Rat Bait

[Matt 160]

Maybe then that's how a nutty / chocolate mix works just fine ?? .. I've had great results in the past with cage traps which were set in a remote area in the country side .. Then again it may be just beginners luck ?

Regards.

 

It's an interesting thought for discussion (without the hidden agendas and insults).

 

Overall, my experience has been that rats favour the food they are used to. With rodenticides, for example, I've always found them unwilling to take pasta and block type baits in rural areas, yet the whole wheat formulations seem to go down well??

 

Why would a rat recognise chocolate or peanuts as being something 'nice' to eat in the countryside? They are naturally cautious and neophobic, so surely a foodstuff they recognise as being natural and normal would get better results than something foreign that they've never seen before?

 

Any thoughts?

[MR TEA POT 1,287]

I follow people around who know what they are talking about. This used to be a good part of the forum but most of the folk on here who used to do it and post pics have gone. Because you tell folks you a PRO they think your word is gospel put some pics up then of your expertise.

Threatening to delete me are? Lol

Think net triggers post sums it up?

[woodga 170]

, I don't tend to get involved to much in arguments or word games.

I have had quite a lot of rats.(1000s) in the rural area on chocolate both in cages and in baited fen or body grip sets each to their own.

I suppose at the end of the day the individual makes his own choice agreed ,you say a chocy bait is alien to ratty , well how would he go about finding lard in the country .... would he find it in some ones chip pan :hmm: lol, as long as the end result is a dead rat who cares there are, and always will be different opinions but to say I know best and nothing else is effective is a bit raw and people who have had success are bound to be a bit miffed by your comment

[Matt 160]

Because you tell folks you a PRO they think your word is gospel put some pics up then of your expertise.

What folks think of me, good or bad, is not something I've ever worried about, nor will it be in the future.

 

 

I've posted plenty of pictures in the past, but I'm not one of those people who carries a camera and takes pictures of all my catches to post and brag about.

 

 

Threatening to delete me are? Lol

Not at all.

 

What I am telling you, and anyone else that wants to come on here and do nothing but bitch and troll, is that we have a warning system in place, and the moderators can and will use it if they deem it necessary. Make of that what you will.

 

Just to clarify; I've not said that nothing else is effective, nor do I think that..

 

It's a point to discuss; nothing more, nothing less.

[Matt 160]

I suppose at the end of the day the individual makes his own choice agreed ,you say a chocy bait is alien to ratty , well how would he go about finding lard in the country ....

An interesting point, but I would suggest that lard is just animal fat, and rats use carrion as one of the many natural food sources that they utilise in the countryside.

 

I'm not saying that I'm right, nor am I saying that I'm wrong. What I'm suggesting is that I have a theory, based on years of trying to catch rats in traps and bait them with rodenticide; that certain foods are new to them, and not normal run of the mill foodstuffs that they'd find in the countryside.

 

We know that rats are cautious, and that they are neophobic, so why would chocolate or peanut butter be a good choice when trying to attract rural rats? Again, I'm not saying that it never works, but I'm putting forward a theory for discussion.

[Beano1456 14]

I've read about blended tinned cat food. Stinks but works just poor it into a bottle and squirt it out where you need it then chuck the bottle after. No more stinky fingers;)

[MR TEA POT 1,287]

 

Most people me included read a post they like to see a pic or two it makes the post more interesting,it as nothing to do with bragging

As most people carry a mobile phone these,and most have got a camera it's easier then ever to get pics of trips out.

[Froudy 40]

Im a full time pest controller and agree that a food source which rats are use to feeding on will be more effective in traps than chocolate or peanut butter, this is not to say that chocolate or peanut butter wont catch rats as I have caught many but for effective catching I would be using something that rats are attracted regularly there for.

 

Atb

 

Froudy

[Matt 160]

Taken to PM Mr Tea Pot...

[Matt 160]

Most people me included read a post they like to see a pic or two it makes the post more interesting,it as nothing to do with bragging

As most people carry a mobile phone these,and most have got a camera it's easier then ever to get pics of trips out.

For some of us, what we do isn't a 'trip out' it's what we do, day in day out.

 

Speaking for myself, on the rare occasion I remember to take my phone, I can't be arsed to take my gloves off, and remember which is the right button to press. I do take pictures from time to time and sometimes post them on here and elsewhere. Last week I put a photo of a fair haul of moles off one job on Twitter, and got endless shit from animal rights loonies as a result.

 

Anyway, back to the topic in hand....

 

Like Froudy, I always try and target rats with a bait that is either something they are used to eating, or better. I'm not sure if either chocolate or peanut butter fall into that category for me though

[MR TEA POT 1,287]

Read pm thanks lol

[Outlaw Pete 2,224]

Interesting point; About rural rats liking what they're used to. Neophobic reactions to chocolate, etc.

