Unfortunately you will kill many desirable birds if you just scatter rat traps around intended for only rats. Birds will be attracted to peanut butter and other baits, especially in the fall when other foods are scarce. Harmless possums and raccoons also become victims. Rat Zappers and a caged rat trap with an opening will be much more selective. Sadly, I learned the hard way with a woodpecker, blue jay, and several unidentified beautiful birds. My traps are attached to an 8 ft pole for hanging in the tree and baited with a macadamia nut (or piece of avocado). Enclosing most of the trap with wire mesh (bottom open, hole for rat) has eliminated the unhappy discovery of a killed bird. I do have a Rattus rattus rat (tree, attic, palm, etc.) problem, especially with my macadamias. I have 16-20 traps on poles in the trees running at any one time. Three years ago I killed 96 rats in the year. Some years are better than others. Poison baits will kill many secondary consumers including my free-range chickens and possibly a dog or cat. Eradication is not possible (your neighbors are raising them too), just work on minimizing the population and effects. Neighbor had them in her attic (common for this rat) and had to poison the attic and seal all openings using professional help. Reminds me of the snail issues before the drought reduced that population. The Internet has some interesting information on this species of rat that is now common in CA.
Very true, I've caught more birds in the live traps than I could count.
Luckily they're live traps, after catching live birds on sticky traps I felt very bad.
These rats are getting smarter and smarter every year.
For some reason they don't even want the fruits in my yard anymore, they just eat the papaya leaves or my chili plant leaves.
I have over 40 varieties of chili pepper plants and they're all down to just the nub.
Not only they eat the leaves and stems, they bite off large 1/4 to 1/2" branches off all my trees, Jabos, Longan, Mangosteen and make a nest out of it. When I discover the nest it see all sorts of leaves and branches. They definitely travel far to collect those branches.
I've tried the following:
- Bucket roller with Elmer's glue
- Live bait trap
- Plank and water
- Very large snap traps, enough to break your finger
- Sticky traps
- Water Cannon (Sprinkler animal repellent)
- Zapper
I've literally killed hundreds of rats, no thanks to the sewer drain down the street, they come out every night.
Think by next year I'll hit a milestone, 1000+ rats killed, it's a relentless battle and you'll never beat the swarm.
Now I'm actually taming some feral cats, it's my last resort and hopefully they'll fix the problem for good.