OT- bait for mouse traps?

[michiganbuck]

The idea someone had to tie on a bacon grease-soaked cord on the trigger seems a winner.
Plus I think wise critters feel safer not being in the open, so if a trap is behind a box or something they are more likely to get caught.
Good to cook them up right away, so they don't stink up the other food in the fridge.

Once I caught one just using a cigar box set to fall over when the mouse went in, a good plan when I was 5 years old.

 

[Servicar rider]

I used to use peanut butter but as time went on it seemed less effective? Last year I bought some new plastic traps made in China where the trip lever was a pad that required the victim to stand on it to get the bait which was in a hole under the tripper pad and instead of peanut butter I used honey. Caught 4 the first day, and within a week no more victims the rest of the winter, and none lately either. Easy to set too, no chance of getting pinched. And the victims don't get a chance to eat the honey so you can remove them, reset the trap and go again with the same bait. I threw the victor wooden traps away.

 

[kenton]

I generally use Mini Starburst to bait the metal bail victor mouse traps. I cut the candy in half and keep working it into the bail until nothing is outside the bait holder. Haven't had anything steal the bait except ants, and they took about 3 days to clean it out.

https://www.amazon.com/Victor-M156-20-Metal-Sustainably-Sourced/dp/B09R9DBWH6/ref=asc_df_B09R9DBWH6/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=563722759369&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5892138600374763031&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9022185&hvtargid=pla-1639898555696&th=1

Minis

The Classic, Chewy, Square-shaped STARBURST® In Mini Form. Still In Your Favorite Fruity Flavors Of Cherry, Orange, Lemon, And Strawberry.

www.starburst.com

After the ants found my traps I started using the plastic trigger victor mouse traps unbaited with the trigger side facing the wall where I knew they would run. That actually seemed to be the most effective and almost always snapped the mice across the neck and hips, preventing lost traps.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075QRXRGH/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?pd_rd_i=B075QRXRGH&pd_rd_w=TRUo9&content-id=amzn1.sym.9f074495-da4d-4e1c-b407-69e85fa47fdb&pf_rd_p=9f074495-da4d-4e1c-b407-69e85fa47fdb&pf_rd_r=YGNSMSD0PDABJKGK60ZD&pd_rd_wg=4SLkg&pd_rd_r=b98909a4-b528-41ca-b6f0-41704a7ef7d0&s=lawn-garden&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWxfdGhlbWF0aWM&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFBSDdWTFg3TFpXNzQmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA4Mzk4MTYyMVRKWFM5OFpXTkpBJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA2NTYwNjEyTE4zVzdYVUlONE4wJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfZGV0YWlsX3RoZW1hdGljJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1

Most effective has been my mother in law's barn cat. It became mine when she moved into town and didn't think it would be happy as an indoor only cat. I know it is doing its job since it leaves mouse guts and fur all over my shop, but at least I am done emptying traps for now. Took the cat about a month to stop hissing at me everytime I opened the door.

Not sure your situation but our local humane society has a "working cat" program where they will give you fixed unsocial cats for low cost if you demonstrate that you have a shelter and food for them.

 

[Freedommachine]

I use glue traps with cat food. It is the only thing I have found to work 100% of the time.

 

[Motogomi]

My ex-girlfriend's ricotta pie was un-resistible to our house mice.

 

[michiganbuck]

My ex-girlfriend's ricotta pie was un-resistible to our house mice.

Authentic Italian Easter Ricotta Pie

Looking for a classic Easter dessert? This lightly sweet, Italian ricotta pie is a must! W/flaky pasta frolla crust & creamy ricotta filling.

www.garlicandzest.com

 

[DDoug]

I use glue traps with cat food. It is the only thing I have found to work 100% of the time.

How does the cat feel about this ?

 

[dkmc]

Cornbread and baking soda no trap needed

 

[Trboatworks]

When I was a kid along with the aquarium full of catfish, the dogs and other sundry critters we had an outdoor cat.
That cat would kill mice and lay them out perfectly right beside the dish we fed him in.
Strangest thing.
Like that cat already knew it had a job.

And then there was that time we were driving out West.
Crossing one of those state lines my dad made me release the horny toad I was keeping in the back seat of our station wagon.
For some reason I was allowed to keep the huge tarantula I had in a bell jar.
Well we got to my sisters and somehow that jar got tipped over and that tarantula ended up crawling right over my sister’s husbands foot when he was sitting on the crapper in the middle of the night.
I understand the poor spider was dispatched with a slipper..

