Rugged Ranch Ratinator Indoor or Outdoor Multi-Catch Rat Trap - Humane Live Cage Catcher, Rodent Control for Homes, Barns, Attics, Garages, Sheds, Gardens and Farms

Effectiveness: Today is the first day I've used this Squirrelinator trap. In preparation I also found a 3-ft square appliance drip tray at the local Habitat Re-Store for a few dollars, and use that to hold the sprinkled bait (whole peanuts plus some scratch mix), then I set the trap on top of that baited tray. The trap I bought included the black plastic basin for drowning the squirrels. I am a tender-hearted person but we are inundated with these damage-causing ground squirrels in our local area, so I hardened my heart and got to work. I set the water basin about 100 feet away on a very level (VERY LEVEL!) patch of ground and filled it completely (COMPLETELY!) full of water. (The basin is about 1.5 inches taller than the trap is.) I brought a wheelbarrow close to the trap, with a pair of thick leather gloves and a pair of pliers. The pliers are optional but they keep your hands from getting bitten while using the metal hooks on the doors, and keep your hands dry when doing other steps. Once I locked the top door (find places to hook 2 layers of underlying bars and it's very secure) and opened the 2 side doors, I went away and returned 30 minutes later. Bingo! One squirrel. I waited another 30 minutes but didn't get any more in the trap, though I knew they were all around. So I went ahead and put the whole trap into the wheelbarrow (while wearing the gloves) and rolled it up to the basin of water. Still wearing the gloves, I picked up the whole trap and set it into the water. I also had a big 3' x 3' piece of plywood nearby, and immediately set that on top so I wouldn't have to watch. I promise, PROMISE, it was only 20-25 seconds before everything was totally silent and the squirrel was dead. I didn't want any possible reviving, so I left him in the basin for a full 30 minutes just to be sure. Then I used some long BBQ tongs and the pliers on one of the side handles to lift the trap out of the water. Then I used the pliers to unhook the trap's top door and the tongs to lift out the dead squirrel. Then used the pliers again to lift the trap into the wheelbarrow, lock the top door and unlock the side doors, and roll the trap back down to the bait tray and start all over again. I've done this 5 times so far today. 30-90 minutes to catch, 1/2 hour to make sure thoroughly drowned, and start again. Four times I caught one, and one time I caught 4! Using the pliers for so many steps keeps my hands clean and dry, though of course I still wash them well when I go back inside. I live on a small acreage, so to avoid attracting coyotes and bobcats overnight, I will put the bodies into a small locking metal trash can with a plastic bag liner, and add that bag to our regular trash on collection day. I must emphasize that the water basin needs to be very level and completely full. Otherwise the squirrel will be able to get his nose above the water level. This is a very effective trap and I highly recommend it. Easy to set in a preferred location, no digging, no bloody half-dead creatures to deal with.

I saw this trap on one of the chicken facebook groups that i follow and found the link for this in the comments. The post i found it on caught waaay more than i did for their post but i dont care because i finally caught something in a trap! I'M THRILLED SO HERE'S MY REVIEW! 🥳🥳🥳 Ive been hearing these pests going about the undercarriage of my RV and have been being kept awake because i cant turn off my brain once i hear the skittering. Ive been finding nests in places like in my engine bay, generator compartment, and spare tire compartment, under my coop, ect. I dont have issues with rodents inside because i have cats but the cats only have inside and the catio i built them, so limited pest deterant there. (Also my family has one outdoor cat thats old and insists on being outside but still mouses so i cant poison, but i knew these rodents were too big for the old girl to catch) Glue traps sometimes worked but i figured that i must have had BIG and SMART ones remaining because they were triggering my Victor snap rat traps and either getting free or not getting caught. (They also weren't falling for other traps in my chicken coop so this is going in there next!) This trap recomends baiting it with the door stuck open for a little bit, to which i used a little bit of bent wire and i left the door a little loose, because i wanted to be sure the rats were fine with the door moving while they got used to the trap. I baited with wet cat food for the smell and appeal of it, splattering it on the edges and gate and left it for a few days. (I didnt mean to leave it for a few days but life happened and i was unwell enough i wasnt doing chores, but i could see the bait being messed with so i left it). I also made sure i barley touched the trap so that my scent wasnt on it much. (Besides the lil video i took when i got it because the pictures online make it a little hard to tell the shapes in the trap). Last night i baited with more wet cat food all over and took out the