M**K
Rat snap trap inside home, snaps trapped rats dainty bone.
This review is for the pack-of-four "Trapo" snap traps for killing rats.SUMMARIZED REVIEWThese traps are capable of killing largish rats. They will also kill mice. Some care is needed in placing them and getting them set-up, but when properly arranged they do a very good job of killing rats.Before you read further please know that the full review below contains descriptions of unpleasant happenings that squeamish people won't want to read. Basically if you aren't willing to clean-up every kind of body fluid, find a different solution to your rat problem.** UNPLEASANT READING MATERIAL FOLLOWS **DETAILED REVIEWThe trap is easy enough to set. There is a safety catch but the handle for it is a bit short.The smallest of the rats to encounter the trap was about 7 inches from nose to bum. It died. The largest rat was perhaps 8 or 9 inches nose to bum. It also died. One large rat (perhaps about 8 inches nose to bum) activated the trap but the bar caught it across its nose or head rather than its neck. The trap banged twice -- once for the head strike and again a fraction of a second later when the rat pulled its head out. A couple of minutes after I heard the bangs I went to empty the trap but found the rat sitting, conscious, on top of the trap, completely unrestrained (no part of its body remained caught) but too stunned to run away and with a fully justified "what just happened" expression on its face. About three minutes elapsed before it recovered enough sense to think about fleeing and by then alternative arrangements had been made for it to continue its journey into eternity. Note, although it wasn't killed outright I suspect that it would have died soon after because it exhibited oral bleeding from internal head injuries. After that experience I re-arranged the trap 'set-up' to reduce the potential for the trap to be activated with the rat in the wrong place. Since adjusting the set-up, almost every rat to encounter the trap has experienced a full neck-strike and has died. One mouse has also been killed in the trap. The mouse, being much smaller than a typical rat was proportionately further into the trap before the trap snapped and thus instead of being struck across the neck by the main kill bar the mouse was struck across the middle of its back by the auxiliary kill bar and, being less substantial than a rat, was more or less crushed at that point on its body. One rat somehow managed to turn around before the trap snapped and got its rear-end trapped instead; it suffered greatly for a quite a few hours until I found it severely injured and dying and ended its misery with bucket of water; that wasn't a great experience because it had a very cute face.After a neck-strike the involuntary "death twitch" lasts for a couple of minutes; the rat's body will be thrashing about but, according to stuff I've read, this is caused by the uncoordinated twitching of muscles. If you can bring yourself to watch you will find that the movements are quite different from those of a rat that is making a conscious attempt to grip or jump.If you want to kill rats you can be confident that when properly located and set-up these traps are well able to kill largish rats. I'm persuaded the traps could fracture adult human finger bones too, especially if the kill bar struck a knuckle.There are a couple of noteworthy downsides to killing largish rats with one of these traps:The first noteworthy downside is the prospective mess. At the very least expect a few specks of blood from the rat's nose or mouth, but pools of blood from internal injuries are also possible. In some cases rats are found with blood emerging from the top of the head although the kill bar has struck it in the 'proper' place, across its neck, as is supposed to happen. Presumably the shock-wave generated by the impact of the bar on the neck has burst the skin or skull or both. It gets messy. I've taken to putting four layers of tissue paper on the traps to soak-up the blood.The second noteworthy downside is that if you are the sort of soul who recognizes that rats are intelligent and sometimes beautiful creatures then seeing them dead is not pleasant, and seeing them messily dead is worse.Should you choose to use the traps my suggestions are these:(*) Site the trap with obstacles around it so that the rat can approach only from the killing end, so that its neck will be in the right place at the right moment. If the rat activates the trap from some other position you might end-up with a rat trapped alive, distressed and in great pain, and somehow you'll have to be all grown-up and deal with that unpleasant situation.(*) Acquire some disposable gloves; a large rat takes up such a lot of space that you won't be able to open the trap without touching the rat and the mess surrounding it. Trying to prise the trap open with a stick isn't really feasible and the attempt is likely to go wrong in messy and unpleasant ways.(*) Set the trap up on an easily cleaned surface, or on a throw-away surface such as waste cardboard. Better still (much better), screw the trap onto a piece of wood that is sufficiently large that the rat will be fully on the wood when it encounters the trap. The additional mass reduces the opportunity for the trap to bounce as it closes. This arrangement also ensures that if you do somehow trap a live rat it won't be able to drag itself and the trap away to some hard-to-reach location to die slowly and stinkily. You will need to drill holes in the trap to do this.(*) Acquire a short stick to use to release the safety catch so that your fingers never need to be near a fully-armed trap.(*) Don't ever attempt to bait the trap without the safety catch in position; a fractured finger bone is a real possibility. I use a torch to illuminate the trap while baiting it so that I can see the shadow of the safety catch, because in a gloomy corner and from some viewing angles the safety catch can appear to be in the safe position when in reality the trap is fully armed and ready to snap.
