If your rat is wise to the snap traps, glue traps are a viable option. Go out and buy a few of these and put them where he's been (like the drawer) and will most likely return to, once he gets stuck he will not be able to squeeze through those holes and you'll have him and then only have to dispose of him.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Real-Kill-Rat-Glue-Traps-2-Pack-HG-10096-3/100208417

1. Look for points of entry.  Plug up bigger holes with Great Stuff spray foam insulation.  By far the best strategy.  If the hole is really big, stuff it with steel wool first, then spray foam it.  Pencil size or smaller use caulking.
2. Keep all areas clean and free of clutter/debris.  This ranks right up there with the best strategy.
3. Snap traps.  You gotta have patience, they'll work.  Use peanut butter as bait.  Critters never get tired of creamy peanut butter.  If snap traps are not working, see strategy #2.
4. Employ the bucket mouse trap.  Simplest device to make and by far more effective than a snap trap over time.  Many variations.  Use the KISS principal to make one and peanut butter as bait.  Bucket Mouse Trap.
5. For particularly stubborn critters, dust a thin layer of baby powder on the floor, shelf, table top, etc to see where they are coming from and going.
6. Poison baits.  Use as maintenance.  I had the same thoughts as you on the poison baits and didn't want to live with the stink of a dead animal in the wall or ceiling.  Found out the way baits work is they make the animal thirsty and they leave looking for a source of water and die outside.  Make sure you don't have any standing water inside or leaky pipes and you won't have dead animals in the walls.

I like no. 5.  What a cool way to find where they are coming from!  Our big battle is with gophers.  Some spots on our property have so many tunnels the ground sinks when you walk on it.  We dug a hole for a macadamia tree 2 years ago, and according to instructions, filled it with water to make sure it drained.  Never could get it to fill.  Side caved in and all the water poured  into gopher tunnels.  We had that hose going for a couple hours.  Water just disappeared.  We stuck bait in the tunnels, put a gopher basket in there and planted the tree.  This is it's third year and already it is doing the third year leap.  Killing the gophers is a different story.....

I look forward to today's chapter in Harvey's drama!  Good luck with that rat!

Suzi

I also had one of the electric traps but never caught anything in it.  If it were me I would build something to protect the cutting until you get him.  I had really big rats get out of the sticky traps but got at least 12 with the snappers.  The mid sized ones did not get out of the glue type

Suzi - The kids are always stepping into the gopher holes and falling so we started working on them last year.  .22 works great.  An old timer told me to put a dead gopher into one of the bigger gopher holes and backfill with dirt.  Said that it will deter the live gophers from the tunnels in that area.  Seems to be working well as I'm definitely noticing fewer gopher holes. 

Oh NO…. they are going after your cuttings!    That’s an all out declaration of war.

Feeling you pain and frustration Harvey!   Semi-rural area here, and my Norwegian friends are a constant problem.   They seem to come in waves from season to season and are most destructive.   Non-decimating in diet, will eat figs, tangelos, lemons, etc.  About the only redeeming trait, is their taste for snails. 

From an environmental view, I hate using but, the only way I found to keep the upper hand on the pests is a liberal use of bait stations.   I too have a host of very smart rats, who have defied everything from “Have-a-Heart” traps to the killer snap traps.    Your post has inspired me to go on the Spring Offensive.    I’m going to start with the almond idea of “schaplin’s”, which sounds promising.   And, if that doesn’t work may resort to “olga’s” remedy and break out the sniper gear………. :-)

You need a farm cat Harvey! A stray showed up here and the neighbors were feeding her, then they moved and she decided we were her new owners. Last fall she left 3 or more mice and voles a week, earned her winter chow for sure!

The rat lives on!  The smoke cartridge definitely didn't kill it.  I found a glue trap over-turned a little while ago with the bat (cereal) gone!  Hasn't touched the glue traps with bacon yet nor entered the cage trap.  Snap traps (3) remain ontouched.  Not going for the KoolAid drink, apparently.  Will try a bucket trap also, I guess.  I'm running out of energy fighting this thing.

Oh, and I have 3 cats that catch rodents but they aren't allowed in my shop normally.  With all of the traps I've got going I don't really consider that a compatible alternative at the moment.

Harvey,

    I am getting an image of you in a bunker, with Sgt. York at your side, exploding mortars  lighting the night sky. 

    I can't believe the rats haven't touched the bacon. That is such a moment of cognitive dissonance that I am just speechless.

