What is the best bait for a snap rat trap? and for the bucket with water (bait will be skewered on

[bigoledude]

Get a live trap. It is easy and no one dies. Poison kills any animal that eats it and any animal that eats the dead one, owls, dogs, eagles,..
Rats are awesome little guys. Don't kill them. Why is people's first response to animals they don't like is to kill them? They are just trying to live and they were here before you. They rarely carry diseases and are not what the media makes them out to be. If you don't like rats then relocate them. I have raised and released two orphaned babies and also have a dumbo rat. If you took the time to know them you would love them!

OK, so if they were here before us, that entitles them to a pass? So, I guess you will be donating your house to a Native American family soon. In most cases they were treated worse than YOU treat mice and rats.

 

[Steve J]

That's OK I catch all of them and kill them, to make up for an occasional rat/mouse pandering person.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

I love when I search Google for answers to questions like "best rat attractant" and land on my own website!

 

[Chickassan]

Gave good advice, peanut butter is rat kryptonite.

I love when I search Google for answers to questions like "best rat attractant" and land on my own website!

 

[jools2014]

Snickers bars-they are chocolate AND peanuts-they can't resist them! I have a live trap and have no problem catching them, but it's what to do with them then-I don't own a gun, or have anyone around who does, drowning is apparently illegal over here, and I believe relocating them is too? I'd never have had chickens if I'd known about the problem you get with rats, I guess I should've known before. The rats pretty much have free reign since our pen was so poorly built and so they can get in practically anywhere. The house is all concrete except for the door which of course they have chewed holes in to get in. Nightmare! It's got worse since my rat proof feeder broke, need to get another one and hopefully the problem will diminish (it did before), but it's a constant problem since I live out in the countryside.

I don't want to use snap traps since we killed a bird in it last time and I also don't want to have to deal with a half dead rat if it didn't kill it immediately. Wish there was some sort of service that takes away captured rats and humanely puts them down or something! Especially since the RSPCA gives so few options for what to do with them, basically dispatch them humanely (do NOT drown them), um ok so how DO I kill them then?!

 

[3riverschick]

Peanut butter.

 

[Vicki B.]

Has anyone made a live trap for catching large numbers of rats? I tried the garbage can with a PVC pipe as a chute so they could go in but not jump back out I could not catch a single rat.I started with a shovel handle in the can so they could get used to going in and out and eating dog food at the bottom but as soon as I tried to make the one way chute not a single rat would go for it. I want to relocate the rats to a field/dry creek area. Call me a bleeding heart if you like I just don't have it in me to torture them with poison electrocute them or find them with a snap trap across the body still alive.I have done the poison thing before awful to come out every morning to find dying rats.There has to be a live catch solution out there????

 

[The Moonshiner]

I didn't have much luck with the barrel or bucket traps myself. Tried a few different types.
What I did find that works here was my barrel by itself. We had a 55 gallon plastic barrel we kept feed in. One day a forgot to put the lid on and it had 2 or 3 inches of feed in it. Came out the next day to feed and it had like 8 rats in it. Damn things were to smart for all the traps but was dumb enough to jump in the barrel that they couldn't jump back out of.
Ended up using poison and got population way down but some are still around. We keep one barrel set out with about 3 inches of cracked corn in it. I still find a few here and there in it. Its in our barn and for some reason whenever we get heavy ran over night I always find a few up to 6 or 8 in it after those nights.
You can try it and see if it works. All you need is a barrel without a top and enough feed to cover the bottom.

 

[Vicki B.]

I will try it tonight I did leave a barrel out and had no jumpers late summer(caught a mouse family one night when the lid got knocked off the barrel) but it is now cold and I pick up all the chicken feeders at night so they might be more willing to take the plunge ! Maybe rats are smarter than mice.

 

[lazy gardener]

Rats are way smarter than mice. But voles are dumber than rocks. I've killed 11 voles with a single snap trap in the same location: baited the trap with a choc chip stuck to a dollop of peanut butter. Never had to replace that chocolate chip!