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As per the title. What are your suggestions for bait to work on a sprung rat trap?
I've tried peanuts, peanut butter and chocolate/ nut spread. I can see them walking right past the trap...
The current nest is in the compost heap and I would rather it wasn't.
Try some cheap cubes of meat like luncheon meat or spam.
How long have you left it between changing bait? They can take a while to be happy to go for it. If you keep changing it you might be making them suspicious?
I just wrapped some wire mesh around my compost bin when I got a rat, and they gave up and went eslewhere
Borrow a terrier (and owner)? Usually very quick and no risk of killing the wrong creature! Someone locally would probably do it for free to keep their dog active.
Wet cat food. They should go for the choccy spread and peanut butter mix, but tinned or pouched cat food works well.
I've been catching both mice and rats using peanut butter in pest stop rat traps.
The key is having the traps in situ and even baited for a few days before setting them. Let the rats get used to them being there.
Mine live in the attic perminantly and Get checked weekly. - we have horse stables and chicken farm near by so plenty of mice and rats kicking about.
There's adults as well as young in a well defined burrow.
The baited trap has been out for a couple of nights, withdrawn at first light to prevent accidental by-catch.
The cat -beast has sniffed about but is showing little interest, strangely. He is usually a very reliable killing machine, with many previous rats, weasels and stoats having met their destiny.
Hence the appeal for suggestions.
We used bacon scraps or sausage scraps in the traps to catch rats when we had them in the service duct at work.
Rats are neophobic, best to leave the traps in place so they can get used to them, even if they aren't set.
I can see them walking right past the trap…
An air rifle then. Or someone who can use one.
Yep. Brick with peanut butter, paving slab backstop, little old BSA Meteor and a cheap home-brew IR night scope.
It's basically cheating, but it doesn't half sort them out.
Update: they're still there and have managed to remove bacon from the sprung trap, without getting hit when it triggered.
It's re-set tonight and in the interests of STW lateral thinking, we have left a heap of sloes, just drained out of the gin tub, in the faint hope that the rats might get p1ssed out of their skulls, lose their inhibitions and stumble across the bait...
Solid bait needs wiring down. Peanut butter/choc spread can still work if there's enough room on the mechanism to spread it, as they can't tug it away, and will move around to get all the angles on it... eventually, SNAP!
Traps in boxes are a good method too, as the box restricts the angles they can come to the bait at.
Contact your local council for pest control. It’s a free service, well it is in Chorley.
We had a rat issue and the council put bait boxes down and left them for a couple of weeks. Not seen a rat since.
I can't see Angus Council sending pest control out to a farm cottage and anyway, rat bait/poison is out of the question, with two cats of our own, farm strays, foxes and mustelids to consider.