Is there a better RAT trap?

How about one of these, with a bit of suet, rolled in chicken feed (because that's what will attract your rats), smeered on,  and water in the bottom, to down them...

(This guy is catching mice, live, so uses peanut butter)

we tried the rat version of all of those.  caught one rat over the entire summer.

With suet & chicken feed? Wow... your rats are too smart...

Carla Burke wrote:With suet & chicken feed? Wow... your rats are too smart...

yes and yes

Now that I have good hunting cats, I have no rodent problems.  It does often look like a rodent graveyard outside my buildings though.  All the rodents inside have long since been killed.  Now the ones that live outside are taking the brunt of the cat-wrath.

I've noticed that not all rats like the same things.  About every 5 years one rat shows up that eats every kind of plant we grow, no questions asked.

The rest of the time the others are choosey, but like butter, cheese, crackers, smoosh bird seed onto the peanut butter, using the peanut butter like glue for the seeds.    Dry cat food can be glued down with peanut butter.

The plants they go for most in the pots on our deck are the roses, including the stems, trailing geraniums (non-scented kinds), dianthus, nasturtiums, violets, giant marigold flowers (tagetes patula x erecta - great cut flowers and they are even showing up in the boquets at the grocery store,) solanum vines (potato vine, various kinds.)  They may just want some of these for nesting material, but will go to great lengths to get them.

I've glued a piece of those plants with a little peanut butter to lure them.