Rat Bait

While the old saying says that you can smell a rat, the reality is that you probably won’t know you have one until you see the damaging side effects. Every year, rats consume and contaminate a large amount of food in households, businesses and on farms. Rats are carriers of several diseases, and contamination from their urine and droppings poses a serious health risk. When you have a rat problem, you need to eliminate it as soon as possible. There are a wide variety of traps available to do so, but with all of them, you need the proper rat bait. Choosing the correct bait is just as important as choosing the device to put it in.

The best rat bait is no more than simple food items that you can find around your house. For example, peanuts and peanut butter are two every effective forms of bait. Cheese, bread and birdseed are a few other reliable options. Another trick to picking your bait is to pay attention to the particular foods that your unwanted rodent might be getting into. Rats are smart animals, and introducing an unfamiliar substance as bait can cause them to avoid the traps.

After selecting your rat bait, the next step is applying it to the trip. Depending on the type of trap you choose will determine how you bait it. Standard spring-loaded traps simply require you to place the bait on the trigger mechanism. However, you should be cautioned that these types of traps are very powerful. They are designed to crush the spine of a rat, which consequently, is also strong enough to break your finger. Loading cage traps has no real danger involved, but you still need to make sure you bait these traps correctly. Place the bait far enough inside the cage that the rat will both trip the mechanism that closes the door as well as be completely trapped inside. The electronic traps on the market today are loaded much the same was as traditional cage traps.

You likely won’t need a special trip to the store to find your rat bait. Simple food items found in almost every household usually suffice. The trick is to apply this bait to the trap that best suits your rat problem. You can have the best bait in the world, but if you don’t properly use it in conjunction with your trap, you won’t eliminate your rat problem.