Trapping Clever Mice

[bacchus180]

It was getting late one night and the wife had gone to bed, I was watching some TV by myself quietly when out of the corner of my eye a mouse sprinted across the front of the fireplace like Speedy Gonzales.. except he was pretty mahoosive.

My cat is useless.. He was fast asleep somewhere else, thinking about food.. unfortuantley the food he thinks about comes in a sachet.

I grabbed a mousetrap which has been used before with some success and crammed some chocolate in it, set it and went to bed.

Next morning I leapt out of bed like it was christmas to run downstairs to see the result.. Empty trap.. no bait!.. frustrating.

The following night repeat as before.. same result, Now I'm thinking it must be grabbing the bait from the side.. like leaning over and pinching it carefully, probably a game of dare with its mates. I can visualise them egging each other on!

So I constructed a tunnel made of card. to prevent this from happening.. only way to approach it is head on, I set the trap and next day..

No bait.

Any ideas?.. this is clearly tricker than I thought.



Trap in tunnel..

[bacchus180]

I have tried those so called humane traps some years ago.. it was the most inhumane thing I have ever seen. A mouse trapped in a confined space for 5-6 hours, Trying to eat its way out, scratching furiously, When I released it, the mouse was a sweaty panicky pulpy mess, I will never use one of those again.

I will look into the electrocution thing though.. never heard of that before.. Phssst and its all over.. I'm liking the sound of that!

[bacchus180]

Bill said:

98elise said:

In the picture the trap isn't set.....might be your problem

This. Not clever mice, just user fail.

very good.. I set it when its in place..

mars bar and smeary stuff does sound better.. I will try that. failing that I could just shoot it next time I see it run past the fireplace!.

[bacchus180]

I could a go pro next to it.. but i'm not sure it has infa red.

[bacchus180]

What's that got to do with it?

[bacchus180]

is that rusty because you throw them in a bucket of water to kill them afterwards?


Nice trap by the way.. I want one of those.. perfect!.

[bacchus180]

I think I will try by simply reapplying with different bait.. maybe a few morsels sprinkled to see if I can tempt him in.. I will catch this bugger and He will die..

[bacchus180]

Sorted.. at least the first one


He seems to have taken a run at it and tried to dive through nicking the bait as before.. ended up a good distance from the cardboard tube.. I'm mystified as to how he managed it, the only thing that concerns me is that he's not as big as the one I saw a few nights ago.. must be a group of them!..

[bacchus180]

SMGB said:

Exactly, mice colonies will always breed up to the food potential available and can reproduce at a rate to deal with any predation. So your puny efforts will just get dialled out. Start looking for the mouse motorway. You have plenty of guidance on here, generally its where any services enter or leave the house, any ventilation holes, remember these can be buried deep in that attractive shrubbery you inherited that nestles against a wall. Under the floorboards is also mouse country, you will never secure that so check all pipes, when we plumbed our Amana in in the kitchen I made sure the rising main feed was secure where it dived under the floor and where it emerged behind the fridge.
I use expanded aluminium rather than silver foil. Havent I written a lot about this, those mice really get on your radar dont they/

I'm worried now.. These mice are totally different to the mice our cat brings home. He brings in the smaller field mice, these ones are twice the size and have much bigger ears.. House mice if there are such a thing rather than outdoor types,

Added to that my youngest son is a crumb machine.. he just liberally spreads food around like nobodies business..