roof rats in the ground?

Anyone ever tried a step down set and colony traps?

step down set?

We trap them all the time on the ground around here, never seen them in the ground though.

basically a blind set

lots of hole in the back yard.............

to wet for them in Oregon/ Washington to live in the ground,....

Hole look like chipmunks...............

I've never seen a hole that looks like a chipmunk. All of ours are fairly round.

I would try albano's gopher traps in holes like that, they sure hold large camas gophers.

I have caught them in the same fashion as I have
Ground hogs. I dug out a trench about 5 inches wide and
20 inches long and butted it up to the hole. I put a piece of hardware
over the top of the hole and held it down with rock or bricks. Never
Caught more than two at a time though. I used a 4 inch colony
Trap that I usually use for squirrels.

Paul if i ever find that they look the size of a beer glass,,,,I am sure i can solve the problem........

Hello,

I got two colony rat traps on e-bay. One made in China and one in India. The Chinese rat trap is junk. The Indian one is better quality. I haven't had the opportunity to use them yet.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_kw=Super+Offer++Metal+Trap+Cage+Catch+Many+Rat+Squirrel+Weasel+Mouse+Small+Rodent&_id=281506222640

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RAT-CAGE-TRAP-HU...=item566bb5afd3

Chuck

As I understand it, "Roof Rat's/House Rat's" are the same as the E Wood Rat, which is a naturally occurring animal here, that developed an affinity for 2nd story living to avoid predation.
Just Google'd "Roof Rat" and apparently there are 8 species of Wood Rat's.

You understand wrong, sorry.

Roof Rat/Rattus rattus

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_rat

Eastern Wood Rat/Neotoma floridana

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_woodrat

Norway Rat/Rattus norvegicus

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_rat

House Mouse/Mus musculus

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_mouse

White Footed and Deer Mice Peromyscus sp.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peromyscus

Scarey,,,,

We have very few Norway Rat/Rattus norvegicus here. Most of ours are Roof Rat/Rattus rattus and a few Eastern Wood Rat/Neotoma floridana . I recently took a few pictures comparing the Roof Rat with the Wood Rat. Both were "teenage" males caught in small cage traps. Notice the shorter hairy tail (shorter than body and head) on the Wood Rat and the longer hairless tail (longer than body and head) on the Roof Rat. The tail of the Norway Rat is also shorter than the body and head.

Good info, thanks guy's.

Mr. Fry, I have been catching what you call the wood rat for many years in Wisconsin but I must be the only one. Wisconsin only lists

the brown rat ( Norway ) as a resident of Wisconsin. The rats I catch have a lighter brown back and a white belly. Been catching

them since the fifties.

Paul W.- Please post some pictures.

Don't worry Ron, the next rat I catch that ain't a Norway will be on television. I had no idea that Wisconsin doesn't recognize any

native rat. I went on their mammal site and learned that we used to have caribou and buffalo. Quite an interesting evening.

Paul W.- Post a picture of your Norway Rat then.I would like to see a picture to compare the size of your rats to ours. I have been told that Norway Rats are "the size of cats" in various parts of the country.

Professor Fry, just to the north of you in Birmingham the Norway aka gopher rat is fully half or more of the rat calls I would get. Odd thing is same latitude here in Atlanta I have never done a job for norways and only seen two jobs for them by colleagues.

Ron, one of our techs does most of our rat work. I'll lend him one of those 42 inch Tomahawks and tell him to catch a really big

Norway for you. I don't know how a Norway rat can be as big as one of our cats. Our cats are the size of wolves. Okay, enough lies;

after all, it's Sunday. I did stop to check out a car-killed coyote on the expressway yesterday. I was lucky enough to see wolves in

the wild when I was in Alaska and I've got to tell you that there isn't a whole lot of difference in size. These ugly coyotes of ours

are half again the size of those pretty Montana coyotes that I saw out west.