wire. To be honest, i forgot about checking the trap till well past noon but the little pests were still stuck within, something i worried about because the door just flops up and down from the weight of it, but the little tunnel keeps them from going straight back to the door. (Set on a flat surface to make sure the door works right). I took a video of the rats running around within but im only allowed to upload one vid per review apparently. It was sooooo easy to set up, the only thing id say to watch out for is to not clip the bait door over the handle you need to pick it up later with. I didnt realize i had done because it was dark when i rebaited the trap. (I could have opened the bait door to fix that without them escaping throughit because its enclosed but the critters were launching themselves around when i approached it so i opted not to, so that the entrance door didnt accidentally flop down) The tub that it comes with makes it easier to 'take care' of the pests with a deep 'bath' and the door to remove them worked well to take the tool grips i had and pulled them out. Make your life easier than i did and grab disposable gloves for this process before you start it. (Im not relocating a pest, esp not a smart one. I dont want it and so i dont want to drop it off somewhere to be someone elses problem, id hate if someone did that to me. They have caused me soooo much money in damages from wires to insulation and more.) When i recieved the trap i did notice and take pictures of some damage on one of the corners, like it had been dropped before being packaged, because the box was fine and so was the plastic tub it came within in the box. The damage did not effect usability, thankfully, since this wasnt cheap. Ill say it again, it wasnt cheap, BUT, it was WORTH IT. The size will limit small spaces i may want to use this in (like my generator bay or engine bay of my parked RV) but it will still fit easily under quite a few things like cars and cabinet edges, withing sheds and so on. Its also CHICKEN SAFE! I dont have to worry about triggering snap traps before letting my flock into their run or worry about my birds standing on it. And since im baiting with cat food i dont have to worry about if my birds eat the bait too. Or anything else for that matter, like you have to worry about with other poisons. If you've gotten this far into reading my review, thanks for your time and i hope this helps you decide how to get rid of your pest problem! Have a great day!

I first heard about this trap on Tuesday ... ordered this model on Amazon on Wednesday ... received it by noon on Thursday ... and set/baited it in place (SO easy) that afternoon. When I first checked it at 7:45AM Friday morning I already had my first Squirrel. I released it (see below) far from my house Thursday late afternoon and reset/baited it the Squirrelinator trap back to its original location. This morning (Saturday) it was still empty when I got up. But after a quick shower I looked again. I had gotten another and there was a 3rd Squirrel roaming around the trap very interested. That squirrel seemed to love eating one of the oranges off my tree right in front of #2. But after a bit more picking up scattered pieces of bait, he left. I had breakfast and pointed out the trap to my wife, making sure she could see it from our kitchen. And guess what? Another squirrel was roaming about it. Candidly it's FAR more fun than watching TV car chases! Just as I got my binoculars totally zeroed in ... #3 gave into the Squirrelinator's temptations. Talk about quick, easy, and efficient! So right now it cost me just over $25 per squirrel ($70 divided by 3) to get rid of them. I'd certainly have willingly paid that much for a Professional Trapper. So this device is a good value AND investment. And I fully expect to catch more and very quickly. Fyi, I've read a number of reviews that talk about what type of bait to use, its cost, and blah-blah-de-blah. I first threw a small handful of nuts into it. Then, given the fact that the squirrels were feasting on my citrus, I decided to go a little bit off their comfort zone. I added a small handful of Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal, scattering a few flakes around both of the trap's 2 entries. They LOVE it. And it is really fun watching one squirrel in the trap inadvertently kick a flake or two outside of it to the next victim. So try using Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal as bait. I figured they might like it as much as me and they DO !! A final note: While Squirrels are cute they are anything but nice. Watch some of the posted videos and you will witness very mean, dangerous animals that like to bite however "cute" you may think they are. Then think about YOUR kids or grandkids being out there wanting to "play" with or pet them. NOT A GOOD IDEA. I even read that "relocated" squirrels (up to 3 miles away) can find their way back. And those that don't return only continue causing the same problems for their new neighbors as they did for you. So I thought about what I should do. So I prayed on how I should remove them (permanently) from my yard. I sought the advise of my local clergy who suggested praying for their both our souls. And in the end he even baptized them for me. Whatever you choose to do, do the right thing for everyone. Suggestion: Try to find a Squirrelinator that has a "basin". Mine did not have one but not a big deal all things considered. But the basin allows you an easy way to relocate your nasty squirrels however you choose without having a big mess in your car or pickup that is not easy to clean up. The empty shipping box is a good alternative. