How do you keep rats out of or away from your BBQ Pit, grill, cooking area, outdoor kitchen?

Building a new outdoor cooking facility & don’t want to share with vermin. Don’t want to use poison.

I have a continuing problem with pack rats. I really dislike the little buggers. They make a terrible mess if they get into the garage or make a nest inside a vehicle or enclosed trailer.

The only poison I have yet found to work is Kaput-D Pocket Gopher Bait. Works well. I leave tiny cups of the stuff inside areas where they might nest.

But, if using poison is out, there is only one trap…. With two variations…. that I have found to work.

In dry weather, I simply put 4-5 inches of water in “Homer Buckets” and leave them around the house. The pack rats will be drawn to the water and simply jump in to inevitably drown. Of course, this only works in dry weather.

The second also uses the same bucket with water but has a lid that tips/dumps when the rat steps on it to retrieve some peanut butter, or some other bait. Best bait seems to be peanut butter, bird seed or potato chips. I will scatter the seed or chips around the area and they get to liking the feed and will soon find their way to the bucket. The one with a yellow “tunnel” to draw the rat on the tip side of the axle works pretty good. Simply put seeds inside the tunnel so the rat has to go in to get the seed.

If I find a bucket with a dead rat in it, I will leave it for awhile and another rat may come to investigate and he may go for a swim as well. Once I ended with five rats in the drink….two adults and three juveniles.


Sometimes maple syrup draws them in. Put sunflower seeds out with only a few seeds having syrup on them and then dose the seeds on the lid of the tip trap.