A Better Mousetrap

[Jim Koepke]

Not sure if this was mentioned in an earlier discussion on mouse traps on SMC or merely came from a suggestion about anchoring the bait to a mousetrap.

My first choice of mousetraps is the old tried and trued Victor trap with the copper plate to hold the bait. Sometimes these are not in stock.

Instead of shopping a different store a different brand were purchased. These had a hole in the trigger/bait holder in to which the lock hooked.

I do not recall one of these ever catching a mouse. Instead the peanut butter bait was licked off the trigger and the trap still set.

A short piece of string was fed through the trigger and tied securely. Peanut butter was spread on the bait holder and the string was entrapped in this.

In the four days since doing this three mice have been caught in this trap.

The Victor traps are not too difficult to give them a hair trigger. It makes them a little more difficult to set on the floor after setting.

jtk

[Doug Garson]

I found a trick on line for mouse or rat traps, rather than peanut butter or in addition to peanut butter, hot melt glue cheerios to the bait plate so they can't lick it off.

[Nathan Johnson]

Squish a cheerio into the peanut butter.
Works great on the Tomcat snap traps.

[Lee Schierer]

Not sure if this was mentioned in an earlier discussion on mouse traps on SMC or merely came from a suggestion about anchoring the bait to a mousetrap.

My first choice of mousetraps is the old tried and trued Victor trap with the copper plate to hold the bait. Sometimes these are not in stock.

Instead of shopping a different store a different brand were purchased. These had a hole in the trigger/bait holder in to which the lock hooked.

I do not recall one of these ever catching a mouse. Instead the peanut butter bait was licked off the trigger and the trap still set.

A short piece of string was fed through the trigger and tied securely. Peanut butter was spread on the bait holder and the string was entrapped in this.

In the four days since doing this three mice have been caught in this trap.

The Victor traps are not too difficult to give them a hair trigger. It makes them a little more difficult to set on the floor after setting.

jtk

I've found that some mice can lick the peanut butter off the victor traps as well so I lash a piece of old tee shirt to the trigger and mash the peanut butter into that. I find that I can catch 3-4 mice without having to reload the peanut butter.

[Jim Koepke]

I've found that some mice can lick the peanut butter off the victor traps as well so I lash a piece of old tee shirt to the trigger and mash the peanut butter into that. I find that I can catch 3-4 mice without having to reload the peanut butter.

Yes, that has happened with my Victor traps as well. Have put a string on one of those, may try it on the others but they seem to catch mice as much as they lose the bait without springing.

The trap that has caught no mice before caught its fourth yesterday or last night.

jtk