How to get rid of rodents!

[Nifty]

I'm dealing with a rat problem and it's driving me crazy. I've used the baits / poisons, but they end up dying in crawl spaces or in the attic and stink up the house!

I purchased a set of these traps: http://amzn.to/2k7ghqL

They work pretty well, but they just aren't attracting the rats like I'd expect. I'm using peanut butter as bait, but it just doesn't seem to be getting them to go to the trap.

Any other ideas on rat's favorite lure / bait?

 

[Mini Horses]

mice really like bread. I use the french or italian loaves and they go to the smell and indulge! And, as another said, peppermint oil...deters them...nothing is 100% except dead.

Cats are great if they are hunters. Some don't want to get their paws dirty, LOL. Most often it takes a "few". I know my two are not enough -- but, one old still 1/2 feral tom is not friendly to new ones. So -- one day I will be able to get more.

Bush hogging a couple acre field yesterday I saw several large ones go zipping away! Generally the hawks & owls get them at some point. This time of year they all want to come inside where it is warmer

 

[OneFineAcre]

Peanut butter has always done the trick for me.

 

[RoahT]

Peanut butter and chocolate chips always work well for us!

 

[LocoYokel]

When I ran out of peanut butter one time I used frosting from a can. Worked great and now I trade off with the bait, thinking the larger "menu" gets more customers...

 

[AClark]

I learned that mice will lick peanut butter off traps. Nothing sucks more than finding a trap unsnapped with little lick marks in what little is left of the PB. Since then, I put a cheerio in the PB, so they have to pull it off harder.

 

[Baymule]

Use the bucket traps, put some soured corn in the bucket. Take a piece of bread and wrap it around the roller bar.

 

[BrendaJune]

Our bucket traps worked great until the squirrels discovered the peanut butter and climbed up every night and ate the bate. Then they just climbed down. If you don't want to drown the mice you can leave the bucket dry then drive them away from the barn and let them go. I also discovered the mice just ice skate around in the bottom if the water freezes! Oooops! That made me feel bad. I'm a ex-California city girl now living in the middle-of-nowhere-Nevada where it freezes.

 

[Donna R. Raybon]

I can not say they won't eat a dead poisoned rat or mouse, but none of my dogs or cats have ever offered to. A chicken might.

If you see tunnels you probably have rats.

I make pet and livestock bait station with black plastic drain tile used on gutter downspout, wire, chunk bait.

 

[Steve Quintavalli]

Hmm, I didn't think we had rats but my two dogs sure did, that is why they would go nuts at night spazzing on my grill. The rats would crawl into the grill and look for whatever dropped into it...guess they love charred meat or charcoal, or the dogs scared them into the grill, not really sure. I do know they find them and isolate them. Also, our semi-feral cat that we feed is an avid hunter. Once they cleared out the 2 acres next to us we had a rat a day on our doorstep...mixed in with a bird here and there and one snake. This lasted for about ten days to two weeks. She is an awesome hunter for sure! Our husky is quick to run down critters too, mostly lizards though. We live in Miami for now and our critters are a little different. Rats though, we have. I am hoping to get a large Maine Coon cat to help deal with mice/rats in northern Idaho but am concerned it would just fall victim to other predators.