Mice and rats have long been considered human companions. Moreover, there is nothing particularly pleasant in this neighborhood. Rodents not only spoil food, but also spread a large number of dangerous diseases. In medieval cities, rats brought plague, which spread throughout Europe, while destroying the population. Currently, a number of means are used to exterminate these individuals: poisons, special ultrasonic devices, or ordinary rat traps.
Making a rat trap with your own hands
You will need:
- a board measuring 250x150x20 mm;
- bars with a section of 25x25 mm;
- metal mesh with a small hole diameter;
- tin;
- nails;
- steel wire with a diameter of 2 mm;
- wire with a diameter of 4 mm.
Using a hammer and nails, you need to nail four bars to the board. On top of them, you need to screw or again nail a frame from the same bars. It is worth considering that before performing all the work, it is necessary to cover the entire inner surface of the board with tin, otherwise your structure will not last long.
Next, attach the net to the outside of the bars, and hang the door from one end. Its dimensions should be approximately 1150x170x20 mm. You can hang the door using small hinges, and attach a small bracket to its outer side, which is made from an ordinary nail.
It is worth considering that before starting work on the manufacture of a rat trap, you must imagine what size rodents live in your area. All design parameters will depend on these indicators.
Making a gatehouse
Next, you will need a steel wire with a diameter of about two millimeters, from which the gatehouse will be made. Its length should be about 45 centimeters. Note that one part of the wire should be inside the rat trap and the other should go out. At the junction of the two parts, it is necessary to make a kind of "step" with which the gatehouse will abut against the mesh wall when charging the mechanism itself.
On the inside of the structure, it is necessary to make a hook on which the bait will be mounted. There should be a hinge on the outside, it is to her that the gatehouse will cling to the bracket on the outside of the door. Before installing, it is worth adjusting the entire mechanism in such a way that at the slightest swing, the loop slips out of the bracket.
How the lock works
Of course, when the gate is triggered, the door slams. But in order for the rodents to be unable to open it, it is necessary to provide a lock. To do this, you need to bend a wire with a diameter of four millimeters in the shape of the letter "P". Flatten the ends of this workpiece and make several holes in them. With their help, the lock (on screws) is fixed at a distance of about 10 centimeters from the rear end. Now, when the door slams shut, the rodent caught in the rat trap will not be able to get out of there on its own.
