How to Trap Rats

Bait your traps before placing them. Once you've selected and bought your traps, you'll need to bait them (with the exception of poison traps, which use the poison itself as bait.) Apply your bait to the designated spot on the trap according to any instructions provided with it. Typically, for snap traps, the bait will need to go on the flat "platform" that sits opposite the swinging arm. Glue traps, on the other hand, often have a peg in the middle that bait can sit on. Live traps usually have a similar platform for the bait in the center. Your bait should be a small, thimble sized amount of a food that's appetizing to rats — don't use too much or it will be easier for the rat to take it without springing the trap. Just a few common examples of rat bait are listed below:

• Peanut butter
• Bacon or meat
• Most fruits and vegetables
• Cereals
• Commercial rat baits (available at hardware stores and online pest control retailers)

Look for rat droppings as signs of high-traffic areas. One of the biggest tell-tale signs of a rat problem is the presence of small, brown, pellet-like droppings.^[7] Anywhere you find these droppings is an acceptable place to put a trap — if a rat has been there before, there's a good chance it will be there again.

• Take care when handling or cleaning rat droppings — certain illnesses, like Hantavirus, can be caused by accidentally ingesting or inhaling small particles from rat feces.^[8] Wear gloves and a face mask when disposing of rat droppings and be sure to wash your hands when you've finished.
• You may also see grease marks where the oils on the rats' fur has rubbed off on a surface. These will typically be found near entry holes or along pathways.^[9]
• Also, look for chew marks where the rats may have tried to enlarge entrances into their home.^[10]

Set indoor traps along walls and in corners. For indoor rat problems, it's usually best to place traps directly next to walls and corners where rats (or rat droppings) have been spotted. Rats hate running out in the open where they can be seen easily, so putting rat traps in the middle of the floor is unlikely to warrant results unless they're in a location where you've specifically noticed rats before.

• If using snap traps, place the traps perpendicular to the wall so that the baited end is touching it. This forces the animals to touch the bait platform if they want to continue along the same path as they've been using before.

Set outdoor traps on narrow paths and under foliage. Rats can be a little harder to trap outdoors because it's harder to predict their movements. Try placing traps along narrow locations where you've observed rats before, like tree branches, the top edges of fences, gutters, and so on. You may also want to place a few traps under dense foliage, as rats love the safety and cover that thick bushes and shrubs can provide.

• If you have time, try spending a few minutes looking for "rat runs" — small, narrow paths in grass that rats use to come and go. Placing traps along rat runs is a great way to start catching rats.
• If you're putting snap traps outside, consider putting them inside a trap box. That way, you won't accidentally trap an animal like a cat.

Consider placing traps out unset for a few days. Rats may be wary of new objects that suddenly appear in the path of their established trails, which can make them reluctant to go for traps even when bait is used. In these cases, you may want to consider leaving your traps out "unset" for a few days so that the rats have a chance to get to get used to them. Then, set the traps and add bait — the rats should approach them without fear, making it much more likely that you'll successfully catch one.

Check your traps frequently. Once you've set out traps, make a habit of checking them once a day for successful catches. You do not want to discover a trapped rat several days after it's died, as decaying rat corpses can be accompanied by an unpleasant smell, the presence of bugs and other scavengers, and severely unsanitary microorganisms. See the section below for more information about disposing of rats once you've trapped them.

• It's just as important to check live traps as it is to check lethal traps. Leaving a rat in a live trap for a long period of time can be potentially deadly, especially in very hot or cold climates where the rat is vulnerable to exposure.

Do not touch rats directly. While not all rats are carriers of dangerous diseases and parasites, some are, so it's very important to take proper precautions to protect yourself when handling rats (living or dead.) Wear sterile gloves and avoid touching the rat itself, instead grabbing hold of the trap. Remove your gloves and wash your hands when you're done disposing of the rat and never touch your face, eyes, or mouth after touching either a rat or its trap without thoroughly cleaning your hands.

Euthanize any rats that are injured but not dead. Unfortunately, lethal traps do not always work perfectly — occasionally, you may find a trapped rat that is maimed and unable to escape, but still living. In this case, the most humane thing to do is often to put the animal out of its misery by quickly and cleanly killing it. Releasing an injured rat into the wild is likely to cause it to die a relatively more painful death from starvation or being eaten.

• While many animal rights groups (including PETA) recommend against the use of lethal traps in the first place, among more mainstream pest-control resources, two methods of euthanasia are usually deemed acceptable for rodents: cervical dislocation and asphyxiation. Cervical dislocation involves breaking the rat's spinal cord by pressing on the base of its neck with quick, forceful pressure, while asphyxiation involves putting the rat in a small container and flooding it with an inert gas like carbon dioxide.
• The easiest way to euthanize a rat is to remove its head with a shovel.
• See our article on humanely killing a rodent for more information on this topic.

Bury or throw out dead rats. If you find a dead rat in your trap, disposing of it is usually fairly simple: either carefully place the rat in a plastic bag and set it in your outdoor garbage container or else dig a hole in the ground a few feet deep and bury it. If you dig a hole, make sure it's not any shallower than a foot or so or neighborhood pets may dig up the rat's carcass.

• In the case of glue traps, you'll need to throw the entire trap out with the dead rat. Don't re-use glue traps — they won't work as well the second time and it can be very difficult to cleanly un-stick the rat from the trap in the first place.

Release live rats outdoors. If you've caught a rat in a live trap, simply take it outdoors, set the trap on the ground, and carefully open the trap door to let it go. If you're interested in the rat's survival, try to release it within about 100 yards (91.4 m) of where you found it. Releasing rats in unfamiliar territory makes them much more vulnerable to predators and starvation.^[11]

• Note, however, that if you release a rat into the wild alive, there's not necessarily any reason why it won't find its way back into your house. In this case, it's important to "rodent-proof" your house to ensure that the root cause for the rat infestation is eliminated. This includes removing any food sources, sealing holes in the outside of your house with caulk or steel wool, tidying up any messes to remove potential nesting places, and more. See our article on rodent-proofing your home for more information.