Well I am making oatmeal this morning and I grab the measuring cup hanging over the stove and find a little present left by a mouse no doubt taking by a rest there as it tried to decide where to forage.

I gotta do something this weekend.
We have had it.

Years ago I ended up shooting the crowd of rats that were hanging out in our basement.
Grim sleepless work perched stock still with a 22 rifle in the middle of the night to get the wary bastards.
I really don’t feel like staying up all night in a rocking chair with a rifle for the mice so have to get a plan.

These mice are just weird.
We ALWAYS simply dispatched mice with snap traps and no effort.
Put down a trap with just about any bait and minutes later ‘SNAP’.
Now it’s a whole nother game..

Climate change??
Fires floods and now super intelligent mice..

 

[Tom A]

I knew a guy (long since deceased), that lived in a run down, rent controlled apartment, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, NYC.
After his death, a friend of his told me that the guy used to do that with rats, sitting up with a bottle of Jack Daniels, and a .22 pistol. He'd put a red light bulb in the overhead fixture, and sit there all night, waiting. None of the neighbors ever complained ........

Having known the guy, I absolutely believed it.

 

[jim rozen]

"I gotta do something this weekend."

Try one of these. Note the murder mittens.

 

[michiganbuck]

QT Jack Daniels, and a .22 pistol.
Near the last of our down by the marsh cabin, my buddy Phil stayed up shooting mousers with his 22. Cabin lasted a good 10 years with no mice, but that first mouse had 10 buddies 10 girlfriends, and a slew of puppies...wait mouse puppies?

QT (Now it’s a whole nother game) Mouser evolution and them getting smarter, Humans getting smatter or the opposite....Or the greeners making fake peanut butter to save the plants.

 

[DouglasJRizzo]

"I gotta do something this weekend."

Try one of these. Note the murder mittens.

We had a cat named "SnoBall" - huge 24 pound white and gray male that just murdered anything and everything he could get his claws around. Birds, mice, rats, squirrels, even gored a raccoon - although it did survive. Odd thing, he loved the dog and the kids to no end. RIP SnoBall.

 

[Trboatworks]

 

[Trboatworks]

I knew a guy (long since deceased), that lived in a run down, rent controlled apartment, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, NYC.
After his death, a friend of his told me that the guy used to do that with rats, sitting up with a bottle of Jack Daniels, and a .22 pistol. He'd put a red light bulb in the overhead fixture, and sit there all night, waiting. None of the neighbors ever complained ........

Having known the guy, I absolutely believed it.

Years back I was talking to an old time exterminator on the Eastern Shore about our rat problem.
He asked an interesting thing-
"Do you hear them talking?"
"If you do you have a lot of rats."

Well I want home and sitting on the couch you could hear all sorts of chatter in the basement.
We had rats lol.
About that time my wife ended up in the hospital with an unknown ailment that was taking her out.
The toxicologist looked right at us and asked if we were around rats...
Lepto was what she was thinking.

Well I went right home and set to shooting them out.
Three months and about twenty rats later they were all shot.
These days we have them in the yard but it's rare to get one in the house again.

 

[Tom A]

About that time my wife ended up in the hospital with an unknown ailment that was taking her out.
The toxicologist looked right at us and asked if we were around rats...
Lepto was what she was thinking.

If you have enough of them, for long enough, hantavirus can be a problem, also.
NOT a nice disease : https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/index.html

 

[mattthemuppet]

All this talking about shooting rats reminds me of an episode of Love Death and Robots on Netflix...

 

[EmGo]

We had a cat named "SnoBall" - huge 24 pound white and gray male

mrrow ?

https://files.catbox.moe/go8ozm.mp4

 

[DouglasJRizzo]

mrrow ?

https://files.catbox.moe/go8ozm.mp4

Nearly that big! He was a rescue.

 

[BT Fabrication]

PEANUT BUTTER DOES NOT WORK!!!

I am telling you these are some sort of crazy mice they don’t take bait.
The traps sit for days weeks months and NO SQUISHED MICE.

A friend says these city mice “get smart” and apparently that’s the damn problem- smart mice….

nut butter does work, some will get smart to it though i have found also.
best trick is don't put it on top of the trigger pad, smear it underneath the pad, hits them every time.
if they get wary of nut butter, put some in there and have a piece of hotdog thinly sliced stuck to some peanut butter, they cant ever resist.
only place along areas you see them running like the walls.