20 Best Bait For Rats And Mice (2022 Updated)

Do not believe the labeling or your pest control company there is no way this product can be used in a home with dogs or cats. If they bite into these packets it can be lethal or more likely will cost you a costly vet bill.

The active ingredient is Difethialone which is an Anticoagulant , if ingested by pet or child vitamin k1 is prescribed and in some cases a blood transfusionThese companies skirt around EPA regulations using their own legal teams.

Being a landlord for 30 years I have had to deal with numerous rodent situations. Renters are apparently too lazy or just simply too stupid to deal with even a mouse so their presence sometimes goes unaddressed until the scum gets evicted, at which time they run off leaving you an infestation to deal with.

I switched to these since the government has decided the general public is too incompetent to buy rodenticide in the little “place packs” anymore. Apparently parents that are helpless to control their children were letting them eat rat poison out of the little bags.

Anyway, these are actually a pretty good value since you get a lot of packs per pound and they are handy to carry and use, just toss and go. If the unit is occupied, I do have to be careful to place in locations that are completely inaccessible to their children or they’ll let them eat it while they’re passed out until noon.

Don’t forget to wash your hands afterward as the packs can get somewhat sticky with handling. They are soft, moist and look like something mice would love and they apparently do as I had good results in just a few days.

I keep them in double zip lock baggies or they get hard fairly quickly. So far I’m very pleased with the product and will buy again when needed. Dave “The Rent Man”.

Had rats getting in my garage. I put several baits packs out. They didn’t eat for a few days. One day I noticed the baits were gone. Rats died in my crawl space and the smell is Horrible. Now have to hire someone to remove the dead rats.

Although it works great the other cons are where the rats die. is not so desirable.

I guess everyone has seen the outdoor bait boxes by Tomcat to thin the herd or nuisance rodents. I don’t know about you, but I will never display such traps at my home, so I have gone so far as incorporate structures to hide them amongst flower pots and the like.

I live in the country amid many acres of corn, so rodents are an issue and I don’t want them coming home to my house, certainly, and also my sheds, and I’d rather them not be roosting elsewhere in my yard and garden.

Invariably then will and have found a way indoors when it’s rainy and cold. The Tomcat Rockscape Bait Station uses the same tried and true mouse and rat irresistable feed as the bait, but houses it insige a virtually tamper-proof plastic rock that looks like it belongs amid other rocks ornately or functionly placed around the lawn and garden.

Rodents are very rare inside guests anymore. I know they are visiting the bait stations because I need to replace the bait every other month or so. I also think the ground moles and voles also take the bait, because their tunneling is under control.

I recommend the Tomcat Rockscape Bait Station as your mainline defence against invasive rodents that do property damage and will invariably try to cozy-up in your comfortable home.

Bought 3 packages, sat them on counter & went to family house to eat. come home & rats already chewed into one bag & took all the poison out of it, there was no sign of the poison anywhere. so, I left closed bags on counter & next day another bag was chewed up & poison was gone with no signs of it anywhere.

I know we still have rats, because they are still roaming the house. We have spent over $300. 00 in rat bait, & rat traps, still they. re everywhere. Never had an issue with these rodents till neighbors cleaned the junk out of their yard! I don’t know what more we can do to get these rodents out of my life.

I am not saying the product did not work, just saying they are for sure eating it, but we haven’t found any dead.

I thought the blocked worked decent. It was easy to setup and did get quite a few mice in it at first but then the mice decided that the block wasn’t better than my home in the end. Right when it started getting a bit chilly outside.

The product looked and for the most part worked like the big boxes that come from an actual pest control company. I have used those before and I feel they work about the same as well. Im a female. I would recommend this to a friend.

I ised this product for about a month. Im around the age of 30.

We have used this product on the orchard for may years. If place regularly in larger critter proof tubes, it will eliminate vole and mouse damage. I like placing it inside a 12 inch long pieces one inch inside diameter plastic water pipe.

Pipe is attached to a 2X4 14 inches long. Drill a small hole 2 inches in from each end. Blocks are kept 2 inches inside the tubes with a nail put thru one hole and a screw the other. Remove the screw to refill the tube when necessary.

Fairly weather resistant, Will last a long time in the tube until the next mouse comes by.

This Really Really works!! Rats ate the wiring harness in my new car! Thanks to my brother, I put out this and Not One more rat in the garage!! FIVE STAR product!!!

