Need help getting rid of a rat the size of Master Splinter.

Over the past week when doing a little house keeping I've been noticing a whole lot of hair and poop in an around the corner of my walls and furniture and knew I had some sort of rodent issue. What I didn't know was that it was a pretty large rat the size of splinter that I've only seen once with my own eyes. It was late at night and went to the kitchen for a glass of water, when I saw it the bastard was going through my dog's food. I got so freaked out that I accidently turned the lights back off and when I turned them back on it was gone. I'm really worried about possible property damage it could cause including the possibility of reproducing even more of them. I went to the local hardware store and bought a few of those T-Rex Mouse Traps and set them around the walls where the rat had usually traveled and put some peanut butter on as bait. 2 days have passed and still no luck does anybody have any other advice or tips that could help me out, maybe something better then the T-Rex Traps I purchased? Any info would be appreciated.

Don't kill it! Capture it and tame it to become your shoulder pet

I might have had a dream, or not, I dont know, about hearing rats climbing through my vents.

If your house is like mine then you should clean. Place traps out side by your trash, inside by your trash. and behind your sink. All along the walls, that's how they travel, by running along the walls.

@ItBeStefYo: I don't have Michael Jackson's skills :(

They do travel along walls, but make sure you put the part with the bait toward the wall. Don't put it lengthwise agaisnt the wall, because they can trip it accidentally from the springloaded side and it does you no good.

And rodents love peanut butter. Use peanut butter.

Burn your house down. It's the only viable solution.

I'm only half-joking. If I ever found a rat in a place I was living in I would be outta there.

@Neurotic: Kinda feel the same way, first time I've had a rat problem where I'm living. Kinda feel violated knowing it might be going through my food late at night and pooping everywhere leaving my place unsanitary. My dog's been pretty freaked out as well that she's been sleeping under my computer desk in my room the past few days.

First time I've seen a T-rex trap and JESUS. Definitely developed by the Foot Clan.

@RecSpec: Haha discovered them because of the Discovery Channel show Verminators. I guess good product placement for this type of stuff.

@I_Stay_Puft: Ugh, I feel a little bit ill just reading that. I have a serious rat phobia. I don't even know why, it's just instinctive. Can't you call a pest control person?

@Neurotic: I would but trying to save the money from doing so. I'm getting freaked out with the idea about possibly getting rid of it if I do capture it. I'll give a week or so and if nothing happens I'll call somebody to take care of it.

Don't go searching the walls for it. The last thing anyone needs is for you to discover horrifying, ancient family secrets on your rat hunt.

Don't hurt it!

Oil up the walls of a proper oil barrel and place food inside, build a ramp that leads the rat up into it and hope it ends up in there.
 
Then you place it by the road, "FREE CHIHUAHUA"

One tip I remember from when we had one years back was not to set the trap for the first few days.

Just put it out with the bait on it.

Once the rat is used to eating off it then you set the trap.

We were advised this by the externinator but my mom just wanted to get rid of it as fast as possible so she just set it like normal.

Turned out we should have listened to him as the rat was only injured by the trap and crawled off to die under the house.

Lovely smell for about a week.

This was about 20 years ago though, so traps might be a lot better now.

Avoid poison or anything toxic like that, last thing you want is it to crawl into some cavity in the wall and die leaving a stink floating through the house and forcing you to rip the walls apart.

Best bet is to use traps pointing the bait, best bet is to use peanut butter as rodents love it, towards the skirting board/walls and change the location of the traps every few days as rats can cotton on quickly where potential dangers are located.

Failing that buy yourself a heavy duty BB gun and keep it armed by your side at all times,even while you sleep, for the inevitable second encounter with it then send that foul beast to Hell like the demon it is!

A good trick that I found when my cat would bring live mice into the house was this, since I don't like to kill them.

Since it's a big rat though, I'd weigh down the trash can and use something bigger than a toilet paper tube, some hard cardboard or something. Put a bit of bait at the end of the cardboard hovering over the trash can and leave it overnight somewhere dark quiet where you think the rat hangs out and wait for it to fall in.

I killed a ton of huge rats in Skyrim with a bow.

If it's a house, use a rat box with poison. Fucker'll be dead in a day.

If you really want to go hardcore you could actually set up a pellet gun trap. Set the pellet gun on the ground and then have a laser pointer and a receiver. Set up cheese in the center of this contraption so when the light beam is cut a mechanism pulls the trigger.

And for your information no I am not even kidding.

Good news folks, caught the little guy today. After a few weeks with no success with the Trex clamp traps and the glue traps I spent a little money on a live rat catcher cage and he took the bait. Took him a few miles away from my home so hopefully he won't return. One thing to note that rat must of been snacking on my dog's food alot cause it was pretty chubby. Looked kinda like Emille form Ratatouille. Thanks for the tips folks.

@psylah said:

They do travel along walls, but make sure you put the part with the bait toward the wall. Don't put it lengthwise agaisnt the wall, because they can trip it accidentally from the springloaded side and it does you no good.

And rodents love peanut butter. Use peanut butter.

Get the cheap ones as well. The one one the bottom doesn't work.

Whatever you do, don't move the stone obelisk in your basement - you might end up eating your best friend.

Go for the full Duke Nukem experience, grab it, microwave it then proceed to be a part of the biggest disappointment in gaming before Diablo 3.

Fight it to death in honorable combat.