Rat Trap Fever

I found fresh rodent leavings in the Mill house yesterday. Priorities changed and the rodent (dare I say rat?) situation was on the schedule for today.

The first day we were here we found evidence of rats in the kitchen. David cleaned out the drawers but the rats will follow a trail left by other rats. An exterminator came last year and planted black rat trap boxes around the perimeter of both houses.
No one seemed to know how the traps worked, how to open them, or where they were – until Dorothy, the rat exterminator, took on the rat situation! No more rats for me.

We saw there was a trap under the kitchen sink and under the stationary tub. I got one and figured out that you merely use a flat head screwdriver in the holes at the top to pop open the lid. Inside is a feeding trough where you put the bait. There are two holes for the rat to enter. The theory is the rat will come in through a hole, feed on the warfarin poisoned, peanut butter flavored, solid bait, then go back to the nest and die. Warfarin thins the blood so they bleed to death internally. Too much information, I know. The bait is threaded through a wire and is round so it can rotate. There are several kinds made by different companies. Home Depot has a good supply.

I soon discovered that there were many more of these traps around the corners of the houses. Half had bait left, but most had been at least munched. I found seven in all. I cleaned them all out with a hose, air dried them, and then baited them. You just hammer the lids back on. Of course I used one of each kind of bait in each trap. When I check the boxes in a month, I can see which kind was the tastiest. Luckily, this type of trap does not leave an actual rat for you to dispose of. We bought one Chinese style trap as well, which it will trap the rat inside. We can see which type of rat we have. I’ll let David take care of that one.

I placed a baited trap in each corner underneath the Farm and the Mill house. It is tricky to find a good spot that is level so the box won’t topple over, and also be discrete.

Mike, who has a farm nearby, uses homemade traps and puts them all around their farm. He cuts PVC pipe, about 2-3 inches in diameter and 2 feet long. He puts bait in the middle. That way he figures other animals can’t get into this long narrow pipe. He uses one flavor bait for awhile and then another flavor the next time just in case they get smart about it.

Rats on Hawaii coffee farms:
The rat is very prolific. The young rat is sexually mature at 4 months and
reproductive potential is continuous until death. Rat behavior is influenced
by thirst, hunger, sex, maternal instinct, and curiosity. Rats cannot go
without water for more than 48 hours or without food for more than four
days. Thirsty or hungry rats become desperate and are therefore easier to
control because they are less wary. Rats are nocturnal and tend to become
habitual. They have a keen sense of smell and hearing, and a fair sense of
sight with ability to see in the dark.
Roof rat (Rattus rattus)
A medium to large rat, body 5 to 7 inches long. Tail slender and always
longer than head and body combined. Body color varies from grey to jet
black; underside grey, grey-white, or white. Nose sharply pointed, large
eyes, large, thin ears; in female, five pairs of nipples; expert climber and
wire scaler; frequents cane fields, macadamia nut, coffee, papaya, and
banana groves; nests in attics of buildings, trees, banana bunches, and
abandoned burrows of Norway rats.