Rat Zapper Classic RZC001-4 Indoor Electronic Mouse and Rat Trap - 1 Electric Trap

At first we heard noises in the walls. The next night something ran across our living room floor causing my wife to scream "what's that!". "Looks like we have a rodent problem." I said back. I thought to myself, I'll make short work of this pesky intruder. I got a couple of our mouse traps out from the cupboard and plated them with gobs of creamy peanut butter and placed them behind the refrigerator. I was expecting the offender to practically float in air on the fumes as they were helplessly drawn to their doom.That night not long after the wife and I were in bed, I heard the telling report from one of the traps wire jaw slamming closed. Game, set, match, got him! I jump out of bed to expunge the pest from our home. Turns out that I was celebrating prematurely. The trap was devoid of any creatures."Sorry, that happens sometimes..." is a phrase I use more than I care to admit. And I would be saying again to my wife shortly. With the trap reset and it's trigger right on the edge, ready to explode like a leopard coming out of the bushes on a gazelle, I headed back to deliver my disappointing news. The furry creature was no doubt laughing at my defeat.The following morning I revisited my previous night's disappointments and "Holy smokes Batman!" the trap was sprung again! However, it was still as empty as a Guinness on St. Patrick's Day. Third time's a charm I thought. I reset the trap with extreme prejudice and I was off to work muttering under my breath. A few days would pass with no activity on the trap.Late one night I was picking through a few cords on the guitar and out of the corner of my eye I saw some motion. I look over and see a giant rat sitting on a box behind our couch. He probably came out to play a little Dueling Banjos. Our eyes locked for just a second. As he held my gaze he must have sensed my intentions were disingenuous, and then in a flash he was gone. As he disappeared under the couch I sprang to my feet with the guitar ringing inharmoniously. I flipped the couch on it's side expecting to give a country line dance stomping all over his little rat body. He made a break for the refrigerator and disappeared into a hole behind it.Yes a hole! The little devil had actually chewed a large hole in our kitchen cabinets so big that you wouldn't need to have even half the skills of Tiger Woods to putt a hole in one from across the room!Now that I knew what I was dealing with, I realized that these tiny mouse traps were not going to cut it. I had no choice but to break out "Big Bad Mamma Jamma", a rat trap so bad to the bone that it would make George Thorogood studdar. "You brought this on yourself rat" I chuckled as I pried it's bone crushing jaw back and locked it into place.Big Bad Mamma Jamma gleamed in the moonlight near some wood shavings from the freshly chewed hole in our cabinets. Surreptitiously waiting for the rat to make it's move. It's aura was so powerful and so wicked that the rat must have known it's danger. A full week passed by with no body cleaving action from the blood thirsty trap. The rat begin to get more daring and more brazen about making appearances. We spotted it several more times and could hear it practically dancing a jig under our cabinets and in our walls at night.Knowing the rat liked to be constantly on the move and also where it liked to go, I set glue traps out next. I had more stickiness in our house than a Spiderman convention at the Elmer's Glue factory. "With great power, comes great responsibility" and mine was to now to bond this rat in it's tracks, smothered by a glue cocoon to the level seen in the movie the Fly II where Martin hatches.Nothing was caught in the glue traps over about 3 days time. It was clear that they were not working. Feeling that the rat was about to claim squatters rights and take our home, I began searching for something else. The area around our couch had started to smell of rat urine and had to be disinfected."You like to eat rat! I've got just the thing!" I said to myself as I ordered a 5 lb. bucket of poison from Amazon and some special containers to keep the dog out of harm's way. I set up 4 poison bait locations, any one of which would have made Bret Michaels proud. The poison had warning all over it and I didn't like the idea of putting in our house, but we had tried many other things and we were at a point where we needed results.Later that night I heard the rat enter one of the boxes. Yes! He was shaking it around and really going to town on the bait. With Templeton from Charlotte's Web's song ringing in my ears "a veritable smorgasbord-orgasbord-orgasbord. After the gates are shut. Each night, when the lights go out, it can be found, on the ground, all around. That's where a rat can glut, glut, glut, glut!" I knew this was finally going to work!The following night there was complete silence. Could it be! We thought the poison had worked and life could finally return to normal. I left the poison out just in case there were more. Maybe another week went by with nothing, until one night... There is was. Again. Running across the floor. How could this be? I left the poison just as before, but the rat wouldn't touch it. I put seeds and peanut butter around the poison blocks. The rat would eat them all, but wouldn't touch