Sparrow Trap by Day, Rat Trap by Night

When I was at the final days of pre-baiting the sparrow trap, I was thinking "Fiesta time is over". The "free bait" was just pre-bait and now it's time to see the homemade sparrow trap in action - and catch a few sparrows.

Well, after I finally set the trap, I got a surprise the following morning.

As dawn was breaking, I went outside and noticed some movement in the bird trap as I looked up. Going nearer, I saw the silhouette of a head-like figure that seemed to be staring at me. Finally, the trapped worked!

But I really doubted it to be a sparrow. My observation from the pre-baiting period was that sparrows don't feed before dawn. And then the outline of the ears became clearer. It was a rat!

And so I climbed the ladder to see the occupant. It made a lot of ruckus upon seeing me.


Well at least I caught something. It wasn't all that bad. I just didn't realize there was a rat problem in our garden.




Maybe it was the smell of the cookie and cracker crumbs that enticed the rat. With all the rat droppings on the landing board, I concluded that it's been there for a while.



Disposing the Rat

Now, how to dispose it?

It took me quite a while to figure out a practical way to dispose of it - dead. I thought of drowning it. I could dunk the trap in a pail of water. But then the trap was too big to fit in any pail. Besides the rat would just go up the cage to avoid the water.

And then I thought of dropping just the rat in a tall pail of water.

I put around six inches of water inside the pail. I opened the access door of the trap and positioned the access hole above the pail. The rat went to all directions except fall into the access hole. It was too clever for that.

The rat may be clever but it wasn't strong enough to cling on to the cage. I shook the cage violently until the rat lost its grip on to the screen wires and promptly fell through the access hole and into the tall pail.



Killing the Rat

The rat just floated and swam nicely inside the pail with water. It attempted to jump out several times but the pail was just too tall for it. The rat just fell back into the water because the inside of the pail was too slippery.

I took a bamboo stick and attempted to push it down and drown it. Well, it took a hold of the bamboo stick and started to climb on the stick I was holding! Fortunately, I was able to shake the stick hard enough for it to fall back into the water.




Then I got a two-inch thick pvc pipe. The diameter of the pipe was big enough to stomp down on the rat and keep it underwater. I just had to be careful that the rat does not climb on to the pipe for a quick escape.

As I pushed it down to the bottom of the pail to press and keep it submerged, there was a violent but brief struggle. In less than a minute, the rat had drowned.

Other articles in this series (click on the links below:)

Homemade Bird Trap - Build Plans & How it Works
Homemade Bird Trap - Materials and Tools
Homemade Bird Trap - Building the Housing
Homemade Bird Trap - Making the Funnels
Homemade Bird Trap - Making the Guard Rails
Homemade Bird Trap - Making the Access Hole
Homemade Bird Trap - Making the Door and Lock
Homemade Bird Trap - Making the Carrying Handle and Restraints
Homemade Bird Trap - Setting the Trap
Homemade Bird Trap - Painting the Cage
Homemade Bird Trap - Making a Perch for the Cage
Homemade Bird Trap - Pre-Baiting Sparrows
Homemade Bird Trap - Retrieving Trapped Birds
Homemade Bird Trap - Disposing Trapped Sparrows
Sparrow Trap by Day, Rat Trap by Night (this article)
Damage Caused by Sparrows




Go ahead, post your comment below!

Unknown said...

i tried it and i catches at least 12 sparrow and two black colored bird with same size. wonderful, well that a span of 1 month and 2 weeks.

dan aps said...

This trap is unexpectedly good, it was supposed to be made for those pesky birds, but caught a rat instead. After I finished the trap, I put it on the top of our chicken cage, no baits yet. And the following morning, the trapped rat is there. I drowned the rat, and put the cage back to its intended purpose. Double thumbs up :D

pablo81 said...

Two male English Sparrows caught the first day with trap set below my Martin Houses. Great! By the way an easier way to dispose of these things without getting your hands dirty is just a pump up BB/pellet gun and shoot them through the cage wire. May be a little hard to hit when they are jumping around but just be patient for them to settle. 3 shots to kill the 2 sparrows.

Blackdove said...

Great to know that, pablo81. My method to kill sparrows by cervical dislocation in the other article isn't dirty (at least to me). It's quick, easy to do, and no blood at all. Tnx for the tip, anyway!