 

I'm about as rural as it gets. I mean; There's really nothing urban within a rats life long, determined, forced march from my cottage. Any urban rat would die of old age, long before reaching my place.

 

Seriously. I'm talking a good seventy miles from anything even remotely 'urban' I think that qualifies as rural enough then, for the purposes of this discussion?

 

And, today, as it happens, I put a rat trap down in my kitchen. Just a precaution after my black lab' showed an excited interest in under the cupboard. And I've had one there before.

 

I always bait my mouse and rat traps, in here, with peanut butter. I catch house mice. Wood mice. Rats and shrews (sadly) in these traps. It never even crossed my mind that our rural rats may be unfamiliar with good old crunchy.

 

Now I've thought about it though? Rat gets into a kitchen? Rural or deeply urban. What's it do? It eats shit, doesn't it? How does a rural rat know about cellophane? But, f**k neophobia: They'll go straight through it and get amongst what ever's inside it.

 

Rats are just about The Ultimate Omnivour. They'll eat any shit they come across (and quite literally, of course )

 

Now, granted; They may be a bit more sneaky, choosy when it comes to 'Bait' ~ as in poisons. Though I've hammered our rats with everything from poisoned cattle feed (In active cattle sheds) to wax blocks (Just outside the same sheds)

 

But, with a trap bait? They only need to sneak sideways up to it, don't they? Try for that cautious little sniff or a lick. Too f**king late all ready! The floor gives. The big bar is faster than even their reactions. One less for us to worry about.

 

And that's why I still favour peanut butter, as a trap bait. Even here in the wilderness. It has a strong and lasting scent. It's oily, so self preserving in most, if not all conditions. Easily applied ~ I can't imagine trying to plug ears of wheat into the hole on a snapper!

 

Yes: Peanuts aren't even grown in Europe, as far as I'm aware? They're about as unnatural, to our rats, as it gets. But, so is 'Shield' soap. Yet, I've known my rural rats eat That, inside a cottage.

 

Some bright young thing could probably drag a Phd out of this. And further cocoon themselves from the real world, for a few more years, whilst doing it. " A Study In The Relativity Of 'Neophobia' In Wild Specimens Of Rattus Norvegicus ".

 

 

That would get us lot told, wouldn't it?

 

 

 

 

[Tiercel 6,986]

Just a question from an amatuer, I have trapped rats in the daughters stables tack room where the feed is kept. At first I used the same principles as Mat states if they are entering for the horse food, then bait with the horse food as it is at that moment in time their natural diet. However, while trapping a few the results were poor to say the least. I then change to nutella and peanut butter mixture and the results improved remarkably.

 

Of course that is just one isolated incident and I make no inferance one way or another, but, it does seem that rats that have never seen or smelt peanut butter in their lives are attracted to it.

 

So could it be that while rats are omnivours they also have a sweet tooth and will take sweet smelling and tasting food in preferance to grain no matter where they reside?

 

Also the neophobia that rats are classed as, how long does that neophobia last? In my very limited experience if I find a rat in the shed it will usually takes around 5 days before they will enter the trap cuddy. Although I have caught on the first night, perhaps that is dependant on how long the rat has been in residence?

 

TC

Edited February 9, 2014 by tiercel

[Matt 160]

Now this is getting interesting.....

 

While my natural instinct is to avoid baits that I don't believe a rat would be familiar with, it's obvious that they do sometimes work well....

 

The one thing I would temper that with is that what I was originally speculating about was genuinely rural rats; that is rats living nowhere near any cities, towns, villages or even cottages.

 

Also, that's an interesting point about neophobia. As Tiercel says, some rats seem much more neophobic than others. I did some fieldwork for a university trial on rodenticides a few years ago on a farm where the rats were very neophobic. In fact, the lead scientists, who are very well respected internationally, both said that they were possibly some of the most neophobic rats they'd ever seen....

 

So I suppose like people, rats must vary...

 

We can speculate as much as we like, but until someone pops up with the funding for a proper controlled and scientific experiment we'll never know for sure.

 

Back in 'the day' I used Zinc Phosphide quite a lot for rat control. You got your prefered bait, damped it with some oil, and added your concentrate. Wisdom of the time was that 'Pinhead Oatmeal' was the best bait you could get, and I spent fruitless months trying to find some. Eventually, I found some, and tried it out. Annoyingly, I always had better results with whole wheat...

 

As for traps, I find that for both rats and squirrels, a slice off a whole cob of maize is about as good as it gets. Now mice on the other hand.... nutella or bounty bar every time.

[micky 3,325]

we had a rat in the house in 84 I think, it was a barren or unmated doe and it would not touch any bait, one day it got hold off my lads baby grows that was covered in breast milk , it shredded the baby grow and I knew that I had her,i placed the grow on a old trap with a fresh drop of milk and went bed ten minutes later I had her, trapping anything requires common sense and sometimes the ability to think outside the box