Trapping Mice How To Trap Mice

Trapping Mice How To Trap Mice

“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

A Better Mouse Trap?

The best way to deal with pests, whether insects or rodents, is pest prevention. I have no doubt about that, prevention is the most logical and humane pest control but sometimes, in spite of our best intentions and best efforts, one or two may get by, and the best laid plans of men fall to the best laid plans of mice.

I am not sure in exactly what context Emerson's famous words were penned or spoken, but have always assumed that it was somehow related to innovation as it relates to basic human needs being the chief way to success. If I am wrong about that, please forgive me Mr. Emerson. Unfortunately, Mr. Emerson never saw the best innovation for trapping mice, he died in 1882, and the greatest leap in trapping mice, the Hooker trap, came along in 1894.

The best device for trapping mice, so far

I have looked at a lot methods for trapping mice, and many mouse trap innovations, and have yet to see any that actually top Hooker's good old spring loaded mechanical apparatus that we have have all been accustomed to seeing from childhood. If you have never seen one, just review the old Tom and Jerry cartoons.

These traps have been maligned by users for not being efficient, and by animal rights groups, for being cruel, but, they are the best method available for trapping mice. The efficiency problem is not with our traps, the problem is in the implementation.

Let me put it this way: The main reasons that mouse traps don't work, is operator error!

These mouse trapping tips should help.

The old cheese on the mousetrap, made famous by innumerable cartoons is really not the best way to use it.

Peanut butter on the trap is now the common standard, but if you are like me, you have come back to traps to find them licked clean.

1. The best method for trapping mice that I have found, is to glue a nut to the trap. This has resulted in a much higher rate of catches than any other method I have used. They can't lick it off, they can't steal it and make a run for the hole with the cat in hot pursuit.
2. If this method does not suit you, try this: take some white bread, squeeze it together in a small ball, and then press it around the bait holder in such a way that it cannot be easily removed.
3. In either method, set more than one trap per location. If one makes a catch, leave the other until you are sure that no others are scouting the same area.

Dealing with the mouse afterward.

This can be the most difficult part of trapping mice. Let me offer a couple of suggestions for the squeamish:

1. When you hear the clap of the trap, don't rush in quickly. In most cases, the unfortunate little critter may have a little kicking and squirming to do. Wait until this is over.
2. If you use plastic grocery bags, get a couple of them, double them, put a hand inside, release the trap, and pick the mouse up with the bag. Pull the bag around the rodent, and tie it off. Drop the whole mess into another bag, and tie it off as well. Dispose of it in a suitable manner.

I do not recommend the use of glue traps. They can lead to some pretty nasty results. Some people like to use glue traps because they feel that they are more humane than the spring loaded slap traps, but leaving a creature to die of starvation, or remove its own limbs to get free is hardly humane. The best method for trapping mice is still the spring loaded trap.

After trapping the mice

When you are certain that you have caught all the mice present, go back to the area and look for signs of how the mice entered. It may take a while, because mice can get through a hole the size of a pencil. At any rate, you should find the entrance, and plug it to avoid future problems.

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