the issue with rats is they are smarter than mice so its a lot harder to deal with them. my go to bait with mice or rats is peanut butter and a trap that is harder for them to steal the bait without getting caught. if the rat is in a hole then that is easy to deal with, just get rodent smoke bombs and that will kill anything living in the hole and you do not have to deal with the bodies. what is does is fill the hole with poison gas killing them. live traps can be good too but its better to kill the rat imo. you could wait out with a pellet gun but you would have to be careful and its a little cold to be waiting outside... poison does not work well because rats are smart and can tell if something is poison. also keep the bait fresh because rats will only eat fresh food. good luck!