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What I found several years ago is (extension of contender's suggestion)
to use chocolate chips to bait the trap. Leave them out for several days
(in the house) before you bait the trap. If you left them out long enough,
(they get really hard) it will be difficult to bait the release lever. At that
point, it will be good for several iterations.

From what I've seen, if you see one . . . there are several more you have
not seen yet.

P.S. With rats, I would anchor the trap or have some sort of heavy twine
attached so you can "find" it after the successful action.

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BN - Life member, NRA . . . . . . . . NRA Certified Instructor
~ If they can get you asking the wrong questions,
..... it doesn't matter what the answer is.
~ Obscurity is the refuge of incompetence.
~ Don't handicap your children by making things too easy.

A Rock Squirrel has taken up residence under a stump next to my barn. I see evidence that he has ventured into the barn. I’ve set some rat traps using pecans in a piece of nylon stocking per suggestions here. And screwed the rat traps to hunks of 2x4 lumber. I hope I catch him before he acquires a taste for the wires on my tractor.

Min-Schnauzer or rat terrier.

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"Many's the child come this high to get from the mountain what he couldn't find in his own nature down below"

Thanks everyone for all the help! We live about 20 miles west of Ft. Worth, had a fair amount of rain (for us) already this year. About the only thing different seems to be a dwindling population of stray cats around here. I'm kinda thinking (hoping) this is a rouge rat. Been noticing small things knocked over in the garage in the last week or so. Never known one to Waller its greasy behind all over a motorcycle like that!

My terrier mix keeps my place free of pests, two legged and four.

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The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

Psalm 14:1

Go to the store buy TOM CAT plastic rat traps. The wood traps are too "sensitive" & easily set off before you can put them down (biting your fingers). Fill the small cap at the bottom of the trap with Hershey chocolate syrup. Rats can't resist.

A small bowl with a narrow strip of sponge standing up in a narrow jar about half full of lavender scented pine-sol to act as a wick keeps bugs, rodents, and fowl odors away. I hear mint is supposed to keep rodents away also, but haven't tried it since this has worked for me.

These guys got it pretty well covered, but this is how Jerry Clower did it. Good luck getting rid of yours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z0q2p8tVpM

So you have an indoor cat. Go get a large male outdoor cat. I've had several over the decades. Never any rodent, or other vermin problems. Most of them have killed just for fun. The one I have now is a "meat hunter". He will eat anything dead, alive or somewhere in-between.

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Jeepnik "AKA Old Eyes"
"Every man should have at least one good rifle, and know how to use it." Dad
"Go low, go slow, and preferably in the dark." The old Sarge (he was like 25)
The man who says a thing can't be done is usually interrupted by the man who is doing it.
"Freedom is never more than a generation from extinction." Ronald Reagan

Maybe this rat read the book, Mouse and the Motorcycle. I have read it to my grandkids.

I have an uncle who is a bit of a tree hugger and didn't want the rats to suffer. He bought a trap that electrocutes them. Battery powered, must have some type of coil in it. Last count he was up to about 5 dozen in a little over two years.

This might work,Electric rodent trap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7ALREEcF7o

I use a big fat pecan half attached to the prong of a wooden spring trap. They LOVE pecans.

Hi...
My ex FIL had a rat infestation of epic proportions in his barn back in the early '80s
We assume they came on a truck making a delivery of feed for finishing the beef cattle.
I took a week after work to try and clear them out... couldn't shoot enough of them to get rid of them. He finally had a professional exterminator take care of the problem.
I must have shot 50 rats over the course of that week with my .22 rifle.

I also use a trail cam set up to positively identify what is encroaching. For rats I use either a: Havahart Small 1-Door Animal Trap, or a Duke #1 4" jaw trap and I set them up so there is only one way to get to the bait. For mice I use various hardware store style traps.

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There is no problem so great, it can't be solved with the proper application of enough .... !