Rats outsmarting my traps

[kirwin]

Got rats running along my fence that are big enough to hold a rodeo. Used one of those rat traps in the box the exterminator gave us once. I tried peanut butter but they just ate it without setting off the trap. In a fit of revenge, they even shredded the box. Anything else I can use for bait that will really stick on the trap?
Thanks

 

[9xladybird]

I have had a beast of a problem with rats. They took over my shed and even started in on my garden. I have tried humane traps, snap traps, sticky traps, and a safe to use product for livestock (dont know just what it was). Mind you I live in the city. I really didn't want to use poison but I finally broke down and bought the Tom Cat bait station. It didn't work either. The rats wouldn't enter the box. So I finally pulled the bait out and nailed it to the floor (It comes with a hole in it that slides into the bait station). It seems to have done the trick. It made me very nervous having the bait out in my shed which is where my girls are (the room is divided). I even was worried about my girls eating the rat droppings. But every day I would carefully sweep and poison crumbles and droppings. The other thing I did was to gut my shed and remove any potential nesting areas. Dare I say I pulled out a ton of droppings and a couple of nests. Yuck!

I once had a dog eat the poison.... so using it again was a last resort. But I had to do something. Just be sure to clean clean clean.

 

[Folly's place]

The only solution I've found for a rat infestation is poison; they are very smart about of any kind. I was able to kill a few younger ones in a water bucket trap, but then no more. I locked all my pets and chickens up, warned the neighbors, and set out Broudificon. After a week, no more bait was eaten, and everything got cleaned up, and a couple of days later, the critters were released. No more rat droppings seen! I actually never found a dead rat, either. All my feed is in metal cans, nothing left out. I stopped having any chicken feed or treats outside of their coop and run. That helped keep visitors away too. Mary