Humanely
I had a little friend visit my apartment the other week, and for a while there I was ready to make peace with him and co-exist. But after I cleaned up the place and ordered pizza one night, and it crawled up the side of my chair onto the sleeve of my shirt, I knew it was time to bid farewell.
Here’s how I caught the critter:
- Get a toilet paper tube and crease two lines to form a flat sided tunnel.
- Put a treat on one end of the tube: A cracker and dab of peanut butter works great.
- Get a tall (at least 20 inches) bucket. A trash can works well.
- Balance the tube precariously on the edge of a table or counter with the treat hanging directly over the tall sided receptacle.
- The mouse will scurry to the treat (they like tunnels) and fall into the trap.
Set the fella loose at least a mile away from your abode.
Postnote: It worked within the hour.
Also, folks have asked how this could work if you don’t have a counter or table. Simple: get a piece of cardboard and crease it to make a ramp up to a small trashcan.
| SEMI-RELATED ENTRY: How to kill a fly without a flyswatter |
1,211 responses to “How to catch a mouse without a mousetrap”
Not to sound like a total dork, but that is a great idea! And so humane!
You know, I think with a little reworking, that could work with houseguests who’ve worn out their welcome too.
Hehe…thanks for a good laugh…neat:-)
I just set one up with jelly and danish, i’ll tell you how it works.
Haha, hmm… Im having a bit of a mouse problem too… Might just give it a try, It’s much more humane than using fly paper and mouse traps.
Very nice! I’ll have to try it but with a blender instead.
OMG! Life saver! Fingers crossed it works for me as fast as it did you!
Got three traps set. 3x the chances? eh!
what a splendid idea you found on the net!
let me know what site you found this at, so i can investigate whether that site has more cool stuff.
what about cockroaches?
Thanks for your awesome idea. I had a mouse at my house here at 5AM and used a variation of your idea. My toilet and tub were too high for the mouse to get on so I modified your idea. I baited a TP roll with peanut butter in the middle of the bathroom floor. I sat on my sink and waited patiently with a large clear bowl nearby. 2 min later, my gray friend came out for a bite to eat and I caught him!
Dont most mice stay on the floor? We have one right now that was running around the floor and I’d like to try this trap idea but im not sure how I could make it work when he’s on the floor already.
Just set one up, hope it works. By the way, for those of you who care about humane BS, when he falls for the trap I’m gonna set the little f***er on fire and watch him die.
Build steps with books that go up to the trap, he will figure it out, the PB is too yummy. BTW, this is also the recommended way to catch an escaped pet rodent (like a hamster).
This trap worked great! For two weeks, “Virgil” had been an unwelcome guest in our kitchen. Various glue traps were strategically placed but weren’t doing the job. Finally, I tried your method and it worked the same night!! Excellent! And more importantly very humane!! Thanks for the idea!!
there is a mouse currently trapped in my CLOSET right now…I spotted him out of the corner of my eye at about 11:45, screamed, and he scampered back under the door…then i stuffed a blanket and my laundry bag between the door and the floor…i’m going to try to sleep tonight..and set up a “trap” tomorrow…
Great Idea dude,easy,cheap,and it works.Oh yea,Rob,your a moron,how would you like to go get something to eat(BECAUSE YOUR HUNGRY)only to find your spine crushed by a huge metal bar swinging down on you,or even worse,having to starve to death because your glued to the floor.You just get to sit there and Die of starvation with the food you wanted only a foot away.Also,over 50% of the time a mouse will struggle so much on a glue strip the they break their own back or neck,they only want to eat get a heart man,killing is wrong,it started with a little bug,then a mouse,then they kept gettin bigger and bigger,and now all of a sudden its 2006,we have guns a Nuclear,chemical,and Bio weapons and spend more money on things that will kill people then most do on food
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! I soooo hope this works! I have more than 1 in my house right now & have had no luck w/the humane traps, smart mice I guess?
I modified this idea, because the original method didn’t work, and I’d rather not have mice on my countertops. I put some honey roasted peanuts in the bottom of a long “mailing tube” and left it on the floor near where the mouse hung out. When you hear the mouse chewing peanuts you creep up, put some cardboard over the open end of the tube, and flip it so the mouse is at the bottom. Then I put a ziplock baggie over the open end, and flip it over again. The mouse falls into the baggie, zip it closed. Double bag it just to be sure, and release or allow mouse to humanely suffocate.
I’m three for three!
(The mice don’t really bother me much, but my wife hates them.)
Thank you so much for the great idea. I have a pet female that got loose, and her husband misses her. I placed food and water on the floor, and I know she is around here. Now
I dont have to spend 18 bucks on a save a heart trap, for a
1.98 mouse.
Thanks so much.
ps I guess I will use a yardstick for the mouse to go up to the top of table where treat is waiting.
I actually used a small wastepaper basket as the trap and made a ramp with cardboard up to the precariously resting tube.
I didn’t mind the visitor too much, until he started getting a little too comfortable climbing up to the end table where I sat my food.
This worked great!!! I used a paper towel tube. I caught it in about an hour and I had to do it twice! The first time the tube fell in the garbage can but the mouse somehow wasn’t in it… I can picture it doing some acrobatic move in mid-air to escape. The second time the poor guy fell right in the garbage can. It was very cute but it had to go.
Once again… this is a great “How to”. Very humane.
Humane is all well and good; giving the mouse to someone else is… inconsiderate, at least. Theres no shortage, waste the little suckers. Pouring a couple gallons of hot water into the bucket would be a fast, sanitary, and humane (at least not uneccesarily cruel) way of killing your rodent once you’ve caught him.
I used to give them to my cats once they were dead, but thats a mistake: the cats wont hunt unbathed live mice anymore.
Excellent Idea. But I think I may have an improvement.
I would dangle the treat from the top of the tube at the unsupported end (to re-use the bait) and run some tape from the underside of the unsupported end back along the tube to run under the lip of the benchtop or table top. That way if you have multiple visitors, you may be able to catch more than just one in a night. You would just need to make sure that there is enough tube supported by the bench for the trap to reset itself.
And don’t forget that the trashcan MUST be empty for this to work. Hehe.
The one we always used and I don’t see mentioned here is to simply take a 5 gallon bucket. Tape the handle in the upright position, and take a slat of wood that leads up to the handle (but leave a good 3-4 inch gap). You spread some peanut butter on an empty can of soda that you put on the handle so that it spins. And in the morning you have a couple of mice in the bucket.
The Mice try and get to the can, the can spins drops them in the bucket. Slightly more complex, but still a 5 minute set up, and not nearly so ghastly as a spring trap, or poison.
This one is nice because you aren’t limited to a single mouse a night, and you don’t entice mice onto your counter/living area’s.
Then we just cart the bucket out into the woods and let the little buggers go.
It will work for a small mouse…
Linked
Try a bucket of water
saves the trip 1 mile from ya flat ?
I love the drawing. Thanks!
So, did it come back in a week or so? Most wild animals will try to find their way home if relocated, I don’t imagine mice are any different.
Haven’t seen him again S…
(yet)
It’s been months.
i’m going to try this with my cat.
When we had a mouse infestation I used something very similar, a black plastic tube with a slight bend in the middle. http://www.kness.com/tip-trap.html Mouse goes to the end for the ol’ peanut butter, tube tips over, and closes a little door. I’d get about two a day– we had to move eventually, it was hopeless with the porous walls!
Of course, then you’re left with an intact little mouse in a tube. I used to take them for long walks to posh neighbourhoods for release, some strange vengeance impulse I guess. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of walking down a street aware of having a live mouse in your purse. The temptation to release them in a crowded restaurant was almost overwhelming.
Snap-traps aren’t that bad– they’re almost always Instant Death, but London mice these days have evolved to be too small to set them off. Glue traps are just sick, frankly. But nothing is crueler than a cat.
Hey, if you’re quick with your hands, like I am, you can just corner the little darling, catch him in your hand and escort him to the nice house down the street. I like mice, just not in my house. I admire your humane trap idea, but I’d worry he’d hurt himself in the fall. Yes, folks, a bleeding heart liberal here.
Good idea !! and I will try it ..
This is a great idea!
This is.. brilliant 🙂
when I was a kid, we raised a colony of mice (long story) — and 30% of them could jump 3 feet into the air. These were common field mice, as are common throughout Ireland. This technique wouldn’t be so hot against those 😉
seems a lot of work to go to considering the little fella was on your sleeve… did you not think to just use your other hand?
🙂
Plus, he gets to eat the snack while waiting for you to get him out of the trashcan.
Just to pick a nit here, but since you’ve set up an apparatus to trap a mouse, doesn’t it qualify as a “mouse trap”?
Okay, okay, sorry.
I’m going to try this with a shrew or mole or something we’ve got living in our garage and feasting off the trashcans.
You know, for all you turds that want to kill the mice instead of trap and release, why don’t you just set loose some snakes in your house? Snakes eat mice. Then, you will not have a mouse problem any more.
then you can release a mongoose in the house!
Once caught a mouse (accidentally) in a Pepperidge Farm Goldfish carton. It was almost empty, sitting on the counter, with the “milk carton like” top folded inward. The mouse got on top to get the goldfish, then fell in. The downward pointing slats kept the mouse from getting out. The carton was foil lined, which made it more difficult for the mouse to escape.
My son insisted on keeping the mouse…my mom bought a little cage. We then noticed that the mouse only had 3 legs (2 back, 1 front). Then a day later, it gave birth! Full of surprises!
I filled a 5 gallon bucket with 2.5 gallons of peanut butter, placed the tube on the edge, and introduced the little fella to his own personal heaven.
That’s a great device!
I’m too impatient though. If you’ve got two people, and you know where the mouse is, take advantage of the fact that they rarely run across open space, and instead tend to follow walls.
Put a paper grocery bag against the wall in the room with the mouse. Have one person scare the mouse into running, and have the other pick up the bag as soon as the mouse runs in. I’ve caught multiple mice in my house this way, each in under 5 minutes.
I agree with the previous comment about mice generally running around the floor. I found another trap that is simple and easy to make, and that works well. Check the link to my blog entry.
Odd… in my news reader, this article came up right before a how-to for a spud gun. I’m not sure if I should merge the two projects.
Just say no. Just say no. Just say no…
A great idea! Thanks!
So mice don’t take falling damage?
For all of you killers out there, here is the humane way to end your little friends’ lives: expell a cartrige of CO2 into the bucket (It’s heavier than air). They will get high and pass out, and then suffocate painlessly.
seems like a lot of people out there have mouse infestations. yuck. what happens when the bird flu mutates to mouse-to-mouse transmissible form? gonna catch and release then?
In case of rats, replace toilet paper tube with PVP piping, and install spikes on the floor of electrified garbage can. 😀
Great idea…but it seems that the mouse will have to climb to a higher elevation for this to work. Unlike conventional mouse traps where they are placed in corners on the floor.
Perhaps the trick is to make it easy for the mouse to somehow make it up a ramp or something.
I’ll definitely use this method.
Thanks again 🙂
-sam
Good point SamC. Lemme extrapolate: I set the garbage can on the floor and made a ramp with cardboard up to the “tube,” then set the whole thing right by the fridge (where I believe it lived).
I didn’t want the little fella on the counter any more than he was.
Thanks for the post, brings back memories…
We used to catch mice at the summer cottage in Turku Archipelago this way when I was a kid.
I used an idea like this to catch a squirrel in my basement. Instead of a cardboard tube I used an old cat carrier balanced on the basement steps. I fixed the door so it swung into the carrier and tied a cable from the door to a pipe on the ceiling. Threw in some peanut butter Ritz Bits and waited. I made an alarm, too. I attached a piece of string tied to a soda can with some pennies in it. When the trap was sprung the can made a racket and I ran to get the squirrel. The carrier was hanging from the ceiling with the squirrel inside. (He was NOT happy.) With the door on backwards the weight of the carrier held the trap shut. I let him free in a nearby park and gave him the rest of the Ritz Bits for being such a good sport.
Brilliant idea! So simple, so elegant. Personally I’d just dump the bucket’o’mice into the woods and let them figure themselves out – no reason to kill them really. But I’m a pretty firm believer in karma.
Awesome idea, but unfortunately I will never get the opportunity to use it (I have two cats and a dog 🙂
I did this but I gave him some food at the bottom, for being so good and going right intp the trap.
Great idea.
One clarification: CO2 suffocation triggers the panic receptors in the mammalian brain. Mice suffocated in this way would likely suffer horribly. Breathe into a plastic bag and see how the CO2 buildup causes you to hyperventilate and panic.
Use argon or nitrogen, used in welding and brewing respectively. They will just pass out and asphyxiate.
This is a solution in search of a problem. Snap traps are perfectly humane since the mouse is killed instantly and does not suffer. Glue traps of course are not nearly as fast. I set up two traps in my laundry room and in three days had caught 10 mice, each of which I dumped out on my lawn, so that the local omnivores (cats, racoons, opossum) could have some snacks.
I think the most humane way to kill rodents is by putting them in the freezer. Basically they just fall asleep and never wake up. My sister in law caught a mouse once in a trap, but only the tail was caught. I picked the whole thing up, dropped into a jogurt container, put the top on, and stuck it in the freezer. The next morning we had a nice micicle. Jummy 😉
Releasing them is stupid and cruel. Either they are going into another persons home, where they might breed, and then that person might use some cruel traps to get rid of the mouse infestation, or you are releasing into the wild and it will almost certainly fall prey to a predator. Just accept that there is some bad karma involved in getting rid of rodents, and kill it humanely.
Troll cap winner
My hubby put some mouse poison in the garage. The kids found the half dead mouse a couple of hours later. They were so outraged that Daddy had killed a mouse, they set up a similar trap to catch all the other critters…then we read that rats and mice don’t get along. So we bought a pet rat and kept him in a cage in the garage. The mice never came back. That pet rat was the best pet we’ve ever had. Smart too.
Friggin Great Idea…. I just set one up over my garbage disposal. Tell you if it works.
Wow, the old mouse into the bucket trick made both make and boingboing! This is a popular one among small animal breeders because it is so effective and harmless. For mice and especially rats you will want to make sure it is at least a 2ft deep bucket, wild things can jump *high.* I’m pretty sure wild rats might be the animal kingdoms greatest athletes.
you can use a ramp as well with some food in the bottom of the bucket. simply place a ramp up to the rim of the bucket, and the mice will jump in after the food. cat food works well because of its smell. but there is a down side to this set up. i “armed” this trap before i went to bed. in the morning i found, to my utter disgust, no food, three tails and one very fat mouse. i was later able to witness this canabalistic act when the next morning i woke to find a mouse half way through a second mouse, and an assortment of tails again. i continued this method untill there were no mice or tails in the pail for a few days straight. it works but beware of the horror.
the horror….the horror…..the horror.
Looks like a great idea, with a lot of fun. One thing you sure need a big heavy duty roll of tude, else the fat furry creatures will simply push the whole “trap” down in its process to get into the tunnel.
A good laugh, and the picture just fill me with ghee!
I tried this and just fed the little mammal to my cat. Equally humane from the cat’s perspective….no?
I have a better solution – a ballbearing mousecatcher, otherwise known as a tomcat. It has the virtues of being 100% natural and self-cleaning and disposing.
Don’t forget to put something soft in the can or bucket or this won’t be all that humane when you dump the mouse off in the country with a brain hemorrhage.
A great idea! I’ll try it , Thanks!
keithandthegirl.com/forums
for more ideas on catching mice.
I found a mouse long time ago in the kitchen and it barely moved, like it was poisoned or something.
Decided to do the right thing I took it outside and set on fire: it died in less than 2 seconds, beat that humane supporters!
So there I was…so proud of myself for getting rid of all the mice in my house. I had just slept my first sleepless night because there was no patter of tiny mouse feet making noise. Suddenly I see a car pull up outside my house, a person takes a 20inch high trash can and dumps out a mouse and a crushed toilet paper roll on my front lawn. arghh….time to get the flypaper and mousetraps back out.
You just have to reason with yourself whichever method you use.
In the end, I feed them to one of my 12 dogs (instant death, saves a few ounces of dog food) and pray my ADD takes care of the rest (I forget quite easily.)
In the end, the universe cleans itself up.
If it wants to.
So many comments elicited from the introduction of a humane mouse trap….. Don’t get me wrong – loved the idea…. am a serious animal lover and believe that it’s wrong to kill just because something is a nuisance….. but a ton of comments on this subject leads me to wonder why other, more thought producing subjects lay untouched…?
Wow! Two of you burn the mice! You didn’t see where that guy in Mexico swept a mouse out of his house,it ran back into the burning field it came from and then turned around ,now on fire and ran into the Mexican’s house and scurried into a wall and burned the house down?
Mice carry diseases.Hantavirus,fleas,bacteria-don’t mess with them.This is why God gave you a supposedly BIGGER brain.To be on TOP of the food chain.The Bubonic plague was caused by fleas from rats and mice carrying the plague virus.
Don’t give them to your pets.Don’t bet they won’t find their way back….Like one guy wrote above,there’s no shortage.Dispose of the little bastards before they eat some insulation off your wires,and your place burns down.
SET HIM FREE?! Are you INSANE? Vermin inside the house must be destroyed, killed, eliminated. Putting them back outside accomplishes nothing, I don’t care if it is a mile away. Have you ever tried to move a drop of water to the other side of a bucket? It doesn’t work!
Trap them any way you want, but once you’ve got ’em, kill ’em!
This worked great! Got three of them the first night. Happily today there was a party at my bosses house. The three of them will enjoy his food a lot more than mine I’m sure, at least it seemed so as I watched them scamper under his bed when I released them.
I used a Tall bottle with a screw top, and took a stick that was as tall as the bottle and wrapped a rubber band around the bottle and the stick. Inside the bottle drop your bait of choice, then place in a high mouse traffic area. Once the mouse climbs up the stick and into the bottle, just screw the lid back on and then do whatever.
Well, very interesting and I will try this for sure. I can’t promise any humane anything because I feel so violated to have such a creature in my home. He’s been there 3 months, won’t eat any food in a trap or on the floor, but I have seen him and his ‘tracks’. I have snap traps, sticky traps, clip traps, cage traps…and nothing…….he just rules the house as if it were his own! He is very very smart but he is going to die! I win in the end! I also just learned that he has eaten the instant potatoes that I put out (or is he moving them and hording them….?) I heard this works like the bird eating rice……….I can only hope. I hate to think that he’ll died where I can’t see him…..I vacuum under every low piece of furniture every nite to find him……this is insane! It’s driving me insane…..for just one mouse which got in my house from bags of clothes from my parents farm house! Haven’t ever had a mouse in 11 years! There is no way out…..the place is tight as a drum! Sorry, as you can tell I am just not happy! I will let you know how long it took to have him dive into the merky depths of a bucket of water and drown!
i found a mouse in my basement dead, right in the middle of the floor. i know it must just have died because i was down their a day or two earlier. my question is how did it die??? it looked very healthy looking and big for a mouse.
Please get back to me with a possible answer??
Angelina
To: sharon N.
how do u know if its a he??? u sure its not ur ex lol. anyway, i havent seen any in my house thank god but like i said in my previous posting i found one in my basement dead. and i am not sure it the peppermint oil killed him because i didnt really put any down. but i believe it works because i dont seem to have any in my garage anymore.
the actual peppermint oil cost a lot so they recommended the liquid soap because it’s just as strong
you can buy it at natural store. Just put a few cotton balls soak with the peppermint, in a zip lock bag with a few punctured holes for the smell to escape, apparently mice hate the smell and take off.
ps thank god it wasnt ur ex
A
My my, I didn’t know about the pepperment oil but I don’t think it would work because he/she has no way out……unless I leav the doors open, but it’s too cold and then more could come in………it’s a ‘transported’ mouse….
There are many things in a basement that could kill a mouse……..but I’d be interested to know what did kill yours Angelina?
And, I guess I am not sure it’s a ‘he’ but since it’s so damn stubborn…j/k…..and how did you know I had an ‘ex’???? God help me if the ex came back and the mouse stayed…..I’ll jump in the bucket!!!!!!!!!! Stay tuned…….
I´ll try that, but instead of a bucket i will use a hammer
Interesting idea, but not really usefull unless your a budhist or you want to set the buggers loose in someone elses house.
Personally I like the sonic repellers, I had a pretty damn bad infestation in my house and garage, I bought five of them, 1 for the garage and 4 for the house…I went a bit overboard, but I haven’t seen a mouse since I put them in.
As for setting mice on fire, wtf is your problem? have you ever been set on fire? I am not a huge animal rights activest or anything, but that is about the stupidest thing I have ever read in my life…and I have read mein kampf.
If it’s useless to set them free because they’ll just go to a neighbors house, then how does your sonic repeller do any good? They’ll just go into a neighbors home anyway!
Also, a long time ago, one of my cats ate a poisoned mole and died. The same thing could happen with a mouse. Don’t feed it to your pets. They’ve got pet food. Release it into the wild away from your home. If it doesn’t die of old age, a it make a nice meal for a predator. That isn’t cruel! It’s nature!
To: Angelina
how do u know if its a he???
When the mouse drops into the (steel) bucket, it defentively will hurt. The mouse has not the same refexes as a cat. So, it will yell something like: Aaaaaah, my nuts!!!! Than it’s a he.
If you hear a donk only, it must be female.
Cheers
Kees
i’ll try this one. I’ve never had a problem with a mouse in the house before. Usually they stay out of my way, but this one gets on the counters. i have to disinfect everyday. I was beginning to give up on the concept of a homemade mousetrap. THANKS
This works! Instead of a tube, I used a cereal box with both ends torn off. I put a fig newton in one end and balanced that end over the empty recycling bin. This morning, I checked the bin, and the box had been torn up. I shook the bin, and the unwelcome guest was still there! I took him for a long ride, and I won’t be seeing him again. I wonder if he’s got family.
Another nice trap is to acquire a gallon jug with a small mouth. ( big enough for a mouse. Attach a section af bicycle innertube to the mouth and place the other end near a countertop or something elevated. roll a few pieces of banana down the tube. Mice crawl in but cannot crawl back out of the container. After you have the pests in the bottle, Shoot a few blasts of starter fluid in the bottle and cap for 10 or 15 minutes. Empty the remnants into the garbage, or compost pile.
For all of you mouse rights activists, have ever killed a pest in your life? A fly, a mosquito, anything? I am sure you have. So get over the whole save the mice campaign and realize that these little vermon spread more heartache, damage and yes, death than their little lives are worth. Sorry if I sound insensitive…but let’s get back to reality please!
Brilliant! It worked for me last night, many thanks 🙂 I felt sorry for the little black eyed creature and now she’s in a great spot in a lovely field with lots of plants and ponds.
Okay, I had to come here too because I am at my END!! I was painting about a month ago and left my door open for ventilation. Well, you guessed it..a mouse ran in. I tried trapping it then; however, it was way too fast. Even my contractor tried catching it. Now, everyday, I wake up to mouse crap everywhere. One day, in my bathroom, the next in my living room and so on. I have placed traps everywhere and he avoids them. Yes, it’s a HE and he has a name. I named him Brad after my Ex that I kicked out in December. Now, I have another loser in my house that doesn’t pay rent, eats my food and craps all over me!! UGH!! I’m so at my end…I really don’t care if he is killed humanely! I used to care..I don’t now! I’m tired of all the crap!! Yes, all the crap! How can one little mouse crap so much! I just bought a bedroom set yesterday and woke up to crap on my new nightstand! UGH!!
