The mice kept getting into stuff in our garage. After
getting a couple with a regular trap they got too smart and
avoided them, so I tried a water trap and it worked very
well.

I used a 5 gallon bucket with a shallow pot saucer filled
with seeds floating on the top of the water. We made a way
for them to get to the top of the bucket and we kept the
water at a level that was just a bit to deep for them to
climb out. It worked very efficiently and a dead mouse in
the bottom of the water did not keep others from trying.
One day I found three of them dead in it. They just
couldn't resist trying for that seed. We got rid of the
whole family apparently, because I have not seen any for
quite a while now.

Linda

Rez wrote:

Can anyone tell me how to control rats without poisoning?
Traps dont' work. Rats are too smart.
Or get a Jack Russell terrier and don't feed it, so it has to hunt.
They're good rat dogs and have no qualms about eating rats.
I've considered that...
Will they eat chickens?
Most of the rats are in the henyard which is why they are here.
Plenty of food. :-(

Yeah, a dog will eat chickens too Cats generally leave chickens
alone (at least after their first good pecking but don't seem to be
much on killing rats.

Rats can survive on just manure for food, but they'll eat about
anything that doesn't eat them first.

That is why a water trap would not work unless I dumped water containers
every night. We do find them drowned in the emu's water buckets now and
then!

Rats are very curious and like to climb up into things, so even if
there is other water around, they still get into buckets and drown
(awww, so sad Also, dog food makes a great lure for rats and mice
-- see if you can rig something where they can smell it and will fall
into the water while trying to get to the dog food.

~REZ~