Any ideas why rats seem reluctant to enter my homemade 150 traps? I have had some kills , but seem to be at a stage where the rats won’t go in . No shortage of rats. Egg + peanut butter as bait. I have trailcam footage of them around the traps , even sticking their heads in the first opening , but non e going in.
A few things to check/try (you may already have done these) -
- Is the trap box oriented parallel and immediately next to any nearby runway features like fences, tracks, logs etc.?
- Is there good visibility right through the box, no obstacles at the far end? Or inside the trap - cobwebs, vines growing in, etc.? Some people like to use a grubber to get the entrances clear and disturb the ground a bit so that animals will notice the change and then be more interested in investigating the freshened lure.
- Have you tried blazing the lure used inside the trap on trees around the area and in the trap box entrance, so that rats can get a good taste while in a familiar environment? It may be worth leaving the trap unset for a bit and treating it as a pre-feed period, then if you get one rodent going in and out it will leave a good scent trail to attract others once you set the trap again.
- Any sharp edges on the mesh openings? If so, these can be folded back with pliers or filed smooth, depending on length.
- Any possible scent issues? For instance, some people think that it’s better to use vegetable/cooking oils for trap maintenance than mineral oils like WD40 which have a strong non-food-like smell.
There are also a few posts on the forum around possible issues with and modifications to boxes and treadles, for instance DOC trap Boxes Mesh and Baffles Trial; Ramps for DOC Traps and covering Treadle Plates; DOC and BT Traps Treadle Plate, How to Correct angle problem (revised)
If you’re able to add photos, it would be helpful if you can share at least one pic of one of your traps/trap-boxes - there are some very experienced troubleshooters amongst the forum members! I think all forum user levels can add at least one photo, but if you’re a newer forum member you might need to post them one at a time.
Hi christina , thanks for all those ideas, i will try an eliminate one by one. I did try to upload a video but it wouldnt let me. I will try photos , though my enclosures are a bit rough looking compared to the professional ones. Cheers David .
In my experience, the carcass of a freshly killed rat is the best rat lure (and it’s very attractive to stoats and weasels, too). Studies have shown that rats are far more attracted to other rats than food, because they’re highly social animals. If you are running other traps, move a fresh carcass to the 150, rub the dead rat on the entrance of the trap and inside it, to make it smell like the dead rat had been active in the tunnel. Another good option is to use mice as lures, because they’re a high value food (that are also very attractive to stoats and weasels).
I highly recommend combining your DOC 150 tunnel with 1 or more snap traps, either inside tunnels or in areas where they aren’t necessary, like inside sheds that other animals can’t access. Rats that are hesitant to enter your 150 tunnel, might fall victim to a snap trap, instead. Use one of the rats trapped in a snap trap as a lure in the 150, and there might be a surge in activity.
As far as lures go, there are a number of highly attractive rat lures to experiment with. Peanut butter and eggs are both effective lures, in general, but some of the rats in your area may not find them attractive enough to risk entering your tunnel.
Walnuts rank among rats’ favourite foods, because they contain high levels of fat and protein and they can be stored in their nests for future consumption, which is a behavioural form of lure. You can use them in their shells or crumble a walnut into small bits and sprinkle them inside the tunnel, so they have to spend time inside it. The risk of doing this, though, is that mice could eat all of the crumbs quickly, and they can go moldy in a few days.
Nutella is a commonly used, effective lure. A dab of Nutella next to the PB couldn’t hurt.
Rats love avocados. A small avo with a small wound in its skin to make the scent stronger, is definitely worth trying.
Fruit can good lures, especially when you’re targeting ship rats. I’ve trapped numerous rats with slices of apple coated in cinnamon, which delays the growth of mold in wet weather, and reduces the rate of dehydration in warm weather. I have also trapped several large rats in my Timms possum traps using this lure, so I’d say it’s worth a go. The smell of cinnamon is also something that most birds.
dislike. Dried fruit, like apricots, dates, figs, etc. are other options. Because they’re dry, they will take longer to go moldy than fresh fruit will, which helps at this time of year. Skewering fruit pieces on a nail or screw will make it more difficult for rats and/or mice to remove them from the tunnel. Ideally, you want rats to eat the fruit inside the tunnel.
Egg mayo is one of the best multi-species edible lures in the trapping arsenal. It’s hard not to make a mess using it inside a tunnel, so try to find a container of some sort, ideally a small glass jar. Some insects like mayo, too, so don’t be surprised to find some.
Fat is my go-to lure, especially in winter, because it takes a very long time to go moldy and, because it’s such a dense source of calories, rats and other predator species will still be attracted to it when its past its prime. Fat options include tallow, dripping, bacon grease, sausage grease, or the firm, white fat that you get with roasts, especially lamb or mutton. A tub of dripping, which you can buy at some supermarkets, is the easiest fat to use, and it is really cheap. Dripping isn’t as easy to use as PB or Nutella, due to its firm texture in cool weather, but it’s definitely worth the extra effort to smear it onto and into the tunnel. If your 150 is close to home, you can melt a small amount of dripping in a glass container with a lid, in the microwave, but you have to supervise it very closely, because it can melt within 15-20 seconds on high and start to spit. The liquid fat can then be applied more easily and will go firm once it cools down.
