Is trapping pack rats the best way to get rid of them? If so what is the best bait?

Last Oct, I went down to my cabin for a Sq hunt and Deer scouting/blind fluffing weekend, and wound up spending the entire 3 days shoveling Rat Crap and nesting material out of the place. They chewed a hole thru the kitchen floor and made themselves to home.
Snap traps and Peanut Butter took care of the little #$^*()))(*^%#$ in short order.

IMO, trapping is the best way but, finding and removing nesting areas are much more effective when possible, along with keeping traps hot while doing so. How bad are the rats? If you can shine a light out at night and see a significant amount of rats, I'd definitely keep traps going but, trying to identify the nesting sites would be my top priority. Then again if it's not at the top of the list of things to do, I'd just set snap traps and wait em out. Universal baits are also best for rodents with distinctive odors from all of their diets, which in return will draw them faster to the traps. Rats will ignore a bait if they find something better, best to add variety to maximize your results. I'd also set 1 to 2 dozen, minimum 1 dozen traps. JMO

Getting There,

Pack rats (aka wood rats), we have an abundance of here and they are certainly a messy creature when inside a home or cabin or crawlspace. I never wanted
to work on any of this more traditional pest control species but helped a lady out my first year in business who was way out in the boonies. The plumber needed
to go into her outdoor well pump room below grade and found it full nearly to the rim (room was 4x4 wide and 6' tall) with nesting material from likely many many
years of collecting. He wouldn't work on it till clean, so I cleaned it, excluded it best I could and also trapped under her homes foundation where sign was obvious.

Since then I get calls or questions on them, I've done exclusion for them this last year mostly for some pest guys that refer to us for things beyond their standard services
(trapping, toxicants). I've seen cabins where there are 3-5 expired at the cabin from their methods and they still are getting them indoors and making a mess.

I'd say a combo of all things is best if you can do it or the client wants it. Trying to block them out as best you can to exclude the structure with available methods while also
controlling the influx of pressure outdoors around the perimeter. They readily climb and until I started doing some of these exclusions I only looked down near the ground and slightly above. One of the pest guys who sent me some work on them this year for exclusion pointed out many entry points that were on 2nd story dormer areas, heavy body oil staining, urine, droppings, etc... This is of course a great place for bats and I'm used to that, never thought about looking up that high for these wood rats to be entering!

I think Bob J. maybe said a few years back when I asked about trapping them that they aren't hard to trap because they are hoarders (neophilic - new objects make them want to go investigate and drag it home), but if you miss or snap without getting them the first time, they get smart quick.

Not sure if that helps, but my path to success would include an IPM approach if the clients issues warrant that level of trapping and exclusion. We don't use toxicants so I can't speak to that but obviously that is also the prevalent way to control them and other commensal rodents.

Justin

I have trapped several hundred when cat trapping in Kansas over the years. They first came to my immediate attention when I began using a lot of trail sets for cats using a rubberized cut out pan cover to increase the pan area of my traps. They started chewing at my pan covers, then eventually carrying the covers, once chewed enough to get them off the pan, back to their huts. My large cat traps caught lots of them like a body grip at first. Then I began to target them to protect my cat sets.

Over the years I learned how catch them easily. A friend who lives in Kansas is a cage trapper by choice and he catches a lot of them setting for coon and skunk.

I began taking rat snap traps out to Kansas with me, weasel boxes etc. to specifically catch them. They are everywhere out there. Their huts are built up against many of the hedge trees, in old abandoned prairie houses, barns out buildings, in old junk trucks, cars, brush piles etc.

A great prey species for predators out there. I guess that is why the predators do so well. They can't go hungry with all the pack rats, cottontails and wild fowl found in good numbers out there.

To your question. Weasel boxes with rat snap traps, small cage traps, small coil spring traps all work. As far as bait we use my Fireball and Furtaker baits and they have worked very effectively. My friend I spoke about has been using the same bait for many years.

You may find many things that pack rats will find interest in, so you I am sure can experiment with what you have available as well. They don't seem to be real picky. You may find just gluing some fabric to a large pan rat snap trap to be effective.

Make sure that you tie off your traps to something, drill a hole in the wooden base back towards the dog area of the trap base to attach a tether/wire of sorts or they may carry it off.

If you are on them, find their trails and they will come pretty easily at least in my experience. Once you clean out a hut you have to move on to another one. Do a little experimenting and you will get on to it.

Either way, may your traps be blessed with big ole fat rats!