A Better Mouse Trap... REALLY!

[Arrowwind]

With efforts to store provisions comes the need to control vermin. I just found this and it looks like a winner. I've spent too much money on traps that dont work or soon break and need constant resetting.


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diyhouseholdannoyancespests
By David Galloway






Build a Self-Resetting Mouse Trap

We've covered many mouse traps over the years, but they all need to be reset once you've caught a mouse. This means if you have lots of furry intruders you'll need to have several traps or just build this version using a 5-gallon bucket, an aluminum beverage can, a small piece of wood, and a wooden dowel.
Bucket repurpose weblog 5-Gallon Ideas offers this design for a self-resetting mouse trap that can be either lethal or no-kill: Drill holes on opposite sides of the bucket and in the two flat sides of the can. Insert the dowel through the bucket and can holes. Bait the trap by adding peanut butter to the beverage can and add a ramp for the mice to climb to the edge of the bucket.
If you want to kill the mice add a few inches of water at the bottom. If you don't add the water the live mice won't be able to climb out and you can relocate

[Bo Atkinson]

Actually it was found in rough and ready lofts and warehouses, that plain water achieves the same end. But it has to be in a food scented area and also an area without water immediately available to a mouse. The mouse drowns. Pails with water attract them for a drink. Nothing besides the pail and the water is needed, very simple. They will apparently take a dive and then cannot get out. Eventually they tire and drown.

[Mulder]

Please tell me what entices the mice to jump on top the can & then lose balance and fall? What's the liquid down the bottom in the bucket - It looks like it smells.

[delfine]

Subbing..........................

[Arrowwind]

Posted by Mulder (here)
Please tell me what entices the mice to jump on top the can & then lose balance and fall? What's the liquid down the bottom in the bucket - It looks like it smells.

You smear the soda can with peanut butter, by far the best mouse luer there is.

[Hermite]

From experience I can tell you a couple of things. A mouse can swim/tread water for a long time. Relocating only works if you take them in a vehicle to many miles away. If you just toss them out, even half a mile away, they'll be back. The best mouse trap has pointy ears and whiskers. Or better yet, keep ALL your food stored in tins and glass. That has worked for me for years.

[Arrowwind]

Posted by Hermite (here)
From experience I can tell you a couple of things. A mouse can swim/tread water for a long time. Relocating only works if you take them in a vehicle to many miles away. If you just toss them out, even half a mile away, they'll be back. The best mouse trap has pointy ears and whiskers. Or better yet, keep ALL your food stored in tins and glass. That has worked for me for years.

I dont allow my cats into my food storage area which is actually secure from mice anyway. They are good at catching mice when they feel like it and only when they feel like it and many people cant have cats for a number of reasons. I was wondering by the water in this bucket in the photo was green. Did they put something in there to speed their demise, like antifreeze? don't know.

[Bill Ryan]

-------

In Scotland, I lived for several years in a cottage near a farm in the middle of nowhere. I had a bank of six humane mousetraps, and each morning I'd find I'd caught six very beautiful, fat little mice. I'd carefully take them down the little lane, across the bridge, and release them in the hay barn several hundred yards away. I swear they were all back in the house before I was.

[thunder24]

don't let the vegans see this thread......... quick duck...its a flying cucumber........ just breath more air....lol

ok,,, anybody got usefulness for meeces? or are they as useful as the perfect gnat?

[Arrowwind]

You could catch them like this without the water at the bottom then feed them to the lazy cats. It would help supplement their diet when cat food is no longer available, if we get to that god forsaken day... or maybe even your own diet.

[thunder24]

Posted by Arrowwind (here)
You could catch them like this without the water at the bottom then feed them to the lazy cats. It would help supplement their diet when cat food is no longer available, if we get to that god forsaken day... or maybe even your own diet.

this is true... put them on the spit... many have before...

im an idealist learning to not b... i think many times we get stuck in a mind frame or vortex of thought by pure dynamic... and need to b drug out of it....just an opinion...

live laugh love

[EYES WIDE OPEN]

Poor mice. What cruel & inhuman way to kill them. Drowning. Disgusting IMO.

For those that would rather not kill, try this:

Electromagnetic Rat/Mouse/Rodent Repeller - works a treat!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&k...l_4s7bgwm6pr_e


My sister lives in the Croatian countryside and had a mouse problem but like myself, will have a really bad day even accidentally squashing a snail let a lone purposefully killing a mouse.
This device not only does not kill them, it prevents them even coming into the house.
Much better for human and mouse alike.