Samples (AKA pre-feeding)
It is very important to give rats samples of your lures (with the 150 unarmed), so smear soft lures on the outsides of the tunnel, inside the entrance, and in the lure area. Applying some to nearby areas is another good technique, because it will make a rat more likely to interact with the trap to have another snack. Don’t worry if mice eat the lure samples, because their activity signals the presence of good food, which makes rats curious about what is causing all the interest. It is very important to trap mice, though, because they can cause too much interference to make some lures effective.
The Buffet Technique
I’ve had way more success trapping rats since I began using multiple lures in my DOC tunnels simultaneously. This technique caters to rats’ individual tastes, and increases the amount of food available per visit, which incentivizes rats to return to my tunnels, because they’re getting more than an appetizer. Even if rats have plenty of available food, they may find it hard to resist the urge to make a detour to a tunnel containing several delicacies.
Lastly, the most important factor may be where your trap is sited. If the 150 isn’t in a site with much rat traffic, its chances of attracting rats are low, and it needs to be in a site where rats feel safe. Add a few photos to your post so other trappers can assess the site and make recommendations.
Good luck!
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Thanks for all your advice! Wouldnt you know , the 150 that had not made a kill had a rat this morning. I also saw smaller rats inside the trap on the trail cam , perhaps their smell lured the bigger one in.
The trap i am talking about is in a open shed , with plenty of rat activity evident . They are too big for the Victron traps , setting them off and getting away . They ate all my broad bean seeds , most of my smaller seeds planted, a whole box of snail bait. I have tried fat, just scraped it out of the bottom of the air fryer , and that seemd to get them in for awhile. From your description , rats and mice have been eating the apple and cinnamon bait in my possum trap . Tonight i found a huge rat in the timms possum trap (seperate area.), i had no fruit last time i rebaited it , so used a chocolate coated museli bar i had with me . I think i sprinkled that with cinnamon too. I have photos of that i will attempt to upload.
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Hi without seeing any photos of your tunnel / trap it hard to try and give good advice, probably all I would add to advice already given is to look at your opening sizes that the rats must go through, it sounds like you are dealing with Norway rats or most likely Norway and Ship rats.
Norway rats are generally harder to trap and much larger than ship rats, for Norway rats I generally use a larger opening 80 mm, for both external and internal openings, but dependent on the situation larger opening due increasing the risk of catching non target species.
Once when I could not catch Norway rats down the back of my property around the Avo trees I did away with the tunnel and used some 1.2 metre planks of wood two sides and a top and open at both ends, dug a small hole in the ground to recess the trap and treadle was level with ground, sprinkle a bit of fine soil on treadle or use Duct tape. I have a tool to set the DOC traps without being screwed down and you could figure some thing out. Over about 2 months I caught 20 rats from that burrow.
Hi Dave , thanks for that . Sounds like we have a fairly similar environment. 2 rats in the trap this morning , 2 seperate traps. I think the peanut butter at the entrance may be the most luring part. On one trap i have a trail cam . lots of small rats in there again. what is weird is the cam did not catch the big rat going in , nor been caught . it also did not catch me checking the trap . Unfortunately i dont have the time stamp set , and we did not check to compare timing of the videos before deleting . What im thinking happened is the rat has gone in within 1 minute of a smaller rat setting of the cam , so not captured. and this was within 1 minute of me coming out to check the trap . or it heard me coming and ran into the trap to hide. Will reduce the delays on the trail cam.I think i can now post photos so will attempt that form my phone.
The rat caught in the double trap, and the trap. I found this trap washed up on the riverbank, which started me on the doc trap journey. Whoever made it ,made the sides too high I found I couldn’t get enough leverage to pull it all the way on with my homemade tool. So I cut some slots to get the tool lower, and fill with rags when set. This is today, when I have added dirt, and peanut butter at the entrance.
This is the rat caught in my homemade trap. In the shed right next to a rat tunnel. The rat is in a standard 20 litre paint type pail from mitre 10 for size reference. I made the traps from some timber I had on hand that night I had to mix the fixing from on end to on top to make it wide enough, hence the sloping roof.
Congrats on getting the rats you were after. They can be tricky bastards, can’t they? Good reclamation project, too, with the traps in very good shape.
Regarding the height of the sides of the tunnel and the space between the back of the traps and walls, I think somebody swapped out 200s for 150s.
Cheers.
Thanks, ahh yes, I think that would make sense. The box is about the size of a doc250 one I see on trails etc. worth getting a couple of 250’s for it, do you think?
Hi good you are catching something, give using 250’s a miss unless you really need to target stuff like ferrets, the supposedly galv one’s are poor quality and will most likely rust in a couple of years and the stainless ones are over the top price, better off with 150 or 200 cheers
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Thanks, will stick with that . small rats and mice seem to be getting past , i might see if i can use the extra room to put in a victron type trap with opening too small for big rats.
When you say Victron, do you mean Victor Pro?