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the Squirrelinator !! Good luck. UPDATE AFTER TWO WEEKS: 22 Squirrels ... but I repositioned the trap at the corner of my driveway trying to catch a couple of them at the front of my house. The trap was on hard cement. And I got one. But after about 3 hours in the trap he was able to escape! I think it was because it was on that hard surface and the squirrel was able to get its paw under the entry and pry it open. But I stand firm on how I rated it. 22 Squirrels in 2 weeks? WOW !!! I am So impressed !!!!! And they still love Honey Bunches of Oats for bait.

Please read further down for my night-by-night story & an empath's first-time experience with the drowning method. (The trap worked but I was only able to set for one night before the rats destroyed it.) Preparation: 1) Location & presentation are key--We placed the trap against the barn wall in a high traffic area with a LOT of rat droppings & manure. 2)The trap is too exposed so we kept it slid in the box, just cutting the end of the box off on the side with the entrance. (Rats feel safer entering an enclosed space.) Nights 1 & 2: 1) The trap door was zip-tied open. 2) The trap was baited with a scoop of sunflower seeds. RESULTS: No action--no droppings & no empty sunflower hulls. But it was new & smelled odd (to a rat) so I figured it may take a few days for the trap to be accepted. (Location/position is a common problem but I knew that wasn't the issue in this case.) Nights 3 & 4: 1) Trap door still zip-tied open. 2) I swept up the copious rat droppings in the area & sprinkled them in the trap through the top so it would smell like them. 3) I decided that, although they LOVE sunflower seeds the seeds do not have enough scent to advertise their presence. So I added a scoop of the horses textured sweet feed which has a strong, delicious smell. RESULTS: Two scoops of feed (1 sunflower & 1 sweet feed) were completely gone! Empty seed hulls & a new layer of fresh manure were all that remained. Night 5: 1) Zip tie removed--trap set! 2) Baited with a scoop of sunflower seeds & a scoop of aromatic sweet feed since those worked great to draw them in the last two nights. RESULTS: Checked the trap 4 hours after dark (didn't want to leave rats all night, terrified & possibly fighting/injuring each other). There was at least a dozen and a half rats inside! HOWEVER . . . Although the concept is good, the design & construction has some flaws. There is a narrow dead-end section next to the entrance. The rats shoved themselves, tightly packed, into this section, smothering & panicking. Then they started escaping while I filled the pan with water to drown them. One rat was caught half way through the wire & stuck out too much so I couldn't set the trap in the pan of water to kill it. While we tried to get the live, terrified rat unstuck (while not being bit!) more started squeezing out next to it again & eacaping. We realized the rats had pulled back a poorly welded wire & created a row of larger holes. Some could fit through these holes but bigger ones got stuck. I had to poke a stick through the bars to rap them with to keep them back from that area so more couldn't escape while my daughter kept trying to deal with the stuck rat. She eventually had to dispatch a stuck rat with garden shears & it pulled out easily through the larger hole they made once it's body was relaxed. A NOTE ABOUT DROWNING: I have had rats & mice as pets so seeing them terrified & the situation with the stuck one wasn't easy. Dealing with the stuck one unfortunately drew out the whole scary time for all the other rats. The thought of drowning them pained me but I can't just go dump this many rats in someone else's field to be a problem for them so killing was really the only sollution. Once the stuck one was removed I set the trap in the included pan filled with lukewarm water. They started to swim & I had to turn away. My daughter check on them just a minute or so later & said they were pretty much all dead. I walked over & there was already no more movement: their struggle was over. I was relieved that the drowning was over so quickly & believe it was a faster & more humane death than being caught by our cats. So, while I still don't like killing any animal, I am much more at peace with the method than I thought I would be. I will contact the company for a replacement trap right after posting this review. If they send a replacement & it holds up, I will gladly give this trap 5 stars. For the price, I should certainly be able to get more than one night of trapping out of it & it should be sturdy enough to hold up against it's target species.