[Limor Wolf]

When I did my military service, I served in the desert where there were scorpions, snakes and mice. For a year and a half there were no problems, but after that my commanders decided to bring glue traps which imprison the mouse and when it tried to release itself, it's leg is being amputated and he dies in agony. Every night I went and picked up the traps and threw them in the trash, a mouse or two were caught and that was horrific to see. I was considered a good soldier (geek : ) and was about to become a supervisor but was ready to risk it and refused to leave the traps in their place. Threats of being sentenced and a demotion did not help, finally I won and the traps were removed.

I am a vegan seeing this thread. What does it mean? It means discussing a very understood pest problem with many understood repercussion on a thread in Avalon. Avalon is known to host people that have more compassion than the average man, are able to think outside the box to try and find solutions that are not harmful and seek understanding on how to respect nature and coexist with it for the betterment of this world. I find it saddening to see that those attributes are absent when discussing mouse traps.

[HaveBlue]

Excellent post Bill, Short,sharp and thought provoking. Literary skills I am yet to master.

You were the PTB, provided social welfare for these creatures, but knew they carry disease and did'nt want to live 'that' close. If left to their own devices they would eat you! Nibble at your ears while you sleep, chew your wiring,set fire to your home and burn you out.

Maybe not with intent but that is irrelevent. Translate that to how many human mice have bred up on welfare, know nothing and do nothing.
You must stand in line behind them when you want to use the services that your tax dollars paid for, and if you're lucky you may be seen.

These are the problems the PTB face. Alot of us here at Avalon are aware of this and are making our own arrangements.

The 'civilized' world is run like a farm. Any farmer has a budget for pest destruction.
Whether I or we agree with it is besides the point. We have seen the docos of jews being loaded onto trains in WW2 and have choices to make while there is time.

A longer view is surely the more considered one.

You could welcome them, they breed up to plague proportions, they eat everything in sight, until the only thing left to eat is each other.

You would ultimately be responsible for 'letting' it happen.

The wonders of nature!

(I have a mouse problem here and a good cat, I don't poison them, or trap them. I give them a fair chance and even root for the mouse or rat when I see them escape after a mauling sometimes right in front of me. But I am realistic about the whole situation. If it does get out of hand I would 'have to do what a mans gotta do')

[markpierre]

God, it comes right back again and again to that 'life' is death after death after death.

You guys should either stop coming back to this planet, or change your minds about death.

Cool mouse trap idea. This place is crawling with mice. I catch em and take them to the neighbors and they don't come back.

[EYES WIDE OPEN]

My point is you don't have to kill them as my previous post points out. There are other ways to get rid of them that work that are non lethal. Knowing that, there really is no excuse for killing out furry friends.

[thunder24]

Posted by EYES WIDE OPEN (here)
My point is you don't have to kill them as my previous post points out. There are other ways to get rid of them that work that are non lethal. Knowing that, there really is no excuse for killing out furry friends.

do u kill bugs when u breath?

[blufire]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
-------

In Scotland, I lived for several years in a cottage near a farm in the middle of nowhere. I had a bank of six humane mousetraps, and each morning I'd find I'd caught six very beautiful, fat little mice. I'd carefully take them down the little lane, across the bridge, and release them in the hay barn several hundred yards away. I swear they were all back in the house before I was.

Hey Bill, I laughed so hard when I read this, because I had the same thing with opossums.

Opossums were getting in my hen house and eating the eggs, grain and my chickens so I started trapping them in live traps and I took them 5 miles away to a lake and released them. I had three traps and made trip after trip to the lake with fat happy possums. I could have sworn they were coming right back to the farm so I started spray painting their tails with hot pink paint. 43 possums later and none with hot pink tails I was opossum free.

PS To stay mouse free in the house I have 3 very capable cats and a 6 foot black snake that lives in my basement named Miss Suzy.

[EYES WIDE OPEN]

Posted by thunder24 (here)

Posted by EYES WIDE OPEN (here)
My point is you don't have to kill them as my previous post points out. There are other ways to get rid of them that work that are non lethal. Knowing that, there really is no excuse for killing out furry friends.

do u kill bugs when u breath?

I have no idea what this even means.

[thunder24]

really? seems like a straight forward question to me.......