Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Luring vs positive punishment

Put out the sticky traps out last night.  The good news is I hit paydirt.  At least one rat visited the sticky trap last night.

In an effort to entice, I put a little dog food on the sticky trap.  My intention was not to feed them dinner, it was to lure them onto the trap. 

Although luring isn't the most effective method to teach a new skill, I felt that in this case luring was justified.

In fact.  It worked. Unfortunately, the sticky trap failed.  I did get some nice foot prints and a poop for scientific purposes. 

I'm next going to try positive punishment to see how effective that method is.  No, the electric box is not working yet, I have laid out the "old fashioned" rat trap.  Let's see if this "snaps" them to attention.

I had no idea that this whole experience was going to be a featurette on my blog.  But the upload video is not functioning and I have to keep everyone entertained.

3 comments:

Elf said...

So the part I don't like about sticky traps is--what do you do with the critter if it *does* stick?

Celeste said...

I can't even imagine what a "sticky trap" is....is it like quicksand without the quick? The rat gets stuck in one place until....?? The snap trap I've seen. Peanut butter works pretty well. The snap is major "quick," except if it misses. :-(
Watch your fingers.

Cheryl said...

I admit. I'm enjoying the post-it comics. Good luck with the ultra smart rats. I mean, they do run mazes.