Great trap. I have been having an issue with squirrels digging up my planters, peeing and pooing everywhere, and yapping away nonstop in the afternoon, sometimes for hours. They then tore up my $400 tent while camping. Then my $150 solo tent while backpacking. The final straw was when they tore through the screen to get into my office to find food (caught them in the act and had to kick what remained of the screen out so they could escape). Decided it was time to wage war. First I bought an electric trap (from one of the many Chinese-junk sellers here). When it arrived, I set it up and watched as three squirrels came, grabbed the bait, and either didn't get shocked OR clearly got a zap but managed to run away groaning/cooing in pain. Clearly, it didn't kill them. Then I bought some snap traps. One trap simply didn't go off. And then the woman demanded I take them down because the neighbor's indoor/outdoor cat sometimes prowls near where I had set them up. Finally I bought this trap. At the outset, I knew catching 25 squirrels at once (as claimed) was a far fetch, but if I could just do one at a time, I'd be happy. Upon arrival and setup, a squirrel came to investigate within half an hour (I watch obsessively). Unfortunately, it didn't quite work. Having all the bait in the middle allowed her to stretch her body in and grab the food while keeping the one-way door open, then back herself out. When she was spooked by some kids screaming/playing in the distance, I took the opportunity to change it up a bit. I closed up one of the doors and moved all the bait closer to that side of the trap, so that she'd have no choice but to venture further inside. When she returned an hour later, she walked right into the trap. After much fighting about whether to kill or relocate (me vs the woman respectively), we decided to... actually, I'm not going to talk about what happened after. After we did the mystery top secret thing with squirrel #1, I set the trap back up. Squirrel #2 ventured over a couple hours later. This one was a bit more difficult. I set it up the way I had w/ squirrel #1, but he really didn't want to use the door. He kept trying to gnaw at the trap from the outside, He was very wary of the moving one-way door mechanism and refused to enter. The day went by without a catch, so I changed things up that night. By "changed things up", I mean I added WAY more bait (peanut butter on saltine crackers). Today morning, he came by again and couldn't resist. After trying and failing at his usual chew-his-way-in tactics, he went straight for the door. Boom, mine. This guy was vicious though. He charged the edges of the cage towards my feet so ferociously that he could make the whole thing slide (on a concrete floor) a good two inches or so. And he was trying so desperately to chew his way out that he was bleeding quite profusely from the mouth. It was gleeful, and the woman threatened to leave me for how much evident pleasure I was taking in watching his agony. We fought some more, and again I won't mention what the outcome was for the squirrel. Squirrel #3 came by no more than twenty minutes after the trap was set for the third time. The problem with her was that she was too stupid to figure out how to get in the cage. No biting, no trying anything special. She just tried to shove her face in furiously through the bars. After an hour of this, she gave up and ran off. I modified the bait layout a little bit by making a little guiding trail from a couple feet outside right through the doorway, but she's still too stupid to understand what to do once she approaches. That said, she came back two more times, so I suspect she'll eventually come and figure it out. So, things to keep in mind: 1) Squirrels might be large enough to grab bait from the middle and run off with it without the door blocking them in. Use better bait and place it strategically (near the corners, just outside of reach from the outside, is great too). 2) Trapped squirrels might viciously attack the cage, so WEAR GLOVES. 3) Some squirrels are legitimately too stupid to get stuck, maybe. 4) Trapped squirrels might be LOUD! As in "oh crap, I hope this is legal and my neighbors aren't calling the police on me right now" loud. If this happens, throw the entire cage back in the box, squirrel and all, and they'll magically shut up after a minute or so.

