Do you have rats in your home? You should know that you can use traps and baits that will allow you to catch the rat effectively. Many people are frustrated when trying to catch a rat because they can’t identify the proper bait.
If you are one of those people, you will find the best information about it below to bait your rat trap.
Types Of Rat Baits
Contents
To catch rats or mice, you can use the following baits in your traps:
- Peanut butter
- Chocolate
- Oats
- Nesting materials such as string or cotton as bait
- Bacon
The Best Baits You Can Use To Catch Rats
Some people try everything to catch rats and are unsuccessful. Finding the best bait can be a difficult task and requires trial and error. There are products for daily use that can surely be used as bait. The best options are:
Using chocolate lures
A good bait option is chocolate; these lures have become a popular option for catching rats. Also, they are designed so that they can last in any weather condition. This means you don’t have to check your trap every day to re-bait.
This is a safe, non-toxic option that you can use on rats and other animals. As it is not toxic, it will be safe for your pets and your birds. Chocolate gives off a very distinctive and attractive aroma, and that is why it becomes an ideal bait for rats.
Chocolate is not found in rural places and gardens, so they will be attracted to this lure when they smell it.
Peanut butter bait
Peanut butter is an ideal product to use as a rat lure. It is a product that most people have at home and will not have to buy another. A tablespoon of peanut butter will be adequate to use as bait, as it has an odor that attracts rats.
Also, peanut butter is a non-toxic option for your pets, if you have it in your house and want to catch a rat, feel free to use it.
DIY lures
You can also use food that the rats are already used to if where you have rat problems, there is animal food, seeds, or traces of food you should use as lures.
With a DIY basket, you can have the opportunity to use it as a decoy to attract rats or mice. Use animal food as a lure; you can also include a piece of chocolate or peanut butter to get their attention.
Don’t use cheese
Cheese is not a very effective lure for catching rats. There are particular subspecies of rats that do not eat cheese. Also, some cheeses do not have an attractive aroma that you can attract them.
Must be creative
You can use many baits that will allow you to attract the rat and thus be able to catch it.
For brown rats, the most effective baits are Bacon, chocolate, dried fruit, gummies, peanut butter, hot dog or sausage slices, etc. For a black rat, the most prominent baits are dried fruits, berries, nuts, insects such as slugs, peanut butter, snails, etc.
Learning about the most common types of rats can help you figure out which type of bait is best suited to your diet.
What Makes Rat Bait Effective?
Rodenticides are known as rat and mouse baits. There are rodent baits that are pesticides that are capable of killing the rodent. In the market, you will be able to find a great variety of poisonous baits for rats. There are single feed baits that only need one dose.
The types of rodenticides are:
- Granulated baits (in bulk and packages)
- Extruded Blox baits (blocks)
- Liquid baits
- Food baits (bulk and packaged)
- Soft baits (bags)
With any of them, you will be able to get rid of the rats that you safely have in your house.
The baits for rats are classified into two categories which are: anticoagulant and non-anticoagulant. Rodenticides are capable of altering the blood clotting of the rat or mouse (they are anticoagulants). Others interfere with rodents’ nervous system or with calcium levels in the blood (non-anticoagulant).
Tips For Placing Rat Bait
- Place the baits between 15 and 50 feet when they are for rats; for mice, the distances should be closer. If you have a rat infestation, you should bait places closer than 15 feet.
- When setting up bait stations, avoid moving them. If you see that the time has passed and they do not bite the lure, you must move the trap.
- Rats eat more bait than mice, so fill the trap more often. A rat can eat about an ounce or more of food per night.
- If you have wet or humid conditions, you should use the weather-resistant soft baits or blox. You can tie the bait so that it doesn’t move elsewhere.
- You can use these industrial baits with food flavored baits such as those mentioned above.
How To Set Baited Rat Traps?
- The first thing you need to do is to place the rat traps in the correct places.
Rats often use fences and walls as guides, so it is not common for them to roam the center of a room’s yard. Thus, you should place them along a wall and where there is not much light to be more effective.
You should place them on the paths where you think rats can travel. Place traps inside cabinets, under furniture, chairs, sofas, cabinets, etc.
You can use a shoebox and poke holes in each side and place it in the path most used by rats and bait inside. The boxes always arouse the rats’ curiosity, and when they enter and taste the bait, they will not come out again.
- Find the right bait for your rat.
As mentioned above, your rat’s right bait will depend on the species of rat you have at home. Different species of rats have different types of food. According to studies, black rats are herbivorous, while brown rats are omnivorous.
Black rats are perfect for using peanut butter bait. With garbage-scavenging brown rats, you can use baits with stronger, smellier odors.
No matter you have an omnivorous or vegetarian rodent, you should always use the best bait. Use foods with stronger smells like fish, nuts, moldy cheese. These will be a few options to keep in mind to use with your rat trap.
- Use the right trap
Look for a trap with the right size, depending on the type of rodent you have in your home. You should also know if it is just one or an infestation of many rats or mice.
