Ants eating the bait off mouse and rat traps
Ants are completely taking over and cleaning the peanut butter or bait off rodent traps before any target pests can find it. Spraying the surrounding area with bug spray fails to stop them, leaving traps useless and preventing homeowners from catching the mice and rats.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
Ants eating the bait off mouse and rat traps
- 1Sprinkling Niban bait outside the stationDid this help you?
- 2Putting the trap on a shallow tray of waterDid this help you?
- 3Spraying home defense around the trapDid this help you?
- 4trying alternative trapping or baiting methodsDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Both times I’ve put out the rat trap, the ants have completely taken over the bait, even after I sprayed the entire area around it throughly with bug spray.”source ↗
“every single mouse and rat trap being completely cleaned of the peanut butter, so I'm wondering if it's ants as I get ants on the front step.”source ↗
“I put these terro baits out last Sunday and the ants are non stop swarming and actually seem to be increasing instead of decreasing!”source ↗