Favorite foods for rats are walnuts, beef jerky and bacon. If you tie the food down on the trap’s trigger — one reader glues his — the rat has to work harder to get it and is more likely to ...

Set traps where you see rat droppings, and check traps several times daily, especially in the evening, when rats are active. The traps allow you to release the rats easily without touching them.

Rat poison also kills other animals like hawks, owls and eagles that eat contaminated rats. And it sickens an estimated 10,000 children in the U.S. every year. It even kills some pets.