recommended bait for live rat trap

[pappabear]

hi just wondering if anyone had any tips as to what bait to put in a live trap to catch a rat , i have tried smoked raw bacon , peanut butter , tinned dog food all of which froze solid and have just baited it tonight with a cooked chicken leg but so far no captured rat but i have only seen it in the garden once and that was last week in the snow

[laffinfowl]

Its possible the cold has killed it off,if the trap has a treadle mechanism then mixed corn should work,sometimes i find a bird or mouse too light to set it off has taken the grain,then i tie a piece of meat fat or sausage to the plate,very important to try and make sure that there is nothing else for them to eat or they will be reluctant to enter the trap.Another thing i do is to set it baited so it won,t go off for a few nights and this will gain their confidence,also place apiece of wood on the top with a brick on it to keep the whole trap stable.

[Magpie]

It often takes a couple of weeks for rats to accept a new piece of kit. If it has the scent of your hands on it they may never go near it. Wear gloves, leave it unbaited outside to get weathered for a few days, make sure it is in an area that rats pass through and then use whatever they are coming in to eat, ie layers pellets.

btw, I never bait rat traps. If they are in the right place the rats just seem to go and be a little bit too nosey.

[andoy]

I just use rat poison. You might catch one or 2 rats in a trap, but with poison you'll get a lot more.

Just try to be really tidy and no food for them, so they are really hungry. They go for bait and food in traps as a last resort.

[pappabear]

thanks guys , the trap i have has like a grate that if moved releases the bar holding the door open , i really dont want to use poison as we have other animals and children and cant use the snap traps as the chickens are so curious id end up catching one of them , all the chicken and ducks feed is put away at night but my next door neighbour has a few apple trees and he leaves them to fall and rot as the deers come into his garden to eat them which he likes and i think the rats are also attracted to them but i dont want anyone saying its me and our poultry thats tempting them in i did sit outside with the air rifle for about 3 hours the other day and saw nothing and we have only seen the one i know there will be more if there is one but just dont get to see them

[Helen Jones]

We've had a rat problem recently and ended up getting the rat man out.

He told us we were wasting our time buying rat traps of any description as the rats just wouldn't go for them as they're 'neophobic'... have a fear of anything new.

We had huge success with poison and within a couple of weeks were rat free, however we had already bought some traps and continued to use these alongside the poison and lo and behold we actually caught one!!

We baited the trap with the rat poison and it worked!!! Although peanut butter's supposed to be another good one.

The one thing the rat man did say about using traps was that if you ARE going to use them, put them straight alongside a wall or other structure. Apparently rats only walk in a horizontal pattern and never diagonally/at angles to anything.

There is a rat poison on the market that's not supposed to be harmful to children or other animals. It's called Eradibait. We still use it in discrete areas though, particularly as it looks like large chicken pellets. The rat man also said when laying poison you should always put it in a plastic bag, like a sandwich bag, or wrapped in cling film. Purely because rats are used to 'stealing' food from food wrappers etc., so if it's in cling film etc., it's more familiar to them.

Good luck!

H

[Magpie]

I use a mix of live traps, fenn-type spring traps and bait boxes. I find the bait is best and in proper boxes it is never accessable to non-target species. Tomcat2 and Romax difenacoum are my alternating preferences at the moment.

Eradibait is a complete waste of money from personal experience and from many others who have tried it. I understand dehydrated sugerbeet (as sold for horse food) is a much better and cheaper option, put a tray of the sugarbeet down inside a building somewhere keeping it dry, make a water source available outside the building. Theory is that the rats eat the dry sugarbeet and then go outside to get a drink, the moisture inside the rat makes the sugarbeet re-hydrate swelling up as it does so Guess what happens to ratty when the beet swells too much

[zng109]

stop! warning! warning!

Right, some types of poisen block the vitamin (E or D cant remember wich) which is essential for the rats to reproduce, if you then bait traps with peanut butter, or margarine you are then providing the antidote to the poisen and defeating the actual prosses.

yes rats view new things with suspicion, but then get used to them, as for scent as a kid when snaring was legal my grandad taught me to wash my hands in horse/sheep or cow poo (whatever was closest) to mask my own scent when laying the snares.
it does work and a snare on a new run would normaly be fruitful after a day.

The down side of poison is apart from the rats hidding and dieing in obscure places and stinking the place out is that those that dont make it home are picked up by scavingers.
My local fox has just kicked the bucket 70 meters from my run, (hurrah you say, well the old bgr never messed with my girls after his first attempt, Now I will have to get ready for a new preditor, who may be a bit more inventive.)

[andoy]

I caught about 5 rats over a month with numerous spring traps. I got really fed up with rats so bought poison and found about 20 dead/dying rats in the following weeks. Probably as many died in rat holes and I could smell them. You have to be very careful with using poison bait, but it's difficult to beat.

If they are hungry enough the scent of something new will not stop them taking bait, but they will probably have some stored food somewhere in their dens so you still have a little wait.

[zng109]

the little toe rags filled my compost heap with poison
I was going to put it in the fruit cage as I dug it out, and had to abandon the whole idea, because I also use it as a respite centre for the girls when I am cleaning them out (or if they could do with a little holiday)

[pappabear]

hi thanks for the tips guys , i really dont want to use poison not because im particularly anti poison but because i really like the idea of catching them in a trap or in the open and shooting them so i know they have gone and dont leave a lingering smell i did hear about a new way of getting rid of them from an old guy who used to work on a farm near here he said to put finely crushed glass into a bowl of porridge and leave it overnight and the rats rip themselves up on the inside but i am worried about scavengers picking up the bodies so will percivere with the live trap for now (apologise for any spelling mistakes)

[andoy]

pappabear, if you can find the rat holes ... you can smoke them out or get rat control guy with ferrets.

Good luck, they are not easy to control when they get established. There are several threads on here about rats; using wirewool, tar, etc... not tried these myself, but worth considering also!

[wireworm]

Eradibait is a waste of money.

The antidote to anticoagulant poison is a high dose of Vitamin K1 administered intravenously by a doctor or vet. There are various myths about certain foods that are antidotal to rodenticides. They are just myths.

The best way to control rats is to use a professional pest controller. With traps and poison baits the key is knowing what to do with them and that comes with training and experience. Either contact your local council's Environmental Health Department, or get a private company who are members of either the British Pest Control Association (BPCA) or the National Pest Technicians Association (NPTA). Both have websites which you can get on Google and both can advise you of Members in your area. Members will be fully insured and their staff will be properly trained.

If you are determined to 'have-a-go' yourselves, for God's sake, read and follow the instructions on the label.

The best bait to attract them into a trap will depend on what they are currently eating. Just one thing - what are you going to do with it if you do catch one?

Wireworm

(Professional pest controller and one of the Directors of the NPTA)

[laffinfowl]

Eh, kill it would be a good start!

[wireworm]

How?