Thanks for the suggestion that were posted after my inquiry.

Well I've tried the string with the peanut butter trick. The foot plate
comes with a hole at the end so it was easy to thread a short length of
cotton kite string through the hole, tie a square knot in it, and cut
the string leaving about 3/8" tails beyond the knot. I really worked
the peanut butter into the threads of the string and put a healthy dab
on the area around the hole and toothed part of the foot plate. I've
had 2 failures. Both times the string and foot plate look as though
they were put through a dish washer! That's one agile tongue on that
critter!

I know that the trap can snap, because very gentle pressure with the end
of a screw driver, or even a firm nudge of the entire trap causes it to
snap.

I know that I've got something bigger than insects because just
yesterday I clearly heard loud fast scratching sounds coming from behind
the wallboard on the common wall between the garage (where I've set the
trap) and my dining room. They stopped immediately after I pounded the
wall once with my fist.

On to the piece of chicken as bait. If that doesn't work, I think that
I'm going to have to try a different type of trap. Unfortunately, when
I read the on-line user comments about the other common types, there are
many complaints for all of them about failing to catch anything but
droppings.