Electronic mouse trap

[JimmieSParticipant @jimmies]

Hi Folks

Our daughter lives in an old tenement building and has mouse problems for over a year with little success at catching or killing the beasties. The 'mouse man' (professional pest expert) said that rodents are wise to almost all traditional design and form of traps, sticky sheets and poison as she has found out. I am thinking of a diy trap design on which the bait is hung from a hook positioned above a copper strip, the mouse acting as the switch by completing a circuit when it grabs the bait.

Any ideas about the requirements would be appreciated.

[JimmieSParticipant @jimmies]

[herbert punterParticipant @herbertpunter99795]

Get yourself a tom cat, job done…

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

Don’t feed said cat though.

[David Standing 1Participant @davidstanding1]

Rentokil Advanced mouse trap, and a pea sized ball of peanut butter, works for me, I catch endless mice with this.

[Brian OldfordParticipant @brianoldford70365]

Is the intention to electrocute the mouse or trigger some solenoid or motor operated way of dispatching said mouse?

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

All you need is a shaving mirror and a saucer of whisky, Oh and a keen cat. The mouse drinks the whisky, then sees himself in the mirror as a huge mouse, and picks a fight with the nearest cat. Even the cat is happy having eaten a really tasty mouse.
On a slightly different tack, my friend installed a couple of ultrasonic mouse deterrents and has never had a problem since they were installed. This sort of thing:-
**LINK**
BobH

[EmgeeParticipant @emgee]

Spend a few minutes making this one. **LINK**

Emgee

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I've found that the simple humane traps work more reliably than 'little nipper' although I have a large Longworth type trap used for everything from mice to gerbil recapture.

Rats, I used to use an extra-large spring trap or my air rifle, but for various reasons they are mostly absent now (cats help).

Neil

[HacksawParticipant @hacksaw]

Posted by Emgee on 08/01/2017 21:21:37:

Spend a few minutes making this one. **LINK**

Emgee

Ha Ha Ha that's ace !

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

JimmieS Remind her to switch off before removing corpses

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

Posted by Emgee on 08/01/2017 21:21:37:

Spend a few minutes making this one. **LINK**

Emgee

Like it

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

I use an old fashioned trap, but put half a rolo on instead of cheese, they have to really tug at the sticky toffee, which reliably sets it off.

If you want to make something clever then a platform which gets depressed by the mass of the mouse triggering a microswitch would be easy, or even better an infra red light beam across a tunnel. You could have a revolving drum (think big bore revolver) and trap more than one

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

a small piece of high quality chocolate (ie one with strong chocolate aroma 75% cocoa + above) melted onto the old fashioned wooden based little nipper worked well for me – just be prepared to deal with the dead (the choc + trap can be usually recycled as the mouse should be hit before getting the choc) and check very regularly as mice come in families – place the traps along edge of room or internal runs in build in cupboards etc

one key is to place to force mouse accessing chocolate head on

[JAParticipant @ja]

Posted by Emgee on 08/01/2017 21:21:37:

Spend a few minutes making this one. **LINK**

Emgee

I like the trained mouse.

I have found chocolate works a treat as a bait. However your mice may be too street wise for simple country things like that.

I think a cat is the real answer.

JA

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Posted by JA on 08/01/2017 22:37:01:

Posted by Emgee on 08/01/2017 21:21:37:

Spend a few minutes making this one. **LINK**

Emgee

I like the trained mouse.

I have found chocolate works a treat as a bait. However your mice may be too street wise for simple country things like that.

I think a cat is the real answer.

JA

But then as the old children's song says then you'll need a dog to get rid of the cat and so on add nauseam

[David Standing 1Participant @davidstanding1]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 08/01/2017 21:28:18:

I've found that the simple humane traps work more reliably than 'little nipper' although I have a large Longworth type trap used for everything from mice to gerbil recapture.

Rats, I used to use an extra-large spring trap or my air rifle, but for various reasons they are mostly absent now (cats help).

Neil

I also have a rat issue, Fenn Mk 6 traps and likewise an air rifle are effective!

[EmgeeParticipant @emgee]

JA

I think a cat is a great idea but no longer have one.

The bottle is baited with peanut cream/paste just below the neck.

Emgee

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

You can buy quite cheaply ultrasonic mouse repellers, we got from Aldi last year, plugged it in and the mice moved out.

And remember, the early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse eats the cheese.

[HacksawParticipant @hacksaw]

Last year i switched on my ancient Ironworker ( like a Kingsland ) and there was an awful scream and thud thud thud ..Scared the crap out of me ! Switched it off as it had stalled the flywheel and the belt was slipping …Gave it a few minutes wondering what the hell it was still thumping in the machine …..Shaking i opened the side , and there's 2 large cast gears , covered in grease …and this rat has gone head first through the pinion and the gear jamming it up ..It must have been eating grease when i started it .

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

This may seem a strange one, I had mice in my workshop in the Barracks in Dortmund. I got an empty oil drum about 2 foot tall and 15 inches dia. I placed it at the end of the bench and at night before I left I placed a ruler over the edge of the desk and put a small bit of cake on the end of the ruler. In the morning I had on average 2 mice in the bin plus the ruler, this went on for a while until I did not catch any more for a week or two.

Disposal was by toilet flushing! At Leica the girls would leave their choccy snacks in their desk drawers and sure enough the mice would find them. I set out a half dozen humane traps and baited with choccy or apple pieces. Sure enough I caught the mice and the easy way was to flush them.

Clive

[HacksawParticipant @hacksaw]

Good job you put " desk"…there..

[norman valentineParticipant @normanvalentine78682]

I had rats in my house. I bought a large bag of poison pellets. Set a few where I had seen a rat and put the bag away in a cupboard. Next morning I found that the rat had chewed its way into the bag and stolen most of the poison. I didn't see any more of them after that.

[John OlsenParticipant @johnolsen79199]

Cheese is certainly not the ideal bait. One thing to try is a bit of bacon rind. It is worth giving it a little toasting over a match after putting it on the trap to get the human smell off it.
John

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by duncan webster on 08/01/2017 21:53:31:

You could have a revolving drum (think big bore revolver) and trap more than one

I know what you're thinking: "Did he catch six mice or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, Mousie?

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