    I want to see you post pictures of your victory like a big game hunter posed next to his trophy.

    Good  luck.

Thanks all for the tip on the squirrel killing stuff.  They play trampolene on my Lanai pool screen and eat my newly potted flowers like it is a buffet line.  Harvey   you have the most delicious and irrestable bait all around  you.    Bait your trap with what they are after......one of your least desirable fig cutting.  If I was a rat and I came to you for figs, I don't think I am going to eat peanut butter.       At my house in NC  here is how I broke my neighbors dog from getting in my garbage.   I put the can on a tin sheet   hot wired it and bingo he peed all over himself when he stepped on it and never again came in my yard period.    It was an older house on acreage and my washer and dryer was also in the garage and he would pee on them also.   Neighbor very uncorporative.      LOL    good luck   Joyce   can't wait to see what works

Dale, I have visions of some great video depicting my victory one day.  May sell rights to Hollywood. :)

Why don't you go all Caddyshack on the rat?

"Here Mr Rat it's your friend Mr Squirrel" :)

Maybe it's time to clean out the traps and let the cats in.  Bolt your pots to the table so they don't get knocked over in the chase  :)

I don't want to get too optimistic, but I have hope!  I haven't made a bucket trap yet but discovered The Rat likes banana and entered my box trap which I set last night and took the banana without tripping the door.  He left the dog food alone.  Fortunately, I have more banana for this vegan rat!  I have set the trip mechanism more lightly this time.  I do wonder if there is a possibility Mr. Rat is an acrobat and can hang from the ceiling to eat the banana!  I'm placing some bamboo sticks across the top half to help reduce the risk of that. :)

You're going to get him.

Hope you get him soon, Harvey. Rat is somewhat too smart animal for me to deal with.

In Grad school at my university, I ran some lab sections in "Learning and Conditioning" but really it was a course on "how to train your pet rat".  

Here's what I'd do against your trap-educated rat(s).  Put it's wariness in conflict with something it's learned to want.

If you haven't used peanut butter yet:   DAY ONE  The freebie, put a tiny bit of peanut butter (say half the size of a rat turd) on a place where you know he'll go. Wait until he eats it. He'll love it.

Next Day Load peanut butter onto a trap that has not been touched by human hands for a while.  To a rat, anything you touch will have a strong stink of human.  For example, put baggies over your hands to deliver and set the trap.  Don't touch any part of the baggie that will come in contact with the trap.

If the above box trap is not successful tonight, try rinsing it off with a hose first, then only handle it with your baggies, or other uncontaminated (untouched) plastic bag, vinyl gloves, etc.

Happy Hunting     Tim

Hi Tim,

Initial efforts included peanut butter on snap traps.  He tripped those 2 or 3 times. One time I got some fur.  I believe The Rat probably associates peanut butter with a sharp pain now! LOL

Mr. Rat is light-footed and my box trap from Tractor Supply Company sucks.  Mr. Rat took the banana bait again!  I replaced it and believe the trip is even lighter this time but I also smashed some of the banana under the cage so he would (hopefull) have to work harder to retrieve it.  Apparently he doesn't mind my stinky human hands as long as they are feeding him bananas!!!

Harvey;
Here's a trick I learned about the trigger plate when I was dealing with raccoons. I covered the floor and the trigger plate with a very light piece of fabric so that the animal can't see the trigger plate. Raccoons learned to reach over the trigger plate to get the bait but once I covered the plate, I was catching them left and right. Try it.
Leon

Harvey, he may be getting the banana from the back of the trap.  Cover the back and side so he has to go in the trap.

This is old school my neck of the woods.Before there was rat or mouse poison.
I was told to kill mice and hopefully rats,farmers use to coat oat meal with Portland cement.
The cement clogged up the plumbing and killed the unwanted creature.

look at these traps, I have used them and they work great. I have used the bucket trap and have never seen them become shy of it. Put a few inches of water in the bottom of the bucket with soap in it. Soap breaks the surface tension of the water so they drown faster.

http://nooski.com/products/rat-trap/

http://www.ratzapper.org/

http://www.victorpest.com/store/rat-control/electronic-rat-traps

One more thing, your box trap, extend the trigger plate. Also make a box holder for the bait and mount it high. Try a small baby food jar strapped high to the back of the trap, opening facing up. This will provide the aroma of the bait, but she will have to reach and work at getting to the bait, setting off the extended trigger.