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Rat glue traps are one of the worst ways to deal with a rodent infestation.
Glue traps are ineffective and inhumane.
Please don’t get me wrong…I LOVE killing rats. I’m not too fond of them. There are just much, much better ways of killing them than with those stupid glue boards. These devices have already been outlawed in New Zealand, and Ireland and petitions are underway to have them banned in the UK.
There are a whole bunch of reasons that I hate glue boards.
One reason I advise against is that they simply do not work as well as snap traps and poisons. Adhesives boards are highly useful for trapping SMALL creatures such as mice, lizards, and cockroaches. When it comes to larger creatures like squirrels and rats, the traps just aren’t as effective at catching them.
Rats have been known to chew through the paper, walk through the adhesive, or even gnaw off their own foot if it did get stuck. If you do catch a rat with a glue board, it will be a small one.
Companies market different versions of this product with “new and improved adhesives” or “double scented with peanut butter,” but those are just gimmicks. The fundamental logic behind using these devices is fatally flawed no matter what marketing claims get printed on the boxes.
Let’s look at some other reasons that glue traps are bad ideas…
If you have attic rats, then one of the reasons you want to kill the critters is because of the noise. It is disconcerting and a little freaky to hear a bunch of rats crawling around above your head.
Do you know what is worse than hearing rats crawl around the attic?
Listening to a rat that has been stuck in a glue trap struggle and scream for FOUR DAYS until it finally dies of dehydration.
Seriously…after a day of listening to the thing, you will end up going into the attic to put it out of its misery. Then you are going to find yourself face to face with an angry, scared rodent while you are looking for something to use to smack him on the head.
It’s a really stupid idea.
Some people put out glue traps because conventional snap traps are scary. I understand! A classic snap trap like the Victor Professional rat trap is incredibly powerful and can break your finger if you are not paying attention.
However, other trapping options are incredibly easy and SAFE to use. These are traps like the Havahart live trap and the Tomcat Easy Set snap trap.
Watch this short video that shows how easy it is to use the Tomcat Easy Set trap. Nothing could be simpler to set, and the risk of accidentally setting the trap off is almost zero.
The easy set traps are just as easy to use as a glue trap and will kill a rat instantly.
Another reason the Tomcat trap is much, much better than a glue board, is that you can reuse the Tomcat trap.
Glue boards are single-use items that cost just about the same as the Tomcat trap.
Given that most infestations involve multiple rats (5 to 6 as a minimum), you will end up saving money by using snap traps.
More reasons that glue boards are crap…
The stickiness of the boards decreases dramatically with time as the boards become coated in dust. This makes the traps useless as a long-term preventative control measure. If what you want is a means to prevent infestations, you are better off looking at a few rat-repellent options.
Other animals get stuck in the traps. There is plenty of pictures out there of folks that have place glue traps outside (DUMB!!!) and ended up first catching small insects and lizards and then catching the birds that swooped down to eat them.
Many more pictures of cats and dogs have rolled in the traps and have them stuck to their fur. The most popular way to remove the trap for pets appears to be to soak their fur in vegetable oil and then slowly peel and cut the glue board away.
I smile every time I think about someone trying to get a glue board unstuck from their cat. You know the cat is scratching the living hell out of them, and I reckon they probably deserve it.
Do yourself a favor and skip the glue traps.
Much better options for killing rats can be found in the following articles.
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