How to Make Electronic Rat Traps
Electronic Rat Traps can be a better choice for anyone who does not like traditional rat traps, poisons or sticky traps that can leave injured or dead animals. These types of rodent traps can be less stressful for both the rodent and the person seeking to be rid of rats and mice. Many people feel electronic rat traps are a much more humane way to eliminating the rodents.
It is possible to make electronic rat traps yourself, which may help you keep down costs, while creating a healthier environment for yourself and your family, employees or co-workers.
Equipment:
- One wood board- 1"x 6"x5'
- One wood board- 1"x4"x2'
- Finishing nails
- Claw hammer
- Staple gun with staples
- Hand saw
- Electrical tape
- Wire cutters
- Soldering gun
- Coil of solder
- Cloth strip
- 3' 16-gauge wire
- 4 D-cell batteries
- High voltage pulse capacitor
- Hinges (2 small or one 6")
1. Prepare the wood: From the 5 foot long board, cut four 12 inch long planks for the base, walls and roof of the box.
Cut the remaining 12 inch plank in half, to give you two 6 inch pieces to be used as the entrance and "exit" end caps of the electronic trap.
Cut two 10 inch pieces from the 2 foot board; this will become the inner walls that will force the rodent toward the back of the trap, where it will then be exterminated.
2. Guide walls: To build the inner guide walls of the electronic rat trap, lay the two 10 inch 1"x4" wood strips on their 1" narrow sides in a "/" formation on the base or floor of the trap, leaving enough room behind the "/" for the capacitor.
Ensure the open end of the "/" is wide enough for a large rodent to pass through it, with the closed end at the "exit" end of the trap. Secure with the finishing nails.
3. Power Source: Place the high-voltage pulse capacitor in one corner of the area of the base/floor behind the closed end of the "/", and the batteries in the other corner.
Cut the cloth strip in half, long enough to secure the capacitor to the base by stapling one end to the base, cross the cloth strip over the capacitor, and staple the other end to the trap floor on the other side. Repeat the process with the 4 D-cell batteries. Keep all positive and negative ends of the batteries together, to make wiring easier.
4. Extermination Wires: Measure the extermination wires to run from the power source down the length of the inner walls. Secure the exposed wires with staples to the middle of the guide rails, running from the capacitor toward the entry point.
Solder short wires from each battery and then connect these wires together by soldering to a single junction wire. Then, solder the exterminating wires to the capacitor output posts. Next, solder the power source wires running from the battery to one of the wires connected to the capacitor. This should leave one capacitor wire free.
You will use the wire that has not been soldered to the capacitor as the circuit to start and stop the power to the trap.
5. Outer Frame: The trap is now ready for the walls, end caps and roof to be secured to the base board. Before securing the 1"x4"x6" entry end cap, cut a large mouse-hole shaped opening, large enough for a large rat to fit through. Additionally, cut a smaller mouse-shaped hole in the end cap.
Using the finishing nails, secure the entry cap firmly. Attach the hinge or hinges, so that the end cap can be opened and closed to access the batteries and capacitor.
If you wish to remove the dead rodent rather than disposing of the entire box, be careful to disconnect the power source, before doing so.