In article , techman41973 wrote:
We have a atleast 2 rats that have made our garage a home to escape
the cold and rainy winter nights here in N. California. I've seen them
myself several times during the day.
I bought some enclosed mouse traps. I thought the hole for them to
crawl in could be a bit too small, but I learned that rats and mice
can crawl through any hole that their head fits in (body will compress
to fit).
I baited the traps with peanut butter (which everyone seems to
recommend) and left them in the paths where I have seen these rats.
The traps were out for days, where they weren't even touched, moved or
triggered.
Then I tried putting a smear of peanut butter outside of the traps and
the rats never even touched it.
I then noticed the peanut butter I used was a light peanut butter with
added corn syrup, but if anything a sweet peanut butter should be even
more tempting for them.
Looking for some advice.

Biggest problem is likely that you're using the wrong kind of trap. To catch
rats, you don't use a mouse trap. Rats are an order of magnitude bigger than
mice. You need a rat trap. Get one of these:
http://www.victorpest.com/store/rodent-control/m201

Bait it with a prune.