I don't give a Rat's Arse

Once we discovered we had a rat in our chicken barn it was game on!

We started watching videos showing how people dealt with rats and after much deliberation we decided to manufacture "The Tumbler"! This is basically a 5 gallon bucket, half filled with water and a peanut butter covered cylinder making it irresistible to our temporary resident.
Irresistible it was, however, the rat was able to consume all the peanut butter for several nights with out taking the plunge. Time for plan B.

We purchased a snap trap, filled it's reservoir with peanut butter and went to bed feeling confident morning would bring us our quarry. Morning brought us a tripped trap but no rodent.

We implemented plan C after two more failed nights with the snap trap. It was time to install a live trap! We were positive this would produce results. We were wrong. Rats are wary and smart!

Plan D is basically plan B with a different brand. Two more snap traps added to the arsenal and a quickly declining supply of peanut butter. The difference? It appears the rat had triggered the traps and after watching even more videos, we learned that rats OFTEN escape from snap traps. Plan E....install the skewers!

By now the rat was on to us, and wanted nothing to do with peanut butter surrounded by a moat of deadly skewers. Lets try plan F.

Mix 1 cup each of baking soda, sugar, and flour. Put a small dish of this in the barn with all the other traps and wait. Wait we did, for 7 more days. The peanut butter was not being eaten, but this new concoction was, and after spending days by the rat entrance to the barn locked and loaded we finally found him in the middle of the barn in ill health. We ended it quickly for him with a .22 to the head.

We have since discovered that he had a mate. So we are continuing with plan F in order to expedite the eviction process.