OT - Mousetrap improvement

Not my idea, but wish it was.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon
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I usually just add some flour to the peanut butter to make it thicker so it's harder for the sneaky mice to lick it off without setting off the trap, but I like this "drilled almond" trick.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Danniken

It's not really off topic....it is home improvement (keeping vermin out) and you should share tips about the equipment used....drill bit, best rpm's for drilling almonds, what type of wire, etc. :o)

Reply to
norminn

At the govt lab where I once worked, a draught year brought in thousands of mice. A contest was held to see who could build the most efficient mouse trap and kill the most mice in one night. It was big lab with about a 10K working population, so a lot of brainiacs.

The winners used a simple galvanized washtub, the kind used to make a washtub bass, and mounted a hinged one-by stick on the edge so it would teeter-totter down into the tub, filled about a quarter full with water, when a mouse ran out on the stick to eat the peanut butter smeared on the end. After the mouse fell in the water, the teeter-totter would automatically reset for the next mouse. It caught over 100 mice the first night.

What makes this so interesting is the fact that this being a govt lab, money was no object. Anyone could have built a radar guided laser death ray killing thingie, spending hundreds of thousands without batting an eye. In fact, someone may have done just that. But in the end, out of dozens of entries and research teams and literally "rocket science" efforts, the winner by a large margin was about as low tech as it gets. True story. ;)

nb

Reply to
notbob

I find the Victor trap where tripper looks like a piece of Swiss cheese works best. It is very sensitive and you can smear peanut butter in the holes. Regular traps, mice can lick it off and any trap that is not sensitive is useless.

I don't like glue boards as they do not work that well and I've seen a mouse practically gnaw off its leg to get out of one. I don't hate mice that much to see them suffer.

Reply to
Frank

I live trap and release them. DONT keep a food source thats easily accesible for them.

like the time i kept a 100 pound sack of sunflower seeds in the basement for bird feeding/.

lesson learned evicted about 60 mice over a few weeks.

live trap and release is the better way............

Reply to
hallerb

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Reply to
Metspitzer

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Reply to
Oren

I've never witnessed trap and release of mice. Is this something new?

Reply to
Oren

You didn't catch and release 60 mice. You caught and released the same five mice a dozen times.

Reply to
Doug Miller

nope they were all different mice, they had no way back in.

my belief, open garage door one pregnant female mouse wanders in, i have seen them sneak in with garage door open, back to when i was a kid.

one female mouse finds plentiful supply of sunflower seeds, the ideal mouse food. she is pregnant and exponential multiplication begins......

the live trap worked fine emptied at least twice a day. some obvious oldtimers heavily grey died probably from fear.

the rest were released without incident..........

why kill anything unnecessarily?

Reply to
hallerb

The only way you might really know this, is using a spray paint or magic markers. Add a scarlet letter?

Reply to
Oren

I release them in the high grass by the river in the park a mile away. The owls in that park really like me.

Reply to
aemeijers

I can hear them now. "Hey Guys! The roach coach just showed up!"

Reply to
Kurt Ullman

I keep my bird seed in 5 gallon plastic buckets. Once I forgot to snug the lid down, and the next time I opened it, two mice looked up at me with 'What're YOU looking at?!' expressions.

I haven't trapped lately, once I realized they were only coming in to get the peanut butter out of the teeter-totter traps, that had previously worked quite well for me. I have NO idea how they do it- the damn things are so twitchy that if I look at them wrong, the door falls shut. Mebbe two of them work together, taking turns- one jams himself under the high end, and the other goes in and gets the PB.

But, in a few months, come cold weather, I suppose it will all start up again. Any food not in a hard-sided container goes in fridge, so pickings are better outside in summer.

Reply to
aemeijers

"no way back in" THAT YOU KNOW OF. Unless you released them at least a mile away, you were catching the same mice. Over and over and over.

LMAO

Reply to
Doug Miller

Buddy of mine did that with a raccoon that kept getting into his dogfood supply. 3 daughters at home at the time, so he tried catch&release to keep them happy. 2nd or 3rd time, he spray-painted a yellow spot on his back. Next time he saw the spot, he sent the wife and kids shopping, shot it and buried it. Mice, half a mile or so is probably plenty. My buddy said he took the coon 5 miles across a river, and it was back within 48 hours.

Reply to
aemeijers

I set some mouse traps one time only to have ants eat the peanut butter off the trigger. So I put out ant bait in the little plastic squares and the mice flipped them over and ate the ant bait. I could have sworn I found a tiny little thank you note on the table.

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

Until you've experienced the thrill of your fingers around a small, furry neck...

Reply to
HeyBub

So you became a mouse chauffeur? And, here I thought having three sons in Little League was a PITA ;)

Reply to
Frank

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