Designed to be resistant to both tampering and/or the appearance of curious children’s fingers, once loaded, the bait – an irresistible mix of culinary-grade wheat flour, blended with chopped wheat, other cereals and proteins bound together by edible waxes – gives off a unique chocolatey aroma to attract vermin.

Rats are also naturally wary of new objects, so while you may not achieve overnight success, be patient with your trap and the place you have positioned it. How do I deal with rats I catch? Rats are cautious creatures and, as such, prefer to travel along the edge of walls, so place your trap flat on the floor against a wall where you know there has been rodent activity.If you opt for catch and release, take the cage to an unoccupied, natural area of woods or fields, place the cage on the ground and release the trap’s door. The rat will see to the rest. Use the right bait, and this is potentially a cheap and easy way to round up the majority if not all of your rat problem in one fell swoop, prior to releasing them somewhere more suitable in the wild. Key specs – Pest control method: Mechanical; Pest control type: Lethal; Usage: Indoor/outdoor; Bait included: No; Dimensions: 22 x 15 x 8cm In the unusual event where delivery is repeatedly refused or no effort is made to accept delivery, we reserve the right to pass delivery and return courier costs to the customer. We’ve gathered the best examples of all of these here, leaving you to make your choice based on budget, ethical sensibility and confidence of dealing with a rat you’ve caught that’s still alive.

Coming with a lifetime guarantee, the Big Cheese Rat Cage Trap is a top choice for those dedicated to animal welfare, but who still want to get rid of their unwanted rodent lodgers. This kind of trap is a long-established, popular design often used by gamekeepers when it comes to the humane catch and release method of rodent control. This large ‘family’ cage trap option is made from galvanised steel for a highly robust, escape-proof enclosure for capturing not just the larger parent rat(s), but also their pups. Wild rats can be highly aggressive when cornered: they won’t cower and run when confronted by humans, so the only effective way to rid yourself of them is either to catch and kill or catch and release far away from your property. Whichever method you choose, lethal or non-lethal, you’ll be pleased to know that the majority of rat-trapping methods lean towards more humane options these days. Best Rat Traps: At a glance Poison-free, each bait bottle dispenses automatically for six months while the CO2 canister (of which three are included) is good for 24 strikes before needing to be replaced. And for ultimate ease of use, the mechanism automatically resets itself until the canister is expended. There is another, slightly old-fashioned humane method to deal with rodent infection: cage capture and wild release.

Welcome to the Big cheese

Instead, there are other options when it comes to removing an infestation, both lethal and non-lethal, including poison-baited traps, catch and release cages, and – for those of you who play too much Call of Duty – a fully automated, gas-powered, bolt-action trap that records the kill on its “Digital Strike Counter”. We’re now firmly at the expensive end of the rat trap spectrum: Goodnature’s A24 model uses a gas-powered bolt system to instantly exterminate vermin, ensuring no suffering. Key specs – Pest control method: Mechanical; Pest control type: Non-lethal; Usage: Indoor/outdoor; Bait included: N; Dimensions: 380x 170 high x 180mm The Roshield Box and Bait trap might not be on the “humane” side of the pest control fence, but this is a highly effective, efficient system – and one of the more popular methods of dealing with rat infestations.