HaHa, this is a efictive method to cath pets 🙂
Okay, great idea but how do I get rid of the people who live a mile away dropping their caught critters off near my place!
Yeah!! I finally caught the little critter. This morning, he was in my bathtub and when he saw me, he tried to run down the drain. When he realized that he couldn’t fit, he tried to hide his face. Poor little thing…all the dislike for him totally left. LOL! But, I also had the upper hand at this time. So, I got a mason jar and placed it over the drain. He jumped into it and I placed tinfoil over it and poked holes into it. Then, I fed him a piece of bacon. Darn, why did he have to be soooo cute! He really was like my ex…cute but worthless. LOL!
So, I took him 19 miles from my home and dropped him off in an industrial area in Los Angeles. He actually stopped and looked at me before he ran off. I was so glad that he evaded all my traps! I really couldn’t have handled it..now, I have no guilt. YAY!!
Charlotte
By the Way… putting water in the can is NOT humane! *rolls eyes*
very good idea…i’ll try it for sure!
My cat brought me a present last night! He and I had it cornered and I tried to pick it up and it bit me. It’s in the lounge fireplace and I’m waiting for it to go down a wrapping paper tube to feast on a piece of cracker with peanut butter. Hope it works. Will let you know.
look i have 2 cats and this fat looking one u might think ur cat is weird look atr mine, they pring me birthday presents, anyways no one has any idea what i can do to make a mousetrap vehicle go FASTER
Thanks to all for your cool trap ideas, I will try them out some time, but for now the first one I caught and released. The second and third died instantly. The fourth and fifth are too smart for the springs and are now being tempted with glue. I have always tried to be humane with mice. I have even caught them bare handed to save them from cats and tried to nurse them back to health after rescue from other’s glue traps. I will not put more poison into the ecosystem so that is out. But I have come to understand that we are at war with rats and mice, and we are losing. In fact it is more of a resistance movement, as we are unlikely to ever win.
When you see a mouse, You can assume that there at least 2 others who parented it. And if they parented one then they parenented 6 or more at least once. And each of those had a chance to mature and breed a little family of their own after a relatively short time. So do the math and realize that they are not cute little friends of the forest but rather an infestation of a disease harboring menace that can make you and your children and pets sick by shitting everywhere and ruining your food.
I intend to drive them from my house like roaches and wild dogs and racoons and hyenas and republicans and Jehova’s Witnesses. If they don’t repond to a polite request then I will have to get rude.
Very good idea. I really like it.
Ive tried this method but with no avail!! the cheeky little mouse has actually worked out to pull the cardboard tube away from the bin and eat the treat. i even made a trap witht the bin where i kept the lid slightly open, cardboarded the open bits and added a little door that opens into it, but doesnt open out. with a little collapsable platform with the bait. He still got out!
running out of ideas!
Interesting but it looks the mouse should fall down due to balance shift.
Make the pipe longer and it should fall down.
Its nice reading the 25 to 1 ratio of kind hearted persons.
I heard the pitter patter of little feet in my house and found droppings. Bought a Hav-a-hart trap. Caught an old, bloated mouse. Transported him to the park and set him near a stream in thick bushes. Tossed a handful of Bugles nearby to give him a picnic before some more practiced predator gave him his “last rites”!!!
At least he got to see what green grass and blue sky looks like. I can sleep with a clear conscience tonight!!
Here’s another idea that I thought of over twenty years ago: Clean out a beer bottle and drop some cheese into the bottom. Lean the bottle against some kind of a ledge so that the opening is flush with a surface. The mouse crawls down into the bottle, but can’t crawl out because it’s too slippery. Do what you will with the little critter.
My family has been using this idea for years. Unfortunately, my mom ended up with a serious mouse problem. She remarked one day that she had taken over 400 mice outside and released them using this method. We suspected they were the same mice, coming in over and over again. so we dabbed red nailpolish on the backs of a few of them. Sure enough, the same mice reappeared, over and over and over….
Whatever live trap method you use, you might want to release a mouse farther than a mile away. My brother live-trapped a mouse in his house and painted a yellow dot on the critter and released him 3 miles away on the other side of the woods that ajoined his property. A couple days later he caught a mouse in his live-trap that had a yellow paint dot on him.
Mouse story! I had a mouse in my picture framing studio a few years back and he got so friendly he would come around checking me out… so i would put my finger out and he’d sniff it. Eventually I got so I could pet him (cute little fella too). Then one day I was watching him climb down an extension cord from the bench to the floor and he fell off and lay dead on the floor. I had no poison around. Old age, heart attack, who knows? I felt kinda sorry for him. I don’t treat them the same at my house though. I set traps cause they can overrun a place pretty quick. I’ll try the tube over the bucket just for chuckles.
Two mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse fought so hard he turned that cream into butter and crawled out.
Fascinating!
Looks like the world is still beating the path to the better mouse trap!
😉
I pity a world which has people like Rob in it who get actual pleasure seeing little creatures suffer and die; they need to know there is a Judgement Day coming when they will get their just reward for delighting in the suffering of God’s creation, whether it be man or beast. It’s just such people who can translate the suffering of a little creature to the atrocities mankind perpetuates upon his fellow man. How sad no one raised these people to feel compassion.
Bacon rind is a fantastic mouse bait.
Paul, Havala, et al, I agree with you. Perhaps Rob is just playing games on this forum. But if he really means what he says, it will most certainly be returned unto him 100 fold. He’s not right in the head either way. In fact, the word ‘coward’ comes to mind. Personally I have a ‘live’ trap. It’s a long, clear plastic box that has a door that only opens one way and holes in the end for air. I’ve caught many mice in it and have actually driven them across town to a field and turned them loose. This tp roll idea sounds just as good. Kudos to those of you who have hearts for the little critters.
Drive a mile (2 miles roundtrip) to save a mouse’s life, at $2.49 to 3.99 a gallon for the gasoline? That’s just plain assinine!
Much easier, rub an amount of peanut butter into a wad of steel wool. The mouse will eat the steel wool while enjoying the peanut butter. It then goes home (whereveer that is), and dies from internal bleeding caused by the steel wool fragments. The body then rots away. No transporting, or wasting of fuel or time involved. If you are silly enough to do it, you can cry silently to yourself for the mouse
The billions of mice in the world are one measly mouse less.
Peanut butter and steel wool are cheap….
The debate going on here is so interesting I can’t believe I have read all these posts. Anyway, I can’t believe cats haven’t been mentioned more! I have lived in a large house next to an open field for over 20 years. 3 cats 0 mice. All I see of the poor suckers is an occasional pile of tail and whiskers in the garage. Now I am not saying it is humane when the cat actually catches a mouse, but it is a great method of prevention because for the most part mice won’t ever enter a house with a cat in it- Hence the expression, “when the cat is away the mice will play”
I strongly recommend NOT feeding poison or steel wool or anything else to a mouse that will allow the mouse to go to some random place to die. When I was growing up, my father put out poison to kill our mice, but one (or more?) died in the wall between the kitchen and the dining room and the stench seemed to last forever. My mother, sisters, and I wanted to make holes in the plaster (destroy the wall) until we found the stinking, rotting vermin and disposed of the cause of the putrid odor, but my father wouldn’t hear of it so we had to suffer. I believe someone already mentioned another excellent reason NOT to use poison: your pet or someone else’s pet might eat the poisoned rodent with unfortunate results.
I really do like your homemade trapping setup. Thank you! This also works: corner the mouse and stomp down hard–can be messy though. A good cat is the best (I think) as long as you are not allergic to cats.
Okay..I just spent three days cleaning out my storage and don’t want a repeat of the mess they made. My boyfriend keeps trying the humane traps with no little success. I can’t wait to see if this works.
PS…mice don’t seem to like “organic” peanut butter…I guess if they are going to be having to give up their happy domain they want it to be for something more worthwhile!
What if you don’t use toilet paper?
Hahahaha!!! I got a link to this from my uncle. The idea is bloody brilliant, and the comments are even better! LOL
To all the folks who are considering cats as a good deterrent to mice…make sure they are cats who have been taught by their mama cats to catch mice; your general, generic house cats may just watch them, as mine have done. They informed me a mouse was there, but they in no way ‘caught’ them!
Seems like a better solution to me…I had an infestation of rats in my office once…to the point that they were scampering around in my ceiling and making a very nice home for themselves, and would hop by the door to the office as if life was just wonderful… finally I put a couple of glue-traps out, only to see the next day how horribly they had struggled to get away. After drowning one,, I pulled several off the glue traps by the tail and let them get away as best they could. But it was very discouraging.
And then, I finally got a cat…that took care of the rats, but then the cat would bring me mice to show off what a macho cat he was. He’d throw them in the air, playing with them, and the mouse seemed so apathetic that it was going to die, I’d take the mouse away from the cat and put it in the grass nearby, inviting it to run off. It wouldn’t. It WAITED for the cat to come and get it again, and succumb to the inevitable…as if it felt it was fulfilling it’s basic purpose in life! TO BE EATEN!
A good idea is to dump a couple of beers into the bottom of the barrel – as the little beggar splashes around he releases all the carbon dioxide and he dies slowly of oxygen starvation while getting pised – a fitting end to a rodent.
Hey, here’s an idea. I heard that if you put a bit of mint oil on a cotton ball and put several about in your cupboard, well, where the mice are anyway. They will leave as they are allergic to oil of mint. I’ve tried it and so far they have left and haven’t came back yet.
Good idea. But what if place some oil in the tube close to the end to make mouse just slide down.
Cool ! Especially if you move left end of the tube a little bit up to make some angle towards the basket.
Spring traps are NOT instant death. I set one up for a rat l had in my garage. The bigger, heavier sort made just for rats.I came home the next day and the little fellow was in the trap,dead-and only his left front paw was under the metal bar. There was blood pooling at his ears and mouth. Upon further inspection l noted he had a deep impression, obviously made by the bar, across his midsection. The critter had taken a serious hit accoss the body and managed to struggle , maybe for hours, out from under that spring bar and then finally died with just his paw still not yet free.
I will never use one of these devices again.
Ingenious.
Do you think one of those little love rodents would crawl up a longer tube, such as christmas present wrapping paper, and burrow into my rectum???? just wondering. i would not do that.
really.
o.k. mabie
Sounds like it could make a great game. After you catch one see if he will fall for it again. After maybe 6 or so dives into the bucket maybe that will do him in. The one with the highest number of dive before he croaks wins.
I had horrible mice problems in the garage, turds everywhere. They also got into a lot dried flower supplies and made nests with it everywhere. We didn’t want our pets poisoned so we didn’t do the regular traps/poisons. It was too crowded for my cat to chase them. One week, after a shipment of eucalyptus came, they vanished, never to return. Now we put the stuff everywhere. I would just as soon they stayed away then have to deal with carcasses.
great email comments.
Mary
We have used a better method for years on the goldfields here when there are mice plagues. A beer bottle is placed on its side with its neck over the edge of the table under which is a pail of water. Cheese is placed in the bottle mouth and a piece of cloth at the other end to allow the meece (plural)to climb up. They then run along the top side of the bottle and fall off when the neck is reached. We commonly caught 20 or more a night. It does not need resetting. NB Be sure to clean out often as the stench of rotting rodents can be unsettling.
Great idea. This is just such an exciting stuff.
Why not just bonk it in the head and hang up its little body on a little cross as a warning to the other mice? Heh heh heh…
Nitric acid, I say. Replace the trashcan with a glass Erlenmeyer flask with nitric acid. The subsequent bubbling can be noisy, though, once the screams have settled down, that is.
Jesus said “God cares for every sparrow that falls.”
Proverbs says “A righteous man takes good care of his animals”.
This is a good way to take care of mine.
Thanx
Well you know what? I tried this and it didn’t work at all.
First I tried it on my HP USB optical mouse and…nothing. Then, expecting different results, I tried it with my Logitech wireless mouse. Still no luck. I have tried several different brands of toilet paper, thinking that there might be a defect between the various TP manufacturers but to no avail. All I have is a huge pile of toilet paper and a mouse next to my computer that refuses to play along.
Who’s the wise guy that thought up this fruitless scheme anyway? You’ve got some ‘splaining to do.
Wouldn’t the mouse be hurt in the fall into the trash can or bucket? How about a little parachute on the roll?
If you’ve got a bunch of the f***ers and wanna kill them quick, mix up a batch of 50% flour and 50% cement (no water). When they eat it, their digestive juices will harden the cement, blocking their intestines.
When I worked in a restaurant in OK, we used to catch mice in plastic containers, close the lid and throw it in the microwave. It took about 2-3 minutes to kill them and about 4 minutes to explode them.
If any mice are reading this, we’re stuffed.
Out here in the wild woods, we take a 4 or 5 gallon bucket and bore two small holes opposite each other in the top rim. Then we take a 12 ounce plastic pop bottle and stick a length of stiff wire through the cap and all the way through the bottom, then place the ends of the wire in the small holes in the bucket rim. This forms a rotating cylinder which is then smeared with chunky peanut butter. Put a few inches of water in the bucket and place a stick of wood from the ground up to the rim of the bucket. It works best if the ramp lines up with the wire. The mouse climbs the ramp, steps onto the pop bottle, the bottle spins, and the mouse falls into the water and drowns.
This saves lots of money on poison and the rodents never get immune.
For those who don’t already know this, mice love to nibble on little scrap pieces of white bar soap.
Re: question about mice climbing or jumping onto elevated surfaces… Mice will climb almost any surface that has texture, and can jump at least two feet high. I’ve found them atop my cottage refrigerator — presumably from having boosted themselves from chair to table to cabinet to fridge. They also can leap higher than the rim of the toilet, because we’ve found them swimming (and exhausted) in ours. Mice are commonly found on topmost shelves in pantries, and often on countertops. If you place bait on a ledge they’ll manage to make it up there unless there’s absolutely nothing nearby for them to leapfrog onto. You’d be surprised at their agility. Be sure that your bait is the only available food source, so that they go to it exclusively.
It’s so nice to see another human that has compassion for the other living creatures that we share this tiny little planet with.
We live in the country in a wooded area and have many creatures that come and visit us, most are welcome but then some cause problems as do the mice that want to live inside in the winter.
We don’t use the KILLER mouse traps, those are horrible things, Lou takes an old coffee can and with a knife cuts an “X” in the bottom side and pushes the four tabs inward slightly creating an entrance of about a half inch, the can is baited with black oil sunflower seeds (Any bait will do) and placed in our entry.
The mice will enter the can but will be unable to get back out, voila, our non lethal mouse trap, and it works great, we usually get between twelve and fourteen mice over the course of the winter.
Oh, and getting them out is as easy as removing the plastic cover at the other end of the can.
This winter we did not get many mice, only six as there was a least weasel living in our attic, still is I think, natures mousetrap (:-}
It’s so nice to see another human that has compassion for the other living creatures that we share this tiny little planet with.
We live in the country in a wooded area and have many creatures that come and visit us, most are welcome but then some cause problems as do the mice that want to live inside in the winter.
We don’t use the KILLER mouse traps, those are horrible things, Lou takes an old coffee can and with a knife cuts an “X” in the bottom side and pushes the four tabs inward slightly creating an entrance of about a half inch, the can is baited with black oil sunflower seeds (Any bait will do) and placed in our entry.
The mice will enter the can but will be unable to get back out, voila, our non lethal mouse trap, and it works great, we usually get between twelve and fourteen mice over the course of the winter.
Oh, and getting them out is as easy as removing the plastic cover at the other end of the can.
This winter we did not get many mice, only six as there was a least weasel living in our attic, still is I think, natures mousetrap (:-}
No one has mentioned the electronic devices that supposedly make a sound that only rodents can hear. This sound is unpleasant and they leave the areas where the devices are plugged into the electrical sockets. We’ve placed approximately a dozen around the house and have noticed a significant reduction in the evidence mice leave behind, if you know what I mean.
We have one of those electrical shocking devices also but haven’t had any success yet.
I rarely read anything with as much interest as this thread. Thanks for all the great tips!
Karen
There’s an even simpler method we’ve used for years — just put the bait directly in the bucket/trash can itself, then slide it next to a chair or something of even height they can climb up on. They’ll jump right into the bucket to get the bait (sunflower seeds work great)– no tubes needed. Works great!
you r such a nice person. i want to fall into a trap with you!
place a 1″ thick dish of soft sponge on the bottom of the bucket/trash can.The mouse will fall on soft surface, and will not be able to jump too high, so smaller bucket can be used
Oh my God! How can you treat my brethren in such a manner. Sure its nice to get some free grub but being led in to a trap?? Thats low! Its hostile act and myself and my mouse brothers will retaliate. Your suffering will that of my forefathers, caught up in your inhumane traps. The day of reckoning is nearly up on you!
Rats, and rat traps, are something else. Nothing to mess around with, and seeing one will not elicit any sympathy.
After spending an evening putting a half dozen in the attic to deal with a roof rat problem, I snuggled in bed with my spouse, a woman who will bring a car to a screeching halt on the freeway to avoid stressing a butterfly.
The light had been out for just a few moments, and I had just explained how many and where abouts in the attic these instuments of rodentia death were placed, which included the space over the bedroom. She then asked, dreading the odor of a rotting rodent permeating the house in August, how we would know when a trap had sprung.
As I was just opening my mouth to say that I’d likely have to check on them every couple of days, the one over the master bedroom went off with a bang like a pistol shot, accompanied by a loud thrashing about.
It’s illegal to release an animal more than 500 yards from where you captured it. You have no choice but to kill it.
I’m almost wishing I had a mouse problem, just to try this. What’s wrong with me!
What’s worse, is, I really should have been in bed 45 minutes ago, but instead I’ve read this whole thing. Maybe because it is the most comprehendable thing I’ve had to deal with all day.
For what it is worth, there is no such thing as a human language which is primitive, and probably there is no such thing as a creature which has primitive thoughts… In other words, animals probably all think in subject/verb/object like humans do. Kinda makes it harder to kill them, huh? All consciousness is basically thinking subject/verb/object like our own, and the physical brain simply provides a different way of expression of that consciousness. Haven’t you ever felt mentally incapacitated (drunk, tired, etc.) but still very conscious? Maybe a mouse is just as conscious as you, but not able to communicate that.
Hey, I smell some yummy peanut butter somewhere close… I’m off to investigate…
– Chad May
Hi, I wanted to deeply thank you for this idea. I live at a Zen Buddhist pagoda in Frankfurt, Germany and we have a mice problem. We were told by the health inspectors that they would begin giving us problems if we didnt get rid of the mice quickly and mentioned they would be back to check that we were using traps and poison. We set out the poison but have a strong disposition for killing animals, so I set out to find another way. I have made your mousetrap along with a young monk named Hue An, (but we used an empty teabox instead of a toilet paper roll) and have caught 2 mice so far and set them free at a distance away. Thank you very much for helping us.
ps, the one i caught this morning kept trying to jump out of the trash can and altough really small, he almost made it. Make sure to use a DEEP containter. Thanks again
-Hue Chuyen
I think we have just about got the mouse problem covered; now I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to ridding a place of ants/spiders etc.? A friend of mine is constantly having to call pest control people to come treat for ants, which they never seem to be able to eradicate; and as I saw a big ol’ gross spider in the bathtub the other day, I’m wondering how in the world do they get there, and is there any way beside spraying poisons all over the place to keep them out? Maybe there are some bug experts out there…
Ants and Spider problems? Try J. Boone’s book “Kinship with All Life”. Pretty novel approach and assumes all life is sentient and willing to make deals.
You *could* put a nice bucket of boiling water under the tube and have a nice lobster-style mouse dinner! HAHA
WOW this trap totally worked. I am going to set this trap for the next few nights to see if Mister Mouse has any brothers and sisters.
Thanks
This is a fun idea, but has noone ever seen a “micecube”? They are sold in hardware and some grocery stores. there’s a door on the open end that is too lond to completely close. Place a tasty mouse treat at the end and waitfor the mouse to crawl in and enjoy. S/he can’t get out because the door is too long and won’t open from the other direction. You can then dispose of your little friend.
I’ve caught 2 mice over the past 5 years this way. I’m sure they were different mice given the ears apart, personality and places they were taken. I can’t imagine anyone arresting someone who released a mouse into a park, the woods, or other natural area. Yes, then let nature take its course.
If you just can’t let go, well, then, you have a new pet! The 2nd mouse I caught was pretty spunky – and smart – not nearly as easy to catch as #1! Still, I returned him to life in the park, by the water.
But rats? Ugh! vermin – dispose as cleanly as possible. I will say that the sonic devices are very effective in keeping them away.
I have absolutely NO PROBLEM killing mice. They are dirty, filthy and disease ridden. Don’t think for a second that mice care about YOUR health. Or the Health of your children. They will shit in your food, piss in your bed and not give a rat’s ass about it. Remember, after they crawl up through your basement, come in from outdoors or wherever they have been, THEY HAVE BEEN GOD KNOWS WHERE!!! They crawl through trash, over human waste and other such nastiness. They come in contact with fleas and ticks which are two other disgusting vectors, Lyme’s Disease anyone and feel no remorse. How about some Bubonic Plague? Too far fetched for you? For those of you in the southwest, how about some Hanta Virus? Mice reproduce in a very short time, 18 to 20 days. There are PLENTY of the little fuckers. Kill them and feel no remorse. There are probably a dozen more living in your walls anyway.
To keep ants out, find the point of entry and pour wood ash (from your fireplace) on the spot. A strip of a couple inches of wood ash will repel the ants within a couple of days. I had a big problem with those tiny Argentinian ants a few years ago, and my neighbor told me about the wood ash… I ended up almost having to draw out the outside borders of my house in a wood ash line 2 inches wide, because they kept finding different ways in, but they would not cross the ash line. Much more effective than all the sprays, and much less toxic. If it’s windy or rains, you’ll need to replace it more often. Also works to keep slugs and snails out of an area. I haven’t had any ant problems since.
As far as the mousetraps go, seems like the spinning bottle on the bucket variations would be most effective. Trying to modify the original toilet paper tube design to make the tube-trap reset itself would only work if the tube was so slippery that the mouse couldn’t cling to it, which isn’t likely. Even so, it would also likely grab the bait on the way down, trying to hold onto something as it fell.
oh my god! how frustrating!!! that stupid supid mouse is driving me nutts! he doesnt just wander around on my kitchen floor, he manages to climb up my stove top and hangs out there and next to my stove top is my kitchen counter where i daily use! that THING also wanders around the house and one time he got in my bed room , where i also have my baby’s crib!! oooooh nothing worked with this mouse he is too smart.. that little F***er! oh my god he is on the kitchen counter nowwwwwww!!!!!!!!!! i need to cry…
Thank you for posting about this humane mouse trap. I personally can’t stand mice, because they’re dirty and spread disease, eat holes in everything, poop everywhere… but on the same token there is no reason I have to be cruel in getting them out of my house. I’ve only had 1 mouse to contend with, several years ago. We had a face-off, he was on the kitchen counter. Fastest little bugger I’d ever seen. I moved out of the house before I could catch him.
