Ok - we have a mouse at home. I've seen the little bugger.

So I bought one of those wooden mouse-traps that you bait and it snaps closed when the mouse eats the cheese.

I put it out where I've seen him, and for 3 or 4 days - nothing, no sign of anything.

Then, this morning there's 2 mouse-turds lying immediately next to the mouse trap, but still no mouse, and the cheese is untouched.

I think the little cretin is mocking me.

Ben,

I can tell you have a lot to learn in these matters!

Firstly, forget the cheese...thats an old wives tale. What you need is chocolate..not just any chocolate either..Look on the sweet counter for a bag of those flat choclate buttons about the size of your thumb nail. The ones you need have a hard "shell" to them to stop them melting in kids hands..In the UK they are called M&M's.

Take one and eat the rest (you will need only one! ) and using a heated needle or pin melt a hole through the center. Use this to secure the M&M over the spike in the mouse trap instead of the cheese. Before you push it home firmly, but a dab of superglue on it so in effect you are gluing it to the wood...

Set the trap lightly and with this set up, you will never miss a mouse again!

Regards,

Pete

Heh ... I'll give it a try with the M&Ms ... they're called that here too as well.

Peanutbutter !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Put peanutbutter on the trigger and he is yours in a day !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with peanut butter. I caught one little bastard that licked every bit of peanut butter off the trigger (I think the trigger was set a bit too firm). Once he finished licking it off, he got greedy and started gnawing on the trigger. That finished him off.

I agree ,use Peanut butter.
Or I can bring my lab over ,he thinks mice are play toys .
But at 2AM a 85 lb dog playing with a mouse will wake you up .

Johnch

Borrow the neighbors crat for the night.

And then......

I used to work in a warehouse that was over run with mice. Most of the originals came from barrels of English bone china that this company imported. As a sideline to my shipping/recieveing duties I was encouraged to run a trap line and was supplied with what ever traps I requested since the company sold those as well. The absolute all time best bait that I found always worked, "Coffee Crisp". Better than Cheese, meat, plain chocolate or even peanut butter. A little smear of CC on the trigger meant one dead mouse and often within an hour even in high traffic areas. derf

Wow. I've never heard of coffee crisp, but I'll see if I can figure out what it is.

I switched from cheddar to peanut butter last night and as of this morning still no luck.

I'll give the PB a day or two and see what happens.

I set a 12" 2x4 approximately 1.5 inches from the wall, and put another 12" 2x4 atop it, so it leans on the wall. Then, as I walk by it periodically, I kick the bottom 2x4 into the wall. Mice like to hide in the "hole" created by these two boards, and it will provide too much of a temptation for your mouse to resist.

Along time ago on a country farm not very far away, cousin Herb, living in a rented house farmed the land. He had a barn , pack house, hay barn, and cow pasture all right there 40 feet from the back porch. Well, he had a mouse, er, Rat too, in his old utility room just of the old kitchen. Mrs. Herb did not abide keeping farm animals inside, so the mouse had to go. Herb trapped one or two, but the third was a collegiate level animal. But A shooter will triumph. He got the critter with one of Winchester's best Super X # 12 L.R. shot cartridges. He also got the copper pipe with which the water heater was plumbed. Yes indeed, a mouse is aggravating and sometimes expensive.

I have never heard of coffie crisps either, but that beside my vote goes to chocolate as well. Much better than cheese anyway.

I have never tried this particular brand or type, but the heated needle I have tried as well. Actually, until a friend adviced me to do just that, I thought it was my own invention!

Regards,
Martin

Ratsnake, natures own mouse-trap.

Our deer camp "cabin" used to be a hay barn, so you can imagine the critters we have. I've had my best luck with either gumdrops or gummi bears. Both are really sticky and the mice seem to love them.

If I used gummy bears I'd probably get into a fistfight with the mouse over 'em.

Sorry Ben, I thought "Coffee Crisp" was universal. It is a chocolate bar that has been available in Canada for about 40 years and is made by(I believe) Rowntrees(sp). derf

Peanut Butter has always worked for me as well. Forget the cheese.

Had a rat problem once, deep in the Georgia woods, not far from the juncture of Commissioner Creek and the Oconee River, just north of Dublin. That's not far from Wrightsville for you sports fans, the home(trust me, they will remind you) of Herschel Walker.

Now this wasn't any average rat. The Ex's 4 crats were askeered of it! After realizing that I muttered under my breath(so the soon to be Ex wouldn't hear)"Pussies". I thought about renting Herschel but of course he was under contract already, and wouldn't play without cheerleaders.

Anyway, this damnable creature would not eat cheese, peanut butter, or even steak! I had noticed however that there was a rat nest in the kennel pen, and amongst all the debris were a number of the rat poison packets, all torn and tattered. It occurred that perhaps the beast was radioactive and had developed a taste for the stuff, maybe even was immunizing it's offspring with the stuff. So, that night I baited the rat trap with a bag of rat poison. Wasn't even bedtime when I heard the trap go 'thud' on the front porch. Went out to look and saw something Hollywood hasn't imagined yet, about 2 pounds of rat with the bag in it's teeth(nasty yellow), and the trap bar imbedded in it's brain. I was wondering for a bit if I should get the front end loader to dispose of it, but finally just used the pitch fork, man's answer to all disposal problems of signifgicance, and a dandy self defense tool as well! I still have dreams of that monster from time to time, It's always the same, it has a chance to rip the throat out of one of the Ex's crats and doesn't. So I kill it. Over and over and over...useless damn rat!


Dan

Pres., TYHC

http://www.BigAs.Rabbits

I to have seen some montrosities of a rat. At an old feed mill. No joke they was the size of a small cat !!! Big suckers, at the time my buddy had a 410 shotgun and I had a 22 auto, and some of them got away after being shot a few times. It wasint till later years I went back with my 22 Hornet that I had some real fun...

This is a BIG mouse/Rat trap that i used on the Ranch and at my hunting camps. It self reloading and will catch so many mice that the local Crats will have to work overtime, thereby making them obvious to the happy exterminator
Start with a 5 gal plastic pail, part of the fun is you need a beer can (teetotallers can use coke) drill or punch a small hole in the center at each end then insert a piece of wire through the holes and attach the wire to each side of the pail, centered. A small crimp on each side of the can will keep it centered and it will spin freely.
Now add 6 inches of water to pail and smear the center of the can with peanut butter. Make a ramp up to the lip of the pail with a piece of 1x4 or such.
Those little buggers will get frustrated and jump on the can to get at the bait......then ring-a-ling, down into the water they go, unable to jump out!
A young friend of mine used it happily to supply live grub for his pet Python.

I would catch dozens a night in the hunting camps, thus saving groceries and bedding etc. but the rattle of the can would keep you awake sometimes

hound

A couple of friends of mine worked on and off for an exterminator for a couple of years - the afore mentioned peanut butter is what they used. I've been told by them that it's pretty much a standard bait for mice and rats in snaptraps for exterminators in the US.

Only one trap? You should be using more than that. Also, part of the problem is the trap has your smell on it if you've been handling it bare handed. The mice won't touch it.


HTRN