****ing mice think I'm their new best mate

[swee'pea99]

I've now set the traps three or four times, but no matter how long I spend and how carefully I try to adjust it to get a hair-trigger, I can't seem to get them sensitive enough, so I keep coming back to a clean trap, where Mr Mouse has clearly turned up, scoffed the peanut butter and gone about his business after a tasty snack. So now to add to the trauma of a rodent infestation I have the additional burden of knowing the wee buggers are all laughing at me from behind the skirting boards.

 

[Mo1959]

I've now set the traps three or four times, but no matter how long I spend and how carefully I try to adjust it to get a hair-trigger, I can't seem to get them sensitive enough, so I keep coming back to a clean trap, where Mr Mouse has clearly turned up, scoffed the peanut butter and gone about his business after a tasty snack. So now to add to the trauma of a rodent infestation I have the additional burden of knowing the wee buggers are all laughing at me from behind the skirting boards.

Keep feeding them and they’ll get too fat to run away

 

[Sterlo]

Is peanut butter maybe too soft and easy for them to get at? I used to use a chopped up Mars Bar and caught them virtually every time.

 

[Saluki]

Stop feeding peanut butter. It’s full of protein and just makes them stronger. Try a bit of KFC, then they will be too lardy to run away.

 

[Mo1959]

You can borrow her, but I want her back.

 

[bikingdad90]

You could glue something in the bait space and then smoother that in the peanut butter, if they are forced to like it clean or give it a “jank” it might be enough to set the trigger off.

 

[swee'pea99]

Is peanut butter maybe too soft and easy for them to get at? I used to use a chopped up Mars Bar and caught them virtually every time.

Now you're talking! It's not like crap chocolate is going to be in short supply over the next week or two...

 

[cyberknight]

You can borrow her, but I want her back.


View attachment 622551

our cat brings them in and lets the beggars set up home

 

[Blue Hills]

I can recommend this trap:

https://www.nhbs.com/longworth-small-mammal-trap?bkfno=176703&ca_id=1495&adlocale=uk

It's not cheap but is I think used by professional catchers - luckily I got mine for about a fiver second hand from an outdoor shop when I didn't even know what it was.

It has worked for me twice even though I have only recently discovered that I wasn't using it properly - it's quite a complicated set-up. Once I set it up so badly that the damn mouse had the door close on it but still managed to get out.

Mice are damn cleverer than many folk think I fear - on recently rereading the instructions for that device I find that it has a pre-bait mode - you can set it up so that they can enter, grab the bait and then leave without the door closing.
I can only think that is so that the critters can spread the word amongst friends, family and online friends that there's this great source of nightime snacks - and then they all start coming. Night after night. And presumably that if you didn't "pre-bait" instead they would tell fireside tales of little mickey who went exploring a strange tin box and was never seen again.

I wll re-use it soon with "pre-baiting" and see if Boris turns up to the party.

Do report back on your experiences @swee'pea99 - I think it needs the pooled intelligence of cyclechat to nab the critters.

 

[swee'pea99]

I can recommend this trap:

You can recommend it but at £60 I ain't bitin'

 

[Bonefish Blues]

I can recommend this trap:

https://www.nhbs.com/longworth-small-mammal-trap?bkfno=176703&ca_id=1495&adlocale=uk

It's not cheap but is I think used by professional catchers - luckily I got mine for about a fiver second hand from an outdoor shop when I didn't even know what it was.

It has worked for me twice even though I have only recently discovered that I wasn't using it properly - it's quite a complicated set-up. Once I set it up so badly that the damn mouse had the door close on it but still managed to get out.

Mice are damn cleverer than many folk think I fear - on recently rereading the instructions for that device I find that it has a pre-bait mode - you can set it up so that they can enter, grab the bait and then leave without the door closing.
I can only think that is so that the critters can spread the word amongst friends, family and online friends that there's this great source of nightime snacks - and then they all start coming. Night after night. And presumably that if you didn't "pre-bait" instead they would tell fireside tales of little mickey who went exploring a strange tin box and was never seen again.

I wll re-use it soon with "pre-baiting" and see if Boris turns up to the party.

Do report back on your experiences @swee'pea99 - I think it needs the pooled intelligence of cyclechat to nab the critters.

That's not a trap, it's a bloody mouse caravan!

Wee tipple-topple ones baited with choc spread for the win.

 

[Brads]

Peanut butter is useless.
I’ve caught hundreds of the little buggers over the years. All using a raisins .

 

[welsh dragon]

We have small clear plastic box type traps that have a door at one end that they go into and the door shuts behind them. We never put anything in the traps. We put them outside along the wall and they go In and whamo.

We catch loads as well.

They work really well.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Peanut butter is useless.
I’ve caught hundreds of the little buggers over the years. All using a raisins .

Fired from what calibre?

 

[DCLane]

If you don't want @Mo1959 's cat you're welcome to this one. They're big, not house trained and loud. Oh - and the photo shows their catching ability.