I have used this product for many years with great satisfaction. My local TS decided to phase out Hawk because Tom Cat is much cheaper. I bought some Tom Cat and nailed it right beside Hawk in six different locations.

To the last, every Hawk bar was eaten and the Tom Cat remained untouched. I bought out the remaining stock of Hawk before the TS store ran out and reported the results to the store manager. I have also given samples of these rat bars to other people over time who have had the same results.

Now that I am running low on my supply, I have found that TS still offers the Hawk bars online so I can keep my premises and property protected.

I live out in the country and my house is built on farmland so we have mice and rat issues. My storage room, attached to my carport, has rat and mice droppings often and they seem to get into everything out there.

I couldn’t wait to try this Tomcat Rat & Mouse Killer Refillable Bait Station to see how bad of a problem I have out there. First of all, this is so easy to use. It is easy to fill and set up. It has a clear top so you can see if you have had any activity after set-up and I noticed the next day that I did.

I haven’t used any other mice or rat baits before this one because I have a dog and I was scared to use them where my dog would have access to them. This one is specifically made to deter pets from tampering with it so that is a relief to me.

I am going to get another one to put in my attic next. This is a very effective product because I haven’t seen any mouse or rat droppings since I first started using it. If you are looking for a product that is great in getting rid of your mouse and rat problem like I needed to, I highly recommend this one.

I was in true denial that I had mice in my garage. Well, after laying this down under something, and only a week in and boom it was there. I checked the trap, and they had eaten some of the block. I couldn’t believe it.

After just two weeks of buying a couple other traps of the same brand, since I know it works ( i have bought others and never noticed anything) There is less poop in garage, But my only issue is if the mouse just ate the poison about how long does it truly work? And does that mean I could have dead mice somewhere in my house now? But whatever, I will jump that hurdle next.

I highly recommend, if you have them, it wont be long before you notice. AAAA+++++.

I really like how well this mouse bait station worked. I have seen a few mice in my garage and after a few days of using this product I haven’t seen any mice or droppings since. I was very surprised at how easy this was to setup and use.

I really like that this product is not messy and doesn’t require any extra clean up. I also really like that you can easily refill this product. The bait station is small and can easily fit into small areas.

A great thing about this product is that it is safe around kids and pets. I am very impressed by this product and will definitely be purchasing more. I highly recommend this product.

We had a bad rat infestation in our yard and attic. I set two bait boxes with this product – on in the back of the yard, and another in the garage on the suspected path of ingress. Within 2 days, we had seen at least 10 dead rats (and who knows how many unseen), 5 more the next day, and within a week or so, consumption had dropped to almost none, and we never see or hear any more rats.

I keep the boxes on as a prophylactic measure, and need to fill them yearly, and no new rats! This stuff works better than anything else I have ever tried!.

we live in a high squirrel area, rats eating wires in vehicles, etc. eating our fishing boat seats, shredding our deck chair seats. digging into our flower planters. nasty varmints! we really like these pellets.

amazing how many of them they can eat and still attack! gotta love living in the sierra’s! these ‘help’ but do not iradicate! it helps! keeps us from shooting guns in the neighborhood.

Amazing product!! We live on 2 acres and there’s a huge car junkyard that borders the back of our property and when our mobile home was not occupied for a few months it was completely overrun with huge rats!!! I just wanted to give up the idea of ever moving back in completely!! BUT after consistently (once a week) placing chunks under the house and in the hidey holes the rats had made in the walls we are rodent free!!! It took a couple weeks to see some actual results just because there were so many but as long as we put them under the house we don’t get any more inside.

I know it was the bait chunks that did it because we skipped a couple weeks and saw one in the house again!! As soon as we put them out again *boom* problem solved! I’m sure if we didn’t have wooded property that had a car junkyard along the back fence we wouldn’t have to keep putting them down but laying out 5 or 6 chunks under the house every Saturday is really all we have to do to be rodent free, TomCat customers for life!!! Plus I don’t know what exactly it is in the baits but there’s something in there that keeps them from smelling after they’ve died, no need to worry about dead rat smell from under the house if they died down there.

seriously a miracle product!!.

Had several mice pay my home an uninvited visit! Had a national pest company put baits and traps inside and out. They also sealed all visible crawl space entry points. I them told them I no longer needed their services.

