A feral house cat has begun visiting my rural house. I can see his paw prints on the seat of my garden tractor.
Not sure if he is a problem or a blessing. He probably eats birds but also gets the rats and mice. Living in the woods, you will have rats no matter what you do.
At least the cat keeps them down.
The best trap I have used is the glue traps. Are you using a large one?
Glue traps have always worked for me...until now. This critter got stuck to one of my large sticky traps and freed itself after what appeared to be hours of struggle (lots of fur and a number of droppings on the trap).
Now the sticky traps are useless, as are the other baited traps.