So it can only be in your interest that you take action against it in the form of a trap. But in order to be successful, you first need to know which baits are suitable for rats. This also raises the question of rats' preferred food.
Rat control choices
If you notice that a rat is on your property, be it in the house or in the garden, you should take quick action because these animals reproduce relatively rapidly. Rats give birth to up to ten young rats on average four times a year. The young rats, in turn, can give birth to offspring about three months after their birth. There are four options for combating rats:
- Live Traps
- Rat poison
- Gas rats
- Shock traps
If you look on the internet, there are various other options, but the majority of them can be rejected due to unnecessary animal cruelty and poor prospects of success. These four options can be further divided into live and dead traps. The greater chances of getting rid of the rat problem certainly involve death traps, as it is extremely difficult to catch a rat alive. If you want to take on this problem personally, the option of gassing rats is out of the question for you. This is only reserved for professionals. You can buy rat poison in almost every hardware store, but you should follow the applicable safety instructions.
However quickly a rat poison may work, it is by no means a panacea against this plague, because if you manage to poison a rat, the other rats will be warned. As a result, you will refrain from doing so and only one rat, if any, will fall into your trap while everyone else survives. It is therefore advisable to remove dead rats properly so as not to leave any lasting traces for their fellow rats. Problems can arise even with just one rat. Rats are extremely suspicious of unfamiliar food. You should never underestimate rats in terms of their intelligence. By the way, you can't just kill every rat without further ado. Domestic rats, for example, are on the list of endangered species.
Place the rat trap correctly
A live trap usually consists of a cage into which the rats are lured with bait. As soon as you enter it, it closes and the rat is trapped inside. Snap traps react when the bait is touched. As soon as this happens, the trap snaps shut and literally breaks the rat's neck. Once you have decided between a live trap or a snap trap, you need suitable bait. When attaching the bait, it is important to remember that it must be easily accessible to the rats. However, caution is advised here, especially if you have pets, because you definitely don't want your beloved pets to fall into the trap intended for rats. This can also be dangerous for other people, especially if there are small children nearby. So you must refrain from displaying them openly. Ultimately, a rat trap and bait should be placed exactly where rats actually frequent. Otherwise you will miss the desired effect with the trap. So you need to know the rat's routes. The clues for this can consist of the following:
- Footprints
- gnaw marks
- Feces
Favorite food
Knowing about the right rat bait gives you the advantage of saving you a lot of time and, if necessary, costs. However, there is no bait that is guaranteed to bring you success. In principle, rats are omnivores. The following foods have proven particularly effective as rat bait:
- Cheese
- Meat and sausage products
- Baby porridge
- Sweets, especially cornflakes, peanut butter and chocolate
You can also enrich the baby food with plaster. As a result, the rats experience severe stomach pain. Since they have a hard time figuring out why, they assume it's because of where you are. So they finally escape. However, caution is advised here, because too high a dosage will inevitably cause the death of the rodents. A bait attracts the rats, but natural home remedies such as chamomile or mint will scare them away, and chili peppers can also help you.
Preventive measures
So that there is no rat problem in the first place and you don't have to worry about suitable bait, there are a few things you need to take into account as a preventive measure. This means that you always close the kitchen waste properly. You must also close any existing loopholes through which these rodents could possibly get into the house. If you have pets, you should only feed them indoors. You will mainly find rats in places where there is a lot of clutter or in improperly constructed compost heaps.
Whether you ultimately want to kill the rats with the trap or just catch them is up to you. However, if the rat was not attracted to any of the baits mentioned, you will have to hire a professional to solve the problem.
What you should know about rat baits soon
- Although you can also buy rat bait in stores, the rats usually already know it and leave it lying around.
- A much better alternative is to get rat poison from the municipality.
- This is a bait that may only be used with special permission. It is not available in stores.
- When handing out this rat bait, your name and address will be noted.
- This rat bait is a very strong poison that is also harmful to people and pets.
- This type of rat bait is a bar packed in protective film.
Using it is very simple: you place the bait where the rats are likely to be. It is important that neither people nor small children nor pets can reach these bars! You can tear the protective film open a little so that the rats can smell the food more quickly. They carry the bar away, eat it and die.
Whether the rats will join in, however, is questionable. Traps come in different designs. One type is similar to a mouse trap, only much larger and more powerful, the other type is a kind of cage where the rats can be caught alive. If you have a rat infestation, it is advisable to hire an exterminator. They are professionals and have far different options than you have as an individual.