There is also no reason to be cruel if they have to be killed. Suffocation has probably got to be a terrible way to die. As is drowning, being crushed, or glued down. We used to do all these things when I was a kid and I didn’t think twice of it, until I saw what became of these animals when they met these traps. A humane death is something that’s going to happen in a couple of seconds. And it’s humane for you, too, so you don’t have to remember waiting for the thing to struggle and die.
The last mice I caught were at my mom’s house. She had humane traps, that were basically tubes with a bend in the middle, so that one end bent upward. You set one end on the ground, and they’d crawl in, and the trap would tip to the other end and the one-way door would close. Then I would take the mice outside a ways away and let them go, willing mother nature to do what it will, whether that be the wild mouse to survive in the wild, or find its way back, or get eaten by a predator. It’s just how life is. Much as we may hate the food chain in the animal kingdom from time to time, it will never go away.
Cute, yeah. But mice in the wild are gross. But though part of what makes me human is my animal nature in killing, another part of what makes me human is my nature of compassion and kindness especially in these instances. A humane mouse trap is perfectly reasonable and logical and sane. There’s really no point in being cruel, either in catching them or killing them.
This trap works extremely well! Thank you!!
wow, i just read all this and copied and pasted the good parts to email to a friend with roof rats/mice problems. he said a guy in a pet store said if you get a pet snake, the rodents will just leave the house, as they can smell the snake and are scared. somehow, i doubt that. i don’t think they’d go away til they saw the snake sliding towards them.
i think the “illegal to set animals free less than 500 yards away from where you caught it” law is bullshit and non-existant, but i live in australia so maybe it’s different here. anything humane, non toxic, easy to make at home, and reusable, is an awesome idea. not to mention the karma you’ll have coming your way. all you who want to drown or kill them slowly, watch the movie “willard” and see what happens to people who aren’t nice to mass amounts of rodents.
I lived in Australia some time and I don’t know what’s the difference – mouse is mouse everywhere. Just catch it and through away.
Thanks, what a great idea.
Had no luck with the trap had been trying for a week, got the mouse on the first night when I tried this. Released the mouse into the garden.
Scenario 1: Cute mouse (could have been an Australian native) cornered in my tupperware cupboard, removed surrounding containers from hiding mouse and then used thin stick to remove last containers, mouse exited at high speed into the waiting plastic shopping bag, Voila! My daughter then took bag outside and enabled mouse to escape.
Scenario 2: Mouse returns to scene of crime and is cornered behind refrigerator, placed plastic bag at one of two exits and rattled stick at other, another succesful shopping day! Mouse was transported to grassy area far from home, all is well that ends well.
Scenario 1: Cute mouse (could have been an Australian native) cornered in my tupperware cupboard, removed surrounding containers from hiding mouse and then used thin stick to remove last containers, mouse exited at high speed into the waiting plastic shopping bag, Voila! My daughter then took bag outside and enabled mouse to escape.
Scenario 2: Mouse returns to scene of crime and is cornered behind refrigerator, placed plastic bag at one of two exits and rattled stick at other, another succesful shopping day! Mouse was transported to grassy area far from home, all is well that ends well.
To mouse killers, I have been observing humans despoiling my beautiful creation like a maglignant cancer. Beware!
From Big Rat creator!
Humane way to kill:
I would personally do everything I could to relocate him somewhere he wouldn’t get in the same situation, but I also understsand that not everyone cares as much as I do, so as a snake owner I offer what I understand to be the most humane way to kill a mouse. Beware because you must use your HANDS to do this (which shouldn’t really bother you if you’re killing it, and if it does bother you then maybe you should re-think letting him live).
After caught: secure the mouse with your index and middle finger to one side of his head and your ring finger and pinkie on the other side, palm down on his back. Place a pencil or other similarly sized dowel-shaped object underneith your middle and ring fingers directly behind his head, at the base of his skull. with your other hand, pull the base of his tail, HARD. You wont be happy with the results if you pull at the tip, I can promise that. Their entire spinal cord is dislocated and it is (almost always) instant death. If you fuckers are going to kill him, at least be humane about it.
mice are cool
I know a fellow who had a mouse problem and finally saw it run up into a trah container. So he quickly tied a knot in the trash bag and took it with him when he went to pick someone up at the train station. While there he put the bag on the train and sent it off to Wash. D.C.
Snap traps are NOT humane. The other night I reluctantly set one and heard it go off, and found a mouse in agony trying to free itself. It was a horrible sight. I set it loose and it tried to run away but was too injured and couldn’t make its limbs work properly. So rather than let it suffer more I had to crush its skull clumsily instead.
I am a big burly 42-year old man, but I will never get over having done something so needlessly cruel to such a beautiful little creature. Every time I think of it I feel intense regret. I am here reading this page because this time I want to catch the current mouse that is loose in our house and set it free. Thanks for the good ideas.
I hate poison because they crawl off and die somewhere you can’t find them. Glue traps work well, but are so cruel. The snap traps aren’t working because they keep eating the peanut butter off without tripping the trap. I’m sitting here watching the Sopranos, and the critter is on my stove and countertop. I wonder what Tony Soprano would do. I know one thing…it wouldn’t be humane!
Google ‘ratzapper’ or just go to ratzapper dot com.
For smaller mice that are too delicate to trip the snap-traps, tie a piece of yarn to the trigger and smear some peanut butter on it. They will tug on the yarn and get their little necks broken in a jiffy.
For those of you that contest killing a creature (even a rodent), Do you eat meat? someone had to kill it. Do you eat vegetables? Chances are, the farm they are raised on has rodent problems that are dealt with lethally. so Nyah!
How about an idea for a rat? I made the mistake of leaving my glass door open forgetting my neighbor had told me she’d seen some rats running around between our backyards and now I have one in my house. It’s freaking me out and making life hard, but I don’t want to kill it. That will only be a last resort if I can’t figure out something else, but I don’t like not being able to leave my room at night because I’m afraid of what might jump out at me
I was in the kitchen last night and saw a mouse running across the counter. When I approached, it ran into the sink and then slipped down into the drain. We have a disposal, so it couldn’t go very far, but now it is trapped in the upper part of the drain and I’m not sure how to get it out. I suppose I could just (a) drown it by running water down there for a while, but that seems inhumane, or (b) try to retrieve it with some tongs, but that skeeves me out too much. Any other ideas?
I was, at one time, a barn cat, tortured, to distraction, by the horrid deeds that I have done.
Nine lives later I am now a house mouse. So pay attention and do as this little trick suggests.
Regards
Algenon the mouse
I’m frightened by what I’m reading on this post. Folks THEY ARE MICE… from a microbiological standpoint they are one of the MOST EFFICIENT vectors of disease encountered by man. They caused the black death for pete’s sake. Just kill them. Or better yet for all you ‘humane’ folks SHOW THEM THE SAME COURTESY YOU WOULD A ROACH. Forget the fact that they are furry and cute. Like marc said there is probably 100 er so waiting to take their place anyway. Folks have no problem dropping bombs on foreign countries but have a problem killing what will probably give them the respiratory infection of their lives. R u sure those are allergies or could u be inhaling rat crap<---cause of fatal hanta virus. In short grow up it will live and die within a year anyway. And enough of this how would u like it if someone did that to me. Well if I were a mouse I wouldn't take a dump in folks food and destory their stuff either.
Well, I just spent an hour of my work day reading all of your entertaining comments. I will definitely try this trap. After watching the adorable little vagrant pop his head out of my bread drawer last night I can’t imagine killing him. I’ll drive him to my in-laws, they live 8 miles away and I will sleep much easier. I hope it works, because apparently my “watch-cats” only watch, not capture, and the mouse turds in the bread drawer are making me lose my appetite.
i agree with a hammer/ cutting the head off/ stomping them to be much more humane than many of the “humane” suggestions. i am not trying to incite anger/disgust like the “set it on fire” guy. just saying that if you are going to kill them, which i feel is reasonable, then quicker is always better.
Get a dachshund, they are born to hunt
Thank you thank you thank you! It worked!
(To catch a vertically challenged mouse, I built a “table” out of a milk crate and cardboard, leaned a board up against it as a ramp, and covered the whole thing with an old doormat to provide a smooth path and nice inviting traction. No luck with the toilet paper tube, so switched to tea box as suggested by Hue Chuyen.)
“I was ready to make peace with him and co-exist.”
Tree hugger.
this is what my dad used to do when we had mice, he’d get a milk bottle (a plastic one with a handle 2L) and tie one end of a piece of string to the handle of the bottle, and the other end to a doorknob of one of the kitchen cupboards (but make sure the string is shorter than the length of the cupboard so the bottle can hang). Then he would set up the bottle on the bench above the cupboard, half off the edge like the toilet roll in this example, (with the neck of the bottle on the bench without the lid) set some bait in the bottom of the bottle…bread with peanut butter works well…then in the morning the bottle would’ve fallen off the bench and be hanging off the cupboard with our rodent friend inside..it cant escape because of the texture of the plastic not to mention gravity..
Excellent!! Any ideas on catching a cat? Help!!
Thanks!
hello.. we are trying it right now.. it better work.. this mouse made me cry.. we call it jimmy.. and our trap looks identical to yours but ours is better.. my boyfriend put a toilet roll next it to so it didnt seem so set up for the mouse.. i had to sleep knowing the mouse might come up and sit on my head.. i hate small fury creatures that move.. that is all.. x
hello.. we are trying it right now.. it better work.. this mouse made me cry.. we call it jimmy.. and our trap looks identical to yours but ours is better.. my boyfriend put a toilet roll next it to so it didnt seem so set up for the mouse.. i had to sleep knowing the mouse might come up and sit on my head.. i hate small fury creatures that move.. that is all.. x
hello.. we are trying it right now.. it better work.. this mouse made me cry.. we call it jimmy.. and our trap looks identical to yours but ours is better.. my boyfriend put a toilet roll next it to so it didnt seem so set up for the mouse.. i had to sleep knowing the mouse might come up and sit on my head.. i hate small fury creatures that move.. that is all.. x
hello.. we are trying it right now.. it better work.. this mouse made me cry.. we call it jimmy.. and our trap looks identical to yours but ours is better.. my boyfriend put a toilet roll next it to so it didnt seem so set up for the mouse.. i had to sleep knowing the mouse might come up and sit on my head.. i hate small fury creatures that move.. that is all.. x
I actually have a mouse in the house now and it has been here for three days. We have tried mouse traps it just eats the cheese, nutella and it has even eaten the rat poison and it still wont die. I am going to try the idea with the toilet roll and the bucket. For some reason I still think that it probably will be able to climb out of the bucket. Knowing my luck. I even have a pest control person coming out on Wednesday to place baits everywhere. I know most of you are into humane things but this mouse has seriously ruined me. I dont sleep well. At night when I watch TV I place the tv volume low and it has personally ruined my life.
Not too mention the pest controller says that they travel in pairs. GREAT NEWS for me. This mouse just simply wont die. I am too scared to sit on my couches. I hate the critter and wont rest until its dead. Apparently its probably living in my fridge motors. Just great.
I will let you know how it goes, but I dont have faith in this as like one of the people mentioned previously. I only see this mouse on the floor never on the bench tops. But ill see how I go until Wednesday when the pest controller comes to set baits all over my house.
Hi everyone the problem gets worse. I have now been told that they dont travel alone they actually travel in pairs or with their families. On Monday night my husband and his mate managed to catch the mouse with two buckets by trapping it. Too fast for just one person. So there was that mouse gone and I thought yeah. Cool.
So to be safe placed some more peanut butter and nutella on mouse traps and Tuesday morning everything still intact I thought great no more mouses. This morning however, the peanut butter was gone so I have another visitor in my fridge living in its motors. From a house thats never had one mouse now I am starting to wonder how many do I actually have seeing as I only ever saw one at a time.
The pest control person came out placed poision and hopefully they will eat the bait on the roof or somewhere here. This mouse/mice are serious problems so just to warn those of you who type after me. Mouse/Mice travel in pairs or with their families so if you catch one your bound to catch another. Great news I know. I hate them and am so scared of them.
By the way tried the toilet paper and the mouse never ever went in there. Problem is that I have never seen it on my bench tops or aything like that just behind the fridge and on the floor. So it did not work? any other suggestions. I somehow dont think the poision will work seeing as it didnt work from Woolworths etc. They ate it and never died. If only there was a spray to get rid of them. I hate winter now and want summer back. LOL.
Take Care people.
what would be great is, after the mouse falls into the bucket, you bashed his little skull in with a hammer. that would probably work very well. excellent idea fred. nice work. kudos.
what would be great is, after the mouse falls into the bucket, you bashed his little skull in with a hammer. that would probably work very well. excellent idea fred. nice work. kudos.
If my cats don’t kill the little bastards, I trap them as inhumanely as possible with an old fashioned wood trap. Then I take pleasure in torturing them to death (either burning them with a match or candle or stabbing them with a hot needle), or I let them loose in an enclosed room with no place to hide for the cats to play with until its dead. I have no respect for a rodent who has no respect for me. Humane my ass, they don’t deserve to live.
LOL at Hocsr and Rich.
I still have not seen its other friends but am aware that they are somewhere in the house. Hopefully its eaten the bait and just died on its own. The Pest Control people think their bates are much stronger than the ones that you buy from the supermarkets. Even though they look like they are the same colour same thing. It will be one week today I have had mice/mouse in my house. I go to bed normally every night just to avoid them and so not to think they are there. They are awful creatures and I wish they never existed and they breed pretty easily so thats why you need to protect your home as quickly as possible if you do see one. LOL
Don’t kill the mice. One might be Shirley McClain in a previous life!
uhhhh…. if a spring trap kills a mouse in an instant by breaking its neck and this device has a mouse fall a few feet (a huge distance for a mouse) into a bucket and break a few bones, which one is more humane?
It’s like capital punishment. Someone who’s hanged tends to die instantly from a broken neck (if they fall far enough with a cord around their neck). But we felt that was not humane enough so we invented the electric chair which pumps massive amounts of electricity into the guy’s body until he dies — which takes a little while. Then that wasn’t humane enough so we invented lethal injection — drugs that stop someone’s lungs and heart. So while he looks all peaceful he’s actually suffocating and having a heart attack at the same time. I think most people would rather hang.
So are we really being selfless or selfish? Is this a fight for humanity for the sake of the animal or humanity for your own sake — to not to have to deal with death?
Uhh.. actually it is nearly impossible for the mouse to be hurt. It will be falling at the exact same speed you would fall at that distance. I guess you haven’t seen a cat fall off a second story deck and be completely unharmed – and it’s not because cats always fall on their feet.
ok, i have at least one cute little thing too, but he/she has to go, I dont have a very deep bucket and have never seen him/her off the ground, if i build one of these traps using books/mags as steps i was wondering if 6 inches of water in a bucket say 15 inches high would stop him/her being able to jump out.
I got no problems using traps but it seem the ones that im using currently are too big and may just bag me a tail.
Its either this or i go get some smaller traps/ glue boards, whilst i have no problems killing him/her id prefer to do it quick
I agree with Paul. Hey Rob your’e a stupid fag, as if you would like your spine crushed by a metal bar. Maybe giants will trap you and shove a cup of diesel up your A*** and burn you to death.
p.s cool mouse trap
Fascinating page about men (rather than mice:)). Thank You!
WELL I TOO HAVE A MOUSE PRB.. SUCKA CAME OUT OF NOWHERE DARN!! MESSED UP MY SOTVE AND NOW WENT SOMEWHERE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF MY KITCHEN.. IM DOWN WITH THE WHOLE TUBING THING.. JUST HAVE TO WAIT FOR MY PAPER TOILET TO WASTE (LOL) JUST KIDDING SHOULD I DISPSE OF IT IN A PARK SINCE I LIVE NEXT TO ONE?
these are great ideas, but my problem is a litle differnt. we just bought a place in the country a month ago, i have to haul my water in by truck and put it in my cistren. witch holds about 1500 gallons. i have had to go down in there 3 times now and pull out dead mice, this last time i had 7 in there. when i get them out i have to put bleach in there to kill any germs.
i have not found any holes for them to get in to it but i live in the dessert and there is no water around.today i had a rabbit trying to get in threw the led. how can i keep them away from the shed where me cistern is? please help,i can bearly take a bath in that water thinking about them floating in my water supply, my tummy turns when ever i turn on my water
I just set 3 separate traps like this around the house for my little mouse friend.. i hope he falls for it tonight.. i’m tired of him running around!
I’m a poor student, got back from my first holiday in a few years to find a helpful note from my housemates that we have ‘critters’. Thanks guys… Not wanting to kill them and the only humane moustraps costing a fortune I’ve been trying to find a solution like this for ages! Its all set up in the kitchen, I hope by the time I get up for work to earn my pennies he’s in the bin. Literally! I may leave the one upstairs just to get my own back on the deserting housemates….
Google should make this a top hit for ‘mouse trap’!
I wish I’d known about your method while we were being outsmarted by the wiliest mouse in the whole wide world! In the end, we caught the naughty little fella and we even wrote a book about our adventures with Willie, the clever little mouse!
Hi im 13 and my hamster got loose so im trying to catch him. If anyone has anymore ideas email me at (sammi121012@hotmail.com) I have a cat and dog so i hope neither one eat him (hairy).
And you don’t think we carry diseases? It starts with enjoyment from inhumanely killing insects, then animals; people are next. They are known as serial killers, and I can see we have a few here. If there were only a humane way to trap them.
BTW – Love the mouse trap idea. It is great for the rest of us who do care.
Seal your home! I repeat, seal your home!
I had a mouse problem, and none of them were getting caught with my glue traps. They even had the nerve to move my glue traps several inches, as if to talk smack to me. I was about to try the clever plan outlined here, but before that, figured I should seal the home. Buy some of that spray foam ($5 from home depot), and seal the cracks near your sink, gasline, other water pipes, etc.. Trust me, it’s a better long term solution that clever traps.
I had a mouse running in my small apartment for over a week. After sealing all exists/entrances last night, he was finally caught in a glue trap overnight. I figured he didn’t have anywhere to go and finally got desparate enough to go for the bait in the glue trap.
BTW guess why they deserve inhumane treatment? They’re not human.
Thank you thank you thank you! I have been trying to catch a mouse in our house for the last few weeks, and he was a wiley one. He avoided glue traps with big blobs of peanut butter in them, and all I caught was a little hair from him before he got smart. I set up the paper towel roll last night and I caught him!! Set him free a few miles away in an industrial area. Thanks again for such a great idea!
This is brilliant and I can’t wait to try it out tonight. Back when I lived in NYC, where the mice are geniuses, I would set conventional traps with all sorts of things – peanut butter, nutella, organic brie, only to find that the little bastard(s) somehow managed to eat the treat and live to tell. Meanwhile….at some point I had dropped an Advil tablet [ibuprofin with a candy coating on it] on my kitchen floor, to find that my wee friend had licked all the pink candy coating off the pill! Yuck. I then set two traps – one with an Advil and one with a Junior Mint, but I SUPER GLUED the treats to the little stand, and that actually worked. I like this idea way better.
Love the trap. Do you have any “homemade” trap ideas for chipmunks?
This didn’t work for me! I’ve got 2 cats and a dog in the house along with the wiliest mouse I swear ever existed. I know it can climb because I’ve seen it on our window curtain railing…
HELP!
p.s. I tried the longer tube and raw bacon…
Hi! this works great!! now could you please tell me how you would get rid of moles?
Thanks!
Hi! this works great!! now could you please tell me how you would get rid of moles?
Thanks!
“There’s only one way to get rid of a mole! Blow it’s bloody head off!” – Jasper Carrott
I too have a mouse problem. So far as I can tell, there is only one in the room it bothers me most, so I will be trying this idea as soon as I’ve eliminated every source of food from the room. I just hope this works, he’s driving me crazy, this mouse… he runs around, giggling at me when I move to see where he is, I’m sure of it!
Brilliant idea. I have tackled it in a different way but equally effective. Have a look at my web site.
http://www.smithsax.btinternet.co.uk
just saw this at another web – site too, i really hope it works so much!! i’ll tell what happened, roxy
I loved the idea and plan to use it sometime. However, my problem is somewhat different. I live next to 5 acres of woods in a small town. For the first few years I lived here I had a mouse invasion even with a cat in the house. After a few years I began to notice that I don’t have ANY mice and haven’t had for some time. In the meantime my cat died so he’s no longer a deterent. Someone has suggested that I have a snake living under my house. I’ve also read that large tarantulas can eat mice and there are huge webs covering two of my basement vents. My concern is when there’s a tornado we have to go into the basement. I find it freaky not to know what’s down there very effeciently killing all the mice. What do you think?
I loved the idea and plan to use it sometime. However, my problem is somewhat different. I live next to 5 acres of woods in a small town. For the first few years I lived here I had a mouse invasion even with a cat in the house. After a few years I began to notice that I don’t have ANY mice and haven’t had for some time. In the meantime my cat died so he’s no longer a deterent. Someone has suggested that I have a snake living under my house. I’ve also read that large tarantulas can eat mice and there are huge webs covering two of my basement vents. My concern is when there’s a tornado we have to go into the basement. I find it freaky not to know what’s down there very effeciently killing all the mice. What do you think?
I moved into a house in April. There was a vacant house next to it full of junk. The land lord cleaned out the junk and the mice came into our house (the other neighbors have cats and we have dogs that worthless). We used the glue traps and had caught 2; Mommy and one kiddo. We knew where they were living but were too freaked out to get under the stairs. Finally last night we did. We found 3 infant mice. They were almost dead since we had released mom to the wild cats a couple of days ago. It really made me sad. I am NOT an animal activist and I KNOW that they carry diseases, but I have a problem taking lives of any kind. I don’t kill bug, as a matter of fact, I try to rescue them from the freakin pool. I’m pathetic. I can’t even run over a snake in the road. I don’t know why, I just can’t do it. We caught one more mouse this morning in the glue trap (and saw one more run into the wall) and my husband had felt so bad about the babies that he just let it go out in the back yard, so I am sure it will be back in the house tonight. We are going to try this trap. There is another gorgeous vacant house down the road that is owned by the bank (they aren’t selling it any time soon). We will probably release it there with some food to live on. Which is sad, we are stuck in a 3 bedroom duplex paying outrageous rent and our mice are living in a 8 bedroom home paying nothing!! Oh well.
Like I said, I am not an animal rights activist, but I still have a heart for things that are helpless (NO MATTER HOW HARMFUL THEY ARE). Mice were put on this earth for the purpose of feeding cats and hawks and owls and whatever else eats mice. They were not put on this earth to be killed by humans. I did not come to this website looking for a humane way to catch or kill mice. I was looking for something to get rid of them without harming them so that their “destiny” could be fulfilled the way that God intended it. I don’t like it when people complain about the way other people feel. If someone doesn’t want to kill a mouse then okay. If someone wants to humanely kill a mouse, okay. If someone wants to torture a mouse, whatever floats your boat. My personal preference is not to. Does it make me a tree hugger? No. Just because these other people don’t want to kill the mice doesn’t make them horrible, ignorant people. It’s just makes them a bit more passionate about one aspect of life. Not everyone in the world is going to agree 100% on everything. And believing or not believing in killing the critters doesn’t make one or the other right.
