Cheese, peanut butter, mayonnaise, commercial lures, even fried eggs! Are some better than others in your rat trap? There probably isn’t a single answer as their preferences may change depending on the time of year and on what other foods are available.
This winter we conducted a trial in our traps in the Riverhills and Ennis Avenue esplanade reserves. We chose peanut butter, mayonnaise and a commercial product, Treacle Gold, for our trial and have rotated that around so that each lure was used twice in each of 26 traps. Additionally we alternated the use of a commercial possum spray scent lure based on feedback about its effectiveness from another trapper.
The traps were generally checked and replenished every 7 – 10 days until the August lockdown occurred and then there was quite a delay until the trial finally finished. In total there were 52 trap checks for each of the three solid lures, making a total of 156 checks. We recorded 21 catches in total, as shown in the table below. A simple statistical analysis of the results indicates that there is no significant difference in the effectiveness of the three lures in the trial.
| Lure | Number of Catches |
|---|---|
| Mayonnaise | 6 |
| Peanut Butter | 7 |
| Treacle Gold | 8 |
We observed that peanut butter had disappeared from the traps more frequently than either mayonnaise or the commercial lure but that didn’t translate into a lower effectiveness. A difference may become apparent if the length of time between trap checks is increased. For us, we will happily vary the lure depending on what we can source cheaply. Or ideally, for free!
The results of the scent lure application were puzzling and we’ll write those up in another post!