As we keep livestock, we also store large amounts of grain and compound feeds and, while they’re kept in steel bins, it does mean rats.
We poison them with baits, shoot them with an air rifle, whack them with sticks and catch them with nipper traps.
To increase the efficiency of nipper traps and keep them safe for small boys and other animals, we put individual traps in a wooden box with a lift-off lid.
I cut holes in in each end of the box, then put in two internal baffles that also had holes.
The holes in the ends were positioned low, the holes in the baffles high and to one side.
I then put a layer of grain in the centre of the box, between the two baffles.
The rat then runs in through the end of the box, up and through the hole in the baffle and finds the grain.
After a couple of days, I put the trap on top of the grain, at 90 degrees to the length of the box with the trigger plate lined up with the holes in the baffle.
With the baffles positioned correctly, the rat has to cross the trap, and snap!
A trap box like this is even more effective if you use a Fenn trap - which we have.
It can also be used for poison baits as it helps keep other animals out.
And here’s the plan…
[...] wrote a “how-to” on making a trap box last year. This dramatically increases the effectiveness of nipper traps and is the only way to go [...]