Cannibal Mice Or Something More Sinister?

[Martin109]

I regularly have to set mouse traps in my old cottage, especially around this time of year, when the mice really start settling down for the winter.

For the first time in my experience, the last three mice I have caught have been partially eaten.  Large sections of their bodies gnawed (I think) away, bones, flesh, fur and all!

What I don't know is whether mice turn cannibalistic if there's not much food around, or whether this is the work of a RAT  ?

What does the panel think?

Perhaps I should put one of the partially-eaten mouse corpses as bait on a rat trap!

[nicknack]

Rat.

[docsquid]

Or cat?  Ours often eat only part of the mouse.

[Martin109]

It can't be a cat, as the mousetraps with the dead mice onboard were concealed behind panelling.

I was fearing it would be a rat.  If so, what would be the best course of action.  I'm a bit hesitant to put poison down, as I imagine I'd have to put up with decomposing rats for weeks hidden in some inaccessible nook or cranny.

[alexb]

Mice will eat dead mice, they'll also eat pretty much anything that looks like food.
Sadly, I suspect they'll happily eat mice caught in traps.
Rat droppings are large, bigger than grains of rice, that's really the only way you are going to be able to tell if you can find the droppings.

[Martin109]

If it is a rat, what would be the best course of action?

[clarion]

Stand on a chair & scream until some hunky fellow comes along & saves you.

Works for me...

[Martin109]

Yer big jessie!

[alexb]

Big snap traps will take care of rats (and mice), however, drill a hole in one end of the trap and then either pin it to the floor with a nail or tie it to something. You might end up with a rat caught and still able to get away with the trap attached.
It's very rare for this to happen, but it can happen.
A hammer will sort out any caught, but still alive.

[Chris S]

We have a lot of rats at the moment.

The grounds garden is festooned with poison, traps and cats. And I'm armed with a shovel.

Looks like the benign summer has been rather kind to the rat numbers; judging by the number flattened on the roads hereabouts.

[nuttycyclist]

Big snap traps will take care of rats (and mice),..

My thoughts too.

When I thought I had a rat problem I borrowed a rat trap.  I didn't wire it down as above, but fortunately I only had mices.  Lotses of mices.

I've had rat problems before, used a rat trap (think oversized mousetrap), and other than a daily (or thrice daily) task of collecting dead rat and throwing it over the fence to "the wildlife" it's not a major issue.