A better mousetrap…

Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
Today’s subject is mouse traps.

If you had read my Steam Vent thread, from about a month ago (misnamed Household Electrical Problem), about my amp that needed repair, I mentioned a mouse, and wondered if a mouse had chewed on the amp’s power cord. That turned out to be not so, and I later caught one mouse. After 5-6 more nights of baited traps, I caught no more mice. The traps I used each had a trap door which contained the mouse inside the box without killing it (see below). I find these Trap & Contain mousetraps as effective as the standard Spring-Kill mouse traps, where a powerful spring (sometimes) kills the mouse as he takes the bait. These Trap & Contain mousetraps do require talking a short walk in the morning before releasing the mouse, or killing it directly, but they are less messy than the Spring-Kill traps.

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Last week, my mouse problem returned. This time, the mouse was smarter or luckier. Apparently, he learned how to get the peanut butter without getting caught in the trap. I’ve seen standard Spring-Kill mousetraps that failed to kill a mouse while allowing the bait to disappear. Usually, the trigger mechanism needed some adjustment. But the mechanism in these Trap & Contain mousetraps is so simple that there is nothing to adjust. They work on balance and gravity, a mouse entering the trap causes the balance to shift toward the rear, the closed end of the trap, and the door drops down and locks. The yellow bit of plastic springs outward as the door shuts and keeps the door from opening until it’s pressed from the outside.

It is possible that I used too much peanut butter, or put the dab of peanut butter too close to the door, allowing the mouse to get it without fully entering the trap. If you put the bait too far away from the door, the door never stays open.

For two out of three successive nights he got peanut butter from each of two traps while never getting caught. On one night he got the peanut butter from one trap, and escaped from the other trap while leaving the bait behind. And on a fourth night, he avoided being trapped while managing to flip the trap upside down. This is one crafty and athletic mouse. And all I was doing was training him how to outsmart my “humane” traps.

I talk about this mouse as if it’s just one. I know that if you have a mouse in your house, you usually never have just one, but many. I also talk about it as if I knew it was male. I never determined the gender, only that this mouse was one rat bastard of a mouse.

And he was getting me angry! One night, while watching Netflix, my wife & I saw him run around from behind the bookshelves, and stop near the fireplace. I swear I saw him stand on his hind legs and grin as he flipped me the bird with his tiny mouse paw! I think he even was using my wifi. I started hating that mouse!

So I started looking on Amazon for a better mousetrap. There were the usual wooden Spring-Kill traps, and similar looking plastic traps with different looking spring mechanisms, said to work better. I could always get a half dozen traps and get this mouse by brute force. But I didn’t just want to get this guy, I wanted to execute him.

Then I saw the Victor Electronic Mouse Trap.


It uses 4 AA batteries and electrocutes the mouse!

The first user review, titled Questions, Complaints Answered!, convinced me to try it. It was written by a squeamish woman who clearly detests mice, “I do shuddering freak-outs at the sight of a mouse, dead OR alive.” Despite that, she educated herself on the topic because she wanted a trap that absolutely worked. It’s worth reading.

Yesterday the trap arrived from Amazon. Last night I baited it and switched it on. This morning, I found it with the blinking green light indicating it had done it’s job.

Scratch One Mouse!

I’ll set it out again and again until I don’t catch any more mice.
 
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lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I've had good luck with a particularly touchy regular old wood/spring kill trap. Had an issue when I first moved in this place, then once again, after that I figured out their entry point and once I addressed that, no problem unless the block gets moved....no way I'm releasing one to just find his way back in, plus they're always out there. In any case the carcasses always disappear from the back yard overnight....

Altho a flashing green light and not getting blood on stuff sounds appealing....
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
Today’s subject is mouse traps.

