The best rat and mouse traps and how to set them

Published November 4, 2026

The CDC recommends traditional snap traps for reducing rodents around the home and advises against glue traps and live traps. Bait with a small amount of chunky peanut butter, set traps against the wall so they form a T, use plenty of them and check them daily.

Snap traps

The CDC recommends traditional snap traps for reducing rodents around the home and says poison or bait stations are for infestations that persist. Snap traps are cheap, quick and easy to check. You know when one has worked.

There are two sizes. Mouse traps are small. Rat traps are much bigger and stronger. A mouse trap won’t reliably hold a rat, and a rat trap may not trip for a light mouse. Buy the right size for what you have. The droppings article helps you tell.

Wooden snap traps work fine. Plastic traps with a wide trigger pedal are easier to set and to empty without touching the catch. Either way, set them carefully and keep fingers clear.

How to bait

The CDC says to put a small amount of bait on the bait pan, and that chunky peanut butter or mutton fat works best. A small amount matters: the rodent has to work at it, which trips the trap. Too much and it can lick the bait off.

Some people also use a bit of nesting material, like cotton, tied to the trigger. Mice collecting nest material will pull at it.

How to place

Placement matters more than bait. Rodents run along walls, not across open floor.

The CDC’s setup: put snap traps on the floor next to the wall, with the baited end touching the wall so the trap forms a T. That way a rodent running along the wall from either direction crosses the trigger.

Good spots:

• Along walls where you’ve found droppings or rub marks
• Behind the refrigerator and stove
• Under the sink, against the back wall
• In the garage, along the walls behind stored items
• In the attic, along the rafters and runways near the eaves for roof rats
• In the crawl space, along the sill plate for pier-and-beam homes

Set traps in pairs or groups a few feet apart along a run.

How many

Use more traps than you think. Thumbtack’s rodent removal cost page says a small infestation in an average-sized house may need 12 to 15 traps. Two traps for a house with mice lets the population keep up.

Checking and resetting

The CDC says to check traps daily, get rid of any catch right away and keep resetting traps until the activity stops. It also says to check bait weekly for at least 15 days.

To empty a trap safely, wear gloves. The CDC says you can reuse snap traps: soak the trap with the rodent in disinfectant for 5 minutes, empty the rodent into a bag, rinse the trap and let it dry. Seal the bag, put it in a second bag and put it in a covered trash can.

Traps to skip

The CDC says not to use glue traps or live traps. Both can scare rodents, causing them to urinate, which raises your chance of getting sick. Glue traps also leave a stuck, live animal you have to deal with. Releasing a live-trapped rat somewhere else in Waco just moves the problem.

What about poison?

Indoors, skip it. A rodent that eats bait doesn’t die on the spot, and it may die inside a wall or the attic. In a Waco summer, that smell comes fast.

Texas rules limit what consumers can buy. TDA’s rodenticide page says second-generation anticoagulants aren’t sold to retail consumers, consumer products come in packages of a pound or less in or with a bait station, and pellet bait isn’t sold to the general public. Outdoor bait placed by professionals has to be in bait stations, tamper resistant where kids or other animals could reach them.

Electronic traps

Battery-powered traps that kill with a shock and signal when they’ve caught something work for mice in places you don’t check daily, like a garage or storage room. They cost more than snap traps. Placement still matters: against the wall, on the run.

Traps don’t fix the gaps

Trapping removes the rodents inside. If the gaps stay open, new ones follow. Trap and seal at the same time. The how to get rid of rodents article covers sealing, and why rats come back explains what happens when you skip it.

If you’ve trapped for a couple of weeks and you’re still catching rodents, or the activity is in the attic or under the house, trapping and removal by a technician is the next step.