the poison. The previous rat must have taken my phone in the middle of the night and got on rat Twitter and tweeted about the poison before he kicked the bucket. This rat or what might have now been rats, as in more than one, wouldn't touch it. They were busy making a lovely nest out of the foam from the inside of our couch. It was probably constructed to the level of a Buckingham Palace for rats.Being curious about the rat, I purchased some live traps from Amazon. They had a little door that would spring closed trapping it's victim inside what looked like a miniature transparent mailbox. I envisioned myself trapping the rat and taking him to court for past due rent and damages. Or maybe performing medical experiments on him to further the understandings of science. The package came with 6 traps that I put slices of an orange and sunflower seeds inside. I made little trails of seeds leading into the opening.The rat had eaten the seeds and even reached inside the live traps taking the first couple inches worth of seeds to eat. He would not go in far enough to set off the trap and be caught. This rat was so smart I bet he would have beat me at a game of Jeopardy. I was out of ideas. To make it worse my wife was on me to get rid of our rat problem. She wanted to call an exterminator and pay several hundred dollars without even a guarantee that our rat problem would be remedied. I begged her, please let me try one more thing. Reluctantly she agreed to give me 10 days time, and I had to show a confirmed kill to prove whatever I did was working.I frantically searched Amazon for products and watched YouTube videos from rat exterminators. During my research I found the Rat Zapper Classic on Amazon. I decided to give it a go. With Amazon Prime shipping available, two days later it arrived at our front door. I opened the package and pulled out the blue plastic trap. Greeted by the picture of a lighting bolt going across a rat's head on the side, it made me smile. It's plastic was thicker than I expected and seemed rugged. It had a lite smell, like a typical injection molded, off shore manufactured part would smell. The battery housing at the top opens to slots for 4 AA batteries. I got some peanut butter and put it on the execution plate deep within the trap. It was difficult to reach it with my hands and I had to use a butter knife to get the proper placement. I made a trail of seeds leading to the entrance of the trap. I knew the rat like this because it would always eat them from the entrance of the live traps. After turning on the power switch the trap made an audible electric buzzing noise for about 5 seconds. This is was most likely the charging of high voltage capacitors used to deliver the lethal shock. I imagined the dry sponge execution of Eduard Delacroix from the Green Mile. Moisture should be kept away from the trap.The next morning I went to check the trap. From across the room I could see what appeared to be a tail protruding from the end! A confirmed kill! And on the first night too! This thing works! Eureka! My wife and I couldn't be happier! I didn't even need to touch the rat. I switched off the trap and carried the whole thing out to the trash. I dumped the little bugger in, and took the trap back inside to bait again in case there were more. The kill came at not a moment too soon. I was about to try bucket traps, then on to voodoo dolls and satanic rituals.This solved our rat problem when nothing else worked!

I cannot begin to express how incredibe this product is. I just purchased a few more of these Original Rat Zappers because they absolutely kill rats! Our area in Ahwatukee (Phoenix) is infested with roof rats due to the numerous citrus trees in yards. Some folks just won't pick their fruit so the rats run freely day and night throughout the neighborhoods. This all began about 4 years ago, and it's getting worse each year. My beloved Rat Zappers killed 3 rats on Thursday, 2 yesterday, and another one this morning. All of the rats were zapped while on my back patio so it's a huge relief to me to have this product doing its job! Much better than bait stations which actually lure the rats to your property and poison them slowly to die wherever.... I can't praise this product enough. Thank you Victor Pest for purchasing the company that invented the Rat Zapper. I will continue to use and review this product. It's been well worth the money I spend on these units! I wish they'd wise up and realize my yard means death to them and they head elsewhere.UPDATE:I continue to use these Rat Zappers with GREAT SUCCESS! I hate to say that. I wish our community would be more proactive in regards to eradicating the roof rats that continue to plague this area. The rat population has grown especially when folks refuse to pick the citrus from their trees.Please note: Victor Pest has discontinued the wonderful accessory, the Rat Tales which allowed you to place the Zappers in hidden areas and see blinking eyes on the Rat Tale warning you of a kill without having to directly check the Zappers hidden behind objects.I am really disappointed to see the end of the Rat Tales. I did not discover a dead rat in a Zapper for three days and it smelled awful once discovered and was covered in maggots.Victor Pest you made a bad decision by discontinuing a remarkably great accessory!!!PLEASE BRING BACK