The most important step in catching rats, and the step that’s missed the most, is choosing the right place for your trap.
Rats and mice can be elusive creatures. Often announcing their presence by a hole in your bread bag or worse, your wiring. They leave plenty of signs of where they’ve been - droppings, gnaw marks, holes they’ve dug - or you might see them scuttling about. Seeing them somewhere doesn’t automatically mean this is where you should install your trap.
Rats are clever and very much creatures of habit
They can be shy around where and what they will eat. So, even though you’ve seen rats crawling around your compost bin or have found signs that they’ve gnawed at the wires in the shed, that doesn’t mean that’s necessarily going to be the best place to put your trap.
Where am I supposed to put my trap then?
The short answer is, put your trap where your rats feel safe eating. Which is why we developed rodent detector cards. They’re chew cards filled with our tasty long-life rat lure that help identify where these ideal trapping spots are on your property.
Why is that a better location than where I’ve seen them?
Rats can be suspicious of new things in their territory. If they already have a food source - like your rubbish, veggie garden, compost, pet food etc - then they may feel safer continuing to eat from that rather than exploring your trap. When you see Rodent Detector Cards that have been nibbled on it shows you that a rat is comfortable trying a new food source in that specific location.
How to use detector cards
First, choose a few locations around your property where you think you’ll install your trap. Think about places with shelter, where a rat would be naturally protected from any predators.
Once you’ve chosen a few locations, screw the Detector Cards in place and monitor for around three days. When you check them, you’re looking for bite marks on the cards. These marks might look like small scratches, or sometimes the card has been totally chewed to pieces.
The cards that show interaction is where to install your trap.
If you don’t see any bite or scratch marks on your cards, this could mean no rodents are around, or it’s not a location they feel safe eating.
We recommend waiting a few more days or moving the cards to a different location.
If you’re excited to get your trap set up, choose a sheltered location - where a rodent wouldn’t be easily seen by predators like cats or birds of prey. Keep an eye on your detector cards too, so you’ll know if you need to move your trap to a better location.
For detailed instructions on how to install and check your Detector Cards, check out our Quick Start Guide.