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Pack Rats
While pack rats aren't a problem up here, it's too cold for them in the winter, we do have an equal menace, the Red (or Pine) Squirrel. They consider nearly anything a suitable nesting site, and will shred anything their teeth will mulch for nesting material.
We have had the best success with live traps, in fact we have built modified box traps which don't require any resetting between 'victims'. Basically a tin bax with a door which slopes down on a 45° door towards the inside. The rodent pushes their way in through the spring-loaded door trying to get to the bait inside, but can't because it's in a serate sealed 'room' within the trap. The sound and smell of other rodents inside actually seems to encourage them in. Once inside they can't get back out since they try to push their way into the corners, in the case of the door, the corner is the hinge side, even if they got the right edge they can't push, they would have to lift it up.
The nice part about it is they are sealed in, I can check it periodically and just give it a quick rinse in the pond, guests and all, after a few minutes 'rinsing' they are disposed of suitably.
The dog has what he thinks is a better way of dealing with them, but even he can only get so many. He has definitely had an influence on the level of immigration though. ;->
Best of luck.
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Pack Rats
"I would bet that a 16 gallon shop vac would hold quite a few woodrats."
I'll bet it would too.
I had one chewed to smithereenies (an old word from the Looney Tunes cartoons) because I vacuumed up some spilled bird seed with it and the squirrels chewed their way in to get it, then made it a home after the had their fill.
My tin box trap has so far proven to be the four-legged version of Alcatraz.
Best of luck.
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I was just thinking here...........
I was taught that the best way to defeat an enemy, is to use the enemy's own habits against him.
A rat will not hesitate to force itself into a small space in the quest for food.
Since the rat is a 4-legged animal, it will always stand on at least one foot on each side of it's body at any one time.
It seems to me that you could completely eliminate the mechanical switch entirely by making the rat's own body form the switch itself.
A non-conductive floor in a narrow tunnel, with a conductive strip laminated (a la PC board) on each side of the floor would ensure that the rat would complete the circuit with it's feet as it walked along the tunnel. If the tunnel were sloped uphill, gravity might even eject the victim once it died and lost it's grip. A bait which was sufficiently delicous smelling enough, and a long enough tunnel would ensure that there was no way the rat could even get to, let alone eat, the bait.
Of course if you wanted to get rather macabre, you could try the idea one of my employees came up with. A baited piece of PVC tube, connected to a large volume air tank, and pointed at a solid object. The rat goes in for the food, hits the trigger and the compressed air turns him into a kamakazee rat missle.
I like the electrified tunnel of death myself, all of which goes into the category of Plan 'B' in the Destroy Squirrels file.......
Best of luck.
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Pack Rats
Mark, I don't exactly HOW conductive it is, but I'm told the copper-based anti-seize pastes available at any place that sells auto supply stuff is VERY conductive.
Best of luck.
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