Because I saw what they did, and knew I could do same and more. So I purchased couple outdoor bait stations. And they let me keep the 2 already in service. Now I needed some very tasty and poisonous bait for rodent’s.

Did hours of research online. Found that JT Eaton peanut butter blocks were very effective. Ordered 4 pds or 64 blocks. Put them in new stations. And I was shocked ! They were eating them like Christmas cookies.

7 blocks in 8 days. And the other stations the bait was barely nibbled on. So I keep refilling the bait stations. Over last few days have noticed less eating of blocks. So obviously my fury lil friends are getting a lethal amount! I strongly recommend this product.

I had at least one large rat that had chewed a hole in the kitchen wall and would invade my pantry at night. I would hear him rustling around in there when I was in the other room. I could also hear the squeeking from under the floor of his family.

I bought Bait Block on a recommendation of a friend. The online order was quick and easy. Ordered on Wednesday and it was in-store by Monday. My problem was completely solved within a week. No more noises in the kitchen.

No more squekking from under my house. I just put a half dozen blocks out under the shelves in the pantry and around the hole they had chewed in the wall, and Bait Block took care of the rest.

I left an earlier review after just one day of surprisingly good results, and now that a week has passed, there are no mice here (hooray!) We had a constant outdoor mouse problem in our OA complex, and had used the TomCat brand of green bait blocks for over a year trying to control mice that kept showing up in the yard.

I would even see a baby now and again coming after birdseed. So, Tomcat is not that effective, and I went through maybe a bucket and four or so bags of their blocks. This bucket of JT Eaton peanut butter bait blocks has been AMAZING.

I have not seen a mouse in three days, and that is unusual. They are gone after just one week of consistent use (daily)! So I spent $24-is dollars on one bucket and have only used 10-12 of the blocks.

(I probably spent $80-90 over time on Tomcat bait blocks with far less results. ) Thank you to the geniuses at JT Eaton company sitting labs all day figuring out the perfect recipes to attract and effectively get rid of mice!.

Best stuff ever! Safe for everything BUT the mice & rats. Will not poison your pets, wildlife, humans, groundwater, soil, fish, hawks, owls, snakes, etc JUST rats and mice. They become dehydrated by the product de-activating their thirst mechanism, then go unconscious and pass away.

Supposedly more humane than other methods. I’ve seen rodents dying if other types of poison and traps and that is horrible, so I think passing away in their sleep does sound better. We used this at two different locations and it worked so well that we had half a bag leftover and haven’t needed to use it since.

With dogs, cats, owls, hawks, snakes, coyotes, raccoons, possums, around that could eat the body it’s important that whatever is used does not cause secondary poisoning. This product is completely safe if a predator or scavenger finds the deceased mouse or rat, it will not poison them if they consume the body.

It won’t poison the soil or water either. You don’t have to worry about it getting into well water, aquifer, filtering down to water table, lake, river, fish, amphibians, etc. It’s also safe if some other species eats the bait directly, bird, marmot, raccoon, dog, curious toddler, person with dementia or special needs, don’t have to worry about it poisoning anyone but the mice & rats.

Highly, highly recommend this stuff.

After a nearby restaurant closed, our building became overrun with mice! They deftly avoided glue traps, and mostly avoided regular mouse traps! A neighbor apparently poisoned some with regular mouse or rat poison, and ensuing the rotting dead mouse smell from the walls and floor was absolutely nauseating for days! Mice reproduce so fast, that their numbers quickly rebounded! Their piercing shrieks, startling running underfoot, and leaving mouse **** in surprising places was turning my apartment into a horror show! At last I found Mouse X! I placed the unopened bag on the kitchen floor near the refrigerator.

In the meanwhile I also discovered a bag of pasta high up on a shelf that the mice surprising accessed, and started to chew. I had forgotten to put it into a glass jar that mice cannot eat through. After I threw that out, and made sure all food was inside airtight glass and metal jars, or in the refrigerator, the mice chewed into the Mouse X bag and started feeding on it.

I soon found a few beige mouse poops, which also proved the mice were eating the Mouse X. (Normal mouse **** is black or dark brown). Within a three days, the apartment was quieter. Within a week I didn’t hear mice squeaking any more.

