Rat ignoring poison bait and traps
Smart rats often bypass commercial bait blocks and glue traps because they recognize new objects or unappealing textures in their environment, leaving homeowners stuck with an active infestation they cannot afford to keep treating. When standard retail options fail on a tight budget, the ongoing presence prevents households from resolving the health risk safely.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from October 2026.
- This comes up 42.0× more often in r/Pestcontrol than across the site as a whole.
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.
- 1Using snap traps with bread or peanut butterDid this help you?
- 2Locking food in gnaw-proof tins and metal garbage cans with weightsDid this help you?
- 3Using commercial rodenticides like RatXDid this help you?
- 4Setting up plastic snap traps, glue traps, and mint sprayDid this help you?
- 5Testing alternative baits like peanut butter, dates, crumbled chocolate chip cookies, bait attractant, and Hershey's kissesDid this help you?
- 6Installing a wifi camera to monitor activityDid this help you?
- 7Setting out multiple snap traps and sticky traps with various foodsDid this help you?
- 8Using an exterminatorDid this help you?
- 9Leaving loose food on the floor away from trapsDid this help you?
- 10Pre-baiting a trap without setting it first before switching it onDid this help you?
- 11Trying soft bait, hard bait, glue traps, and different types of bait on snap trapsDid this help you?
- 12Placing peanut butter in unset traps for a few days to build trust before setting the trapDid this help you?
- 13Avoiding the use of poison bait inside the house so dead rodents do not smellDid this help you?
- 14Setting giant glue traps and regular snap trapsDid this help you?
- 15Using friendly catch-and-release trapsDid this help you?
- 16Blocking room entrances with glue traps to confine the mouseDid this help you?
- 17Putting out d-con bait pelletsDid 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.
“He’s not responding to poison bait or glue traps… wwyd?”source ↗
“It’s been almost two months since we first heard something crawl above us. I setup plastic snap traps, glue traps, mint spray and no success.”source ↗
“It’s smart and avoids the plastic snap traps.”source ↗
“I don’t want to deal with the stench of a dead rodent nor hunt for their corpse through the loose insulation or tight spots in the attic.”source ↗
“How do I catch this mouse that avoids every trap? 20 traps out, and nothing.”source ↗
“Now I’m finding droppings on the living room sofa and a tiny bit in the dining room.”source ↗
“The mac and cheese was gone by morning, but the almond was untouched, so it’s clearly coming out and eating.”source ↗
“Is this a rat or a mouse? It goes out in the middle of the kitchen floor every night (doesnt seem to go along walls like everything suggests online) Cant tell if its coming from under the sink, floor vent, or washer/dryer. Have tried soft bait, hard bait, 10 + glue traps, tons of different bait on snap traps. It avoids it all.”source ↗
“Put the usual bait down in two bait boxes, which has always worked in the past as normal. This time however it’s been two days and both bait boxes have been stuffed full of insulation by the rat.”source ↗
“Appears it’s nesting in there. Do I need to put more bait down? Can I assume the bait that was in there will do the job as normal?”source ↗
“Hello everybody, im at my limit here with rats. They showed up about 2 weeks ago, and nothing has worked.”source ↗
“We are dead broke, between bills and groceries we might have 50 bucks to spend between all 4 of us to rid us of this problem.”source ↗
“They continue to ignore it a week out. For killer bait,we have been using RatX but they seem to not even clock that as food, they run right by the throw packs and the bait trays alike.”source ↗
“Last night we confirmed the mouse is in there because we put out a snap trap and it managed to get everything from it, peanut butter that was flat on the trap and some cracker stuff.”source ↗
“We finally got some d-con bait pellets and instead of eating them it spread them around.”source ↗
“I really don't want a mouse in my kitchen. I want to get it out of here already!”source ↗
“We can't move the stove so pulling it out is not an option.”source ↗