How to Bait for a Roof Rat Treatment

In addition to the basic Baiting Techniques for Rats, these additional tips and techniques will help you to develop a more effective baiting program to target the specific behaviors of the Roof Rat. Special attention is often required in baiting for Roof Rats because of their activity at both ground and aerial levels.

• Roof Rats often travel and feed on overhead areas such as ledges. A good way to address these locations is to glue or wire bait blocks into the center of PVC pipe that is 6 to 8 cm in diameter, and then to affix the the tube station to the ledge .

• When baiting overhead, use a PVC pipe or other tamper-resistant bait station to prevent baits from falling to the ground where children or animals may have access to them.

• Roof Rats may sometimes rest in the tops of trees or buildings (thus the name, “roof rat”), traveling to the ground at night for food. Tamper-resistant bait stations can be effectively placed at the bases of trees and buildings to entice the roof rat to feed instead of seeking food sources further out.

• Baiting programs for Roof Rats work best when implemented year round. They are less effective when implemented solely during peak fruit seasons when the roof rats are feeding on ripe fruits that have fallen from trees, since the fruit provides too much competition for the bait.

• Pay special attention to areas of dense cover or vegetation for bait station placements, as roof rats tend to select these areas over others as places to rest and feed.

• As a rule, many bait placements containing smaller amounts of bait are more effective in roof rat control than a few placements containing a lot of bait.

• Baiting indoors should be avoided if possible to avoid the chance of roof rats dying in inaccessible places and causing odor problems.