Just curious to know which is the preference of most people for DPs... Using one or the other for a base substance.

Garry-

Plain cat.

Fish flavored cat food.

If it’s cold enough to keep the ants out I use grape or cherry flavored cat food.

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What’s cold enough in Georgia?

which ever bag breaks open at the feed store that I can get for free.

I have always done dog food

mostly because the cat food if it is the stuff we feed the cats here at the house , it is upstairs , dogs get fed mud room or back porch , cats are fed upstairs
so the dog food is a lot closer to the back door than walking through the house and up stairs

I’ve not much experience yet with DP’s but I always used mini marshmallows along with a sweet lure like Tutti fruity…but I would imagine cat food would be better due to being a smaller kibble and also higher in protein. I remember hearing that animals can “taste” protein (which is why some animals will eat poop if they find it …yuk) so maybe they can smell it too???

I frequently use the burnt sludge from the bottom of my VFW fish fry cookers.

Cheap cat food from dollar general. I get the fish or salmon flavored and a decent sized bag.
A few drops of liquid smoke added works really well.
Molasses is good too, and so is a couple cans of sardines in oil mashed up and stirred in. All of those work for me. The dry cat food soaks up about anything and holds the odors a long time.
I haven’t tried dog food. The small dry cat food pellets pour easily from a jug and flow well into the trap so I have just been using cat food. I bet dog food would work well too.
I saw someone on here posted in a similar thread they used pellet form dry catfish food.
Jim

Whenever I can stick my finger in an ant bed and not get bit, lol!! Believe it or not there is a month or two the ants go deep and I can get away with using bait for trapping! Right now I’m catching coons on plain ole corn, even peanuts in a DP will draw ants right now. Guess it’s the oil in the nuts.

Neither dog or cat food. Can't get the mushy mess out of trap is it gets wet. I don't use anything oily or syrupy either. What a mess when pulling the traps!

Big marshmellow (covered in Kool-aid powder) stuffed under pan. Heavy rain will dissolve the marshmellow some, but at least it ain't mush. Can sling it out easily if needed and shove another under trigger.

Ants do get on the marshmellow, but they get on every bait.

Either one or even the fish food pellets, if you are using it for a "base". I use plain boring dog food, fish oil and liquid smoke. If you are only running a few traps you can use just about anything for bait, {jelly beans and bacon grease} if you are running a few dozen, you'll want to stay away from the sticky gooey stuff and stick with something "pourable" because it is so much faster at the set. I put my mixture into V8 bottles which makes it easier to "pour" the bait into the trap from the large mouth bottle. I fill 20 of them and 8 one gallon jugs too. easy to carry, quick at the site, cheap to get at the local recycle center. If you are running a few you might not need to think about covers, if you are running a few dozen you will. if you are running a few dozen you might want to put something in the trap to hold it partially open. It makes it much easier/ quicker to set a bunch of traps. I use 3" of white 1" pipe, white so I can see it if I drop it at the set site and pick it up.