I have a rat in the house (maybe more than one, not sure), but there is one problem: everyone in the house is terrified of rats (including me).

It's late at night, no poison or any traps available to us. Any ideas for a makeshift trap we could make to kill it? (Preferably one where you don't have to touch the rat(s) when it is dead).

Make a spear?

Ah, I left mine in Morrowind. :/

OP, put food in a greased-up bucket so it can't climb out. Then, I don't know, throw a firecracker in there.

Yeah, let me just use my cloning facility in the loft to make a cat quickly before the end of the night, or see if eBay will deliver a dig to me before the end of the night...

Good idea but I'm looking to kill it now, and not have the remains in my bed as a gift.

Hmm, seems like a good idea, minus the firecracker.

Why? Firecrackers are fun...

Make a miniature house add some fake female rats... some shiny neons signs inviting male rats for a quickie.

Stomp when inside or toss in bathtub filled with salt water and a hair dryer.

Not fun cleaning up rat organs...

Hrmm, tempted to make a comment about how to take care of things. Though the last time that happened, I got lambasted as a heartless bastard.

Once in the bucket a .22 round to the head will end things quickly.

You sure its a rat and not a squirrel?

I used to hate hurtful methods to rats but now that it is actually happening to me I couldn't care less what pain it goes through. Just want the cleanest method of killing it.

Don't have any kind of gun.

Pretty sure it's a rat, what makes you ask that?

THere are humane traps...

but you'd need to release it far from your house.

Call an exterminator? Or, some DIY rat poison?

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Rat-Poison

Squirrels are just rats with bushy tails. Hate those little snots. They keep throwing acorns at my front door.

I'd rather not use poison, it doesn't kill them instantly and like it said in the article the body can be in a different place than the poison and stink out the house.

I think there is some kind of squirrel disease in my area, I keep seeing dead squirrels around. They're only Grey Squirrels though so it doesn't really matter.

I would say use Ducktape, but it doesn't work that well i'm afraid to say. The vermin will urinate all over themselves and causes the tape to lose its effectiveness. Best bet is the bucket method and a bullet to the thing's head.

Would filling the bucket with water work or can rats swim? I'd rather not wake up to the sound of a rat squealing for its life.

You could try something likehttp://www.victorpest.com/store/mouse-control/ultrasonics, instead of a messy rat trap you have to clean up later. Sure, it's not quite as fun as blowing them up with M 80's, but it is far more humane.

I found a mouse running through my kitchen once, as I was eating my breakfast. I bought a few of those sonic deterrents and haven't seen a mouse in my house ever since. That was a couple years ago now.

I'm not sure, but I think there's an article about those vermin that states they can swim for extended periods of time. Not to say they can't drown since I fished one out of my pool in the middle of winter. Just be careful about what you do and if you catch it since people are rather vicious when it comes to "humane" and "ethical" rodent disposal.

Only thing I know is using white wine to capture and kill roaches. Think the few that survived refuse to drink.

I've always doubted the reliability of those sonic deterrents, especially since the descriptions for the ones on eBay say they use 'electromatic waves' to deter them...

...seems legit.

All reviews I've read about them always seem to say they've found rodents after using them, and some say they take 28 days to kick in, though that was on a device for spiders.

Well, maybe it was just a coincidence that I never saw that mouse again, but I have used those in the past in places I would regularly see mice, and as long as I had some plugged in and active, I didn't have any rodent problems.

Because a squirrel is the same size as a rat roughly and I've had squirrels in my house. Do you have a BB gun? You can do the same with a BB gun, just takes more BB's to break their skull and cause enough brain damage to kill them. Of course, you could stuff a slug down the barrel and no BB's.

If you don't have a BB gun then you'll have to be a bit less humane in its extermination.

I might invest in some then in case I do have more rats in the house.

I do have a BB gun but it is one of those ￡10 ones where it produces barely enough force to make the BB's leave the barrel, never mind actually make the rat feel it.

If you do go that route, I would place them in multiple rooms in the house, also, I'd go for some backup methods as well...like the good old fashioned mouse traps for example.

Note: you may want to be careful with the sonic deterrents, they may (not 100% sure) cause issues with pets as well.