IT DIDN’T WORK!!
i was 2 posts ago, it’s now late and i want to go to sleep but can’t because there is a mouse in my bedroom. totally with the whole get a heart things even though my dad made me set up traps last time. i just have so many fluffy toys on the floor and a den in my room. CRAP WHAT DO I DO I WON’T BE ABLE TO SLEEP AND I HAVE A BUSY DAY TOMORROW!!
Thank you! That’s a very cool solution without using poison and I bet it will work for me! Thanks again!
worked in less than 20 min. I feel better with this instead of killing them.
Trap set – waiting on results =D
My cat caught many mice in my small nyc apartment when he first arrived and in 5 days the problem was solved. mice wont come into places if they know there’s a cat. I also have a dog and before the kitty arrived, i saw mice jumping of the dog and not caring at all…lol! -when the cat catches them, i take them away with a plastic bag from his mouth and set them free in the nearby park. But the kitty also killed two mice while I wasnt home but he wont eat them. there’s also no blood… it’s as if the mice are strangled. Anyway, thnaks for the trap idea. I will spread the idea to those who cant get cats in their homes. NYC is crazy with pet laws in apartment buildings and a never ending mice problem.
I have lived in my flat in an old Victorian building for 6 months and only in the last week have I had any mouse activity (any idea why this might be?). On Sunday night I had something rustling around in my bedroom inside one of my clothes bags, Tuesday night I saw a baby mouse by my fire place while I was watching Sex and the City, and last night while I was making tea a mouse ran across my bare feet I screamed scalded myself with the tea and sat on the kitchen table for 20 minutes until I calmed down. I have no intention of harming these little creatures, the way I see it they are just trying to make their way in the world-looking for food and shelter and trying to find food for their babies, I have bought a few live capture traps and shall set them up tonight, also boiled egg is a good thing to place in a trap as the smell is very strong and rodents seem to love it, it use to be very good for catching my runaway hamsters when I was a kid.
place the boiled egg broken up into a deep plastic bucket and place books as steps up to the top of the bucket, they cant resist…
Please use humane traps- these mice are just trying to survive they don’t deserve to die in pain and suffering.
I hope you put a cushion in the bottom of the bucket to break his fall, it’s not humane if he breaks a leg or loses a tooth, thats more cruel then instant death.
Yes put a small amount of foam or fabric in the bottom to cushion the fall..
No luck with the live capture traps yet!!
Help!!! I’m stuck in the bottom of this can!!!
i hope this works im gonna try it cause i hate mice there nasty and im scared to death of them when i see one i jupm up on what ever close to me cause there just nasty i know theres not much they can do to me but there still nasty i aint been at home for 2 days cause i saw one im gonaa try it i hope it works cause i wanna go back home Ann
ha ha ha, well my prob has almost been solved but not so humane, after fightin an endless battle with mice i gave up the humane apprroach an opted for the mouse trap, nasty i know but they have to be breedin an i know ill be over run pretty soon if i dont get rid. mice get everywhere, they were in my wardrobe an one night while chasin a mouse around my lounge at stupid o’clock in the morning, i decided enough was enough, then sat down to read a book after totally demolishing my lounge, 15 mins later i hear a scratchin, i turned in that direction to see the darn thing sittin on my curtain rail, the thing must have been laughin at me while it watched as i wrecked the place lookin for it. i then watched as it crawled down the curtains an back into its hole, it did me a favour though cus i now know where they’re gettin in. thing is, they seem to be breeding quicker then i can kill them, they’re clever little things, so dont leave the same trap in the same spot after you have caught one. sorry to those who dont like the way ive been gettin rid of them but it had to be done, i will be using the method on here though.
You guys are so creative! I know that these mice are just doing what they know to do but something has got to give! Glue traps only work some of the time and mice have an excellent memory. I’ve tried peppermint oil and it doesn’t work either. We’ve found some of their holes and sealed them up. We cleaned the house and found their nest under our couch. None of that humane stuff works for real because when that one or two are gone their cousins will come and take their place. Two days after we sealed three holes I saw two mice running across my floor…together! Those little sucker can jump and climb up almost anything. So I ‘ve had it with all of the “humane” traps. I’m going to find me some poison and put it in the holes. Only one of us is paying rent that means the other one has to bounce!
Grrr…. still no luck with the humane traps tried everything in it, chocolate, peanut butter, crisps…. I sealed up every hole in the house and went on holiday for a week- I put a chocolate biscuit on the floor to see if while I was away if there was any activity- when I got back a week later the biscuit was still there on the floor untouched, I was relived as I thought they had no access to my house now I had sealed all the gateways. Last night as I was watching TV 2 mice ran from behind the sofa and started play fighting right in front of my face on the rug- they ran around for about 40 mins while I sat on the sofa scared to move, then I saw one go up to the humane trap-sniff it and walk the other way….what can I do?????
I am a vegetarian and very supportive of the animal rights movement I could never harm a mouse but I really am lost as to what else to try, they are getting all over my house on top of my work surfaces and in my bedroom I just cant cope with it anymore.
this is no good, the traps dont work. mice really do have a very good memory because i have run out of places to put the traps, i seem to have traps in every corner an shelf in my house, the mice have taken over residency of my property. im sure i have twice as many as i had before, i see droppings all over the house now, i think i may have to go out and buy some poison instead because this is getting way out of hand, they’re no longer scared of me or my children, they will crawl out of where ever they’re hiding an just sit and watch tv with me, they dont even run away from me anymore until i get close. They make so much noise too its unbelieveable. I know using poison is something i shouldnt do but i have no other choice, they’re breeding at at overwhelming rate, the more i catch the more they breed. Does anybody know any good poisons that wont harm my children. Most of the mice are in my kitchen, so i dont want the poison to get mixed up with any of my foods. plz help im totally drained of all energy for catchin mice.
sounds like a great idea i’ll give it a try!!!
OK so ive been trying to catch this mouse ive actually even locked eyes with it!haha! The little bastard wont get caught and im waiting to see if he falls for this trick!! ive also got two sticky traps waiting with cheese there and peanut butter…for all u humane mouse people…I SAY TORCH THEM ALL!! This little sucker is gonna die!
i just moved into a new house. I have two babies and yesterday night i found a mouse in the playroom!!! im freaked out! Disease and all. what to do? he is really shy, and now hides under the couch. i tired the paper roll method but i didnt think hed climb up the couch so instead i made a stack of books that lead to the empty bucket, but it seemed like such a long hike so i tempted him with chocoate trails. this morning i found he made it half way up the books and ate two pieces of chocolate but left the last two and the one in the roll!!! he must have gotten full??? what do i do now? how do i get him out of under my couch and out of the playroom? what if he left the room and is now in another part of the house? its horrible, i feel sticky all over! help!!!
did not work. I tried it and the peanut butter was gone. If you have any suggestoins than email me my email address is tookie@mtco.com
I made up my own way of catching mice alive since my mouse hole is near the floor.
I tried this the other day and that night i caught the mouse 😀
You get a shoe box and cut a hole in the lid (just big enough to get a toilet paper roll in)(maybe even some extra holes for air).
you get the tp roll and stick it in so that it angles down into the box, like a ramp. Inside the box u put some water and bait (i used peanut butter, honey, and porridge oats). And so that the mouse will want to stay there for longer, you put some nesting materials in ( i used grass, dog hair and leaves). Then u make a ramp out of just a book or something so they can climb to the top of the box, then go down the tube into the box. The night i did it, i woke up hearing scratching sounds, and i went over and the mouse was inside rearranging all the nesting stuff!
I made a mistake though, i took the tp roll out and didnt cover the hole quick enough, so the mouse escaped. I’ll try again tonight, and this time i’ll seal it.
Hope this helps, it works for me.
i have a great humane trap for mice that are on the floor.
you need
– 1 glass baking dish
– a bamboo skewer
– cheese/peanut butter/whatever
half-snap the skewer about 1/3 from the base, then put bait on the tip. now upturn the baking dish and prop it open with the top of the snapped part of the skewer.
Propping it is a little tricky but you will get it after a few tries.
Now there is a space under the tray for the mouse to enter, when he gets to the tip of the skewer and moves the bait, the skewer will fall and so will the tray, trapping the mouse.
Putting a piece of cardboard under the tray to start with will make it easier to pick the whole thing up and transport to a wooded area.
Nothing more fun than to see the little guy scamper off!
I recently had a tooth pulled and I had a prescription of Vicidon’s and I left half of one out on my computer desk. I saw that he was on my computer nibbling on it. I don’t know if he is still around, but I know I got more than one. I heard noises in my bathroom. I looked in the bathtub and sure enough I found a mouse in the tub. I put him in my cricket cage and let him go. I was going to give him to my tarantulas, but I didn’t know what type of virus or what not he had, so I let him go. I didn’t think of putting a painted dot on him. But I know that I have more. I saw another one the same day I caught that one. I’m going to try the trash can thing and see if it works.
yeh i used your trap m8 but my bleedin mouse climbed out of the bin, eat the cheese, and roomed around my kitchen floor! thanks again
Ok, I just set the trap. We are back into our house after renting it for a year while we were away. The folks we rented it to were packrats (no pun intended) and had stuffed our utility room full of junk–old furniture, clothing, etc…a mice paradise. We’ve so far caught about 4 using glue traps but there’s one GREAT BIG guy that was so big he actually got free of the glue trap. He comes out at night and scampers through the TV room just to taunt us. After he tangled with a glue trap, he seems to remember it enough to know to avoid the one we have set. I’ve tempted him with bacon, even with smelly Gorgonzola(blue) cheese…no dice. I’ve set the trap above a bucket that I put BLEACH in. (No, I don’t give a damn about pain/suffering. I want that fucker dead. Period.) I hope this works. It’s HIM or ME!!!
This was amazing! I have tried the “mice cubes” sold at Walmart for the past month – to no avail! I finally got fed up after eating a peppermint pattie and finding that my mouse had been enjoying it also – yuck! I bought a slew of snap traps to just end the game. I found this website and figured to try it for one night before setting the traps. It worked! My little mouse seemed to like chocolate – so I used Nutella instead of peanut butter. Took him to a park with a stream this morning. He looked very happy running towards the woods. BYE!!!
Thanks for the advice sounds like a plan. I must say though some of the comments on this are sick, for those who enjoy fantasising about performing sadistic acts upon helpless animals I implore you to seek help, most high level offending starts with cruelty to animals. Cruelty to animals is not funny, it’s not entertainment, it’s a sign of sickness & you can get help. Who knows once you get over these issues you may be a champion against cruelty yourself.
The only “issue” I have is with this mouse! I love animals, I own 2 dogs, both of which I rescued from animal shelters…as have all the dogs I’ve owned in my lifetime. This mouse has chewed holes in things, left messes everywhere, not to mention biting me on the foot one night when I brushed up against it in my kitchen. (He didn’t break the skin, but it sure freaked me out.) By the way, I didn’t put bleach in the bucket because I figured he would die anyhow in the water. Nope. All I found in the bucket was a cardboard tube. either he knocked it into the bucket, or he swam to the side and jumped out. My husband wants to use poison but I’m afraid that the dogs will find it, or the mouse and get poisoned too. Do I sound obsessed? I guess anybody would be if it had bitten them. I wonder if this is a job for a professional, and how expensive they are.
last thursday, i saw just one mouse after moving into a 3 year old renovated building here in nyc, i hate mice and i have no tolerance for them, about 5 days later, tonight, i saw four all together.I feel like frank constanza from seinfeld “I will not tolerate infestation in my house.” I want to get rid of them as soon as possible possibly by poisoning them. i dont have an email account but somebody leave a message on how to kill them as soon as humanly possible.
p.s. i live with my sister and mother and they are deathly afraid of them, and i am the “scared one”
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! a moussse is updstairs and i coverd it up in a box but what do i do with it now it will get out if i lift it xxxxxxxxxxxxxx helpppppppppppppppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!it a baby
loraine, carefully slide a large flat piece of cardboard under the box, then (with your hand under the cardboard to hold it firmly) carry it outside if you don’t want to kill it. Or stand by with a big hammer. Better do this soon or it will chew through the box.
THIS IS A MESSAGE FOR ALL U CRAP HEADS WHO HAVE NO RESPECT OR CONCIDERATION FOR MICE, GET A SNAKE, THEY EAT MICE THEN REWARD THE SNAKE BY LETTING IT BITE YOU,
AND THIS IS FOR THE CREATORE OF THIS SITE, YOU SUX, LEARN SOME MANNERS AND RESPECT, EVERY LIVING CREATURE DESURVES TO LIVE AND EAT AS MUCH AS WE DO, IN FACT MORE, CAUSE THEY WERE HERE FIRST!!!!!
PLEASE EMAIL BACK ON THIS ONE AT awesome.alexander@hotmail.com
THX
I use a similar trick, but I use a 6 gallon bucket, which I fill about 1/3 of the way up with soapy water. Then float some small wood chips on the top (like you would use for smoking meat). Let them form a nice carpet on top of the water then float a bottle cap of peanut butter in the middle. Make a ramp of cardboard than leads to the floor and secure it to the bucket with duct tape. The wood chips make it look like a solid surface to the mice, but will not support their weight when they fall into the bucket. Viola!! In the morning, drowned mice. I don’t believe in the “catch and release” form of vermin control. Vermin are vermin, pure and simple. They carry disease and should be destroyed when caught.
That’s brilliant mate. Haven’t seen a mouse for a couple of years but I’ll be sure to try it out if I get the chance 🙂
OK. I’ve read this. I like the idea. I’m going to go set some traps out right now. It’s basically 6pm. I will report back later this evening and let you know how it went. Thanks…
i have mice how do i get rid of them without using traps? i have tried traps and they dont get caught they just eat the cheese and leave.
How about this one with an empty DVD spool instead of a coke can. The spool spins a lot better. I will see if it works. Still not sure whether I will use water or not, the picture is with water.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v217/mrwsm/2006_0815Image0007bsmall.jpg[/IMG]
If no picture shows above than click this link below.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v217/mrwsm/2006_0815Image0007bsmall.jpg
its 2am here in New Zealand. i was woken up by a mouse rustling through my papers around my desk and i tried to sleep….. but i can’t stand the sound!!!!!!
“WHAT DO YOU WANT???” im trying to muster it out of my room like i do with sheep, but it won’t work. so im listoning to phill collins at 2.11am and desporatly looking for a solution to the occupation of MY room!
Just meditate, and get into a Carrie mood.
When the time comes. Use telekenisis and send it flying out the window into your neighbours eye. Then send your neigbour into the fireplace.
It seems to me the mouse will bump the tube and the tube will fall into the trash can without the mouse.
Thanks.
aha! Thanks for your info…I have the trap set up right now, it’s 4am and I’m sure my husband will wake up in the morning and say “what the hell is that?” hopefully it works and I can say to him “that’s a mouse trap baby” lol
In the past 8 years I’ve never had a mouse, I figured I’d never have a mouse since I live in a frickin trailer and my house is up off the frickin ground…but apparently those bastards are so sneaky enough they’ll find a way…but thanks to you hopefully I’ve found a way to get back at them…thanks so much for the idea and the illustrations…no way I wanted to go to the store for traps at 2 in the morning…especially after I’ve been drinkin…you rock!!
IF THE TOILET PAPER TUBE DOESN’T WORK…DONT GIVE UP.
I read all those postings and got excited and set up my own trap with a reg. toilet roll with peanut butter and the damn thing just fell in the bin like someone else mentioned. I then found a rolled up poster and tried it again with that (make sure the tube is not too stiff because mice aren’t that heavy). I used Pirate’s Booty to lure her. And I also set the poster off of the counter where I’ve caught her skittering across.
It totally worked.
(I was gone for about 2 hours so I have no clue how quickly it happened).
Mini mouseling is chilling in my empty garbage can. Oh, be sure to use a tall bin because she’s been trying to jump out ever since she found her way in. Such a tiny, perfect little creature-undoubtedly full of germs. I wish I could keep her but it just seems to unsanitary (plus I have other animals).
I’m so relieved to have found a humane yet effective method. Was using one of those gray Victor ones…lame.
ok, so we came back from wendover after staying there a night in a motel and i think this little shit hitched a ride home with us in our luggage,i saw him run out of my closet the very next day and this was 2 months ago,i only see him mabey once every other week,and i keep thinking mabey he left, but low and behold he shows up again. now im starting to here him at night in my floors, and finding mouse droppings. i have tried every trap available to no avail, dont want to use poison, (i have small kids and pets) but im getting sick of this little shit(or 2???)i even had to throw all of my blankets away that was in the hall closet after i pulled them out one day and saw poop all over them SICKKKKK. I hope this works cuz the fucker has dug a hole in my couch and im finding poop under my couch cushons now. DIE MOUSE DIE
Thanks for all the suggestions – my husband and I have been experimenting with a live-catch trap we got at the hardware store, with no luck. Our cat is really sick and stopped eating for six weeks so we’ve been leaving food out for her *everywhere* to encourage her to eat. Now that we know the mice are all over the place (two just dropped out of the chimney to get the food in our bedroom on the third floor) we have to get rid of them fast so we don’t starve the cat while we keep the treats away from the mice. One of my concerns is that we will catch the mice in the trashcan and the cat will spill the whole thing over to get to them…
I still cannot get the bucket trap to work. Although I think I have Roof Rats rather than mice. Roof Rats are more cautious and smarter than Mice. You guys were swaying me towards letting them go alive with all this humane stuff but the more information I get on them leads me to believe the humane thing to do is to kill them, seriously. They breed like crazy, 2 can become 15,000 in a year. They carry all sorts of desease, even their droppings carry the HV desease that kills people just by inhaling their smell. I also found this statement on a wildlife site:
The release of commensal rodents outside is not a solution, since they will quickly find a way back into your home or someone else’s. Trap wise rodents are also more difficult to trap than naive ones.
Instead of a ramp, I taped some sandpaper to the outside of a jar placed on the floor. The little mouse climbed up the sandpaper and went into the jar which had an old sock at the bottom and some peanut butter on cereal flakes. I punctured holes in the lid and carefully put it on as I was sitting closeby. I let the mouse out in a conservation,nature area and discarded the jar and contents. I put some drops of eucalyptus oil in some bottle caps and put them throughout the house.
Thanks for the tips!
I’m 7 years old and I am looking for a way to catch a mouse at my grandparents house. I want to keep it as a pet. This is the best trap that I have ever seen. I looks very easy. I am going to try it tomorrow.
Thank you,
Tommy
Mice can jump 18″ up, and Roof Rats can jump 3′-0″. So the bucket trap is inheritly flawed unless you put at least 6″ of water in it. The only mice you will catch are the weak ones. Also, unless you want to catch a deadly desease and die, I would discourage keeping them as pets. Buy a gerbile or hamster if you want a rodent pet.
I dont care about being humane anymore. I have something eating my yard and garden – grub worms it is finding.
Thought is was an armadillo, but about 3 weeks ago i saw a mouse that ran into the attic.
today i saw a mouse on the porch.
it is very hot down here……..which is why these animals are here, but i dont know how the mouse could live in my attic with the heat…..surely it is not. i dont want it ‘inside’ the house.
so i am thinking moth balls which is basically ethal alcohol?
Mice can live in attics with the heat and no water. They get all the moisture they need from insects they eat. Also, you may have Roof Rats instead of mice because they are hard to tell apart from a distance. They are just a little bit larger than a mouse. The first thing you need to do is make sure they cannot get on your roof. This entails cutting all trees around the house within 4 feet. Putting smooth flashing around chimney bricks so they cannot climb all the way up and any other area. Once on your roof they will get in, they will make a hole if there isn’t any. I cut my tree back and I think it solved my problem. I must have had Roof Rats and they came down for food and could not make it back up. Just in case I have traps galore up there.
This is fantastic, can’t wait to try. I tried cotton balls with peppermint oil and the little bastard ate them. He also avoids the 8 glue traps I have out. I don’t care if he lives or dies, I just want him out of my kitchen!
Thank you for sharing. I’m going to save this page. Take Care Chris. -Val
I have mice in my walls in my room and bathroom. They are not in my house, but I don’t know how to get them out. Does anyone have a clue?
Unbelievable. It actually works. My guy’s cat brought this poor little critter into our family room as a present for us. I took a lot of heat for shaking him out of the cat’s mouth. A LOT OF HEAT. Especially after he ran under the entertainment center, where, according to Brad, he was nesting and having babies. (obviously Brad needs an anatomy lesson) In any event, I insisted we at least try and, voila, Mr. Mouse is in the garbage can this morning, no worse for the wear. 🙂
OK, I tried this, it went slightly wrong, and now I have a mouse under a washing up bowl on my living room floor scratching up the carpet. How do I get him out without him escaping again?
Jen, you might try sliding a piece of cardboard underneath the bowl and carry the whole contraption out the door.
I bought some of those humane traps at Home Depot, at $3 a pop. So far they have just fed peanut butter to the critters. What a waste of time.
The toilet paper trap ROCKS! Thanks to that we have now evicted 3 mice to the water retention pond cross the boulevard, a lovely place full of grasses and trees, several ponds, with lots of wildlife including geese, ducks and herons. A mouse paradise. But, the good news is I haven’t had to deal with dead or dying mice or the ethics of destroying relatives of what I once kept as pets. The last one took off with a delighted 3′ leap to its new home. I’m sure it will be very happy out there, or at least be fatter when some hawk makes a meal of it after having been released into bounty instead of cooped up in a concrete basement (and living off ramen noodles and oatmeal).
To the poster of this idea… a huge THANK YOU!!
Mice have a great memory but they’re also blind. What I tried was allowing the mice to run through the room a couple of times without the glue traps being in their way. What their MO is is to go and eat a couple of bites and then run back to their nests. After they are back in their nest or just out of site I put the glue traps down in the places that I just seen them run. It’s takes a few minutes and some guts to watch the mice run back and forth through your room, but I seriously caught like 3 mice in 20 minutes. If that doesn’t work sprinkle some Decon (mouse poison) around your base boards and it will help.
And for those “humane” folks out there, your homes must be like the animal kingdom complete with a full blown insect farm. Filled with roaches, ants, mosquitos, flies, spiders, termites, and every other pesky insect that bothers us on a daily basis that you “humane” folks are too “humane” to kill. Don’t fake insects are animals too!
One interesting thing I found, when I had a few roof rats in my attic, I noticed I had absolutely no insects coming in my house. Before I even knew I had roof rats it was puzzling me why this summer I didn’t find not even one spider or insect in my house. I would like to think they were not in my living areas, maybe they were getting all the insects before the insects were able to enter my home. This is the only benefit to having roof rats. Since I cut down my tree over hanging the house, no more roof rat droppings in the attic, and now the spiders are back. Has anyone else noticed the correlation between insects and rodents?
thanks for the advise my kid as got a science project coming up at school and if i fill the bucket half full of water and study just how long the little bastard can swim before drowning i think he can take first prize thanks again
Hi,
Some good advice on here about catching mice, but can anyone advise me the best way to get rid of bigarse rats? I have some big rats getting around my house and i think they would eat through a bucket if trapped in one.
