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How to get rid of rats without killing them We would love to come up with a list of ways to get rid of rats in your home without killing them, but there’s a good chance this animal will die either way, whether you opt for a more humane approach or not.
Let’s take a peek at live cage traps, for example, which require you to trap the rat in a large (ish) cage, allowing you to then release the rat back into the wild so it can go about it’s day. It probably doesn’t sound as if there is anything wrong with that scenario, but in reality, these are the things that are more likely to happen:
*The rat won’t go anywhere near the trap because they’re quite smart animals, and also very cautious ones. They are usually too cautious to go anywhere close to something new in the surroundings they have long since become familiar with. If they have run a certain path 100 times, for example, and all of a sudden, a trap is placed in that path, they will no longer run that path. It will take them a while to investigate the trap.
Mice are slightly different - they are much more curious and more likely to take a closer look.
*The rat, once trapped, will throw itself around, causing injury to itself. This is definitely the case if it is trying to get its teeth around your fingers, which are dangling dangerously close. There are too many disease threats to worry about to even consider going anywhere close to this rodent without the best of safety equipment. At the very least, you should have very thick and protective rubber gloves.
If you release an injured rat into the wild, it will have a very, very small chance of survival.
*The rat actually doesn't have a great chance of survival in the wild to start with, so you’ll definitely not want to make it any worse. The rats will come in contact with many more predators out ‘in the wild’ than it will in the local neighborhoods around where you live. Out here, there are owls, hawks and eagles to contend with, and the local cats and dogs have been replaced by coyotes, foxes, weasels and other predators. Add to this the fact that rats are incredibly social animals, and they do not function well when left alone, without their family and friends for support and company, and you’ll have a very lost and distressed rat released back into the wild, and one that doesn't have a clue where the nearest source of food, water or shelter is.
Just for the record, you will need to drive this rat at least five to ten miles away from your home in order to ensure it can't make its way back.
All of these cons and very few pros … they’re perfect reasons why you shouldn’t be using “humane” methods to remove the rats from your home. You should be using lethal snap traps that deal with the problem on contact. You will need to combine rat trapping with home sealing too - if you don’t do this, the rats will keep coming thick and fast. They leave pheromones behind in the urine they spray all around the place (as well as transmitting disease, tapeworm, etc.), and this will soon attract other rats, and then other wild animals on top of that too.
Sealing and trapping is the right way to go about getting rid of rats. Humane live cage traps are most definitely not the answer. They aren’t humane. There is too big a chance this animal will die at your hands.
For more rat information, visit our rat
removal tips page, or for more specific how-to instructions, read the how to get rid of rats page with 6 step-by-step instructions. If you have a problem with rats above your ceiling in your house, read my rats
in the attic guide. The most important part of rat control is sealing shut entry holes into the building, but after you've done that, you'll want to know how to kill rats humanely to complete the rat control job.
Read more educational articles here:
Do rats bite sleeping babies?
Will a rat in the attic have a nest of babies?
Why do rats exist?
How rats communicate using pheromones
What is a rat’s mating habits? (both Black Rat and Norway Rat)
If I have one rat, are there more?
If you need to hire professional help in your city, click on my directory of over 200 rat removal companies servicing 95% of the USA. we can help your with your rat problem! |
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