Within ten days I stopped seeing them run under foot along walls and near cabinets. There is no odor of dead mice, since Mouse X dehydrates and “mummifies” them. Mouse X saved me and my home! I am so grateful for this product! I also tremendously enjoy the clever, entertaining and informative Mouse Assassin advertisement that Mouse X runs on YouTube, and have watched it to the end countless times! I also appreciate the fact that Mouse X advertising helps video creators whose work I enjoy make a living.

I recommended Mouse X to my friends, and will recommend it to my neighbors and landlord! I will buy more Mouse X place a bag in each room just to be sure that if mice resurge in the building, they will quickly find Mouse X!.

I started using 3 weeks ago. Bait works effectively against mice. Using in home cellar area. I find the bait disappears (about 2-3 Tablespoons from tray) over each 1-week timeframe. I find 1-2 dead mice on floor/week over past 2-3 weeks.

I’m guessing I’m dealing with about 10 to 12 total mice that came in to escape the winter months. This bait should eventually kill all mating pairs.

Seller shipped quickly and packed well. Product as described except battery will not charge. Charger displays simultaneous red and green flashing lights. Troubleshooted with online help, battery is defective.

I have tried to reseat the battery in the charger to see if that fixes the issue, it does not. Everything else is great though.

It might work very well. if only it came with freaking BAIT! And the TSC doesn’t SELL the dang bait that fits this trap (you know – with HOLES in it to be able to slide down on the rod that keeps the bait in place).

And I can’t find the bait anywhere. So, I wasted my money, and now have to put up with a rat in my house till I find something that will work and have it SHIPPED to me. very disappointed.

I tried the Tomcat Child & Dog Resistant Disposable Rat & Mouse Killer station. This is a good time to put out bait with the weather getting cooler. I like that the poison is contained and cannot be easily accessed by pets or children.

However, it still has the caution that the rodents that eat the poison then go out and can be eaten by other animals, which may kill them. This station is compact enough to easily place around the house and can be placed horizontally or vertically.

It had a good design and you can easily see how much bait is left in the station without needing to touch it. Once the bait is gone, you can just pick the whole thing up and throw it out. There is little worry about little crumbs of poison that the rodents will carry out of the trap because they have to maneuver out.

I would recommend this trap for anyone who wants to put out poison to get rid of mice.

This is a review of the Tomcat® Rat & Mouse Killer Child & Dog Resistant, Disposable Station. First let me say that I don’t know that I have a rat/mouse problem, but it doesn’t hurt to be preventative.

I do have a cat though so I wanted to use something that wouldn’t harm it. The disposable station pretty much solves that problem as the cat wouldn’t be able to get to the bait inside the container. I decided to place the station in the corner of the garage to see if maybe I do have a rat/mouse problem.

Placing of the disposable station is pretty straight forward – with gloves just remove from box and place it where you want it. There is no opening, placing the bait, etc. It’s already setup to be placed.

So, it really can’t be easier. Now from an effective perspective I can’t really tell if it works or not since if you look at my picture the bait has not been touched after 7 days. Once again this is more of a preventative measure than an active measure so it’s hard to tell if it’s working or not.

Only time will tell.

The last time I had a rat problem, I used the (now) discontinued Decon trays; yeah, it’s been that long ago. Those trays worked great but, alas, they’re gone. I recently noticed a new rat problem in the walls and (tight) ceiling crawl space of my house.

After the standard precautionary measures (repair/reinforce foundation grates, window screens, attic vents, etc. ), I set about addressing the problem. I’m married now and the wife brought dogs with her so strict monitoring of uneaten dogfood was implemented; removing all sources of food and water from the rats.

Because of the wife’s dogs, she insisted we use “environmentally friendly” stuff; after a couple of weeks, no change in activity. we tried pet friendly stuff in the special bait boxes. The rats tasted it then walked away never going back.

More weeks went by. We tried zap traps, snap traps, and glue traps. The glue traps actually worked when deployed like a gauntlet (lots of them next to each other between several adjacent ceiling joists the way you would install insulation).

Caught two; one small (young), one large. The large one was so tenacious that when it got stuck on one of the glue traps, it ripped its own fur out of its skin just to get out of it. Fortunately, because I had the glue traps arranged in a gauntlet, it got stuck in one of the traps next to it.

The other rats then avoided that area. Deployed lots more glue traps in other areas; no more success. The wife spent some respectable money on all that stuff with only two rats caught over the past few months.