I set the trap on Monday and within 30 minutes it trapped a squirrel. Caught two more later that day. I bought a second trap and by Friday I caught a total of 14. I used whole peanuts for bait. Be sure to get the basin, it makes for a no mess transfer.

I chose this trap partly because I had tried every other method and trap, with only occasional success. I did see positive reviews of this before purchase and fortunately they turned out to be true in my use case. ​Functionality:​ Why did you pick this product vs others?: I have tried practically every method there is to trap rats. This Ratinator is the only way that has worked consistently. I have caught dozens of rats in my back yard with this trap. Sometimes just one at a time, and on the best days up to three or four or five in a single night. I just bait it with the rats normal diet which in my backyard is the birdseed that falls out of our bird feeders. Some rats do seem to be smart enough to avoid the trap, but unlike every other trap that I have used, these are the exceptions and not the most common outcome. After using the trap consistently in my small backyard for a while I will have caught most of the rats and gradually the remainder seem to learn the danger and stay away. At that point I wire up the trap door so that it cannot close and use the trap as a rat feeder for a week or so with the door wired open so that I can get the rats accustomed to entering it again. I then remove the wire I used to hold the trap door locked open and let it begin trapping again. Rats are definitely smart foragers. Ease of use: The trap is super easy to use. Easy to bait. Easy to remove the rats after they have been caught. Easy to hose off and clean. Build quality: Build quality is fine. The construction is solid, and there are no gaps that even juvenile rats can use to escape. Durability: Durability is great. It has held up to all weather and the finish has held up fine. In other words the paint is still protecting the metal from rusting. I live in Southern California so that is more mild conditions than many live with, but nevertheless if has held up very well. The trap door still pivots freely. The doors that are secured with springs still work as they should. Safety: Part of the reason I was willing to try this trap is that it is safe to use around my dog and cat. No worries about them getting injured in any way by the trap. I judged it safe around the other wildlife that comes into my yard such as birds and raccoons and opossums and coyotes.

**Update: lowered to three stars bwcshee rhe rats learned how to get In and out after a couple of weeks. The door needs a weight or spring-activated version that makes it more difficult. It’s pretty easy for them to just pull the door down and get or or rush a rat coming in and all get out. The death toll is into the 40s though so it’s still a decent trap for as long as it works. I’ve just had to modify it a lot. I added a spring to the door which worked a little bit. Now I’m going to move it and retrain the rats by leaving it open again** Researched a lot of styles of traps. The important qualities for me were: as humane as possible, ability to catch more than 1 rat per setting, only affects the rats/safe for other animals on our property (domestic and wild), as cheap as possible. This trap is definitely the best possible combination of those things. I trained the rats to go to one spot for a couple of weeks before using it because I want to get a lot of them. I used another carabiner to hold the door open and fed them in the trap. I don’t think the bait area is necessary. I spread the food outside the bait area where they can actually eat it. I wanted them going in reliably and eating for a few days first. Then I caught 10 rats in less than 12 hrs the first time I set it. It comes with the drowning tub. They died within 30 seconds or less and no poisons, dangerous/gory traps, had to be used. Emptying it wasn’t not nearly as traumatizing as emptying the snap traps. So, for all those reasons, it gets a high rating. The reasons for not getting five stars are: 1. The trap doors might need to be reinforced to ensure the rats can’t force their way out once in. (I used small carabiners) 2. The rats might be able to bail themselves out if they have enough time to figure out how to pull down the repeating door or rush a rat that’s entering the trap. They likely will not go in again if they manage to escape. 3. The bottom is wire with big enough bars that the rats can dig under it and eat the food without going in the trap. (We put a board under it) 4. The drowning tub is a little small -I had to fill it all the way and still had to squish the trap down a little to finish the job. 5. Emptying the trap after is somewhat awkward but still not too bad compared to the snap traps. It’s a good trap but I think the price is a little high overall. Ultimately, it’s just a wire box with a weighted wire door. And I had to buy carabiners to reinforce it… I would’ve liked to be able to get two traps and 1 tub for about this price and that would feel just right.