If you had read my Steam Vent thread, from about a month ago (misnamed Household Electrical Problem), about my amp that needed repair, I mentioned a mouse, and wondered if a mouse had chewed on the amp’s power cord. That turned out to be not so, and I later caught one mouse. After 5-6 more nights of baited traps, I caught no more mice. The traps I used each had a trap door which contained the mouse inside the box without killing it (see below). I find these Trap & Contain mousetraps as effective as the standard Spring-Kill mouse traps, where a powerful spring (sometimes) kills the mouse as he takes the bait. These Trap & Contain mousetraps do require talking a short walk in the morning before releasing the mouse, or killing it directly, but they are less messy than the Spring-Kill traps.
If the mouse had chewed the power cord, I seriously doubt it would have caused a problem with the amp, other than popping the breaker in the panel. They like to chew on speaker wire though, and that would definitely cause problems if the amp's output isn't protected. Cats like to chew on wires, too- used to see many people at the store who thought their receiver needed repair and we would always test it before writing up the service slip- most worked fine, so we asked about the speakers and they would bring those in later. Again, we saw no problem, so we started asking about pets as soon as they called about amplifier problems.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
… Altho a flashing green light and not getting blood on stuff sounds appealing....
It really is, especially first thing in the morning.

I'm not squeamish about mice. I used to work in cancer research, and in the lab I used plenty of mice. Handled and killed as many as 100 in a single day. Doing that, I got over being squeamish real fast. The fastest and most humane way to kill a mouse is by cervical dislocation. You snap the spinal cord by holding the head down while pulling down on the shoulders or hips. The Spring-Kill traps are supposed to work that way, but only if the mouse has read the directions. Sometimes the kill bar hits on the snout, across the body, or on a leg. The mouse can survive for minutes while in miserable pain. I never liked that.

In the lab, I used inbred strains of mice, usually C57BL/6 (black 6 mice) or BALB/c (albino mice). Those strains were bred so all mice of one strain were genetically identical, and they were kept in mouse facilities that were kept scrupulously disease free. But wild field mice are exposed to disease, and ticks that transmit Lyme disease. I don't want them in my house, and if I can avoid it, I'd don't want to handle them.

It's odd that I have mice in the summer. In the past, it happened in the fall as weather got cold. Lately there seems to be a lot of mice around. Apparently, according to the newspaper, in 2013 there was a bumper crop of acorns. Which led to a bumper crop of mice – and ticks – and Lyme disease.

This morning – day 2 of the campaign – no mouse in the trap. I'll keep up the effort.
 
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Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
@everettT

We used to have a cat, Garth, who eventually became a good hunter. When he was young, he would take 2 or 3 nights on mouse alert before he could catch any mice. Once he caught them, he would lick them to death. He gradually improved, once catching a bat. He must have been thrilled with a 'flying mouse'.

While he was busy and distracted, we always slept better because he wasn't waking us at 4 am as he liked to do. Until one night he caught a mouse and brought it upstairs to show us – while we were sleeping. I never saw my wife wake up and move so fast as she did when Garth hopped on her with his latest prize :D.
 
everettT

everettT

Audioholic Spartan
@everettT

We used to have a cat, Garth, who eventually became a good hunter. When he was young, he would take 2 or 3 nights on mouse alert before he could catch any mice. Once he caught them, he would lick them to death. He gradually improved, once catching a bat. He must have been thrilled with a 'flying mouse'.

While he was busy and distracted, we always slept better because he wasn't waking us at 4 am as he liked to do. Until one night he caught a mouse and brought it upstairs to show us – while we were sleeping. I never saw my wife wake up and move so fast as she did when Garth hopped on her with his latest prize :D.
My current kitten and my older cat are prolific hunters. Plenty of gifts dropped at the back porch. Oh and I get what you mean about the early am being woken up, the kitten is a terror trying to get me or the dogs to play.
 
JohnnieB

JohnnieB

Senior Audioholic
So...you used mice as test subjects in the lab and now you have them outsmarting your traps where you live. o_O Life is not without irony it seems. Cant help it, to me that's funny. :D
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
"I brung you this mouse- I hope you like.... aw, who am I kidding? I'm a cat- I don't care if you like it, or not".

My neighborhood used to have stray cats- not particularly wild, but they didn't have homes. One day, I found a mouse laying on the doormat at the side door of my house, with its tail straightened and it looked like its fur was combed. It was aligned with the edge of the mat, not at some random angle. I found it the day after the last time I saw the cat in the photo- it seemed like a goodbye present, like it knew its time was coming to an end.
 

Attachments

Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
Sunday Day 3 – no mouse in the trap this morning.
 
