How to Make a Catch & Release Rat Trap

Make a humane rat trap.

There are two types of rat traps you can make at home: one that detains and kills and/or maims the rat or one that traps the rat so you can release it later. It's a more humane contraption, and all you need to make one is a few cheap household items. Once you catch a rat, take it to a field far away from your house and release it.

Things You'll Need

• Plastic soda bottle (2-liter size)
• Scissors
• Duct tape
• Rectangular piece of cardboard
• Cheese

Instructions

1. Cut off the top of the plastic soda bottle with scissors. Make the cut at the point where the bottle starts to slant inward towards the opening.

2. Cut off the opening of the plastic soda bottle, the part where the top screws onto. Make sure to cut it wide enough so that a rat can slip through the opening.

3. Flip the plastic top to the soda bottle upside down and put it back into the wide open top of the soda bottle. It will now look like a funnel shape resting inside a plastic cylinder. Tape the edges together around the lip of the container.

4. Affix the bottom of the bottle to the cardboard with tape. This creates a base to keep the bottle from falling over as the rat climbs up the side.

5. Place rocks or some other type of weight on top of the cardboard base to help keep the trap stable.

6. Put small pieces of cheese through the hole and allow it to fall into the bottom of the trap to lure the rat.

References

• Meta Café: How to Make a Humane Mousetrap

Resources

• Smith Sax: Make a Mousetrap