Alright so you have a Raticator, Great! It’s the best rodent control system out there. So what is the best method of getting rid of those pests that have been harassing you?
The good news is that Raticator is very effective and simple to use, you basically insert a new set of batteries (high quality alkaline is recommended), bait it, turn it on and check back when the red LED flashes to signal a humane kill.
Pretty easy right? What we’ll focus on in this post are the details and tips that we have discovered to help maximize the potential of your Raticator.
Eliminate Free Food
Before you set out the trap, eliminating the rodent’s current food source is key in the war against rodents; if they are able to keep feeding freely they will be less likely to enter the trap. Seal up pet food bags and/or livestock feed, inspect pantry areas for open food containers or holes in bags, ensure garbage cans are sealed and clean up any dropped or spilled food. This will significantly increase your chances of trapping rodents.

Baiting the Raticator
What To Use For Bait
Bait strategy is important in attracting and dispatching rodents. We recommend using what the rodent is currently eating as the first bait that you use and experimenting with other baits to see what they like. Examples of bait rodents love include pet food, scrambled eggs, peanut butter and, believe it or not, orange peel. Of course any wet bait should be put in a plastic bottle cap or something similar.
Where To Place Raticator
Rodents typically have a path that they travel frequently and more times than not it is next to a wall. Rats especially have a highly developed sense of touch, hearing and smell, but poor vision. They prefer running along walls where they can keep their whiskers and guard hairs in contact. Therefore we recommend placing the unit along a wall in the rodent’s path –identifying a path can be as simple as looking for dirty smudges around holes in walls or passages, gnawed items, partially eaten food, droppings and, of course, sightings of rats and mice.

Placing the Raticator
Rodent Behavior
It is important to recognize subtle behavioral differences between rats and mice. Generally speaking, rats are extremely wary, whereas mice tend to be more curious. These traits have a significant impact as to how rodents approach the Raticator.
If you have rats it can take a few days before they decide to explore what’s inside the Raticator. Be patient, if they’re attracted to what is inside, the red indicator LED will eventually blink.
Tip For Larger Rodents
The primary issue with trapping bigger rodents is that they have large claws that do not conduct electricity. Large rats for example can enter the unit and not get zapped because only their claws contact the kill plates. One trick that helps is adding moisture by placing a wet rag or folded wet paper towel just outside the entrance of the Raticator. This is an effective way to help create better contact with the plates. We call it a wet welcome mat.
These suggestions paired with the original electric rodent trap will equip you to win the war on rodents! Check out our FAQ page if you have further questions, or call us at 800.PEST.ZAP.
I just bought one of these and my kitten found it and went running is she going to be okay
Hi Gina,
Don’t worry, your kitten will be fine! When a small dog or cat (or child) touches the plates, they get a localized shock – where rodents have the current passing through their entire body. The shock may not be a particularly pleasant experience, but won’t do any real damage. I suspect your kitten will steer clear from the trap from now on! I’m glad it wasn’t a snap or glue trap, which may have been much more traumatic for your kitten.
Have a great day!
Chris, COO
Placed the trap last night.
Saw the flashing red light this morning.
Dropped a heavy little monster that had be haunting my kitchen into the compost.
Will be recommending you product.
Thanks for sharing, Alan! We love to hear our customer’s success stories. Please let us know if you have any questions or additional feedback.
Chris, COO
We just purchased the ‘Raticator’. We have a real problem with chipmunks. I read the tips about bigger rodents and thought chipmunks were about the same size as a medium rat. I’m hoping it will work well. We humanely trap them in NJ and take them far away, but our trailer in the country is inundated with them. I think they are the main cause of the musty animal smell in the trailer. i’ll let you know how it works. Fingers crossed…
Hi Cate!
Our product does work well for chipmunks, if used correctly! If you would like some tips, please feel free to call our office at 800-PEST-ZAP. The two most important details are “bait strategy” and keeping the product clean and dry. Please remember that Raticators are not designed to be used outside in locations that are excessively wet. Good luck! We look forward to your updates…
Best Regards,
Chris, COO
Hi there, bought the trap and am excited about imminent rat death. It’s been baited in the crawl space for three weeks with dry cat kibble. We check it every few days but haven’t got a rat yet. There are little ratty footprints all over the first plate.. None have gone in. Any advice? We changed to a peanut butter bait last night, hoping they might be more eager to go all the way in..
Hi Julie,
Rats tend to be very cautious, and can sometimes take a little longer (and a little more effort) to successfully trap. Changing up your bait can help, and we suggest the following strategies:
1) Bait Strategy – Especially when you try a new bait or set the trap in a new location, we recommend pre-baiting the trap and leaving it turned OFF for a few days or until the bait is gone. This will allow the trap time to be ‘scented’ by the rodents, so that all of the rats will recognize it as safe and get used to a free meal ticket. When you are seeing that the bait is disappearing more regularly, re-bait the trap and turn it ON. You should start seeing successful kills quickly.
2) Welcome Mat (optional) – If the trap is in a dusty area, and particularly with rats, we recommend you place a “welcome mat” in front of the trap. A “welcome mat” is a piece of sponge wide enough to span the front of the trap that is moist. This helps to improve conductivity when the rodents enter the trap. This works best with pre-baiting, so you will not have to re-wet the sponge as often.
If you are still having trouble, please give us a call at 800-PEST-ZAP, and we can offer some suggestions for bait. Good luck!
Best Regards,
Chris, COO
800-PEST-ZAP
Hi. I’ve really gotten into birds since I retired. So, I have 8 bird feeders in my back yard, half of which dispense grains, with spilled seed and grains on the ground. As a result I now have a resident colony of approximately 6 fat rats.
