Any more trap baits for rats?

[14tokihorn]

- peanut butter
- raw bacon
- cat food /dog food (wet / dry) Which is better?
- canned corn
- pecans


- what else ?

 

[NickDanger]

This is all just opinion of someone who has a little experience. Rats don't generally have food tastes. They just have aversions. Take whatever trap you have and light a piece of newspaper (if you still subscribe) underneath it and "burn" off the human smell while using something (we used to use coat hangers) to keep from burning your fingers or retouching the trap.

Good Luck. Rats suck.

 

[NickDanger]

Oh. And the glue trays are a really good way to collect gray hair.

 

[CottonEyedHorn]

Traps don't work for us, we have too many rats throughout the year. Earlier this spring I felt like I was in a horror movie. We've always had rats because of our ground-level deck and, well, Plano has a lot of rats and my neighbors have a lot of sheds. My wife decided it would be fun to have a bird-feeder, which we hung from a planter hook off the eaves. Turned the lights on one evening to let the dogs out before bed and it was like a scene from Ratatouille. Rats all over the bird feeder. Most of them scattered and took off in all directions but one sucker just froze and stared at me. So I did what anyone would have done. I grabbed my dog's hairbrush nearby and smacked the crap out of the rat. It fell do the ground, did a little circle dance, and died. So I threw it and the brush away. Laid out a bunch of bait stations from doityourselfpestcontrol.com (the professional kind that you place the poison inside with a key). For the next month I was cleaning up dead rodents from my back yard. But since about May, no issues. I now keep the bait stations stocked year round. I hate rats.

 

[NickDanger]

The biggest problem with dcon is the odor. Don't buy that crap about them going to your neighbor's house (or wherever) to drink. They will willingly drink from your A/C condensation inside your house.

 

[14tokihorn]

The last thing I want is to retrieve a dead rat from the attic. On the other hand, paying an exterminator @ $500 & > seems unnecessary...

4 weeks ago someone f~cked ^p and left an outside door open, overnight. Thats the only way rats got in... thru the utility room, which has unfinished walls and ceiling.

3 weeks ago, I got 1 live trap, w/ peanut butter and bacon, then set it just inside the hide-a-way stairs. By 8 PM, same day, the first rat was removed.

Now there are 3 live traps - 1 rat left... the damn thing has been in the attic for 4 weeks w/ no food, no water.

Everything from Google says rats can't survive said duration. OTOH, can't get it into a trap.

I sat and watched UCLA last night; all the while listening to the sounds of 1 damn rat chewing and moving, practically speaking, right over the living room.

So Pg. 9 of Google says chocolate, coconut meat, apple, prunes, strings soaked in vanilla. So a protein bait won't work, I guess a sweet approach might do it. I'll stop and get a Snickers bar tonight.

Oh, and peanuts, sunflower seeds didn't entice it either.

In reply to:

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[NickDanger]

You've obviously done homework. Are your traps along "edges" and are you considering your own scent on the traps?

 

[14tokihorn]

^

Where possible, a trap is set along a edge - happens to be where there is chewed wood.... but it's difficult to tell; the house is ~60 yrs.old w/ retrofitted pink insulation between the joists & blown-in insulation on top of that.

Haven't tried to mask my scent - maybe tomorrow AM before the game.

There are definite trails thru the blown in insulation, so 2 other traps are set on the trails. [edit] (while waiting for rat-time) the trails aren't following any sort of edging, if you try and think like a rat... more at 90 degree angles... which is weird. There really isn't much edging up there, except the gable end, and it doesn't sound like the rat is over there. What edging exists is a bracing structure, a real pain to get to -ddue to the low angle of the rafters.

After the 1st post, I googled, then came home at lunch, cleaned out the protein-based bait, reset with chocolate, vanilla and bread.

This rat gets active right at sunset, keeps it up until 9 or so. By that time I'm off doing the weeknight routine. Most mornings, the rat is pretty much at the same spot from the previous night.... just 4 ft. or so from a trap.

But it doesn't go back to a previous spot... like my 1st sentence referenced.

 

[NickDanger]

According to my father (?), the reason for the metal loop on a wooden "clap?" trap is so that you can use a coat hanger to hold it above an open flame and then shove it where the rats are. They don"t like the open areas.

In my youth, I preferred electrocution or mulching, but neither method was all that good.

I've killed a lot of rats.

 

[14tokihorn]

Post Script

&

A Question:


After deciding to wage war and give up on the nicey-nicey tactic of live traps... bought 15 snap traps and baited w/ peanut butter. Wired all to some roof supports which was inches from the ceiling joists. Used gloves to hide the scent.

2 nights later - no more rats. 1st night- heard a trap go off just after sunset. By 11 PM, heard all sort of ruckus going on, which was quite alarming.... Decided to deal with it the next morning. Upon finding dead rodent in one trap; something seemed odd as I put the varmint in a plastic grocery bag and headed downstairs. Before trashing the thing, I looked again - the other rats had cannibalized the head and the shank portions!!! Totals = 1 rat live trapped, 3 in snap traps.

Now question: I'd like to put the snap traps outside, around the unoccupied house next door. It is in a state of upkeep where surely rats would hang out. And if the out-of-state-slum lord wants to complain.... so be it. I'm fed-up w/ this disgusting property owner.

But I don't want larger critters to get a paw hung on a snap trap meant for a rat.


Is that possible or more than likely?