AIBU to not know what to do with the rat?!

[TripTrapTripTrapOverTheBridge]

And to name it Campbell, after UB40?! (May have changed the lyrics and sang 'There's a rat in the garden...'

Currently there is a large rat in a trap in my garden. A humane trap.

I noticed something had been trying to dig in to my quail house, near their feeding area, so had a trap delivered on Saturday and caught the thing last night. Who knew rats scream? Yep, noisy blighter kept me awake. Horrible sound.

Anyway, I've been out to see it this morning, slowly peering round the corner of the quail house, thinking it would be a hideous scream inducing sight. Actually, it looks completely harmless and has a fluffy white belly!

So what do I do with it? I didn't think of that bit. I know I need to get rid but how do I do that
A. Nicely for Campbell
B. Nicely for me and
C. How in hells name am I meant to grab the trap handle when it folds down flat when not being held and therefore,when lifting it, puts your fingers right in biting distance?!?!

Help!!?

No practical advice just wanted to share a story from my friend - he spent ages setting humane traps for his grandma when she had mice.

Went round the next day to find she'd taken them all out of the traps and drowned them in a bucket .

He didn't bother again!

Dan (best username EVER btw!) - that story made me chuckle. It's the sort of thing my mum would do.

If you want to kill it humanely, put it into a box with airtight seal (any decent tupperware should do it) with some baking soda and vinegar.

Put rat in trap and baking soda in box. Pour on vinegar, put on lid very quickly, cover with towel and leave. Come back in a few minutes when the CO2 has gassed it painlessly.

And yes, after this one get a snap trap.

I was all prepared for my first LTB.

A rat called Campbell and a quail house.
I love those discreet levels of posh that deem the rest of us quite ordinary. Good luck OP. Please update, on the adventures of Campbell.

Get a pest controller to dispatch it. It is cruel to trap an animal for hours and hours while you decide, and releasing rats you've trapped somewhere is even worse..

Let a professional handle it and quickly.

Get pest control out to deal with this, they can also make suggestions to improve security around your Quail House.

Surely you will be claiming all this back on your Parliamentary Expenses anyway?

There's nothing humane about putting a live animal in a freezer to kill it. Or about live traps if you dont intend to release the animal.

Get pest control to deal with it if you cant face it.

I don't think it's very hygienic to put it in the freezer.

If you don't know how to dispatch it yourself then call the vet or the pest control people

....or go totally ant-MN and club it to death with a loo brush that you clean in the dishwasher after!

There's nothing humane about putting a live animal in a freezer to kill it

Happens all the time when sorting out snake food I have a freezer full of rodents.

let him go. If you have poultry you will have the odd rat. I dont get the rat hatred. Its not the middle ages. Youre not going to get plague

Put poison in the trap with him so he just drifts off to sleep?

Rat poison does not make them 'drift off to sleep' FFS. It causes an agonising and slow death by internal haemorrhaging. It's cruel, and is a hazard to other animals.

Why can't you just buy them frozen gamerchick? Genuinely interested not going to judge.

I do buy them frozen.

Can you take it somewhere a couple of miles away and release it? That's what i did with the one i caught in my garden

gamerchick I did A level biology our lab fridge usually housed one or two whilst they thawed along with the teachers sandwich I never asked how they where actually killed, did they freeze them live? It's a bit sad really and I've said earlier I'm no rat fan. My heart stops for a second when I see the cat has left one for me.

Must say, I don't know why people think releasing them somewhere else is a good idea. If you had a problem with a bag of rubbish in your garden, you wouldn't dump that on someone else's land!

Won't be the case for a rat, unless it's an escaped pet rare breed, but there are some animals it is illegal to release into the wild, the most obvious example being a grey squirrel, or if you live in west London, the green parakeets (which I must admit I fucking LOVE, despite knowing they aren't great for native species, it's so cool to have wild parrots in your garden!). If they are not native to the UK, even if you catch it here, you can't release it here. Although query who on earth would ever find out, of course.

My friend and I found this out when he had a squirrel in his loft. Another invader species that it's illegal to release is a "Lady Amherst's Pheasant". (How can an animal with a name like that not be native British?! But it isn't [it looks like a peacock shagged a chicken])

Yuk. You can't just release a rat like this. Why didn't you just poison it?

I just want to point out that everyone is giving OP a hard time for being posh, yet all of you are using the term 'dispatch' to describe killing a rat.

LittleGreen firstly because I didn't know for sure it woukf be a rat and due to other wildlife.

Not so little Campbell went off with the bloke in the corner house earlier this morning. Apparently he's dealt with them previously for the house behind.

RIP Campbell :( Was awful seeing how scared of humans it was. Poor thing but I know I can't have a rat problem here

Ginger I'm ignoring the posh comments as they're ridiculous and very very laughable!

Ok so it's been dealt with now but apparently the best way to kill a rat humanely is either to shoot it with an air gun or to grab its tail, trap its neck and pull until it 'pops'. This breaks its neck and it dies.

If it's white it may be an escaped pet and not wild (they are separate species). My neighbour returned my escaped rat a few weeks ago.

Please don't put rats in the freezer or chuck it in water, both extremely cruel (slow and painful) forms of killing.

I am not having a go at her being 'posh'. I love it. I never knew there was such a thing as a quail house.