The noise in the walls and ceiling made her really nervous, kept her up at night, and eventually, she came around to agreeing to try the poison packs; i. e. , the “good stuff”. I deployed several packets of the Kaput stuff on a Saturday.

That night, we heard lots of activity in the ceiling where I had placed the packs. The next morning, I investigated and discovered pellets from within some of the packs strewn over a large area between two joists.

It appears as though at least two rats may have been fighting over one or more the packs, as if they were pulling at the packs (like tug-o-war) which caused them to tear open and spilling the pellets out.

As the days went by after that, my wife and I noticed a reduction in activity. By about the fifth day, all activity had stopped. This was the same result I remembered from using the Decon pellet trays.

The wife now sleeps through the night and is very happy; happy wife, happy life. If we ever have another rat problem, she has agreed to use the Kaput packs right off the bat. Like I told the wife, should’ve done this from the start; she hates it when I’m right.

The Voles are eating it! This is the first thing I have found that works against my plant eating Voles. Hopefully I can completely wipe out this troup so they dont eat my garden again. After a week, there is definitely less traffic in the tunnels.

Now I need to find a new tunnel to supply. the last 1/3 of a block was carried off hopefully to the den.

Voles, along with all kinds of other rodents, were freely running through my yard, eating roots, digging tunnels, destroying plants, tunneling under my foundation, etc. I bought this stuff, bought 1.

5 inch PVC pipe cut into 1 – 1. 5 feet sections, and put a packet inside each pipe. Works like a charm. The pipe keeps the packets dry and the critters like getting the stuff out of tunnels. Saved my yard! I keep a good supply of this around and use it regularly in the spring/summer/fall.

Wouldn’t be without it.

100% ineffective. Rats won’t even touch this stuff. At first I thought maybe the rats just weren’t finding it so put out a small amount of peanut butter right next to them. The rats ate the peanut butter and completely ignored the bait blocks.

We live in a rural area and, even with 4 cats, found ourselves with a sudden infestation of Roof Rats in our attic and the enclosed back porch. Over a few months times, we tried multiple poisons, baits and traps which they just completely ignored.

I was wary of dropping $54 on such a large quantity of yet another poison that I believed wouldn’t work but they were multiplying and I was desperate. I can honestly say now that I don’t regret spending a single penny on these pellet packs.

Within a week of literally just tossing some unopened packs into the attic space, we found the first dead rat!! The scurrying feet over our heads have stopped and I couldn’t be happier. I highly recommend this product!!.

Product can be attached to wire out of reach of children, pets, farm animals, etc. – Rodents eat in place, leaving remainder on wire. – No signs or sounds of scurrying pests within 24 to 48 hours. – Have used for several winters with no further rodent probs!.

I’ve been invaded by voles. So I made 4 traps that use this bait on a 1/4″ threaded pipe so it will automatically replace bait as it is eaten. So far no signs of eating any bait and its been a few weeks.

And I saw a vole as of yesterday. I will give it more time but I’m not satisfied so far.

I made vole traps with 2″ pvc. I placed 5 pieces on a wire in both traps. Came back 2 days later and they were all eaten by voles.

Bought the peanut butter flavor bait also. Works amazing in getting those RATS killed. Be aware that is a powerful poison and do not put the blocks anywhere (put them in designed traps or closed area where the rats can be) they can be eaten by any animal because of the flavor.

Also, use plastic gloves when you handle the blocks. Overall, I am very happy with the purchase!!!.

This product works perfectly. We just break up 1 bar at a time, place in a dish in the shed, lean too, where we have squirrels, moles, and other little pests, and we have noticed the difference. We were plagued with nuts, destruction of items in the barn.

This has been a huge improvement. It is nice to walk into the building and no nuts, no pests, no sign. You may have to break up the bars a few times. and you will notice that you have more bait let out, then previously.

That is a GREAT SIGN<.

It works very well! But be carful where you place it. You dont want any Chance of unintended animals to be able to get to it. I placed in the crawl space of my home after seeing a rat disappear around the crawl space.

One pound bar eaten in two days and no more signs of rats. Never had a issue with rodents until Nighbor got chickens. So far I havent seen any return. I also have a rat zapper trap set outside along the foundation.

I purchased after the just one bite. It hasnt gotten a rat yet. Not because it dont work but most likely because I killed them already. By using the just one bite.

