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Rat trap
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A rat trap is a contraption used to, as the name implies, trap rats, but not necessarily kill them. When used to cause the death of the trapped rat, they are a means of rodenticide. There are several kinds of rat traps, the most popular being a spring loaded device with a trigger, on which a bait rests and is supposed to paralyze the rat by crushing its spine.
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These are designed to trap the rat and prevent it from escaping by mechanically holding the rat where it is trapped. The most widely known form of mechanical rat traps is described above. Other mechanical rat traps usually are a cage with a door through which the rat enters but cannot leave, in a fashion similar to a one way valve. Those cages are usually non-lethal. The entrance of those cages are effectively rat diodes.
The problem with mechanical rat traps is that rats usually display a neophobic behaviour and only a minority of rats will be caught.
Recently, electronic devices have been developed to not trap rats but to repel them by emitting sound waves that annoy rats but can't be heard by humans. They are usually effective, but the rats will eventually get used to it and even chew on the devices, if allowed to.