What does not work, is the traditional mouse trap, the one where you bait it and the bar is attached to the spring. Actually, I must have gotten at 5 kills with it, so it does work occasionally. Cannot use that for a rat, they're too big.

1. Rat poison is an effective rat or mouse killer. The trick is you have to put it near where they nest, their home. Apparently rat or mouse do not travel very far from their nest, about 20 feet. If you think there is a nest there, put the poison nearby. If they eat it, they die. Sometimes they die out of sight so you smell something funny for a day or two. Once my father had this building with his friend, it got over run by rats and the government demanded something had to be done. All that was used was rat poison. My father friend claimed he had to use 10 garbage bags to shovel everything, he said it was gross. That generation was from the Chinese countryside when it was like real dirt poor. If he said it was gross, it had to be gross. But the rat poison got them all. A Jewish landlord once told me in a hardware store that the rat poison was the best because it dehydrates the rat or mouse and they find a way outside looking for water and die outside so nothing to clean up.

2. The glue trap works too. Lately, got two mouse, at least, and 3 rats! This is the trick, you have to buy a big glue trap. The small glue do not really work. However, that I have caught mouse with it. It is as effective as traditional trap. The big glue trap that got the rat and mouse was 6"x8" which is quite big. Must put it out at night because a person will step in that during the day. A small glue is too small. They just run around it. Put this big glue trap right along the wall as that is where the rat or mouse travels.

3. The cage trap works too, but only for rat. I was surprised it work, but it did. It got them. The cage trap you do not have to put along the wall like a glue trap. The cage trap can be placed anywhere. I think the key is the bait for the trap. Also put some newspaper underneath the cage trap because cleaner that way if the caged rat piss or shat. The advantage or disadvantage of a cage trap, it that the rat is still alive and has to be killed. My mom, she is really afraid, but she still insists on boiling hot water to kill it. I said, lets just drown it with a hose in the front yard, but no, she said it had to be boiling water. Anyways, the rat runs a bit in the cage, squeals, then immediately went stiff after a minute. I thought it had a heart attack. Another time, my mom claims she was scared of the rat she just caught in the cage, and she was so scared she sprayed it with bleach or disinfectant. The rat got angry and hissed in the cage and that made my mom even more scared, so sprayed the rat even more! Then it died right there in the cage. Best way is still to drown it. If it is winter and around zero Celsius, then the cold can kill the rat. My friend, he told me once his father caught a rat in a cage, he boiled the hot water too. Guess this is a some sort of Cantonese thing from the countryside, lol.

The say the Russians, they embrace winter. If they have pests in the house, any pests, they turn the heat off and go on vacation in the middle of the Russian winter. By the time they return, all the pests would have evacuated.