Thanks.
y dont u all just go buy a humane trap from a pet shop? u cn get thm 4 rats 2.
there only about £2
Jacko, Rats are smarter and more cautious, I doubt the bucket trick will work for them, plus if it does they can jump 3 feet. Store bought traps barely work for rats, at least not very quickly, they inspect something for 2 weeks before getting near it. I suggest putting on your exterior lights around your house all night. Use flourescent lights and it will cost you pennys. I now have droppings outside my front doors from roof rats. When I put on the lights they stay away. Lately I have the lights off because I’m trying to get a few with my T Rex trap. So far it’s been 2 weeks, and I know for sure they came by 4 of the nights, and they have not touched the trap yet.
Mice can eat birds, too.
msnbc.msn.com/id/8739804/
Urgent question. We’ve had no luck with this system although a similar system worked for hamsters in the past.
Just how smart are mice? We’ve caught 5 in 3 days in snap traps. If you set several snap traps a foot or so apart, are they smart enough to know better when they see a dead sibling?
Mice are pretty smart and will learn to stay away from traps when they see what happens, the only thing that gets them is curiosity. When they start avoiding the traps you need to take them away for a week or so and then put them back. They say to wash your traps with soap to get rid of the death smell also.
Roof rats on the other hand are not very curious and even smarter, they are harder to get but relatively easy to send away when you remove access to your roof.
Wow. I tried this last night, after finding my store of bird seed in the cellar had been burglarized. I used a long board for a ramp, and a cheddar Goldfish cracker stuck to the TP tube with peanut butter. Well, when I checked it this morning, I found that Mr.Rodent had outsmarted me! The tube was dragged down the ramp a bit, and the cracker had been snatched away. pff.
However, I set the tube back onto its spot, with the peanut butter still there as bait. An hour later, Mr (or Ms, I didn’t see) Mouse was in the bin! I took mousie about a mile away, to my local Forest Lawn cemetery. At last glance, mousie was bounding away through the grass, happy to be free.
Thanks !
Unbelievable!
worked within an hour. This particular mouse was expert at dodging glue traps. In fact, one night I placed a glue trap behind the stove only to find the glue trap IN FRONT OF MY STOVE in the morning-how’d that mouse do that!!
Thanks again,
Bruce
Bronx, NYC
PS-I released the mouse outdoors-it was a worthy adversary.
Do you have one for “how to kill humans without getting caught”?
You do all realise that most of the world’s most notorious serial killers started out by ‘practicing’ on small, harmless animals?
We (my colleagues and I) have often wondered who defines certain animals as vermen?
Mice might be a pain at times, but I’ll wager no-one here has been shot, stabbed, nuked or raped by a rodent.
UFMUK
(Union of Field Mice United Kingdom.)
I didn’t know “A Mouse” has an internet connection. You didn’t cover all the rodent to rodent atrocities or all the people that have died with desease spread by rodents. The Black Plaque (thought to have come from rats) alone killed 25 million people.
I saw in the news that roof rats have invaded the good suburbs around my house. Any idea on how to get rid of them without killing them? They are all over throughout a dozen cities around us, so catching them and releasing them will only make them smarter the next time around. 2 can turn into 15,000 in a year. They can destroy your home by chewing the wood in the attic and the wiring and can make your pets and family sick.
Ok, “A Mouse”, if you have any ideas let me know.
Sorry, Can’t help you with rats Mr Wallace (I don’t like them much myself!) You can do what you will with rats, I’m talking about mice here!
For the record I access the net from a Wireless LAN connection (802.11g) from a small field here in Surrey UK. Sony really do some incredibly small laptops!
Kind regards
A Mouse
UFMUK
(Union of Field Mice United Kingdom.)
How do we put that thing outside??
In Romania, folks have devised another way kill-free trap for catching mice. This one is good for mice on the floor or where a bucket won’t fit.
Find a glass plate to be the base; this way you will be able to see if they are caught. Take a very small round onion or nut and poke a paper clip into it. On the other end of the paper clip, put a piece of tough bread, cheese or a nut. Balance a cereal bowl upside down on the plate. Prop one edge up on the onion. When the mouse crawls in and distubs the food, the onion will slip, the bowl will fall, and the mouse is caught.
If the trap is sprung, you can flip the thing over and look through the glass plate to ensure that it wasn’t the one who got away!
WORKED! Our little furry friend was in the ceiling! Took out a ceiling tile, stacked up barstools, put the long plastic trash can on top and set the PB laden tube to hang out of the opening (it looked like a version of the old Mouse Trap game). We awoke to a happy rodent who had feasted all night on cardboard and PB. That was fun! My daughter thought this was WAY COOL!
check out the mouse picture at our site!
Sounds like a great idea…however, there is one thing that really bothers me about mice that noone seems to be bothered by, and that’s the mice CRAP!!! Cute little mice fine, but the CRAP has got to go by any means necessary…including death!!
Thank you I had just about resorted to the fly paper
but I dont want to be inhumane.
And just remember you can see the mouse CRAP but
you cannot see where it has PEE’ed on your silver ware, counter etc.
cadia
I love your mousetrap idea – am going right now to make one. My pusscat died three weeks ago and within days a mouse appeared in my kitchen. A bought humane trap doesn’t work, so I’ll try yours. Many thanks for the suggestion. Best wishes from Gabrielle in London
Last night I put the trap together – took seconds to collect the parts and set up.
This morning I went to the kitchen and the toilet paper tube was gone from the counter – I looked into the bucket – no mouse -no tube!!
Then I looked to the back of the counter and saw the tube -apparently my mouse is so FAT that he got stuck in the tube and had to back away until it hit the wall to get free!!-tonight a bigger tube !
PS I have a cat that eats the outdoor mice but she thinks the indoor ones are pets I guess!
cadia
we just set up one with cheese and penutbutter i hope it works
we just set up one with cheese and penutbutter i hope it works
Cool trick…but does this work for any kind of mouse, or just house mice?
I had a mouse trapped in my air vent, and when I opened it, it ran straight for the kitchen. Now, I don’t know whether it’ll try to escape or make itself at home.
Im not sure what type of mouse it is; it’s very small. I don’t think it is a house mouse, maybe a field mouse.
OMG!!!! You’re a lifesaver. After reading this, I made a trap right away using a roll of paper towel and put a 30 gallon trash can next to my kitchen coutertop and (I swear) it worked within 5 minutes. I have a huge problem with mice therefore I will use your technique every night and see if I can catch more. Thank you so much for this GREAT IDEA!!!
OMG!!!! You’re a lifesaver. After reading this, I made a trap right away using a roll of paper towel and put a 30 gallon trash can next to my kitchen coutertop and (I swear) it worked within 5 minutes. I have a huge problem with mice therefore I will use your technique every night and see if I can catch more. Thank you so much for this GREAT IDEA!!!
OMG!!!! You’re a lifesaver. After reading this, I made a trap right away using a roll of paper towel and put a 30 gallon trash can next to my kitchen coutertop and (I swear) it worked within 5 minutes. I have a huge problem with mice therefore I will use your technique every night and see if I can catch more. Thank you so much for this GREAT IDEA!!!
I have a mouse eating duck and her name is Poof. She lay’s one egg a day if I pet her. She has a friend who’s also a duck and her name is floof. They are gay.
Correction, I did not CAP FLOOF’S name and they are not gay. They are lesbonic. Floof lays eggs too and is very scared of mice. We do not eat the eggs because they stink when they are cooking. We give the eggs to homeless people and they love them because they don’t smell much because of the meth they sniff up there noses. We have a meth problem in the U.S. Chris, I don’t like my duck Poof eating mice and I spank her with a fly swatter when I see her doing it. I’m trying your method of mice removle, Chris
FOOLS!
Do you think that after all these years of your “human” scientists playing around with our genetic makeup, that one day they wouldn’t accidently create a super-smart mouse that could decipher your “primate” scribblings. HA! I’ve seen your “trap” idea, and have already trained hundreds of my kindred to avoid them, and they in turn will trail thousands more, and they; millions! I say it again: FOOLS!
Ive tried your trap with the tube and bucket, I made steps up with books but my mouse is big, old and he is smart too! I left my video camera running beside the trap and the mouse comes along and just sit looking at the cheese at the end of the tube, its not taking it! Ive changed the tube for a bigger one and its still not falling for it, ive got 3 other traps, 2 mouse traps that shut closed but dont kill the mouse and one trapdoor and im using chocolate in them! so far no good! I call my mouse the Godfather!
Any ideas?
Why is everyone so worried about a stupid mouse being treated nicely? My mice are not nice when they steal my food and piss and shit all over my dishes/counter tops/bedroom/bathroom/desk. I use glue traps and I LOVE seeing them little bastards wriggling on them when they can’t resist a piece of Snickers bar. I drowned the first 12 in a bucket of water, but the 13th, I felt kinda bad (obviously pregnant female) so I boiled some water, put the boiling water in the bucket, and dumped the trap + squirming mouse in. Dead in like 10 seconds.
Smelled like bacon.
Laughed hysterically. I used to care, but then I got sick of mouse crap everywhere. And they got bold and started taunting me, walking right up and staring, one even tried to steal my pizza WHEN I WAS SITTING RIGHT THERE!!! Dirty vermin. I’m using this method too, but you can bet they’re going into a steel pail with some lighter fluid and a match if they try it. I set it up last night. The lights were off and, no joke, before I could turn on my x-box in the next room, I heard a crash. Greedy little bastard had probably watched me set all the traps…
There is no shortage. Waste the bastards. Have some fun with it. I don’t hear any of you crying over splattered bees/wasps/spiders/roaches/ants. Mice are more dangerous than any of them, cuz they’re smarter. Kill ’em all (unless they’re outside. Save some for the predators.)
Hi again, my mouse (The Godfather) refuses to be tricked! ive modified your trap getting rid of the tube and make a platform with a hole in it above a bucket, then ive covered over the hole with some cloth, ive put chocolate at the far side of the hole, so im hoping the mouse goes up the book steps see’s the yummy chocolate and runs for it, falling through the cloth down the hole and into the bucket. ill let ye know if it works!
This mouse is driving me insane!
I know lots of people have already posted praising the efficacy of this method, but I’m afraid I have to do the same. We had 2 mice and this method caught both of them– the first one fell for it within 20 minutes of the trap setup! The second one took 2 days before finding his way into our garbage can, but ended up there just the same. Perhaps he was holding out, trying to avoid a fate similar to his friend’s, but in the end, the peanut butter proved far too tasty of a treat to pass up.
Chris, your method did not work for me but I think you have a wonderful website. I caught the mouse running about the house and beat it with a fly-swatter and broke it’s back and it was still alive and I put it in a bucket of water and it made some bubbles and then I put in a clean jelley jar and watched it get big after a few day’s and then it deflated a bit and brown mouse juice was in the bottom of the jar. Chris
I use cocaine and a 12 ga. shotgun. Them critters are thick up here on Wild Mouse Mountain. It’s humane and I don’t feel a thing.
The only way that I have succesfully caught a mouse was when I threw a can of Foster’s Lager across the room and it landed on the mouse. It was the butchest moment of my life. Then the nelliest moment of my life happened…having to touch the mouse in order to throw it away.
I like Cat Man Dew’s idea; however, I am not a fan of blow. Oh well.
I am having a similar problem. I tried glue traps…and the sneaky s.o.bs somehow managed to get the peanut butter out of it. Ive done the poison laced with peanut butter…it works….but now i have the smell in my walls. I’m going to use ur Idea but modify if a little.
Get a big storage tub of some sort. Poke a hole in the lid for the mouse to go in. Put water in the bottom as well. Put peanut butter at the end of the tube. Mouse goes in tube. falls through tube, drowns in water…
i dump the water in front my landlords office so she can realize im not playing about the mouse problem we are having..i’ll let you guys know how it works tonite
My mouse has driven me out of my house. It is the most expensive pet I have had. It cost me £800/month for my mortgage while he is living at my house while im living at my mum and dads. Rushing back now to set the trap from as greater distance as possible so I can break the buggers neck
Hi, I’ve discovered this week that I do have a mouse running around in my living room (and who knows where else) – it might be the same that I heard scratching my plaster work from inside the bedroom wall two months ago. I came upon your website and think it’s a cunning way of catching mice in a non-poisonous and acceptable way. I have just set up your trap, with two modifications.
First of all, I fixed the 25-cm kitchen paper roll to the wooden ramp using a pushpin, assuming that a smart mouse isn’t smart enough nor has the strength to pull it out again 🙂
Secondly, at the side that’s dangling over the 60-cm high waste bin, I cut 10 cm of the bottom side loose, so that it’s only connected via the 4-cm width of the paper roll at the edge of the wooden ramp. It is still sturdy enough to place a small piece of toast with peanut butter in a horizontal position, but at the same time cannot hold the weight of a mouse – then it simply bends down and the mouse should end up in the waste bin.
I’ll check tomorrow morning when I get up; I really hope to find the mouse in there, as I get sick of seeing it (them?) walk around my house. I’ll let you know about any outcome.
Lets send “Micky” back to the theme park! A litte merry go round for mice. I catch them then flush them. I watch them go around and around as I wave bye bye. I’ve put water with bleach in the bottom of the pail. A few gulps and they are not jumping so high. I don’t care about humane when it comes to mice. Once person wrote something about Karma? That’s right. The mouse invaded my space and it’s Karma coming back to it. DIE you little bastard!
tried the mouse tube last night with great expectations. half hour later cheese was gone but no mouse in canister. pushed the tube a little closer to the edge thinking that was the problem. this morning peanut butter is nibbled away but still no mouse in the can! perhaps my furry rivals have devised some sort of pulley system to extract the treats without falling to their doom.
well, i recently had a small mouse in my home. i feel stupid getting scared when i see a mouse. i used to have hamsters as pets, but for some reason mice are just gross. i understand why there are people out there wanting to “save” the critters, but when you have a toddler running around, at the stage that they eat anything they find on the floor, well, let’s face it, that’s as dangerous as it gets. mice have tons of diseases that they carry in urine, and poo. how many of ya’ll would like to find your baby eating this crap? not me. i put up some no see no touch traps. well, it hasnt worked. i also had a bag of poison behind the stove, and the other day i heard nibbling of the bag. i havent checked for the mouse yet, but my kitchen is starting to smell like rotten cheese. i hope it’s dead. like my mother said, if you have a baby mouse in your home, who knows if you have a whole other family of rats too. good thing it was only in the kitchen, i have something covering the door way of the kitchen and living room. guess i gotta go find the booger. but i’m not going to lie, your idea is really good.
Well, stupid me. Apparently the spring traps do NOT always kill humanely and instantaneously. I just set one and it broke the mouse’s middle back, leaving him squeaking and writhing in agony. When I went to look, he just stared at me wondering why this awful pain was happening to him.
I took him outside and released the spring. He slunk off slowly, dragging his now useless back legs behind him. He’ll either slowly die or he’ll be eaten by something, or he’ll maybe make some miraculous recovery (highly doubtful). But I didn’t have the heart to take away what little life he was still struggling for.
If anyone here actually enjoys such things, you are evil. Please do the world the courtesy of castrating yourself so you do not further perpetuate hatred.
I feel like I am going to be sick. I never cry, yet I can’t stop crying that I did something so cruel to any living thing – especially one who just wanted to find a home and some food for himself.
If you’re going to kill something, kill it quickly and as painlessly as possible. Better yet, don’t go there. The other spring traps I had set have all been sprung and thrown out in the trash. I swear to God I will never use them again.
I just ordered 2 mice cubes. Hope they work. This solution you propose sounds OK for one mouse, but pretty high maintenance for many. Luckily there’s a marsh nearby, which is much more appropriate mousey habitat than my house.
I think I accidentally killed a small mouse in my bathroom today when I caught it while wearing a leather glove. I felt really bad about it. When I initially caught it, I slammed it pretty hard to prevent it from darting away. I held it firmly but not too tight because I didn’t want to crush the poor thing. A couple of minutes later as I walked outside with a plan to release into the streets of NYC;
It was still alive but then I saw it gasp for air and I instinctively released my grip so I could let it breathe because I feared that I was holding it too tight but I also didn’t want to let it escape by releasing my grip too much but by then it was too late and it died. Maybe it died of internal injuries when I initially caught it or maybe I inadvertently suffocated it with my grip.
In any case, it died and what a bummer man, I feel really shitty about this whole thing as if I was a cold blooded killer or something because I’m one of those guys that does not like to needlessly kill something if it’s not absolutely necessary. I totally sympathise with the girl whose posted just before me. Maybe it died of a heart attack from the fear of being held…I don’t know wtf happened…it may be just a mouse but it was a living creature that yearned to live and survive just like we humans do and I feel pretty bad about it. It was not my intention to kill it.
Alejandro, that is terrible. Sorry for your pain, and thank you for your ackowledgment.
I realize that nature is brutal, and creatures kill other creatures in many hideous fashions just to get a square meal. Part of being a cat is hunting and killing, often in play and causing hours of trauma to the victim. But it would be unreasonable to expect a cat to stop and think: “Gee, how can I get my meal by causing the least suffering possible to my victim?”
The thing that disturbs me is: Humans are the most ingeneous, intelligent, and powerful animals on the planet. It is so easy for us to just squash other less intelligent creatures to get them out of our way. The distinction is, we are perhaps the only species of animal capable of doing better than that. Many would argue that this ability to apply reason and conscience is, in fact, what makes us human.
At the rate we are reproducing, buldozing, building, polluting, there soon won’t be anywhere left for other creatures to go. So why are we surprised when more and more wild animals end up in our living rooms, or rummaging through our kitchens. Who’s to say that 200 mice aren’t better for the planet than one hateful human?
It may be inconvenient to have other creatures entering our homes. And physiologically, it is quite easy to maim them, torture them, kill them, whatever, to get them out of our space. For those who choose this way of being: Does it make you feel like a big tough guy to smash something littler and less intelligent then you? That says nothing about them, and everything about you.
Is it really THAT much more difficult and inconvenient to put your big human brain to work? If you have to kill something, do it as quickly and painlessly as possible. Better yet, find a way to coexist. If you find a mouse in your house, is it that much harder to put it outside where it belongs than slowly drown it in a tub full of bleach?
Consider: What is it doing to your own psyche if you not only actively pursue, but actually enjoy torturing other living beings.
If you can’t find it in your heart to be compassionate to a creature that can’t help being what it is, then what hope do you have of exercising compassion toward other humans?
Personally, I am committed to using the horrific experience from yesterday, when I accidentally mutilated a mouse, to be a better custodian of all living beings. In this way, I hope to bring something positive out of what happened, and use my big human brain to bring light to the planet.
To: F Baube and Rob
May your mice have rabies and bite you!
Thank you so much for posting this. Your technique worked almost perfectly for me within about two hours. Man, that little guy was cute. But there were four problems: 1) I don’t think the can was deep enough; 2) I put some paper towel in the can to cushion the fall; 3) I used a tube that was too long, and 4) mice can jump. After hearing the tube fall into the can, I entered my kitchen, and found the mouse climbing up the tube and trying to jump out. I shook the can a little, and I’m almost certain that he hid under the paper towel. I then took the can about a half mile from my house, but when I tilted it over, there was no mouse inside. Somewhere between my kitchen and the release point, he escaped–hopefully not inside my house. I wonder if this works more than once on the same mouse… :^)
Here is a simple trick, Put some liquid soap on the bottom of the bucket. This will stop Stuart Little from jumping out.
I tries the tube but the mouse kept hitting it into the can. Finally I just put the swivel lid back on the can, put a dab of peanut butter on the lid, and when mr.mouse went for it, the lid swiveled , he fell, and can’t jump out because of the lid…
I set 2 snap traps on a ledge and stuck fishing line to it with it ducktape so they could not drag the traps into the ceiling.Next day got up to use the bathroom and 2 mice hanging in middaire.It was like a western….HANGM HIGH
I’m trying this tonight!! I have a pesky little mouse that just jumps over my sticky traps like they are nothing and keeps going about his/her business. Crossing my fingers that the treat trap works!!
Thanks for posting this, it looks promising and I just set up a trap. This mouse has been hanging around recently, getting bolder every day. I go no sleep last night because it kept coming into my room. I think that is a bit odd since my bedroom is the farthest point in the apartment from the kitchen, where I am pretty sure it lives. I even saw it in my bed TWICE — along with my sleeping dog!!
My wife and I have humanely caught and released 17 mice so far this season. Each was let go some distance away out in a wooded area. We don’t live on a farm, just an ordinary city house but an old house. We saw one or two mice late at night in the kitchen, heard the scratching noises behind the wall and under cabinents, and of course found droppings. Had no idea there were several clans of mice lurking about. We have a dog but no cat. The dog got so spooked with all the activity late a night, she started sleeping in our basement.
I have not tried the paper-towel tube method, but I would like to share some live-trap techniques that worked for us. Its been my experience that a particular technique or trap only works for so long before the mice “catch on”. I honestly don’t know how they know, unless trapped mice leave a warning smell behind. It has been suggested that the traps be washed thoroughly with soap and water before reuse.
Our first trap was the Tin Cat. This works pretty well and was available at Wal-Mart under the name “CatchMaster” (actually on clearance for $5). It has two one-way doors. Our problem was the mice stealing the dog’s dry dog food, Purina Beneful. Apparantly they really like this stuff, and it is small enough to carry off. I kid you not, they chewed a small hole in the bag and during the wee hours over a course of weeks they had carried about 1/4 the bag to a hidden “stockpile” on the other side of the closet. And who knows how much went back to their nests. We now keep the dog food in a large plastic covered bin.
I also tried the grey plastic Victor live traps, sold 2 to a pack for about $5. Only one mouse was caught with these however.
In the next post, I’d like to share directions for making a homemade shoebox mouse trap. It has worked fairly well on larger mice.
SHOEBOX MOUSE TRAP
This trap is fairly easy to build and has caught several mice. It is designed to sit on the floor in whatever area mice tend to frequent.
I used a Rockport shoebox. There was already a mouse-sized hole in the end of it. A sliding door was constructed from a sturdy 3×5 notecard. This door is to slide over the hole, and fits between the shoebox’s outer cardboard and inner cardboard flap. To make the door slide without binding, I inserted a 4″ length of wire (coathanger works well) between the outer and inner cardboard, on each side of the hole. Tape these down if necessary. The door slides between these metal guides. Two dimes (spaced apart) were taped to the top side of the notecard door to provide weight.
Use a sewing needle and poke a hole in the shoebox just above the mousehole (a pair of pliers might help to grip the needle). The sliding door, when raised, should rest on the tip of the needle inserted into the hole. Tie thread to the needle, route it to a screw-eye in a block of wood taped to the floor (acutally the side) of the shoebox. The block of wood should be positioned at least 6 – 8 inches from the door. Tie a kibble of dogfood to the thread, and be sure it lays on the floor without any tension.
A picture would be very helpful, but the idea is the needle releases the door when the mouse tugs on the kibble. We had good results with the shoebox positioned on the floor between the stove and wall. A book or two was wedged next to the shoebox to keep pressure on the lid of the box (the box is on its side). It should be noted that mice can eat through cardboard, so it is important to move the mouse to another container as soon as possible after capture.
It is kind of fun to build, and it does work about as well if not better than any of the traps we purchased.
“THIS IS A MESSAGE FOR ALL U CRAP HEADS WHO HAVE NO RESPECT OR CONCIDERATION FOR MICE, GET A SNAKE, THEY EAT MICE THEN REWARD THE SNAKE BY LETTING IT BITE YOU,
AND THIS IS FOR THE CREATORE OF THIS SITE, YOU SUX, LEARN SOME MANNERS AND RESPECT, EVERY LIVING CREATURE DESURVES TO LIVE AND EAT AS MUCH AS WE DO, IN FACT MORE, CAUSE THEY WERE HERE FIRST!!!!!
