Saint Louis County, St. Louis Rat Control Situation:
Hi David! I have a quick question that I'm hoping you can help me with. My husband and I are hearing noises in the attic and we noticed that the outside vent to the dryer has been pulled away from the house. We have some contraction going on in two rooms and after we put Sheetrock up, the next morning a hole was chewed where the ceiling meets the crawl space between the first and second floors. There were also rat droppings on the floor. We went out and bought snap traps (6) and set 2 in the room with the hole, one in the laundry room, 2 in the main attic, and one in the smaller attic above the room. The next morning half the traps were triggered but nothing caught. We reset all the traps and the next morning all the traps were triggered and empty. The rat had also gotten into the pantry during the night and found a bag of dog treats and tried to pull them out under the door. The reset all the traps, wrapping the trigger with gauze and coating it with peanut butter to make it harder for them to just lick it off. For three weeks now the traps have been untouched. We don't have much activity in the attic either. Last night I took some of the dog treats and put it with the peanut butter as added incentive and we finally caught one... A big one. My question is, is it likely that there are more or that we only had the one? We have two dogs inside and it boggles my mind that rats would be ballsy enough to roam the house when there are dogs around! Should I keep the traps out and see what happens or do you think we got it? Only the one trap with the rat was triggered. Thanks so much for your time, Zui in St. Louis MO
My response: If the traps were triggered with no trap, you were definitely using the wrong traps for the animal you were dealing with. So if it was definitely large rat traps that you were using, then you didn't have a rat - maybe an opossum or something. And if it was rat, then you used the wrong traps - did you you mouse traps, by chance?
St. Louis Rat Control Tip of The Week
What Are The Best Baits To Use To Trap A Rat?
If you have the right kind of bait in place, trapping rats becomes relatively easy. These animals are naturally curious and become fearless when they see eye-catching foods. To remove them from your home, all you have to do is take advantage of this and trap as many rats as you can.
Are you looking for the best bait ideas that will help you trap all the rats in your house? Right here, we will be sharing some for you. But first, there is a particular thing you need to put in place if you want this to be effective. The first thing you need to do is to seal up every possible entry hole into your house to prevent more rats from gaining entrance. Once that is done, you can then go ahead to trap the rats in your house.
When it comes to rat baits, peanut butter is one of the best. This particular bait attracts rats more than any other type of bait. Apart from having a strong smell, it is easy to set on traps that you intend to use to capture the rats.
Other types of baits include pineapple, chocolate, bacon, whole nuts, berries, dried fruit, gumdrops, and many more. Each of these baits will help you to achieve exactly what you want without putting you through the stress of having to replace them over and over again just to help attract rats.
Having realized this, all you have to do is get one of these baits and place it on the trap in a manner that the rats passing will be able to see it and will want to have it.