Roof rats are a grey subspecies of the black rat, about half the size of a brown rat. They call them roof rats because they climb, these are far and away the commonest rat in South Texas.
I wouldn’t use bait, too much chance of the dead ones stinking up the house. Since I have small dogs I hesitate to use a sprung trap, glue traps work well, but what ever trap you use tie it off with a string to something to prevent the rat from dragging it off.
Never had any luck with peanut butter, greasy meat baits like bacon or sausage work well.
