Tomcat Mouse & Rat Attractant Gel

Details

This is an attractant, not a poison. It contains no rodenticide and it will not kill anything on its own. Its whole job is to make your trap or bait station more interesting than the crumbs behind the stove, which is usually the difference between a trap that sits untouched for a week and one that works the first night. Most trapping failures are placement and bait failures, not trap failures. Mice and rats travel the same runways along walls and behind appliances, and they are cautious about anything new in that runway. A small dab of a sweet, high-fat gel on the trigger of a snap trap or inside the bait chamber gives them a reason to commit. Peanut butter does much the same thing, but it dries out, goes rancid in a warm shop, and gets licked off without springing a light trigger. A gel stays tacky and sticks where you put it. Use less than you think. A pea-sized dab on the trigger pan of a snap trap, or a thin smear inside a station, is plenty. Too much bait lets a mouse feed from the edge without ever putting weight on the trigger, and a big glob on a wooden trap is just a free meal. Set traps perpendicular to the wall with the trigger end against it, and put out more traps than you think you need — six cheap traps beat one well-baited trap almost every time. If you are using it with a rodenticide bait station, the gel goes in alongside the bait blocks to draw rodents in during the first few days, which is when a station either gets found or gets ignored. Keep stations locked and out of reach of children, dogs, cats and poultry regardless of what is inside them. Store the tube capped, out of direct sun and away from feed. Refresh bait every few days while you are actively trapping — a stale dab is barely better than a bare trigger. Wash your hands after handling traps, and wear disposable gloves when you clear them; rodent droppings and urine carry real disease risk.