PLEASE EMAIL BACK ON THIS ONE AT awesome.alexander@hotmail.com
THX
Posted by: Alexander | Aug 12, 2006 2:58:58 AM”
Before we learn respect, I’d suggest that you learn how to write about a third grade reading/writing level. You do know that you’re holding the “Caps Lock” Button, don’t you? It doesn’t make your thoughts more eloquent, but rather more obnoxious.
As far as the rats go, there in no question in anyone’s mind (but your own) that the rat is a pest. Just post some crazy pictures of Emeril with captions (ala “Old Batman Show”) like “BAM!” et cetera and scare the thing out. 🙂
I’m gonna just say right out there is a bunch of pig,scumbags making a lot of sick comments! i didn’t even waste my time reading all of them but i seen enough! you talk about the mice,you all sound dirty and discusting!! I’m talking about the blender pig,the lighting on fire pig and the person who said it’s humane to put them in a freezer! lets see if you would suffer in freezer! good idea!!to the person who came up with the humane idea,don’t pay attention to any of these retards!!
Why, Why oh WHY?????????????
Can a mouse not eat, survive and just atleast visit its EX teritory?????????? Gods Sake people! The mice were here before you!!!!!!! Get a frigin life!! I DO NOT WANT TO HERE ANY MORE CRAP ABOUT “OHHH LETS BE A DICKHEAD AND KILL A MOUSE THAT HAS DONE NOTHING TO ME, LETS KILL IT, AND MABY EVEN ITS CHILDREN, THATS RIGHT, LETS GO AND KILL THE MOTHER OR FATHER (IF NOT BOTH) BECUASE THEY WALKED ON THEIR PROPERTY!!” People who come up with ways to kill mice so they have pain, why do you do it, what did they do to you, just think of their children or their family, mice have feeling too. If they didnt i could just get my pet mice, kill its friends and kids then cut its tail off! BUT NO!!!!!!!!!!! THEY DO HAVE FEELINGS, ANY ONE WHO THINKS IM WRONG. PLEASE EMAIL ME!!!!!! (awesome.alexander@hotmail.com) YOUR ALL DICKHEADS (THAT IS THE KILLERS I MEAN!!)
GET SCREWED,
ALEXANDER
I have a mouse now, and I swear its the Brain, because Pinky wouldn’t be able to out smart every mouse trap I put down. I tried the sticky tape and Decon… Nothing has worked. It’s like the mouse is used to all of these traps and doesn’t go near them. I felt my chicken salad on the kitchen counter and when I came back, a piece of my chicken had made its way towards my toaster. I was horrified, because the mouse had been in my food that quickly. I will definitely try this apparatus and let you know how it goes. I’ve dropped two dress sizes.
Why, Why oh WHY?????????????
Can a mouse not eat, survive and just atleast visit its EX teritory?????????? Gods Sake people! The mice were here before you!!!!!!! Get a frigin life!! I DO NOT WANT TO HERE ANY MORE CRAP ABOUT “OHHH LETS BE A DICKHEAD AND KILL A MOUSE THAT HAS DONE NOTHING TO ME, LETS KILL IT, AND MABY EVEN ITS CHILDREN, THATS RIGHT, LETS GO AND KILL THE MOTHER OR FATHER (IF NOT BOTH) BECUASE THEY WALKED ON THEIR PROPERTY!!” People who come up with ways to kill mice so they have pain, why do you do it, what did they do to you, just think of their children or their family, mice have feeling too. If they didnt i could just get my pet mice, kill its friends and kids then cut its tail off! BUT NO!!!!!!!!!!! THEY DO HAVE FEELINGS, ANY ONE WHO THINKS IM WRONG. PLEASE EMAIL ME!!!!!! (awesome.alexander@hotmail.com) YOUR ALL DICKHEADS (THAT IS THE KILLERS I MEAN!!)
GET SCREWED,
ALEXANDER
email me: awesome.alexander@hotmail.com
I’ve had a mouse in my room for the last couple weeks. I was content enough to live with it ’til it started pooing in my bed. I set out the old snap-trap, but I saw it on my windowsill (it liked hiding behind my air conditioner) and it was so cute I couldn’t bear to think of what I was going to do to it. So I found this page, set one up, and it worked within 10 minutes. (Greatly helped by the fact that it was already on the windowsill with no alternative exit.)
I even got it on video. I know you can’t see much, but it does prove it works.
Thanks again. You’re super awesome.
I have a mouse and I’m losing my mind. I have had Stewart in my life since Oct 17 and nothing has worked. He eats this mouse treat thing that is supposed to make them thirsty and go outside. He keeps eating and eating and eating, all the while bypassing the glue trap and peanutbutter snap trap located in the same place as the treat.
I hate him. I don’t want to kill him, but I don’t want him in my apartment either. This bucket thing seems interesting but I have neither the time or the patience to do this. Not to mention, I don’t have a bucket big enough.
Does anyone have any other advice on getting rid of a freaking genius mouse?
thank you so much! my dad wants to put out traps … i’ll try this tonight … hope i catch them before he does w/ dcon… =/
Having found out in the last week that I have a mouse stuck under my fridge.. Any suggestions as to how I can get it out? I don’t want to resort to a trap.. All this and I have 3 dumb cats…
Very smart! And very humane! 🙂
thanks! i tried this and i have already caught one! my dad say’s he’ll give me a few more days to cathch the other one since i caught one already! you saved a thankful mouse’s life! and i am grateful he didn’t have to kill any! people try this! give it a noght or two it works! just make sure it’s a tall trash can (about 2.5-3 feet tall) -so they can’t jump out- and make sure it’s slippery… not cardboard -they can dig their nail in and climb out.. BUT SERIOUSLY THIS WORKS, IT’S HUMANE, AND IT’S FAST!
Ha ha! I had success a few minutes ago… I annoyed the rat (it wasn’t a mouse after all..) so much it moved into a cupboard near by. Cleared the cupboard, got a container and caught it, bye bye ratty.. It was told, it’s passport to enter my house has been revoked.. hehe 🙂
Hey man, thanks for the great idea. Actually worked and here’s my photo-documentation.
Thanks for the kick arse idea.
OSRB
I think your mousetrap idea is soooo great! Would you mind if I posted this page into my church newsletter? Of course I will give you credit where it is due and list your name and your web address, whichever way you choose. I am the church secretary at Christ Church, Lutheran in San Francisco. We are a congregation of 105. Our website is: http://www.christchurchlutheran.org
We post our newsletters up on our site as well as mail them out. If you would like, I could mail you a copy of our newsletter with your mousetrap page in it.
Please email me back to let me know.
Thanks for the oh-so-simple-it’s genius idea!
this is a great idea. i’ve had a mice trapped in a trash can before and it couldn’t get out.
to alexandria,stop waiting for the mousecrap to get dry and breath it.Just go up into your dropceiling,scrape up a nice pile.AND SNORT IT.
This does really work! We had a mouse who would sit on top of our humane mouse traps and stare at us in definance — never thought we should catch him and as a last resort tried the paper tube trap — it worked and I have a mouse in a bucket now who is awaiting to be relocated to his new home far away. Thank you! Hope you can somehow pattent this and make lots of money!
What a great idea! I’m definately going to try this, But how tall does the bin have to be?
Watch this space and i will let you know what happens
Awesome Idea! Beats killing the poor little things when all they want to do is have a warm place to live for winter and plenty of food. I had one mouse that decided to call my “home” his, I didn’t mind the little guy until he started going through my draws and eating my food and trashing everything up. So I tried this idea and caught him within a few hours. now he is living with us and his name is “Alf” and he is pretty friendly and very FAT! He eats like a cow. Thanks for the great idea!
looks very cool…
but
you not only want the mouse gone
you want it dead
in the end
you are killing the vermin
Thank you so much. It works!!!! I caught him overnight after two unliked meetigs with him the day before. Thank you so much again
I used snap traps… they work… but only for the first 4… then I used glue traps… got 2 with those… then I go back to snap traps… tried the humane way.. but you know what… I read on a pest control page that if you see one… there are definately more… count on it… 2 mice = 4 to 8 babies x 4 to 5 times a year = 18 mice… 18 mice = 4 to 8 babies x 4 to 5 times a year = 34 mice… and that’s if your lucky…… oh ya.. glue traps aren’t that bad… at least there spine is not broken!
What the fuck is wrong you people who set mice on fire. you are deffinately some smfs
You PC, animal rights whackos crack me up! While I don’t condone setting the little buggers on fire just to watch ’em burn (that’s just sick!) I don’t see why you go through all the trouble of making or buying humane traps only to let them out again outside, where they’re just gonna crawl into someone else’s house. There is no shortage of mice in the world. They’re not a species that needs protection. We can never kill all the mice in the world so I say, get the ones you can if they’re coming in your house. I bet most of you bleeding hearts that want to save all the little creatures of the forest eat meat yourselves. You ever wonder how that nice steak in the neatly wrapped styrofoam and cellophane packaging gets that way? That’s why I hunt. It’s a much more honest, responsable way to get your meat.
I used a “walk the plank” approach to our mice. I set up a tub (Make sure it’s high enough that they can’t jump out) I then used a cardboard plank with peanut butter on the end. I set this up yesterday afternoon and I have already caught 3 mice. 2 were caught at the same time. Which I am completely baffled by. Did they walk the plan at the same time, or did the 2nd mouse jump into the tub to save the other one? I am so impressed by this method. it’s so easy, I just don’t know how many to expect, I thoguht there was just one.
Wow. What a site.
I have a new mouse living in my apt. It’s going to keep me awake all night, as I can’t seem to catch the thing & didn’t even know I had one until about 5pm today. I must admit though, I was terribly impressed when, even though my trap didn’t yield the results I wanted, it did attract a mouse within 60 minutes. (I obviously didn’t set it up right, since the sucker got the cracker w/pb and the tube didn’t even fall in the trash can! Ha! Good for him! I re-set it, but it’s been over an hour & no mouse. Ah well.)
Some people have commented about these little rodents craftiness & I want to assure you, rodents ARE smart! They do have the capability to very easily assess their environments, as well as, the capacity to learn from them. So, if you think your mouse is outsmarting you, chances are, it is!
As for the comments about animal-rights, etc… I can’t even rationally talk to anyone who can’t even understand the simplistic idea that you just plain don’t KILL. And Hank, you’re the worst because you JUSTIFY what you do, while at the same time calling everyone else a hypocrit! Amazing how you twisted your mind into that rationale.
All I have to say on the subject is – I agree with Rachel. Just the mere fact that we HAVE a conscience holds us to a higher moral standard than any other living thing on the planet. And look what we do with it. Kill for convenience. Kill for fun. Kill just because we can. Shame on all of us. SHAME!!!
Oh and lastly, what a joke this comment is from Hank:
“There is no shortage of mice in the world.” Then, tell me Hank, since there’s no shortage of assholes like you either, can we just knock you off???????
THINK ABOUT IT.
I used a toilet paper tube, but I taped a nickel to the top of the supported end. That balanced the weight of the bait, and moved the center of gravity toward the supported end. This allowed more more of the tube to stick out in space over the trash basket, and the tube tips down more easily when the mouse goes into it (longer lever arm).
Worked beautifully! Two mice in two nights! Since I’m training my smooth fox terrier to be a mouser, I let her catch the mouse in the basket. One crunch and they’re done.
O.k., I don’t LIKE killing mice, but I’ll do it if I must. My house pests are adorable. I had pet mice when I was a kid & somehow killing them is distressing. However, THESE are NOT tame/health certified critters. They can take a running leap of 38″ or a standing jump of 12″. How tall are your counters? Mice spread salmonella & other germs all over your house.
Since the cold weather started, our neighbourhood is infested, and we’ve never had this problem before in 10 years. I’m going INSANE bleaching every floor, counter & tabletop every day, and pre-washing pans to cook in as I’ve found droppings in the cupboards. Hours of scrubbing!!! My hands are raw. Also have to lock down all food (including candles, crayons & soap) and the kids leave lids off snacks & wrappers lying around despite our nagging.
Don’t touch the wild mice. Do you want rabies?
My kids must be protected. I’d sooner catch the little pests alive, but this trap has only worked once so far for me. I’m praying mouse #4 (who is living under my tupperware-filled cereal cupboard next to the fridge) falls in the trash can tonight.
Mouse #1 panicked when my husband & I moved the dishwasher & made loud noises. He tripped & got his tail caught in a snap trap. We had tied an O’Henry bar to the trigger with peanut butter coated wool. Part of the tail was cut off. We felt so badly & the kids cried. I got my gardening gloves on & took him out to the garden. When I pulled up the bar with pliers, he headed straight back for the house. I roared at him & chased him away, & he has not been seen since. Suppose he’s at my neighbour’s. Great. I just hope he’s too frightened of people now to try living in a house again.
Since then, 4 snap traps have had the peanut butter licked off them every night.
Mouse # 2 was crushed in a tomcat trap baited with peanut butter. There was no blood/mess & death must have been instantaneous.
I don’t believe in causing the critters to suffer. Glue traps are slow (or you must kill the mouse). Poison causes the mouse to bleed to death internally. It has to eat the bait more than once. It might carry the bait around with it, & contaminate areas where it could poison you or your family or your pet. It might die where your pet could eat it. And you’d better hope it’s not rotting in your wall to stink.
I’m worried about those who are getting their jollies from torturing the animals (fire/pins/etc)! They didn’t ask to be born pests. They can’t understand why we don’t want them in our houses. They aren’t trying to be mean. If you gain sadistic pleasure from HURTING these animals, what is it doing to your character? Will the pleasure of torturing mice progress into a wish to hurt higher life forms? We are called humans because we have the brains to be compassionate, unlike sharks or snakes.
I continue to set the snap traps, but the remaining critters are avoiding them. I think they have learned that peanut butter means death.
Mouse #3 was caught with Chris’ method. I baited a paper towel roller with cooked veggies & a bit of cheese. Mousie fell in the following morning, and I scooped him into a peanut butter jar with a couple of holes drilled in the lid, then jammed the lid on fast. Hubby drove mousie out to a field behind his industrial workplace. Mousie will have to take his chances with the hawks. At least he had plenty of peanut butter to lick off the jar before facing the challenge.
Mouse #4 peeps out of its hole at me, but has been too fast to catch under a bowl. It is very fat so I fear it’s a pregnant female. I figure we only have a few days to catch it before it gives birth & makes our life more hellish. Think I’ll get some sunflower seeds & see if it will go for that.
Somebody wondered why so many people have posted comments, when there are bigger issues in life to worry about. To some of us, this IS a big issue. As for me, I think it’s an opportunity to confront fundamental problems and explore our own natures. I also think many people are at a loss as to how to get out of this mess, and need to get in touch with others who might have useful suggestions. You can read a lot more ideas here, in a shorter span of time, than you would get by asking your friends.
Oh I hooooope this works!! I’ve got a mouse in my kitchen, been there for weeks and I haven’t had any luck with traps. He made an appearance yesterday and has been quite bold today, running across the floor…uggg! Cute little guy but so gross, especially considering i have a baby in the house!!! I’m trying this now…wish me luck.
If you catch more than one mice at a time they tend to be cannibals and they kill and eat each other in close quarters…not humane at all. Mice climb in and out of my plastic carbage can with ease so I can’t see how this would work if you didn’t sit up and wait to catch them when they fell in. They climb up the smoothest of surfaces. I am becoming overrun but I can’t kill them. Everything I try in a live trap ends up with dead mice from them killing each other…..help. I won’t kill them but it is getting out of hand and nothing works. They will just climb out of the can. I have seen them do it.
excellent bit of help. I love the net
This was amazing! I don’t really mind killing the mice but whatever gets the mouse gone is fine with me. I set te trap went to dinner with my wife and when we came home the mouse was in the garbage can. We were gone 60 min. max
As I have been reading this, my little ‘friend’ came to sniff out my bedroom. I think he (yes, he) liked it, but when I moved an inch he scarpered. We have set a black box that tips, but does he uses it? HAH!
I’m not bothered at all by him though, because he is very tidy and neat. No poo that I can find. I’ll keep setting the trap, but it honestly doesn’t bother me…even when I hear him at the end of my bed, rustling the carrier bags. (Apparantly they like carrier bags…similar to humans liking duvets i’m thinking.)
Oh, and to all those people who need violence. Basically, how would you like it? And really, it’s tiny. TINY. Go try to set fire to someone your own size if you’re that desperate.
Liz.
it worked perfectly except for the fact that my rat was so fat he tipped over the garbage and escaped and left a bigger mess than before….. but overall its a great idea
i need help it dont work he jumped out of the trash can pleaaseee
Try with a deeper trash can 🙂
I have two little buggers in my tiny bachelor but no heart or stomach to kill them with blood splattering or broken back methods. I can just sleep better knowing I tried the life traps first before my desperation might make me take up other measures. So, I’m really happy to have come across this site. I tried your trap but I think my trash can wasn’t deep enough – toilett paper roll in trash can but no mouse. 🙁 Also, I used a towel to cover the carboard ramp for better traction for the mice. I’m trying it with a deeper trash can tonight and also set up the “Paperclip (modified onion) & bowl” trap as well as the “backing & deep tray with scewer at 90 degree angle” method. I think my mice are more floor runners than counter climbers, so if anyone has more ideas for simple homemade floor traps, please post them. Thank You 🙂 and also thanks for these entertaining reads… it is funny how heated it can get over a simple matter of how to catch mice. Good luck with catching your tiny rodents! 🙂 Oh, yes, and seal all the gaps in your floor boards, walls, ceiling – this is key to keeping them out and not getting more.
Update: no mouse caught yet but I think I banned them to the walk-in closet and back into the walls of this old Victorian house 🙂 Don’t be fooled when you first see a mouse – you might think you only have one neat little mouse but it might not be the same mouse every time. They also do have to poo & pee – this they prefer to do between clothes in walk-in closets, in corners, on lower cupboards that don’t close properly, below sofas, anywhere where you won’t notice for a while unless you have the counterjumping types 🙁 . I did finally find the Access hole (I hope) – behind the closet door frame – a tiny hole chewed through the carpet & underneath another teeny hole leading below the floorboards. I didn’t see the hole the first time around when I had stuffed any other possible holes, but then, because I had layed out a peanut inside which was gone in the morning, I knew it wasn’t magic. Meanwhile my 3 life traps in the main room lay barren.
Just as an FYI…mice are great jumpers and can easily bounce out of a can that’s not at least 24 inches tall. So don’t think that just because they’re in a smooth-sided bucket or trash can that they can’t still escape!!
I agree though that this is a nice alternative to expensive humane traps and all the other inhumane options.
just brilliant, very easy and, it worked !!!! thanks a lot !!!!!
Worked the second night! Thanks so much for the suggestion!
thanks a lot it worked thanks!
WOw!!! I just got freaked the heck out…
I came home after work tonight, using the computer, and out of the corner of my right eye i see a very small brownish figure stealthily hugging the wall like a ninja as he walked at a medium pace across my bedroom infront of me and behind my computer desk and then under the old heating vents….
This was my first mouse and I cant believe how scared i was…strange…anyway, i hope to God that this method works tonight as im sleeping so i can sleep easy knowing that i dont have anyone living with me that doesnt pay rent.
Strange though, my apartment is very clean and ive never had mice before, i hope this is the only one. I will post the results as they come in. Thanks for the idea!!
a. for those “humane” trappers, what do you think happens to the critters out in the woods? that’s right – they become prey. so how “humane” was it to release them to be hunted?
b. the cardboard tube with bait never worked for the coyote, right? 😉
I built a 4 by 4 by 8 foot wooden box, balanced it on the edge of a cliff with a bucket and mouse in the free floating end as bait … caught a bleeding heart liberal in less than 30 minutes!
(note from chris: You might look into a career in comedy gus.)
I used to have good luck with HaveAHart traps, but had a really smart mouse that would not let himself get trapped by a HaveAHart or a Victor humane trap. This idea worked on the first night! I used a longer tube (a tube from some wrapping paper, cut in half) and a large 40 gallon trash can.
I have a 3-week-old pet mouse. He mainly stays on the floor. But he gets in corners that I can’t reach and sleeps. I’ve tried this and many other things, but he doesn’t eat solid food, yet. It’s only been a day and a half. He can eat some solid things. I’ve put out some food, but he doesn’t eat it. He looks hungry and tired. But he just stays in a corner that no one can get to.
He’s my science-fair project. I HAVE to find him!! PLEASE HELP ME!!!!
Thanks for telling us how to catch a mouse y
Our humane traps in the garage that we were using are now malfuctioning (peanut butter is gone, but doors didn’t drop). We caught 6 previously. They are those really cute mice with the white bellies and brown tops. Anyway, I am excited to try this method. I am a bleeding heart conservative, by the way. 🙂 It makes me smile to see so many people are choosing the humane traps…
Thanks for the idea!!
I tried this trap many times since reading this but it has never worked for me. The problem seems to be that the little guys are reticent to come out into the open to enjoy the nice snacks I put out for them. So I resorted to using snap traps, which I can place in the small, hidden places they like to frequent. Haven’t had a mouse problem ever since. I would have loved your idea to work, just for its Rube Goldberg appeal if nothing else. Just think if you placed the bucket on a lever which then turned on the stove when the mouse falls into it, which caused a pot of water to boil, the heat from which blew up a small hot air balloon which rises with just enough force to tip a platform holding a bowling ball…oh the possibilities are endless!
We have a loose hamster in the car! I believe it’s in the floor vents. My boston terrier was very interested in this area. I’m afraid he’s been chewed up by the fan! I’m trying the trap tonight in my car- wish us luck
well an old boss of mine, who was a very cheap shmuck, would arrive at work once a month with a box of oats under his arm and a smile (because he was all jazzed over the fact that he was about to save some money on pest control). At the end of the day he would mix up the oats with honey and cement powder and leave little dabs of it on cardboard all over the workshop. When the little shytes eat the stuff the cement goes hard in their bellies and thats it for Mr Mouse. Finito la musica. Next morning, with the usual carrot deposited firmly up his arse, he would go around and pick up all the corpses.
This works even better if you forget all this humane crap and put 6-8 inches of water in the bucket. It’s not like you are trapping dodo’s.
I didn’t have time to read ALL the comments but in regards to ANTS, I have the best product called ANT CHALK. I think it must be more finely ground than regular chalk, but it makes the ants leave immediately! They will be gone in about 5-10 minutes. You just draw it wherever you want – I usually make little ant roads so that I can funnel the ants back to where they entered my kitchen. They will not return for a very long time. Additionally, I sometimes will put food for the ants outside my house where I see their ant trails. Then there’s no need for them to come inside! However, I do think they may be in our walls but that’s ok with me because I think they eat termite larva.
Tachyon, my motivation is not humane capture, I just can’t use snap traps because my cat is not too bright and will surely wear them if I do. Also I absolutely, positively, definately don’t want to have to touch vermin.
