What kind of bait to catch a rat?
What Is The Best Bait To Catch A Rat? - In short, trap placement is far more important than bait. I use peanut butter. But slim-jims, nuts, chocolate, or even fruit will do. But none
of them will work if the trap isn't placed in an area the rats hang out in. They stick to a very small range, and use the same paths over and over. They won't go out of their way to sniff out food.
Rats have been a pest animal in towns and cities for centuries, and the folk tales such as 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' have shown how much of a problem rats were, even eight hundred years ago. While there have been many changes in the world in the centuries since then, dealing with rat problems is still common in many areas, and trapping is the most important way of dealing with these animals. As these animals survive on the food sources that they find in and around the urban and suburban areas, it is natural to use this food as a bait to trap the rat, but there is more to successful trapping than just a juicy morsel.
The Role Of Bait In The Trapping Process
Many people think that rats are rather simple animals that will simply see a choice piece of meat or cheese, and be lured magnetically towards the food, but bait is really secondary in the trapping process. Rats do have instincts that will make them cautious, so features such as the type of trap, how it fits in with its surroundings and the location all have an important role in the success of a trap. If the location isn't right then the rat won't see it, and if the trap is so out of place then it will naturally make the rat cautious, and if the rat does feel something is wrong, then even the tastiest bait won't help you to catch the animal.
Choosing The Right Location For A Rat Trap
When it comes to getting the right location for your trap, you will be looking for areas of high traffic, and this usually means looking around the area where the rats are causing the problem for signs of regular traffic. If you are having issues in the basement or in the attic, look in the corners and around the base of the walls for holes, while brown stains on the wall are caused by the grease on rats, and are a sign of regular animal traffic. Feces is another important sign of regular activity, and the more of the small brown pellets that you can find in one location, the more often it is used by the rats themselves.
As you place the trap, try to put it very close to one of these high activity areas, and most people will get the best results by setting several traps in different parts of the area that is being infested by the rats.
Different Types Of Rat Trap
While there are plenty of different types of trap available that can be used to catch the rats, the most common by some distance is the snap trap, which is a spring loaded bar which crushed the animal quickly when triggered. You can also look to use more advanced and modern traps that kill the animal with either gas or electricity, and these measures do benefit from being able to be reused effectively. There are also other types of trap that can also be used, and these include crocodile grip traps, which have a series of sharp teeth that close around the rat, killing it quickly, while glue traps are probably the most unpleasant types of trap, as they are just adhesive on cardboard, and once caught on the trap, the rat is simply waiting to die.
Using Poison To Kill Rats
Many people will view trapping as a relatively unpleasant way of dealing with a rat problem, but the reality is that the alternative of using poison is an even more horrible way of solving the issue. The first problem for those that use poison is the rat carcass, as they do not die immediately, and the smell from a rotting carcass can be horrible, while finding the last hiding place of the animal can be difficult work. Poison is also a cruel and unpleasant death for the rat itself, and while not everyone will care about how humane the solution is, it certainly is something that most people are concerned about.
What Bait Is Most Effective To Support Rat Trapping?
Bait may not be the most important aspect of the trapping process, but it can still help to be the final factor that attracts the rat on to the trap. There are many different types of food that can be used successfully as a bait, and peanut butter is one of the most popular types of bait that can be used on a rat trap. Although cheese has often been portrayed in cartoons, a small piece of meat or pet food can also be used as a bait, but as rats will eat almost anything, the type of bait being used is really a secondary issue to the type of trap and location.
Go back to the main Rat Removal page for more information about what type of bait to use to trap a rat. What kind of food do you put in a rat trap to catch the animal? What is the best rat bait?
