If we’re serious about achieving our goal of being Predator Free by 2050, we need to outsmart the rats.

Rats can potentially start breeding when only five weeks. A female rat can produce six litters a year – of up to 12 rat pups at a time.

Worldwide, rats number in the billions, making them the world’s most populous mammal. After arriving in Aotearoa, their numbers exploded.

Rats have freaky survival skills like being able to tread water for up to three days. Ship rats – the most common rat in New Zealand – can climb almost any rough surface and jump over 70cm high. Latest research found they can roam for more than a kilometre.

“Rats are more than pooping pantry prowlers and noisy attic dwellers,” says Jessi Morgan, CE of Predator Free New Zealand. “Rats chew electric wire and break pipes, causing house fires and floods. Like other predators they prey on native birds, lizards and bugs in a major way.”

Rats are wily and the challenge of eliminating them is huge. On the positive, smart thinking and new technologies are carving a role for New Zealand as world leaders in pest eradication. Meanwhile, many Kiwis are tackling the basics of dealing with rats near them.

Here are some expert tips for getting started.

1. Take the chew test

“In my experience, everyone has at least some rats nearby,” says Craig Bond, co-founder of Goodnature, the Wellington-based makers of smart traps.

Bond says the easiest way to find out is using a simple test using chew cards which you put in various places around your property.

2. Eliminate the competition

Make your trap the sole target. Don’t put bread or other food in your compost bin. You can rat proof it, using chicken wire, a drill and cable ties.

Remove all other competing food sources in your backyard, such as fallen fruit on the ground, open compost or pet food bowls, that might distract a rat from your lure.

3. Get clever with pre-feeding

Leave your trap unset and smear your lure, such as peanut butter, mayonnaise or nutella, at the entrance of the tunnel and around the trap. Rats are afraid of new things, so this lure buffet convinces them your trap is a foodie haven, says Morgan.

”Pre-feeding It’s a bit like a drug,” says Bond. “Be generous with the pre-feeding around your site. Make sure they get keyed into that food.”

4. Location, location

Rats are wily, which is why when you’re setting up a rat trap in your backyard, you have to think like a sales and marketing pro, says Morgan. “You don’t want to give rats a bad experience or a fright in your trap, or they’ll never come back”

To encourage rats into your trap don’t hide it in the bushes or camouflage it with leaves. Place your trap along a fence, hedge or wall. Use your trap inside a tunnel to prevent pets or children from accessing the trap. Check you can see through the tunnel.

“Make sure your trap is in a good spot and has a lure in it,” says Bond. “They will have already been keyed into it by the pre-feed. They will go in there and get killed by the trap.”

5. Avoid cheap knock offs

Not all traps are created equal. The Predator Free team recommends using a high-quality trap that meets New Zealand humane standards (NAWAC). The Victor Professional or T-Rex are great for the backyard, says Morgan.

If you’re not keen on setting manual traps, or dealing with dead bodies, then go high-tech with a resetting smart trap such those from Goodnature.

“We try to make our traps as low touch as possible,” says Dave Shoemack CEO of Goodnature. The company makes several models of the smart, resetting trap, including some that can be monitored using your phone.

In the bush and outback they can be used at scale and operate for maximum impact. In your back garden this means you can take more of a set and forget approach than with more basic traps.

“Our goal is the rewilding of the world,” says Shoemack.