The first time I heard a mice we had caught screaming while glued to the glue trap, I thought to myself that this was the last time we were ever going to use that cruel way to catch mice (I was against the idea in the first place). I went on Peta.org and I purchased a humane mouse trap. It looks like a little green house and you have to set it so that when the mouse enters the house to eat the treat you’ve left him, the door of the house flaps up and shuts him in the little house. You then release him outside. We caught 3 mice in 2 days (2 at the same time) and I am happy to say it’s been done in a non cruel way!
Great! We’ve got mouse troubles, just had a horrific experience with the “humane” glue trap. Never again. We’ll try this method straight away, thanks for posting it! It was nice to discover your site, explored a good bit of it, nice. We’re in Mt. Washington. Thanks again.
Great! We’ve got mouse troubles, just had a horrific experience with the “humane” glue trap. Never again. We’ll try this method straight away, thanks for posting it! It was nice to discover your site, explored a good bit of it, nice. We’re in Mt. Washington. Thanks again.
Hey Matt, I’m glad you ditched the glue trap and enjoyed the site!
If anyone else is curious about the “Humane: mouse trap here is the link
http://www.petacatalog.org/prodinfo.asp?number=HP200
Just found this site after my wife said she heard something in our garage. Just set up a plan cardboard strip with peanut butter at the end and a pretty big round fish bowl underneath.
Lets see how it goes….Gotti
I just tried the mouse trap. I hope to god it works, i want my bedroom back!! i’ll let you all know if it works!!!
now they is another persons problem- fucking mice
OMG UR A LIFESAVER THERE IS A MOUSE IN MI HOUSE AND I CANT GET IT I HOPE IT WORKS IM CROSSING MI FINGERS THANX FOR THE HELP
omg it worked lol about an hour after setting it i got TWO mice at the same time lol i used a paper towel roll and they both must have got in at the same time dumb mice lol well any way it works! DO IT
we have a hamster and he doesn’t fool for it. what should we do?
are hamster can’t climb up it. does that mean the mice can’t ethier? what should we do?
Great idea !! yet simplistic – i once caught 46 mice in a big carboard box (apparently they were nesting) so i carefully removed each nick nacks i had stored in the box to clear the way so i can count them before tilting them on to a 5 gal. bucket filled half way with lukewarm water [to be humane] then closed the lid while i waited some time to allow them to fully drown i went back to watch my favorite movie “The Titanic” about an hour or so i went back to dump them in the toilet it almost Clogged the sewer pipes.
I seen a mouse in my spare bedroom this morning. I am soooo scared of them.the humane way, all the better
Thank you !
It worked: http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/1377/bouletteyw9.jpg
And the cute little mouse wasn’t hurt.
i work in an animal hospital so naturally we did not want to “off” George (we named him) in the traditional manner. this worked great!! we nabbed George and the doctor set him loose by her house. As she tipped the can over, she heard George say “that was a pretty good trap!” 🙂
My sister has a mouse in her room so i’ll have to try it.
dude, this shit was so smart i would have never thought of it but as soon as i saw it i made it and within like 2 mins that il bitch was caught he is lyke unwanted family that bitch sleeps on my bed
Great idea, especially with the ramp.
Advise for Ashley. Don’t let your pet mouse get fat. By him a wheel for $5 in pet store. Alf is gonna love it. He will run on it for hours every night. Without exercise he will die.
found this site a couple of weeks ago, now I have caught 10 mice with this method (geez, I hope I’m putting a dent in their population around my house…)
Ha! Good idea. We get mice every year under our kitchen sink. Last year, my dad went to throw something away (our trash can slides out from under the sink, no wonder they like it in there!) and when he pulled it out, the mouse jumped straight up out of the trash can, and my dad caught him! It was pretty funny. I kept him, because he didn’t seem to be rabid or anything. Well a month later, it had babies! They were the cutest little things! (yes, I’m a sucker for animals =]) So I made a smaller version of your trap, with a bucket that has a lid, so if it climbs in and tries to jump out, the thing propping the lid up will fall, thus trapping it. Hope it works!
mice are shaytan
Destroy them where you may find them. But that is not enough. You must torture them as a sign to the remaining rodent population. Each agonizing shrill squeal tells his/her rodent companions: “It is wise to move out and find residence elsewhere.”
Here is my time-tested method:
(1) glue traps. Or you can use one of the “humane” style traps (ironically bought cheaply on PETA’s website) and get them stuck to a glue trap that way.
(2) If you are busy once they get stuck, simply put them on a window sill facing direct sunlight until you can deal with the little devil. Rodents like bright lights 😉
(3) Sit them down face-to-face eye-to-eye and talk to your torturee. Mice hate that worse than anything else. If they smell too bad, spray some cologne on them to mask their musky odor.
(4) Find creative ways to torture the rodent. Grab a pair of scissors tease him a little bit(snapping them quickly in front of their little face so they know what a pair of scissors can do). Cut their whiskers off. Grab a nice copper hanger(or other good conductor of heat) and a lighter and heat up the hanger. Now brand little mickey with a nice little logo. Or use the lighter directly and burn his ear off.
(5) If they try to bite their foot off, try to stop infection by pouring some rubbing alcohol directly on the exposed flesh. Ahh… that feels good 😉
(6) After a few hours (or sooner if you use extreme torture), they will start pissing and pooping on themselves. Why should they have all the fun ? Piss in a cup and give your mouse a golden shower.
(7) Once you get bored, release your mark into a nice open area where a bird or predator is sure to see him. Might as well get the bitch into the food chain.
I couldn’t believe how fast this trap worked. I set it up, and seriously within 15 minutes, he was in the garbage can!! I ended up catching 3 mice within the hour! AMAZING!! I tried every other mouse trap you can possibly think of, and I found this one…Awesome it really does work!
“PLEASE EMAIL ME!!!!!! (awesome.alexander@hotmail.com) YOUR ALL DICKHEADS(THAT IS THE KILLERS I MEAN!!)”
lmao, here we see the intelligence of man, if like me you’ve tried every humane method, (including enticing one into a pizza box and flinging it into the back of a garbage truck as it left my road i dont particularly blame you, its either my family’s health or mice, no question for me, im gonna buy a cat, snap trap, poison spray, even use my co2 fire estinguisher to asphixiate the little bastards, i dont like killing things at the worst of times, i dont agree with this set it on fire and watch it die, or waqtch it drown, alex, by ur reckoning i should wait until my brothers and sisters fall ill ( this is what could happen http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9808/25/hantavirus/hantavirus.jpg) ,they make children ill, they make everything they come across dirty, they ruin food, electrical wiring ( oh yeh i spose i should wait and let the electrical fire burn down my house before i act?) they also tear at nappies, clothes , tear up your carpet, chew out holes in the wall oh and if they dont do that, they randomly die and stink up the house? f**k it im sending the little bastards to hell,
Peace to u all
Except alex, your a dickhead, please dont email me, Please!
some of you people have sick minds DRownding mice how can you do such a thing!!!!!!!! LOOK IN TO THERE LITTEL BLACK EYES AND THEN ASK YOUR SELF, GOD CREATED THESE ANIMALS FOR A RESON!!! they only have so long to live any how so why not let them live it.
PEACE OUT MAN (peace to all my furry homeys out there)
some of you people have sick minds DRownding mice how can you do such a thing!!!!!!!! LOOK IN TO THERE LITTEL BLACK EYES AND THEN ASK YOUR SELF, GOD CREATED THESE ANIMALS FOR A RESON!!! they only have so long to live any how so why not let them live it.
PEACE OUT MAN (peace to all my furry homeys out there)
hey i just had two mice that were terrorizing my pantry and the cabnet above my stove. and when i looked into that little bastards eyes all i could see was my valuable cash dollars going down his little itty bitty throat. needless to say all i have are traps that kill. and the last one that just got trapped by the foot…..yeah he screwed me over when i took him down the road….I WILL KILL ANY AND ALL MICE I FIND AT MY HOUSE!!!! and in the most inhumane way as possible. i worked for that money damn it!
ps paintball guns and airsoft pistols are fun too…hehehehehe
hey i just had two mice that were terrorizing my pantry and the cabnet above my stove. and when i looked into that little bastards eyes all i could see was my valuable cash dollars going down his little itty bitty throat. needless to say all i have are traps that kill. and the last one that just got trapped by the foot…..yeah he screwed me over when i took him down the road….I WILL KILL ANY AND ALL MICE I FIND AT MY HOUSE!!!! and in the most inhumane way as possible. i worked for that money damn it!
ps paintball guns and airsoft pistols are fun too…hehehehehe
yeah… tony??? if you would have killed the damn thing like i asked you to instead of letting it go, we wouldn’t be terriorized by a few little mice, now would we??? =)
We had a mouse in the house and I went down stairs to the kitchen to make my wife a hot water bottle. As I came back up the stairs I noticed the little bugger hopping up the stairs before me. I took aim and WHAM!!!
Flat mouse, I quickly flushed away the evidence and give my wife her hot water bottle.
She asked was I ok thinking I had fallen coming up the stairs. I hadn’t the heart to tell her until the morning. I was lucking not to be the second victim of the hot water bottle
Hey! mouse lovers, check this site out:
http://www.whatjeffkilled.com/
if you all knew of the diseases mice can cause, you would all have no problems using te good ol neck breaker trap
Thanks so much for posting this cheap and humane way to remove rodents from a home. 😀 I’ve sent the link to all of my friends for future use if they ever have a rodent problem.
well i set this up last nite, and it has caught shit (yet) im gonna leave set up for a couple more days, then its the orkin man’s turn.
i have a couple of firecrackers for the critters if they get trapped in my bucket
>:)
Well, this toilet roll trap idea is working a treat, i was laying in bed an hour ago listening to the mice destroy my carpet, clothing, electrical wires and furniture and just couldnt handle it anymore. I found this site and set up the trap with bleech in the bottom (not taking any chances, these mice jump high and eat through steel cans!). I’m happy to say that in less than 1/2 an hour, a piec of fried chicken in a toilet roll has already caught 3 mice! lets see how many more i get before morning.
The ideas great, not because I’m humain (coz im not when it comes to mice) but because the mice arent smart enough to figure it out like they do with the snap traps.
I was about to resort to the way I used to catch mice….. that is catch a few by hand and put them in an ice-cream bucket to run over on my motorbike, or pull them tail first through a tennis raquet and hear em squeel. i was surprised how far they run when sprayed with deodorant and set on fire, the little bugers move like thiers no tomorrow! and combine that with a reversed vacuum cleaner to achieve the famouse flaming flying mouse!
We’ll hopefully this does the trick once and for all!
It’s sad that so many humans are willing to take out their anger about their own stink-ass lives on us poor little mice, as evidenced by some of these comments. I mean, we gotta eat too, right? Yeah, we got diseases, but we ain’t screwing up the whole planet! You guys are a disease in and of yourselves! Come ON!
Mr. Glass: thanks for cluing us to the best and cheapest idea for a mousetrap ever, and for giving the idea away for free. I hope to fall into one of your buckets one day. I request fried chicken smothered in velveeta.
There will be some Ass Whuppin when you come to Disney World with your Kids………….Leave my Bruthas alone.
ameen, brother robbo.
I too have used the light them on fire after spraying them with deoderant trick and also the tennis racket squeeze play. It is truly fun to torture the little mice.
Here are some more fun things to do with mice(after you catch them of course):
(1) Who needs fancy mice of different colors when you can paint your own with spray paint ? Surely modern science has not created what you can have in minutes with a $2 can of spray paint. A purple mouse.
(2) A snake mouse. Break their legs and then release them. I prefer the “joe theismann” break for added pain. then watch them squirm on the floor since their legs are now pretty useless.
(3) Ever wanted to be a dentist(and you know i do!) ? Grab a pair of pliers and yank off those rodent incisors. No novacaine ? Oh well, it won’t hurt them too badly, right ? 😉
(4) Pepper spray. Those little buggers really hate pepper spray.
(5) Speaking of pepper, they really hate oil of peppermint, so stuff a little cotton ball soaked in it into their mouth while using other torture methods.
(6) Sure, you can have a fancy mouse which is hairless, but why bother when a little nair on your rodent friend can do the same. Or don’t throw away that old bic razor. Simply give your mouse a shave (and a haircut, two bits). Don’t worry about shaving cream- it’ll all come off with a little elbow grease. Don’t forget the after shave(a little alcohol for those “razor burns”). And then you can set them on fire or put them outside to freeze in the cold night air.
Something to consider:
Maybe if so many people weren’t setting mice free in an attempt to be ‘humane’ (which incidentally should equally apply to other humans as well as animals – and ‘relocating’ the mice to become someone else’s problem is NOT ‘humane’), there wouldn’t be so many people looking for ways to get rid of the mice that are apparently in all of the homes of the people posting messages here.
Just pointing out the obvious.
This trap may catch a mouse, but the mouse may not STAY caught: some species can jump considerably higher than a small trash bin. They can also climb many surfaces with a rough finish, such as wood or brick exterior walls. If there are holes in your walls/roof, mice WILL remember and re-enter the house through the same spot when placed outside. If you chase them or watch them carefully, they may even lead you directly to the point of entry, as they return to the structure by habit. Whether or not one approves of squashing mice, it is unsanitary (especially if you forget about the trap). A more reliable hygenic alternative includes: Havahart / Tip-trap / Victor / MiceCube / MouseCube (etc.) reference: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000EGL0UE
(The PETA trap mentioned in an earlier post looks good too). The Havahart worked for me… you just need to use the right bait. Oats mixed with peanut butter is a good example. Stores which sell snakes should be happy to take the mice off your hands. You could also buy or build an ****OWL HOUSE**** to attract natural predators. Last but not least, remember that animal shelters are forced to kill hundreds of thousands of cats (and dogs) every year. So if you are in the market for a cat, buy a “used” one. If you are in the market for a new HOUSE, try building a concrete-on-steel dome house (available as kits). Rest assured that rodents will never be able to chew through a concrete roof!
This is a wonderful idea and worked within the first few hours that I did it! Thank you SO much for the info. You are a genious
i have a science assignment and this might juz help
coolio this works by the way i set one up last night(not this model but a different one) (the one with a board leading up to a foot high tuberware sontainer and inside was crackers cheese and peanut butter and in the morning at was left was poop.) ill try this one. also a good way in getting a jack russell terrier. i have one and so far in this week shes caughtaround 7 mice!!!
To repel mice get snake droppings from a pet store and deposit them around the infested area. Most mice will steer clear of the zone – it’s a hell of a lot better than having a snake (or mouse) in the house!
Hurray! That was so easy 🙂 No more mousey in my fruitbowl!
I have set him loose on the streets of Paris, where I am sure he can find somewhere more suitable to live with lots of friends! A dieu, petit souris!
Set up at 8pm, mouse caught by 10pm. Used cracker and honey. 🙂
wot a good idea just set 2 in the shed coz its crapping every where I WILL GET IT GRRRR!!!!
Funny. I just caught a mouse who wandered into my room just now. i used a lid for a cylinder of 100 cd’s and a server book (waiters use ’em). Now, ’cause i’m thinking of keeping him/her as a pet, I did a search on aadvice for tending “wild” mice and found this page 🙂 Sweet trap though! Thanks!
PS If you don’t believe in being humane, oh well. what comes around goes around.
And:
If narrow-mindedness were a virtue, we all might be something more than we are now…;)
Good one Liz! why can’t we wipe out scum like Hank! Hey,Hank where do you get your logic? people who eat meat are like people who thinks it’s funny to torture a living thing? sounds like your a wacko! us animal rights people are proud to be one!!
lol traps?
i have a old fairground gat gun…. your remember the oens that fired corks darts and lead pellets?
finally i have a moving target
Shah, don’t pick on Alex Because he has compassion!
if this works you will be my hero. thanks for the idea. i can’t imagine letting them get their little feet glued to glue traps or killing them in a mouse trap, so i hope hope hope this workS!!!
if this works you will be my hero. thanks for the idea. i can’t imagine letting them get their little feet glued to glue traps or killing them in a mouse trap, so i hope hope hope this workS!!!
That’s actually a really good idea, thanks! I hate the idea of using poison or snapping their little necks, however using a ‘humane’ trap resulted in near-suffocation before we realised it needed extra airholes. If I ever have to use this method I’ll make sure the mouse has a soft landing too, perhaps a little pillow at the bottom… 🙂
i didnt read all the comments but i had the same problem with one of the first few but it was in the washroom and i duck taped it but now i cant see it my parents said it went down the air hole … can it climb out again or fall into the fuernis and burn?… we TRYED glue board they came with the live trap i put one infront of where i saw them come out yesterday… i think it sheded its way off the glue board because theres only mouse furr on it Xp
Oh wow this is awesome, what a neat little trap, and it will also keep my money in my pocket. I will let all you guys know if I catch the little blighter.
What a shame I didn’t read this before buying at local pet shop two useless mouse catchers, the mice eat the food inside and they just walk out again. Have now ordered another longer one from ebay – if that doesn’t work I will try this method. Grrrrrrrrr these mice have cost me dearly having eaten half a Lindt choc. rabbit saved for grandchild yuk – it was the large one too.
I thought of another idea. you bend a shishkabob skewer to 90 dagrees, a quarter the way down, and tape it to make it rigid. next take a large pan, like a casserole dish, and a piece of plywood.if you are catching rats, put a brick or cinder block on top. (you’d be surprised how strong they are)put the plywood as a base and set up the skewer. then put the dish or pan on top of the baited skewer.make sure the skewer can hold the pan before using. it works quite well and doesn’t hurt the mouse. if you use a glass dish,you can see your catch.
Hmmm, cool idea… Is the comment posting thingy supposed to be backwards? Anyway, I like it. If you were wondering why you keep on getting so many hits/comments on this particular post, as long as there is StumbleUpon, there will be traffic. These words are because I can’t end with a period, as it seems to screw up the form. Oh wait, I just had the page direction switched in firefox…
Oh well. Cool idea; non lethal and effective.
My parents are having a major problem with mice in their house. A neighbour suggested taking an empty beverage carton (milk or juice), open the spout and fill half way with water, around the spout put oil or vegetable spray then put some peanut butter at the spout going into the carton.
Put a piece of wood or a wooden stick as a ramp against the carton, so mice can walk up.
I recently learned this is the original mouse trap that was used in the old days. They would use a bucket with water to drown the mouse. Sorry to say I will be drowning the mouse we have running around here.
We have caught 15 mice in 4 nights using humane mouse boxes, they really work. Our mice are confined behind the dishwasher and can only get into a side cabinet where I store food. I have gotten rid of the food, so only the traps are in there. BUT my husband is only putting them across the fence into a park area, I have read of people taking them miles away?? I have also read that mice can smell their mice urine and will keep coming back. We can’t find the source of entrance. ANY IDEAS FROM ANYONE ELSE????
these things are vermin. anyone who thinks otherwise are hippy tree hugging idots whose mommy did way too many shooms while they were in the womb. bucket trap is great buttt…. fill the bucket halfway with water and drown the b*stard. Dropping it off in someone elses front yard (a mile away) just makes u an a$$hole. Typical tree hugger liberal attitude, I’ll save its life (and make some HUMANS life a living hell.) Why your at it why dont you round up the rats in the neighborhood and drop them off a mile away. Man up and kill the lil disease spreading vermin HIPPY.
OK…Now we tried mice traps to kill them. Buckets won’t work as the mice are in a cabinet and I WON’T let them out of the cabinet…no room for bucket. They are smart little buggers and 3 got the peanut butter without the trap going off, we got only one sucker. Need to find out HOW they are getting in.
man thats a great idea for a mouse trap well not a mouse trap but you know what I mean
im trying this idea out to see if it actually works, i been catching these mice day by day and i swear they just keep on comming back and back i think i seriously have cought over 40 and yet thir still comming back what should i do?
thanks for giving the idea…i can apply it soon…when cat in our house is gone…..great..
We used to live in the country and had a really bad mouse problem. Here is what we did on accident. My land lord left a barrel of dog food out in the mud room. I went in the mud room and found 8 dead mice stuck in the barrel dead. They can’t get back out once they fall in. Great idea! Just find something tall and really deep and fill it with a little dog food and watch them DIE!!! They will fall in if you give them a way into the barrel or a trash can. Mice are discusting! I live in town and have the same problem.
thank you thank you thank you! I’ve lived in an apartment for over 12 years and never had to deal with a mouse. Last week, somehow, one moved in. I named him Willis in an attempt to bond. After a week of cleaning turds off my counters and seeing him scoot by out of the corner of my eye … I was ready to help him relocate. The first night I set the trap, it didn’t work. I tried again however and BINGO! … the 2nd morning I found Willis at the bottom of the bin hiding in his tube. I carried the bin out to a nearby park and now Willis is living the outdoor life. Two notes: I used a papertowel tube as I couldn’t get the TP tube to balance properly. Finally, I never found an entry point or hole where he might have gotten in. But I’ve since learned that if you do find a hole … stuff steel wool in it and even the most determined rodent can’t chew through it to return.
I just set one up with a few variations, 1) i used a cup and cut a hole in the bottom, 2) instead of one thing, i used a baby carrot, lettuce, and cheese (i had 3 hamsters and those were there favorites) and 3) i put the trap in the middle of the room because the mouse seems to like running in wide areas.
this trap is by far the most humane i can find and i feel like i have been going crazy for the past week. i keep seeing a shadow underneath desks and tables or just bolting from a shadow away. don’t know what it is but hopefully its a mouse or something and not my mind playing tricks on me.
really wonderful idea. can’t wait to see a mouse in the house to give it a try.
r.
I read all of the comments, took a while though! A few good ideas along the way, and a few bad ones too. Everyone has had to deal with a mouse at least once in their life, and this page shows that.
I live in the country, and most of the travel-trailers I have lived in were full of holes. I have seen a lot of mice over the years!
I once put a mason jar 3/4 full of water behind my parents stove with a wooden ruler propped up as a ramp, with no bait. Worked just fine, and I think I caught three or four mice that way.
I’ve even gone ‘Rambo’ on them buggers. I taped a flashlight to an automatic bb-gun. But the slightest creak of the bed as I reached for the gun was enough to scare the mice and I only got one that way, but scared a couple more.
I’ve sometimes just watched them running around. Amazing what a mouse can do! Seriously! These field mice were running up a phone cord, up the wall. Then switching to an extension cord where the two cords crossed and on up to a shelf like it was just another days work for them!
Peanut butter is just fine for a bait. It has a strong smell that lasts, due to the oil in the peanut butter. I can even just use only the thinnest smear of that at the opening of a trap and the smell alone is all it takes. No sense in wasting peanut butter.
I’ve trapped mice in buckets. They can jump a couple feet straight up into the air and catch the rim like a trapeze artist. So I would suggest using a tall can. And make sure that your tube isn’t going to act like a ladder, I’m sure a mouse will eventually learn to jump from the top of the tube if it is long enough to lean up the side of the bucket.
I would rig the tube so that it can’t be pulled, maybe cut a small flap in the bottom right where the tube goes over the edge. bend the flap down so it catches the edge. And use as many tubes as possible around the same container in case one isn’t enough!
They can’t jump at all if they’re swimming, but that too long tube will surely be a pool ladder! The soap thing could work for jumpers, maybe some non-stick cooking spray? As long as the mouse doesn’t try jumping from the top of whatever else is in the bucket. And if you think making them swim is too inhumane, just put about an 8 inch piece of two-by-four in. Hard to jump from.
