If you've got rats, then you might have been reading online to see what to do about it - and you'll be offered a rat bait box and some rat poison to solve the problem. However, the websites just show you the bait boxes for sale and don't really tell you what they're like.

I've had the Council pest control services visit to bait a rat box at my house and on this, their third visit, I actually took some photos. I'm saving them though, to write a bigger post somewhere else.

But here are the questions that a new user of a rat bait box might be asking themselves:

Q: Will it be filled with dead rats? Will I have to deal with those?
A: In the main you will never see a dead rat inside the box. That is something that can happen, although it's very rare

Q: Why can't I just chuck poison where I've seen the rats?
A: Because other wildlife, pets, or even children, might touch it, or eat it. It's dangerous stuff.

Q: How does a rat bait box work?
A: The poison, in solid form, or pellets, is placed inside - and there are openings are each end large enough for a rat to crawl inside. They crawl in as they love rat poison, they eat some and leave. They will then die elsewhere, probably where they live.

And that's pretty much it. My fear was that a bait box would be full of rats, or dead rats, but you're pretty safe there!