Oursmarted by a mouse

[Ryan_V]

I have a mouse in my house that is driving me crazy. I had him caught on a glueboard, but he worked himself off. Now he won't go near a glueboard, and is able to eat the peanut butter off a snap trap and won't go into a multi catch live trap. Outside of poison, does anyone have any more ideas? maybe I'll call Billy the exterminator!

[jwmiller33]

do you know any of his movements or where he is hiding? when i was at college last year, we had a mouse in our house and we knew he was coming from the floor in the living room, and each night would wander his way to the kitchen and eat food off the floor (i know what your thinking... no way there is food on the floor at a college house!)

there was a doorway that went from our living room to our kitchen, and it was his only way in and out of the kitchen. so i knew he was going thru this doorway, I devised a trap. I took a few pieces of the glue board and made a line across the doorway he had to go thru.. if he wanted to go to the kitchen, he had to cross my line of glueboard, and if he did, he was caught.

had the trap out for no more than 3-4 hrs before we caught him... all the while, we had conventional snap traps with the cheese and peanutbutter for WEEKS and never caught this guy.. mouse are a lot smarter than people give them credit for.... they dont always fall for the peanutbutter...

try to think outside of the box... dont rely on traps that involve "luck" to catch him (snap traps)... devise a plan using the places you have seen him coming and going from and strategically place the glue traps in a way that he HAS to cross a line of them if he wants to get to where he is going.

i hope you dont have little kids crawling around the house, as this can make setting mouse traps a lot harder

[Wes Ellis]

Put a m&m on the pennut butter.he wont be able to get it off as easy.It works most of the time.

[Jackpine Rob]

A plastic 5 gallon bucket half-filled with water, and a small bobber with a dab of peanut butter on it will be the varmint's undoing. Place the bucket in a corner. The beast will climb up, look in, see the peanut butter, and take the plunge.

Works like a champ.

If you want to be fancy, you can make a ramp up to the edge, and even make a "tightrope" for it to clamber out over the water. An easy tightrope is to thread a couple of plastic straws on a length of wire, which you then stretch across the top. The mouse walks out on the tightrope, hits the plastic straws, spins into the water, and perishes.

Hours of entertainment.....

[bobbymalone]

My cat charges $50 an hour, plus gratuity. There is no additional charge for multiple mice.

[LightningBG]

Every once in a while I get a mouse in the garage. I only use snap traps and most of the time have them within about a half hour.

I doubt I do anything to special, but here it is.

Peanut butter on trap, but not a glob, just enough to get in the holes on the trigger side, this way he has to dig for it.

Always place next to a wall. They like running by walls.

Stupidly simple but works like a charm every time.

[Never Enough Time to Fish]

Use half of a tootsie-roll, caramel, starburst, etc, as bait on a snap trap. It works every time.

Never Enough.............

[tacklejunkie]

Try one of those transparent cube traps. The one with the door that swings up to let them in but doesn't swing the opposite way to let them out.

Never missed a mouse with these type of traps yet. Of course, you get to see those black,sad, scared eyes staring back at you and it may tug at your heart

[echotrail]

Also try wrapping some dental floss around the peanut butter. Same ideas as the others..it makes them work harder to get the food out.

[cold one sd]

I like the snap traps. After I catch a mouse I set out a bunch more traps and try to catch the whole family when they come to the funeral.

[pushbutton]

every fall i use this set up....key is to set up a kill zone...cluster a bunch of traps together with multiple access points....keep some cover and clutter up the area.

[Tom7227]

Get a cat and let it take care of the mice. Then shoot the cat.

[McGurk]

I hate the new snap traps with the yellow plastic trigger, as there is no adjustment to them. The old ones with the metal trigger are the best ones, IMHO, as you can "tune" them. They are the ones in pushbutton's pictures above. From the factory, they are not very sensitive, but you can bend the tang that sticks up from the trigger/bait plate for the wire to catch. With some tiny adjustments to that tang and some trial and error using your fingers to put upward pressure on the wire instead of the spring (learned that the hard way!) you can get a hair trigger on those things.

Pack the little coil at the end with peanut butter, carefully set it, and lightly set it down with the bait towards the wall. I set them so loose that it snaps about half the time from just setting it on the floor! Another trick is to put peanut butter on the bottom of the trigger plate of these ultra-sensitive tuned traps. Check them often, as even walking around them can set them off!

[LETSgoFISHIN]

red rider bb gun shooting toothpicks outta it.

[marine_man]

I had a mouse that was penned in behind a cupboard that I knew he was traveling from. I put one snap trap out for a week or so and never caught him.

One morning I saw him out... he scurried to his usual hiding spot that had the snap trap right in front of the opening...

I put a second snap trap next to the first (both perpendicular to the wall) and caught him in it 5 minutes later. Turns out he was jumping over the first trap...

marine_man

[Ryan_V]

GOT HIM! thanks!

[marine_man]

What did the trick?

marine_man

[The Chemist]

The best trap I have found is a black plastic trap with spikes on the jaws. It has a little well that you fill with bait. I had one that had got into bread within 4 hrs after I got to the cabin. Saw it run across the counter and behind the fridge. Set up a block in front of one trap on the counter with milk jugs and then placed one two on both sides of the fridge about a foot apart and 1 next to the loaf of bread. An hour later the one on the counter by the jugs had one. A little later I had one next to the fridge and the next morning another 2. Went and bought a bunch more and placed around the cabin. Caught 12 in the last month. They are easy to bait and unlike the metal snap traps they don't misfire went trying to set them up. Last time up I caught 2 but I think I should have most of them.

[Ryan_V]

Live trap with peanut butter and a cracker in the runway!

[delmuts]

After all that work; are you getting him MOUNTED??

[Pinusbanksiana]

Bait with a little chunk of raw bacon wedged in the trap pan. They absolutely cannot refuse bacon and catch them every time.

[Surface Tension]

I like peanut butter as bait because mice can smell it a long ways off.

To get those mice that like to lick it off and not set off the trap is mix some oatmeal with the peanut butter and make a dough ball. Squish that on there.

I use the bucket w/can deal in my garage. RV antifreeze instead of water. For bait I use the peanut butter around the can and then stick sunflower seeds to the peanut butter.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Man, a lot of these sound fun.. ALMOST makes a guy wish he didnt have cats so he could try a few of the tricks..

[MLoBes]

Had mice in the house years ago. Set a metal spring trap. Turned the light of in the pantry and closed the door. Heard a snap all most immediately. Check the trap nothing. Reset the trap and about 2 hours later I checked it caught 2 baby mice at the same time. The first time it was tripped I think the metal hoop went right over the mouse because it was so small.

[Westsidefishing]

Here is my Little secret for you. Try using gummy bears (if you have kids you know what I am talking about) as bait on your snap traps. Set them along the walls with bait facing the wall. The gummy bears have always out performed the peanut butter for me. I do not even bother using peanut butter on my traps anymore.

Try this, the sneaky sucker will be dead, first night you use this.

[jigginlow]

I had the same trouble described until I figured out this solution. I take two traps, making sure only to put enough peanut butter on to fill the holes and also put a dab on the detent where the wire rod fits in. Positioning is critical- I take one trap and push it tight against the wall and parallel to the wall, and the other is positioned right next to it perpendicular to the wall so that both the death platforms are right beside one another. I regularly get a double using this method and giggle hysterically all the way back to the peanut butter jar.....