The A24 Trap Kit includes everything you need for successful trapping – but sometimes your rat problem may be a little more challenging. Fortunately, the A24 can be used in a number of locations in many different ways.
Our customers are the best when it comes to new ideas for trapping with the A24. Here are some of the methods our customers have shared:
Portable Bucket Enclosure
Is your trap placed in a public location? A great way to create a portable mount for your trap is with a 5-gallon bucket. The trap mounting screws can be drilled through the plastic bucket to mount the trap, and one or a few small holes can be cut into the bottom to let rats or mice enter.
In addition to portability, the bucket acts as a housing to conceal the trap. The rodent kills will then remain in the bucket, which makes it easy to dispose of them. The bucket can also be easily washed out. Thanks to Rebecca Dmytryk for this awesome hack!
video credit: Rebecca Dmytryk
Chicken Wire Enclosure
Do you have pets or other animals in your trapping area? The A24 is safe around pets and other animals because of its small opening only rats and mice can get into if properly mounted. Goodnature offers a Blocker accessory to enclose the trap so there is no possibility of other animals triggering it.
Some customers have made their own enclosures with chicken wire so there is no risk of other animals accessing the trap and falsely trigger it. This is a simple and inexpensive way to ensure that other animals cannot interfere with the trap or be injured in any way. The key is to leave a small opening for rats and mice, but it must be wide enough for the rodent to enter without their whiskers hitting the wires, since this is how they sense objects around them. Rats do not like to feel confined and are more likely to enter a space if they do not feel constrained.
Photo credit: Rebecca Dmytryk
2x4 Wooden Trap Stand
Are you having trouble finding a place to mount your trap? Not all of our customers have a tree, fence post or other structure in their trapping location. A Portable Trap Stand stand is available, but our customers are pretty creative. They have found 2x4s work well as a solid wooden stand for the trap to mount to.
This is also another method that can be portable if you may need to move your trap from between different locations.
DIY Lure Basket
Are rats avoiding your trap bait? The A24 trap comes with a specially-formulated chocolate lure to attract rats and mice, and nut butter formula is also available. However, rats are actually very picky eaters. They will only eat food they trust and will often taste a small amount of a new food to see if they get sick before coming back and eating more.
When they find a food source they trust, they will usually stick to it and avoid other food sources. This is very common in locations where there are bowls of dog or cat food left outside.
To ensure the rats and mice will enter the trap, we include a DIY Lure basket with our trap kits. They are also sold separately. Customers have had success creating their own lures with things like peanut butter, dog or cat food, bird seed or any other foods readily available in the trapping location.
Tray Below Trap
Are you looking for an easy way to dispose of dead rodents under your trap? If your trap is located in a garage, shed or another indoor location, you won’t have the luxury of predators removing the kills for you. You may also be worried about keeping your workbench or other areas clean and easily disposing of the dead rodents under the trap.
A sturdy plastic tray can be placed beneath the trap to protect the surface below, and also make it easier to dispose of the kills.
Citric Acid lure additive to deter slugs
Do you have problems with slugs in your trapping location? A group in Hawaii found their chocolate rat lure was not always lasting the 6-months it was supposed to. After investigating, they realized slugs were entering the traps and eating the lure.
Evidence has shown that slugs do not like citric acid and they will usually avoid it. The trapping team ran some experiments with citric acid mixed in the lure. They tested peanut butter and the chocolate rat lure with 5% citric acid added.
They found the citric acid mixed more consistently with the chocolate lure, but slugs seemed to avoid both lures mixed with citric acid. However, the rats were still attracted to the lure.
After a year of testing, it was shown the lures were now reaching their full potential without slugs depleting them early.
