The best rat trap bait

Bait matters less than you think, and securing it matters more

Two things outrank the choice of food.

Pre-baiting. Traps left out unset and baited for three to five nights, so the rats stop treating them as a threat, do more for your catch rate than any bait. How to get rid of rats sets out the sequence.

Securing the bait. Rats are dexterous, strong and cautious. A loose piece of food on a trigger gets lifted off, and a rat that eats from a trap without consequence has been trained.

So the working rule is: use something sticky, or tie it on.

What works

Peanut butter is the default for the same reasons as with mice — sticky, strongly scented, high fat, and it cannot be carried away. Press it into the trigger cup rather than dolloping it on top.

Peanut butter with oats or seeds worked in is better still. The texture gives the rat something to work at, which means more time with weight on the trigger.

Bacon or fatty meat, tied on with a loop of cotton thread. Strong-smelling, high value, and the thread makes it impossible to lift. This is the bait to reach for outdoors in cold weather, when grease carries further in cold air.

Dried fruit — apricot, prune, raisins — tied on. High sugar, keeps well, and does not go rancid on a long unattended set.

Nesting material works as a supplement in the fall: a strip of cotton wool tied beside the food gives a rat two reasons to interact with the trigger.

Whatever they are already eating. If they are raiding chicken feed, bait with chicken feed stuck into peanut butter. If they are on a compost heap, use something similar. Matching the established food source reliably beats introducing a novelty to an animal that dislikes novelty.

What does not work

Cheese. It dries out, it is easy to lever off, and it is not especially attractive to a rat.

Anything loose and carryable. A whole nut, a piece of bread, a chunk of meat sitting on the trigger — these are gifts. If it is solid, tie it.

Too much of anything. A large bait lets a rat feed from the edge, outside the trigger's effective area.

Strongly scented novelty foods on a trap that has not been pre-baited. A wary animal plus an unfamiliar smell plus an unfamiliar object is three reasons to stay away.

Rodenticide bait in a snap trap. The methods do not combine usefully and you inherit the problems of both. Rat trap vs poison covers why.

How to tie a bait on

It takes ten seconds and it is the difference between a trap that catches and a trap that feeds.

1. Cut a strip of bacon or a piece of dried fruit about the size of a thumbnail.
2. Loop cotton thread or fine wire around it twice.
3. Tie it to the trigger pedal itself, not to the frame.
4. Add a smear of peanut butter over the top for scent.

The rat has to pull, and pulling is exactly what fires the mechanism.

Bait on electronic traps

Grease is a liability on an electronic trap. Peanut butter that reaches the contact plates insulates them and the trap stops working while looking perfectly fine.

• Use the bait well if the model has one, behind the plates.
• If not, bait dry: oats, a piece of dried fruit, a nut wedged at the back.
• Always at the far end, past the plates. Bait at the mouth teaches a rat it can feed without entering.

Refreshing

• Replace bait every two or three days. Peanut butter skins over and stops smelling; meat goes rancid and rats avoid spoiled food more than people expect.
• Wear gloves. Heavily handled traps carry human scent, and rats are more sensitive to it than mice.
• Re-bait at the same time each evening during pre-baiting, so the pattern is consistent.

If the bait is being taken and the trap is not firing

That is a mechanical problem, not a bait problem, and it needs fixing before it becomes a training exercise.

• The bait is too large, so the rat is feeding from the edge. Halve it.
• The bait is loose. Tie it on.
• The trigger is set too stiff — some traps have an adjustable sensitivity.
• The trap is not sitting flat, so the trigger takes load at an angle.
• It is mice rather than rats: too light to fire a rat trigger. Check which you have.

If a rat has already taken bait from a set trap and escaped, treat it as trap-shy from that point and change the approach — trap-shy rats explains what to do instead of repeating it.