THE RAT TALES!!!I am guessing you did this, Victor Pest so that you can sell more Rat Packs which I truly do not think is necessary on the Classic Zapper. The four AA batteries really work for a long time here in AZ and the Rat Tales are a better and more useful accessory.UPDATED REVIEW!!! TESTIMONIAL!!!I still swear by my Rat Zappers. I have been using them successfully to kill countless numbers of large and small rats for the past few years. I have only been using the Classic purple Rat Zappers. They haven't failed me. I tried the Ultra version, never killed a single rat.I just saw that the current manufacturer, Victor Pest has modified this product. In my opinion, they should have left it alone. It was perfect.They seem to have modified the metal plate and changed the red flashing light to a green light. I have not purchased the newer version. I own many of the original Classic version.For some reason they wanted it to match their other products at Victor Pest.The red light is so much better!!!It really warns you by the fast flashing red light that you have a DEAD rat inside. I think green is a stupid choice and I understand that it now blinks very slowly to prevent battery usage. You don't want to miss the fact that you have a DEAD rat inside the unit. It will decompose, attract maggots and stink like hell.I still love the fact that I don't have to see the disgusting vermin when I turn off the Zapper, tip over the unit, and dump the carcass into a garbage bag. There is NO WAY I could handle a traditional trap and a DEAD rat in my face.II use Planters salted peanuts as bait.Victor Pest, please don't mess with a good thing. Thousands of folks should be trapping with this incredible product.VERY IMPORTANT NOTE:My Pest control man says to never wash out this unit after a successful kill. The scent of the previous rat lures other rats to follow the scent trail into the trap. From my experience, I believe this is absolutely true! He refers to this as a 'great seasoned trap' and he says he wishes he had tons of them.I live in an upscale neighborhood in Ahwatukee AZ and the rats came here years ago for the citrus trees in the neighborhood. They never left and have increased substantially over the years. It is especially bad during this colder time of the year.I have zapped/killed 4 rats this week alone on my back patio. 2 large parents and 2 baby rats. Rats run wild at night, across block walks and through yards seeking food which is being provided by unpicked citrus and outdoor bird feeders, pet food and vegetable gardens. They tend to hug and travel along walls at night so place the units parallel and against your wall on your patio.People also need to wake up and be more responsible to not help feed these vermin.Rats are rarely seen since they try to avoid human contact during the day and are nocturnal. If you are not trapping, you may never see one even though they ARE in your yards at night.Rat Zappers work! I could not live here without them.To VICTOR PEST if you read these reviews,Please bring back the Rat Tale. It is an exceptional accessory to the Rat Zapper. I use a Rat Tale on each unit.They are wonderful and allow me to see a kill without having to check each Zapper up close.I am a longtime customer who first bought this product from the original inventor company.They were superb to contact and they created a genius product!NEW UPDATE - JULY 2023I ordered 7 more Rat Zappers to have backups and today I discovered that the design of the ones I ordered has dramatically changed from the ORIGINAL CLASSIC PURPLE RAT ZAPPERS that I purchased years ago from the company who invented the product before being purchased by Victor Pest (Woodstream is the parent company).I contacted an executive at Woodstream today expressing my concerns about the changes to the product. The red exposed wire inside the unit is a problem as was detailed in a video on Amazon, when a rat chewed on the red wire resulting in the dead rat not being able to be removed from the Zapper since its teeth were still affixed to the wire!I sent photos of the Original Classic Rat Zapper to this executive, comparing it to this new revised version. Woodstream should have left perfection alone and not altered this product, in my opinion.The Woodstream designers also removed the small round opening on the top of the unit where a Rat Tale could be connected allowing you to see a kill from 12 feet away when the Zapper is hidden behind furniture, etc.I implored Woodstream by phone and email, to return to the Original Classic design which I considered flawless after using that version for many many kills over many many years.I just armed one of the revised new units and will now personally test it next to one of the Original Classic units which is still operating successfully. After reading many disgruntled recent reviews of the revised product, I want to see the results myself.The question remains, 'Has Woodstream ruined an efficient, well designed vermin eliminator by modifying a successful design?'We shall see...I will post my results as soon as I can see the new unit working.I sincerely hope that Woodstream will respect my suggestions to return to the older version design since I have truly field tested this product over many years under various changing environmental conditions. You can see that in my previous reviews above.