some of the electric
ones using a gun show stun gun.

You have an evil mind!

[jdfoxinc]

An acquaint of mine made a teetering air gun out of 2" PVC, with a valve that tripped when the normally raised end contacted the floor. Bated with peanut butter. They found several splat marks on the wall the next day.

[trapper9260]

What you can do for the rats and mice is take a 5 gal .bucket and on the very top about 1/2" from the top with a stiff wire or rod with like soup can size that is empty and run the wire in the center of it that way you can spin it on the wire on its side. then you put anti freeze in the bucket deep enough that when the animals get in it will drown. You put your peanut butter on the can and then make up a ramp that they will go up on to get to the can when they jump on the can to get the peanut butter ,they will spin and fall in the bottom. If it is warm where you are you can use water.

[John Van Gelder]

I tried the can on the wire, cought severral mice, but the pack rats were able to jump away from the water. My best luck has been with the live trap.

[trapper9260]

Make it deep if need to use a barrel . there is always a way to out smart them.Or just set some small foothold traps with the peanut butter on the pan I done it with norway rats and get them all the time ,also set blind for them and get them.

[John Van Gelder]

I like the idea of setting up a blind and sniping them with my air rifle, but they usually don't come out until after my bed time...

[trapper9260]

What I mean is set a foothold trap in there trail with out any bait. Make sure you wire it good . That is a blind set.

[John Van Gelder]

trapper9260

OK .. got it .. thanks ..j

[trapper9260]

You welcome if you have any thing else you like to know if I can help I will

[John Van Gelder]

When I lived in Alaska a good friend of mine trapped. We were out checking traps one day and I managed to walk right through a wolf set, it had snowed over the trap, then warmed up and then froze again, the trap was frozen to the ground.

[trapper9260]

I had that happened years ago with my coyote traps. It is worst when you see a coyote track in the snow on the trap.

[country gent]

We used to make up box traps from fence wire. 1" square mesh for squirrels and smaller animals. these didn't actually set but had a light door they simply walked under and it closed. You could catch more than one with them.

Bend a square tube 18" to 24" long 4-6" square vut so one side has the wires left and use these to tie the tube together on the seam. cut 2 doors to fit loosely leaving wire on one end only use these to form the hinges for the doors. The doors should be angled 45* or so. door on each end. Bait in the middle animals walk thru the door and it closes behind them from gravity. These worked well for us. We used them for muskrats and on a good night some traps would have 2-3 in them on a good run.

Fasten door to ends of tube with a loose wrap make sure its very free moving. We have used hardware mesh, 1" square, the 1" X 2" mesh and some larger. A 2X4 to bend corners around helps a lot. We had a couple frames made to bend around making the tube up real easy. For 1 or 2 traps the 2x4 and lining up each corner goes pretty quick also. Only need wire cutters and pliers to make these.

[John Van Gelder]

country gent

Tha sounds like a good trap, would you have any pictures..

[trapper9260]

We used to make up box traps from fence wire. 1" square mesh for squirrels and smaller animals. these didn't actually set but had a light door they simply walked under and it closed. You could catch more than one with them.

Bend a square tube 18" to 24" long 4-6" square vut so one side has the wires left and use these to tie the tube together on the seam. cut 2 doors to fit loosely leaving wire on one end only use these to form the hinges for the doors. The doors should be angled 45* or so. door on each end. Bait in the middle animals walk thru the door and it closes behind them from gravity. These worked well for us. We used them for muskrats and on a good night some traps would have 2-3 in them on a good run.

Fasten door to ends of tube with a loose wrap make sure its very free moving. We have used hardware mesh, 1" square, the 1" X 2" mesh and some larger. A 2X4 to bend corners around helps a lot. We had a couple frames made to bend around making the tube up real easy. For 1 or 2 traps the 2x4 and lining up each corner goes pretty quick also. Only need wire cutters and pliers to make these.

That is like a colony trap for muskrats .I made some that is square and some round ones. Here is a link that you can copy to make your own . https://www.amazon.com/Kains-Fur-She...a-846679181892

[John Van Gelder]

trapper9260

Thanks, I will give that a try, I will probably wrap the whole thing in window screen to keep the mice from eating all of the bait.

[trapper9260]

Use wire that would use for rabbit cages for the floor that way the rats will not chew the wire on you. and will keep the mice from working the bait. put the bait in something maybe to fix it that nothing can get it from outside of the trap.Wire the bait container to the trap, in the center of the trap will help.

[country gent]

That's it right there. Use wire appropriate to the size animals you want to catch. We have made then from 1/4" sq hardware mesh a little harder to bend and tie together but it works.