I put 6 cubes everywhere from my house and drawers and garage and bathroom and I don’t see a rat or mice dropping anywhere. I had 20 plus mice everywhere in my house to garage and now they are all showing up dead everywhere.

So awesome and very easy to use. Just put the green cube where you see mice droppings and its will do the rest. I must have got rid of 20-30 mice in like less than one week. Thank you so much. 5 Stars*****.

Not sure how many stars to give this. My place has a portable stucture & 3 stick structures. I am on my second bucket & I still have to replace the chunks in all structures about once every week or two.

They all are eaten with a lot of mouse turds where I placed them. So I don’t know if it is working or if they are enjoying a lot of meals on me? If the chunks are still getting eaten by the end of the second bucket I will try another brand.

As of now I do not think I will recomend it.

I wanted to eliminate a squirrel problem This didn’t do much for me it actually attracted more Red Squirrels after two weeks. I was hoping they would have gotten sick or died from this but so far nothing.

I’ve gone through half the bucket and it just seems like they actually like it. I had to nail the bar to the trees and they just nibble away at if in two days and I’ve done this 3 times. I’ve set traps with it and they literally drag the bars and the traps away to eat it.

It probably does a good job killing mice and rats but this actually attracted more Red squirrels.

I live in a rural area and my back yard backs up tp a woods. There are all kinda of critters in my yard. They chewed up my new porch roof (they like pitch), are tearing down a 5ft tall field stone retainer wall that cost thousands of dollars to install.

They chewed the frame around my sliding glass door (the frame around the glass), etc. , etc. I bought Just One Bite in March and filled 2 different kinds of bait traps. After 3 weeks, I didn’t see another varmint all summmer.

Highly recommend this product.

I am in an area with a lot of rodents. Pack rates and desert rats. This is a very effective bait. I like the fact that is reduces secondary kill as we also have a lot of hawks and owls as well. Holds up better in the Phoenix heat that the block baits.

It does attract ants so use an ant bait near the bait boxes to kill any ants attracted to the bait.

My husband told me one evening that he thought he saw a rat where we store our trash cans outside. I didn’t want to believe it but we looked closer and found some fresh animal droppings that looked like rat droppings.

I did some research and the Tomcat Rat & Mouse Killer has great review so I thought I will give it a try. I have a dog and it is super important to us that we only use products that are dog friendly especially if it could be poisonous.

The Tomcat rat & mouse killer included a kid and dog resistant station. The station is indeed hard to open and I feel that it is dog proof. The box included one refillable station and 15 blocks of bait which is plenty.

Each block kills up to 3 rats! The bait station has a little plastic window that lets you see inside to check if you caught anything and to see how much bait is left. I was not sure what to expect but it worked and it worked super fast! We caught a rat the first night and another one the next night.

I am super glad that we are able to take care of the rat issue ourself without having to spend lots of money for a pest control service.

I have used Tomcat Rat & Mouse Killer for years, and have never had an issue with this product or the inability to rid my house, garage, and barn of rodents. The station I use in the barn and garage measures 3.

38 x 9. 69 x 6. 25 inches, includes 15 bait blocks, is weather-resistant, making it the ideal for indoor and outdoor use. The bait station has a see-through window for easy monitoring of bait. This reusable station gives mice easy access to the bait while keeping children’s fingers and dog paws out.

This station is very easy to use, flip over, remove the bait holder,and load 1 or 2 bait blocks onto the metal posts, reinstall the bait holder and your done. One bait block kills up to 3 rats. Remember to always use disposable gloves when handling the bait blocks as they contain bromethalin, which acts as a nerve agent.

We got this bait station to use in the crawlspace of our new mountain cabin. It is starting to get colder so no doubt the rats and mice will make their way into the crawlspace to warm up and nest in the insulation.

Because we won’t always be at the cabin to unload them, we didn’t want to use the spring loaded kill-traps since they have to be unloaded before another rat or mouse can be killed. This bait station is very easy to load and while not a problem at the moment, I like that it’s child and pet proof.

As advertised, the see-through window makes it easy to monitor the amount of bait left in the station. The bait station is guaranteed to kill rats and mice; however, because the station doesn’t actually trap them inside, they eat the bait and go off to die elsewhere.

So, unless you actually see the carcasses, you are left to trust the poisonous bait is doing its job.