I've had problems in the past where they just lick the peanut butter off the triggers without ever tripping the traps.
Does cotton balls work better?
I'm curious too. I'll take any edge I can get to deter these mini-monsters.
No rats that I know of but I have mice like crazy. They chew wires too - got into the lawn mower's engine shroud and filled it with fiberglass insulation they robbed out of the wall and then chewed off the coil wires on the v-twin - so TWO $40 coils because the wires are potted - can't just buy the coil wire. Ate the foam pre-filter off the air cleaner too.
This year, they've been ridiculous. Set a trash can out that had scratch-grain in it, which I'd cleaned and left to dry. Forgot about it. Noticed the other day a drowned mamma and four almost grown young-'uns all fell for the same unintentional trick. We'd gotten a good week of rain and there was four inches of water in the can. Don't know if they fell in after or before the water accumulated, but it did the trick.