My question: what’s the likelihood of a bird entering the trap? I’ll be using canned dog food for bait. Any advice?
Thank you.
Hi Janet,
Thanks for your inquiry! There are several things to consider with regards to your question, and I will try to cover them all here. You are always welcome to call us for more information if you’d like (800-PEST-ZAP).
Although unlikely, it is possible that a bird could get into the Raticator and receive a fatal shock. There are a few things you can do to minimize this risk:
1) Bait Strategy – You are on the right track using Dog food for bait (Please make sure to place the bait inside a plastic bottle cap instead of spreading directly on the metal plates). This will not attract most types of birds, but there are some omnivorous birds (such as blue jays) that may still try to get to a meat-based bait. You can also try LARGE nuts, such as Brazilian nuts, which would be attractive to rodents but not smaller birds. If you are confident that you are dealing with Rats and not Mice, we also recommend “pre-baiting” the trap. This means placing the bait and leaving the trap powered OFF until the rodents have gotten used to going inside for a free meal. Once they have left their scent inside the trap, other rodents will be much less cautious entering the device, and you will find you have a higher success rate when you turn on the unit. You can also try turning the unit on only overnight, when birds are less likely to be feeding.
2) Placement – Please remember that Raticators are NOT weather-proof. They should be placed in a protected area away from water (and direct sunlight if possible). There are some things you can do to protect the Raticator from the elements if this is a concern, including placing the device inside a plastic shoebox-sized container with a lid and cutting a hole large enough for a rodent in it. Please call us if you would like tips on this. Placing the trap in an area that is less accessible to birds will also help (Rats don’t mind tight, dark spaces. Birds tend to avoid them).
3) Food Scattering – As you mentioned in your original question, birds have a tendency to scatter their food all over the ground. One way to encourage the Rats to go after the bait in the Raticator is to try to control this spillage. If you add less seed to the bird feeders and refill them more often, the birds will take to eating the scattered seed and grain that has spilled on the ground, and there will be less food for the rodents to scavenge. I understand this may be difficult to control, but it may help.
Finally, birds are bi-peds instead of quadra-peds, and have a much higher chance of surviving a shock, should they trigger the trap. If you find that the trap is flashing as if activated, but there is no animal inside, this may be the case. They are also more likely to get zapped by our MAX model than our PLUS model, because of the Infrared technology built into the MAX. If you choose to use nuts as bait, you are also likely to catch ground squirrels and/or chipmunks in the trap – which may or may not be desirable for you.
I sincerely hope this helps! There is no way to guarantee that you won’t occasionally catch an animal you did not intend to, as with any animal trap, but these tips should help to minimize that risk.
Best Regards,
Christopher Dolin
COO, A Trap USA
800-PEST-ZAP
I love our Raticator Plus zappers. I live in an old farm house & we constantly have a rodent problem (at least before I got the Raticators). In the 2 years since I got them, I have killed probably 200+ mice and 1 thing that looked like a 6″ ferret. (We don’t have any pets that look like that.)
I am disappointed with your website though. It’s time to clean the Raticators & put them in service for another year. I’m disappointed because I could not find the procedure for cleaning them on the website. I ended up doing a web search and found the procedure on a competitor’s web site.
Thanks for a great product. Adding a FAQ about cleaning would be a great help for everyone.
Hi Jim,
Thanks for your feedback! It’s always great to hear our customers success stories. We are currently in the process of redesigning our webpage, so please forgive our mess! We hope to launch an updated site early in January, 2016. We will be updating our FAQ section and supplying links to instructions and tips. In the meantime, I will gladly email you the cleaning instructions.
Please feel free to call us anytime at 800-PEST-ZAP with questions.
Happy Holidays!
Christopher Dolin
COO, A Trap USA
800-PEST-ZAP
I tried everything to try and kill mice in my house, including spending a lot with local pest control. Nothing worked! Every type of trap possible could not kill the mouse. Tried your product and have killed two mice already, within a couple of days. So pleased with the result!
Thanks Donna, so glad we could help! Please let us know if you ever have any questions or trouble.
Christopher Dolin
COO, A Trap USA
800-PEST-ZAP
I used your product in my car a huge rat
was found inside this morning. but I noticed that the plate inside is bent and there is a wire hanging down. Can I still use the device?? Thanks
Hi Dawn, if you are using the Raticator Plus unit, that wire and bent plate are normal. Yes, the unit is safe to continue using.
Please give us a call if you have any questions.
Thanks!
Raticator Support
[email protected]
800-PEST-ZAP
1927 built house
We bought an old house in Texas and as soon as it got cold last year, we heard a little scurrYing inside the walls. Poison traps on the exterior took care of that quickly. This year however, it started with a huge influx after the drought ended. As soon as cool weather was forcast, they moved in in droves. Looking for a poison free solution as our puppy would eat anything, I bought a raticator this week. It has been turned on for 4 hours and caught 2 already! We were gone for 2 hours, may have caught more if I had been able to check earlier!
With our tiny crawl.space, we needed something slim and easy to get in and out. I love that I can easily peek to check if it needs emptying and I don’t have to touch anything but the case. Will buy another for the other easy to access location!
Feel free to post this wherever!
Very happy in Wichita Falls, TX
Hi Melissa!
Thanks for your feedback!
Please let us know if we can ever help, and check out our new Bluetooth model, currently available for pre-purchase on the crowdfunding site IndieGoGo (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/raticator-bluetooth-worlds-1st-smart-rodent-trap#/) – it might be a good fit for your tight spaces!
Happy Hunting! 🙂
Chris