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Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
@Pogre

I just finished reading about the long-waited for arrival of Bucknekked's new Salk SongTowers. You're in Mesa and he's in Phoenix, how far away is that?

If I remember, you have SVS Ultra towers, right? I remember hearing them at an audio show a few years ago, and I liked them. They are about the same price as SongTowers.

It would be interesting to hear what you think of the SongTowers, considering you are familiar with SVS Ultras. I believe Jim Salk thinks of them as real competition in that price range.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
Monday Day 4 – No mouse. Since day 1, I've caught only one mouse.

Will continue with fresh peanut butter each night.
 
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Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
@Pogre

I just finished reading about the long-waited for arrival of Bucknekked's new Salk SongTowers. You're in Mesa and he's in Phoenix, how far away is that?

If I remember, you have SVS Ultra towers, right? I remember hearing them at an audio show a few years ago, and I liked them. They are about the same price as SongTowers.

It would be interesting to hear what you think of the SongTowers, considering you are familiar with SVS Ultras. I believe Jim Salk thinks of them as real competition in that price range.
I've thought about that swerd. @Bucknekked and I have a pretty good rapport too. I'd love to hear his new towers. I considered something like those when I started my rabbit hole thread. I'll hit him up.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Day 4 – No mouse. Since day 1, I've caught only one mouse.

Will continue with fresh peanut butter each night.
They are not prone to coming into the house in the summer. In the fall when it starts getting cold is when they show up. You have likely got rid of the mice that over wintered.

The real key is to stop the mice getting in. That takes a lot of observation and patience. A few years back the electrician left an entry for them into the generator control panel. Last fall they chewed though the sheet rock into the furnace room at the end of the garage. So now the sheet rock is covered and new door seals installed. I will see what happens this fall.

The problem with mice is they show each other how they can get in. So the odd one ends up being an avalanche if you don't find the entry point and close it off.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
They are not prone to coming into the house in the summer. In the fall when it starts getting cold is when they show up. You have likely got rid of the mice that over wintered.
That's been my, and most everyone's, experience too. Last winter on the mid Atlantic coast was unusually warm. There were few times we had it colder than freezing, and most of the winter was warmer.

Apparently (so I read in the local newspapers) in 2013 there was a bumper crop of acorns from oak trees. That, and the warmer than average winters, has lead to a bumper crop of field mice, leading to an apparent spread of ticks and tick-borne disease such as Lyme disease. I've noticed a number of flyers and door-to-door sales for exterminators working my neighborhood this spring & summer. All are selling their mouse catching and house proofing for mice services. Something different seems to be going on.

Perhaps that bumper crop of mice has now eaten all those acorns. And maybe it has also led to a
bumper crop of mice predators, owls, snakes, fox, etc. That's why those mice want to get in my house.
The real key is to stop the mice getting in. That takes a lot of observation and patience.
I'm also busy doing looking for anything to plug in the basement. I use steel wool, spray on expanding foam, wood, or caulk to close up any hole no matter how small.

But I do enjoy my battery powered mouse trap :D. It's more fun to post about it than mouse proofing the basement.
 
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Dan

Dan

Audioholic Chief
Congrats on your kill. Four more and you make ace. This also suggests some new hobbies for your retirement. You could build an electric mousetrap and post it in the DIY section. Or perhaps you could take up falconry. Then you can hunt them in the yard. Or as was suggested, a feline. I can't imagine your first cat Leo the Maine Coon, ever allowing a rodent into his realm.
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
...

Yesterday the trap arrived from Amazon. Last night I baited it and switched it on. This morning, I found it with the blinking green light indicating it had done it’s job.

Scratch One Mouse!

I’ll set it out again and again until I don’t catch any more mice.
Did you see the mouse inside it, dead?
How does it work? Charged caps?
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
Did you see the mouse inside it, dead?
How does it work? Charged caps?
Yes, on the first morning I had a dead mouse inside.

It requires the mouse to stand on two separate metal plates, one with the forepaws, and the other with the hindpaws. It uses 4 AA batteries, and when triggered, passes 6 VDC across the torso for 5 seconds. That apparently is enough to stop it's little heart. I saw a small circuit board inside, but no large caps :p.
 
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