P**P
1st Night/Day - 4 Mice! Amazingly simple but effective!
Well this is the first time I've written a review so soon. Got this yesterday and set it up in the afternoon just outside the back door. I used a small piece of bread (about an inch square) with peanut butter spread onto it. We live in a semi rural place but alongside a garden centre with a cafe so we do get a lot of mice and, the actual reason I bought this, rats! They seem to be attracted to the bird feeders and seed we put out for ground feeding birds.I set it up against the wall as it suggested. This is good advice as I've seem them running along the perimeter of the house walls so it must be something instinctive to mice and rats.Well I got my first catch at around 10pm - a mouse. I emptied it into a plastic tub about 9" high, 9" wide and 13" long, put some straw in and a bit of biscuit, small lid of water, put the lid on and re-set the trap as before. Within a couple of hours or so, I'd caught another one. So I did the same with him/her and re-set the trap. Well I got up this morning and lo and behold, there was another one in there!So I went to put him/her into the same box but found the two that were in there were somewhat feisty and were trying to leap out, so I had to think. I decided upon an even bigger plastic box - about 15" high this time, by about 12" wide by 18" long. I placed the entire smaller box sideways into the bigger box and opened the lid and 'poured' them in. All was well, yet they were still trying to leap out. I then picked up the trap and was in the process of decanting the new mice into the now larger box when one of the two in there managed to leap to the rim and make a run for it! Little rascal!! So I managed to get the 3rd mouse into the box and shut the lid again. NOTE: These little blighters CAN jump around 18" - 2ft in the air, so if you're planning on doing the same as me, bare this in mind!So I re-set the trap again about 9.30am and was amazed to see within 5 minutes what I believe was the escapee appear from behind a wooden planter. He/she was skulking around (again, running largely along the wall edges) and seemed to see me watching a few times, so bolted off. But he/she kept coming back and eventually, after walking within 2ft of his comrades still in the plastic see through box (I'm sure he/she waved on his/her way past) went straight to the trap, had a quick sniff around the opening, then popped inside to have a nibble. I was able to watch for the first time how effective this trap is. The mouse was barely touching the food hanging on the hair-trigger hook and SNAP! Door shut quicker than a blink of an eye! So I technically can claim to have caught 4 mice in the first night/day, even though one was possibly a re-offender (and not a very smart one at that). I will leave the newly caught one in the trap until later when I shall take all 3 (one in the trap and two in the box) a few miles away and let them out safely together as I'm assuming they're from the same family.Still to catch a rat mind but so far I cannot fault its effectiveness! One other word of warning - mice are very jumpy! When you lift the trap they might make you jump yourself by their sudden jerky movement. Be prepared to not drop the trap like I almost did! Also, when you try to 'tip' the mouse out, they usually will hang onto the mesh sides and climb upwards towards the back of the trap. Trying to shake them out isn't a goer so best thing is to keep the door open, facing down, and let them amble out in their own time. They'll be out within half a minute or so.So from me - 5 out of 5 with zero hesitation!!
Trustpilot
4 days ago
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