PLACEMENT GUIDE
Placement decides
everything else.
A good trap in the wrong place catches nothing. Rodents follow edges, and the difference between a catch on night one and an empty trap all week is usually a few feet of wall.
STEP ONE
Read the room before you set anything.
Spend ten minutes finding evidence. Every minute here is worth an hour of guessing later.
Droppings
The clearest signal. Fresh droppings are dark and soft; older ones are grey and crumble. A concentration in one corner marks a feeding or nesting area worth covering.
Rub marks
Rats keep their body against a wall as they travel and leave dark greasy smears along skirting boards, pipes and joists. A rub mark is a route, and a route is where the trap goes.
Gnaw damage
Chewed packaging, stripped cable insulation or fresh shavings under a door frame show where they are entering and what they are working on.
Sound
Scratching overhead at dusk points to loft or ceiling voids. Noise low in a wall or under floorboards points to the ground floor and the perimeter.
THE WALL RULE
Set across the route, not along it.
Rats and mice travel with one side pressed against a solid edge. They cross open floor only when they have to, which is why a trap sitting in the middle of a garage stays empty while the same trap tight against the wall works the first night.
Important use guidance
Set traps only on a flat, stable surface. An uneven base can damage the trap when it springs. Keep traps out of reach of children and pets, and follow the instructions supplied with the product.
SPACING AND PATIENCE
Two habits that separate rats from mice.
The same trap strategy does not work for both. Behaviour differs more than size does.
Mice investigate quickly, so cover more points
Mice are curious about new objects and often approach within hours. They also travel shorter distances, so place traps closer together along an active wall rather than spreading them thinly across a room. A six-pack covering one active wall beats six traps scattered across six rooms.
Rats avoid new objects, so give them time
Rats are wary of anything unfamiliar on a route they know. If traps sit untouched for a couple of nights, that is normal and not a fault. Many people move the traps at exactly the point the rats were about to accept them.
Bait first, set later, for stubborn rats
Where rats are cautious, leave traps baited but unset for two or three nights so they feed safely, then set them all on the same night. It feels slow. It is usually faster than a week of empty traps.
AVOID THESE
Where traps go to be ignored.
MORE GUIDES
Keep reading before you set the next one.
Short, practical pages written for the first night of a rodent problem, not for pest-control professionals.