The trap I’ve used the most is a tip-trap, but it has a fatal flaw in it’s design. The mice like to climb on top to investigate the thing before daring to go inside. This tends to tip the trap and the door shuts and in the morning I find the trap shut but no mouse inside. I fixed the tip-trap by adding a steep roof to the main tube, re-balancing it with a few pennies.
worked so well even my ‘PC mouse’ got trapped !!
haha just joke’n.
USE PAPER TOWEL ROLL
p.s. don’t forget it MUST have SKIPPY’s we don’t take any off-brands.
help needed!
we’ve has a mouse in our house for a few weeks now, and we’re pretty sure theres more than one of them. We just don’t know what to do. every night we see it run across our hall while we sit in the next room with the door open. every night im petrified coz i can hear it rustling in our bins. these are uber intelligent mice. we bought humane traps – they didnt go in it. used snap traps – they’re still untouched. We’ve now put poison down but it doesn’t seem to be eating that either! and i dont think the bin idea will work as this mouse climbs walls!!
Any ideas will be appreciated, theyre ruining everything. im having some friends sleep over in 2 weeks, i don’t want the shame of having mice in our house!!
help needed!
we’ve has a mouse in our house for a few weeks now, and we’re pretty sure theres more than one of them. We just don’t know what to do. every night we see it run across our hall while we sit in the next room with the door open. every night im petrified coz i can hear it rustling in our bins. these are uber intelligent mice. we bought humane traps – they didnt go in it. used snap traps – they’re still untouched. We’ve now put poison down but it doesn’t seem to be eating that either! and i dont think the bin idea will work as this mouse climbs walls!!
Any ideas will be appreciated, theyre ruining everything. im having some friends sleep over in 2 weeks, i don’t want the shame of having mice in our house!!
help needed!
we’ve has a mouse in our house for a few weeks now, and we’re pretty sure theres more than one of them. We just don’t know what to do. every night we see it run across our hall while we sit in the next room with the door open. every night im petrified coz i can hear it rustling in our bins. these are uber intelligent mice. we bought humane traps – they didnt go in it. used snap traps – they’re still untouched. We’ve now put poison down but it doesn’t seem to be eating that either! and i dont think the bin idea will work as this mouse climbs walls!!
Any ideas will be appreciated, theyre ruining everything. im having some friends sleep over in 2 weeks, i don’t want the shame of having mice in our house!!
I set this trap up this afternoon and I just caught the mouse! Im leaving it up for the rest of the night to see if there are anymore that might get caught.
Several suggestions based on the bin can work. Whether your mice seem to climb or not, they will find a trap with peanut butter in it. In my experience with the little green Smart Mouse traps, they won’t work if the mouse is too small to trip the trap. After seeing a couple of little guys come and go, I baited mine with peanut butter (instead of the suggested cracker)and weighted the section they walk on to trip the trap, with one or two metal washers. (Just tape them on) Mice prefer and tend to walk alongside walls, so placing humane traps in their paths can be more successful than putting them out in the open. House Mice would have a hard time surviving in the wild, but releasing them far away in an area where there are no homes is best for all. They are less likely to suffer if killed by a wild predator and if far away, not likely to suffer at the hands of a human lacking compassion.
I’ve caught 2 mice already using a similar method.
The first mouse I transfered to a 2 litre plastic soda bottle. Mice can jump sometimes from tall bins or boxes like others have said, but they seem to be helpless inside a vertical plastic bottle. It’s too narrow and slippery.
So I didn’t know what to do with it. I figured it might come back if I release it so I decided to drown it. I filled the bottle halfway with water and waited like 2 minutes but the mouse was still desperately swiming. I decided I couldn’t take it anymore so I spared its life.
I walked like 2 miles away from my flat and released it in some bushes.
I was hoping there was just one mouse, but I set the trap once again the next day just in case, and after a missed attempt (the bastard got the peanut butter but it didn’t fell into the bin) I caught it.
I guess it was a different mouse, but you never know. Anyway, I figured it was enough BS on my part and I should kill it this time. So I added some liquid soap to the water (the other way around actually) and it worked fast and easy. The mouse drowned in no time, like 15 seconds. I don’t know if it was just because it’s more difficult to swim in soapy water or the foam that formed in the surface helped too, but it was really quick. I just drained the water and put it in the garbage inside a couple plastic bags.
I fealt a little bad about it, but the peace of mind of knowing it’s not returning is worth it. If I knew of a more “humane” method of killing a mouse, I would have done it, but this was the best I could think of.
I found this trap idea on youtube, and it seems very good. I will give it a try if needed (hopefully not).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGxkvlO6wm4
Great idea. Just be sure the bin is large enough. I inadvertently built the mouse’s trust by catching him in a bin that he was able to jump out of. Twice. Now he’s running around the bigger one until I decide he’s not cute enough to keep anymore. Thanks for the post.
Thanks so much! I had been trying to get rid of a mouse for 4 weeks. Poison had no effect and it was beginning to head straight for the kitchen worktop every night. Did your trick using a rolled-up page from a glossy mag and a tall-sided bin and was able to escort the mouse off the premises the following morning.
Best way is to wait where the mice are, put some cheese inside a plastic bin liner and place the bin liner aginst a on the floor against the wall. As soon as you hear the rustling in the bag, run in, seal the bag and beat the bag to bits as hard as you can with a shoe or a boot. After you hear 3 or 4 crunches, it’s normally ok to throw out.
These things are unreal… and scaring me to death too ha ha… but only now and then…
this one tonight is plauging me.. usually when i have a mouse I leave it be and it disappears in a day but this one has been around all week…! usually i would only catch a glimpse of it dashing across a room and then half doubt myself but tonight its come in under my bedroom door 2 times and went through my laundry and came out the other end 🙁 looked at me and then dashed out under the door again ha ha bless it…
I have no intention of trying to kill it but I want rid of it asap! or I want it in a cage as a pet ha ha (not really) … but come on what can I do!! 🙁
A little mouse made itself known to me a day or two ago. I wasn’t very worried till I noticed that it was crawling onto my night stand. I set the trap and am I hiding out in my living room in hopes of it going for it asap.
I live on the first floor and always leave my window open, I know mice are very good climbers, and since I have only seen it in my room…it’s been leaving me to believe that it is somehow crawling in through the window. Am I crazy to think this?
somebody asked about roaches,
a long time ago i read on how to catch live roaches,
get a large mayonaise jar, empty, clean and dry,
put about 1 inch thick of vasiline around near the top of the jar, in the inside, so the trapped roaches can not get out,
put some rough tape around the outside of the jar so roaches can easily climb the jar, crinkle the tape up good as you stick it to the jar, roaches can be very bad climbers up glass or anything smooth,
put a cracker with peanut butter at the bottom of the jar, and a medicine vial with wet cotton in it at the bottom of the jar (for moisture, roaches like moisture)
never tried it myself, so i’d love to know if it works……….
by the way, i catch water bugs with chinese soup containers, when you turn the container right side up, the plastic container is too smooth for the roach to get out, just walk him somewhere out the door and let him out, you don’t even need a lid,
also, when the soup container is over a bug on the floor, tear up a cereal box and use one side of it to slide under the chinese soup container, then very carefully, watching the roach, turn the container right side up, then he can not get out until you release him,
this works well with centepeeds too,
the only exception to a roach being able to climb the container is when there is water on it’s feet, then he can climb it due to his feet sticking to the surface of the container,
good luck and post back with your success stories,
larry
It worked great! And within an hour, as promised.
Do you have anything for elephants?
Thanks.
Everyone always thinks cheese or peanut butter are mice’ favorites, but I know different. As a kid, my uncles house always had mice, and he used peanut butter, rather ineffectively. After becoming an adult, I was in a house once where I had a mouse problem. I tried the usual standards, but had little results. One day, when going into a drawer where I kept condiments, I found that every single ketchup packet had been chewed open, and the contents cleaned out. I tried ketchup (sorry folks, inhumanely), and within minutes I had cought the first one. Within two days I had completely removed all of the vermin from the place, and had no further troubles. I have told this to people; they tries ketchup, and were wowed at the result. I guess it’s not just humans who love ketchup…
ive gt a mice problem in my fishing shed da little bugger keeps nibbleing through my bait boxes so i used this trap using a bit of cheese and fishing bait as they seem to like it lets hope i get da bliter!!! FINGERS CROSSED!
For all these people talking about killing and destroying them. Maybe you wouldn’t sound so disgustingly cruel and uneducated if you didn’t refeer to the mice and rats as “bastards” and such. Rats and mice are actually VERY SMART, caring animals, and killing them ISN’T going to stop more from coming into your house. The majority of the ways people in this topic have considered to be “humane” isn’T ANYTHING close to that. Im sure if someone killed your dog or cat in these “humane” ways you wouldn’t think so. At the end of the day.. rodents are just animals, they experince pain and fear just like we do.
IT WORKED GR8 WITH IN AN HR …. THANKS
Sheer Genius. I cant wait to try this when I get home- that is…if the dog didnt get him first!
brilliant! caught 6 mice in an hour last night. cute little buggers, i was almost sad to see them go.
I currently have a mouse trapped in my window in my bedroom. I shut the window last night so now he’s trapped. He won’t die however because i have my screen there. I don’t want to kill him. Any suggestions????
Chipmunk Bucket Trap Of Utter Doom
I read about this at least two years ago – but have not tried it until now.
Let me preface this with the statement that I really love the eastern chipmunk.
They are so cute – I simply love them to death. And if the owl & hawk population
had not fallen off I would not be posting this ‘brutality’ designed to save my
current upcoming crop of tomatoes.
To the point:
Take a five gallon bucket – like one of those drywall joint compound ones –
and half fill it with water. Place it in the chipmunks’ fav places – like your
vegetable garden. Lean a board up to the top of the bucket. Gently sprinkle
approx 3 cups of black oil sunflower seeds on top of the water.
To completely cover.
The little rodents eventually run up the board, see & smell the seeds, and
jump into the bucket in order to drown.
All I am trying to do is save my meager backyard vegetable crop.
So if you think that I am being mean – then write a letter to Dick Cheney asking
him why he wants to pre-emptively use tactical nuclear weapons on Iran.
But my main point is asking if anyone else has ever tried this method of
chipmunk eradication.
Anybody?
I just finished building this genuis contraption. Please WORK! thanks a lot!
This was awesome. I have had a mouse for 4 weeks. I purchased a humane trap – he didn’t touch it. I couldn’t use this because he wasn’t yet getting up on the counter tops – but 2 days after I noticed that happening, I tried this. set it up & went to bed – Now I’ve got a mouse in the bucket. SO very cool!! Thank you!!!
Woah neat idea Im gonna try it just now! I opened my pant drawer last night to find 2 of the little bad boys useing it as a bachlor mouse pad!
ITS PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME
ITS PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME
ITS PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME
ITS PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME
ITS PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME
it works
ur tp tube trap sounded really great to me and i set it up a few nights ago now with no success. Im really desperate . I,ve had this mouse problem for over a year now and have tryed glue, (which they avoid) and poisin (which they’ve been eating) and I’m still coming downstairs every morning 2 disinfect my worktops of mouse poop and pee. I only hope that it will work yet. Im gonna give it more time. My worry now is that there are loads of em and thats why the poisin is vanishing with great spead. Seriously can’t live like this any more. I have a 6 year old and an 11 week old in the house and it’s just too unhygenic to share a house with all these vermin.
HELP NEEDED URGENTLY!!!
IT WORKED. I actually used an old box (instant grits box) and tore open the ends. Put a big dab of peanut butter on the end. Balanced it on the counter and put my big trashcan with some water (only about 4 inches) in it underneath. I went to bed praying for it to work. Woke up this morning and the box was gone. I am scared of these things, I looked in the trash can and there the mouse was. It was using the box as a float. I DO NOT want to touch it. I fitted a trash bag over the trash can and I think I am going to carry it down the road a bit and let it loose in a field.
Thanks for your great idea!
I have read these post’s and this story is true as they get!! I got a sexy girl that is very afraid of mice and this bastard mouse is ruining my chill time with her. She will not come over now…. This toilet roll tube set up sounds good and I am trying it now. WHAT A better WAY TO CAPTURE A TURD CRAZY CRITTER THAN WITH AN EMPTY CARD BOARD TUBE OF ASS WIPE… Either way the mouse is cemetery bound and will die moments after its capture.
I am talking about sexy, a girl that smells so nice, funny, dreamy, and the sex is out of this world with this girl. This mouse will not be released any where!! Releasing a virus ridden mouse in the garden is a BAD idea. Why not just set him free in your underwear drawer….and scramble those mouse turds in with your eggs in the morning!
It worked! It worked on the second night already. Which is funny, coz i’ve printed your great drawing on a t-shirt about a year ago, and this was the first tim I actually tried it.
Here’s the thing: my boyfriend has this corn snake that only eats LIVE mice. And disguising tofu as mice does not work. So it’s 18 and living way past its natural life and you know what I’m hoping will happen to it very soon, but I digress, back to my story. So I felt so sorry for this poor furry little creature running around in a snake cage I told him I would make sure he wouldn’t die and took him home to my 500 sq ft bachelor apt. and bought him a really cool cage that he loved. That was Papillion. He kicked off of natural causes 8 months later but not before knocking up both Chatarunga and Mrs. Houdini, 2 other mice I felt sorry for and who I had segregated from Papillion. These pregnancies happened a week before he died incidentally; that virile octogenarian. (These were bitty, bite-size mice to begin with so that’s why there were 2 but the snake wasn’t hungry. In fairness to the snake he either kills them instantly if he’s hungry or completely ignores them if he’s not.)
I put them in 1 cage for about 2 hours because my apartment was doing a building inspection so I had to move them fast. Now there are 4 more mice babies: Harriet, Lily Sylvan, Little Papillion and Polka Dot.
All this is fine – I’m dealing with my little pets and trying hard not to become a weird mouse-lady.
But I’m freaking out now because it seems like a wild mouse has become interested in either my mouse or their food and is visiting on a nightly basis it seems. This is just too much. I mean I’m on the 10th floor but this mouse seems to have seeked them out. I’m going to try this humane method cause by now you may have guessed I’m no mouse-killer. On the other hand I suppose I could just have them all tube-walk the plank off 10 stories.
PS: That mongoose idea is sounding awfully good right about now around my boyfriend’s more spacious place.
I soooo wanna shake your hand my friend! I have been hunting for two weeks with all the traps that you can imagine and with the fear of finding it in agony on one of those. So i decided to do some research and i found this website. It worked within one day and i saw this little thing standing on his feet this morning, and looking at me with this tiny little buttons eyes! God it is so cute! Now is still sitting in his bucket and i am trying to figure out where to release it mmmmmmm there is ahuge park nearby! Thanks so much 😀
ok…this is the second mouse this week…im getting pist…..TIME TO USE THIS IDEA….Does chetter cheese WORK??
Thanks so much for this idea, it worked perfectly the first time. The mouse was all over my desk at work, so the teetering tube at the edge of the desk was an excellent fit for the problem. When I came back to work several hours after setting the trap, I found the mouse at the bottom of the wastepaper basket. Lucky thing I used a tall container – when he saw me he tried to jump out, and if he had just four more inches on that jump he would have cleared the 22 inch top. Amazing. Anyway, I set him free in a local park that has several old storage sheds. He has a better chance there than the next step I would have taken to get rid of him. By the way, I used a dime-sized glob of peanut butter on the edge of the tube.
That worked amazing.!!!!!!ty soooooooooo much
Good idea, but If there is a mouse that is the size of a pennie, and it is outside, how do you catch it? I have a cute little deer mouse in my backyard, and it is right now eating seeds on the ground from one of our birdfeeders (we have 5 birdfeeders, and getting 7.) He is sooooo cute, and yesterday I saw a rats head, and it’s bady in our frontyard. I knew that wasen’t the mouse, plz tell me how to catch it.
Uhm, I’m all for humanity and all, but come on, mice carry disease.. I have an infant… if I let the mouse go it’s just going to get back in the house and we already have enough mice here (have caught 3 this week and one keeps eating out of the dog bowl)… I have to look out for my baby.
I catch mice all the time, but my method is a bit simpler. When I see a mouse, we try to corner it somewhere or at least get it to hide behind something where we can still see it. Then I get a roll of wrapping paper and lay the tube down with my hand over one end. My kids or co-worker (depending on where the mouse is!) will scare it towards the tube, and it runs right in because the opening looks fairly small and it’s dark, so they think they’ll be safe. Then I stand the tube up on my palm and cover the top with my other hand.
We don’t drown our mice or kill them in any way. I keep them in a little cage (we’ve had pet hamsters, mice, and rats in the past) until they pass away. The lifespan of rodents isn’t really that long.
I just caught a mouse today at my work using this method, and it took literally all of 10 seconds.
this SO WORKS! on the second night that we set this up, we caught a mouse. but then we accidentally let it loose on our front porch. eh, at least it’s outside now!
ok sounds good but wouldn’t it try to jump out?
My scout troop caugth 3 mice at camp by putting a peanut butter packet in a bucket on its side. When a mouse walked in we lifted the bucket upright.
Funny story. I own snakes and feed them live mice and rats and yet I’m too soft to set a mousetrap that will crush a mouses head :(. I set this contraption up for a little mouse I saw last night in my kitchen. It hasn’t worked as of this morning, but I’m still hopeful.
Great idea! I’m going to set this up as soon as I find a tall enough can. Natural selection has been working fast to breed superior, ultrafit mice that can escape my furry traps with no problems at all. How high can the best high jumping mouse jump? 2 feet doesn’t seem like enough, I’ve seen them get pretty high up here. If I made the can pretty much even with my kitchen counter in height would it guarantee they can’t escape?
But what to do with them once they are caught?
Releasing them into an area already overrun with rodents and with a major shortage of natural predators just feels very wrong to me.
I want as little to do with these things as possible and I just want them gone. I know mice potentially carry diseases, but, I wonder: Is it ok to feed wild live house mice to someone’s pet snake? I was thinking it would be the best way to dispose of these things once they are caught. Could save some dude money and also save the life of a petstore mouse.
You think one of these things would be a good pet once caught?
I’m currently trying this out. I live near a large field, which used to be a farm when I was little. Previously I had caught a mouse under a bucket; that took a while.
I dislike mice. They just creep me out. But to be realistic, they’re not doing anything to me. It’s been really hot and humid out and this little guy probably is just overheated. I ‘m not sadistic, so I was willing to try this out. If it works, I will take the little fella far away from my house.
I’m not totally against inhumane methods, but it’s not necessary in this case. We’ve set up numerous poison traps that really don’t do much. (They eat the poison and immediately look for water).
My dad once was cleaning behind the refrigerator and found my dog’s food hidden in the crevices of the appliance.
I don’t want to coexist with them, but I don’t really need to kill them; just take them faaaaaar away.
I have set a trap today! never had seen a mouse at home.. its given me a headache just seeing it scamper on the kitchen counter!!!! yikkees!!
I soo hope it falls for the trap! I wont be able to sleep tonight otherwise..
Thanks for the idea
welp…i just carried a bag full of tostitos and proceeded to almost eat his droppings. not much else i can do 12:30 at night but this. thanks i hope it works!
I’ll find out if it works. There’s a big issue if you’ve got cats though. Ha! One of my cats wanted to eat the treat. But he had also caught the mouse once so he deserved a treat. Although he lost it too. 🙁
Worked for me the second night. First night it grabbed the snack, but didn’t trip the tube. I extended the tube by attaching two together. (Also, I didn’t completely flatten the bottom surface of the tube…just “ovalized” it a bit so it wouldn’t roll, and it still worked.
D
thats sssssoooooo good.i have a mouse in my house toilet and we are looking for that mouse.
we put a peparami there its not eating it.
bye bye!
I made your trap today at 6:32 p.m. EDT
Caught the mouse at 6:39 p.m. EDT
Freed it at 6:40 p.m. EDT
Very effective. Thanks.
I loved this idea because it didn’t include killing the mouse or hurting it. I set up the trap and nothing happened for a while, but finally, while I was at work, I caught it. Unfortunately, it escaped before I had a chance to take it outside… Guess I’ll be trying that again. But it’s a great idea! 🙂
Mice can be harmful pests, damaging and eating crops and spreading diseases through their parasites and feces. In the Western United States, breathing dust that has come in contact with mouse feces has been linked to the deadly hantavirus. The original motivation for the domestication of cats is thought to have been for their predation of mice and their relatives, the rats.
There are diseases known to be spread by mice and rats which include:
Rickettsial pox a disease similar to chicken pox and is spread to people by mites that are usually found on mice.
Rat bite fever is spread to people when they are bitten by an infected mouse, rat or rodent [so go ahead and catch them with your bare hands!].
Food poisoning (namely salmonellosis) is spread to people when food, food preparation surfaces or dishes are contaminated by saliva, urine or feces from a mouse.
Mice can spread parasites to people such as trichinosis and tapeworms.
Hantavirus is a respiratory disease that is carried by small rodents, especially deer mice. It is spread to people when they breathe in dust that contains the rodents infected saliva, urine or feces. Although uncommon, people can also get hantavirus if they are bitten by an infected mouse.
Plague is spread to people when they come in contact with fleas from infected rodents or when people are bitten by infected rodents.
So why has no one answered the problem of setting these guys into population where another family has to go through the trouble of unwanted guests??? And do people really drive 5, 10, or more miles away from their home everytime they catch a mouse, or do you wait to fill up the bucket?? They’re not clean animals, they eat garbage and leave little turds behind in my underwear drawer, make *MY* kids’ food unsafe and unfit for consumption, but I’m supposed to show them some compassion towards them while compromising the health and safety of my family?!?! Also, how does being humane encompass the [non human] animal kingdom when it comes to these things? Are you telling me that you are so radical in your beliefs that you don’t allow your household pets to eat any food unless it is vegan? Cats are natural predators – get over it! I could understand doing a non-kill capture for one or two mice, but when you have a whole family – and keep in mind that they can breed as young as 4 weeks old and produce a litter of up to 12 – and each one of them can start breeding while the original mom is continuing to breed…. YUCK!
I don’t agree with killing and torturing something just for the sheer joy of doing it, but these unsanitary and unwelcome houseguests will die as long as they come into MY house. I won’t capture them and set them onto some other unsuspecting household – that’s just insane!
With this idea u save my little hamster!!!
One more success story to share. Our cat has been spending his late evenings in our kitchen lately, staring at the cabinets below the sink where our garbage can is stored. On further investigation, we found the tell-tale signs of mouse poop inside the cabinet. The mice must live in the space between the floor and the basement ceiling and climb into the cabinet via the holes for the plumbing pipes. We searched for humane mouse traps, but could fine no local vendors (our Home Depot only had the electrocution boxes). Luckily we then discovered your tip. I used the ramp method and balanced two rolls with a dab of peanut butter over a bucket last night and – voila! – found two of the cutest mice this morning. I’ll try again tonight with four rolls! And if I find four mice tomorrow, then I’ll up it to eight rolls tomorrow night, et cetera… I imagine a huge clan of mice in my house, like in that Ratatouille movie.
Interesting Trick !!
Karthik Balaguru
We’ve had four baby mice in our apartment this week. Two went the way of the glue traps, and one was a present from our dog to us. This last one, however, just scampered over the glue trap and was hiding under our coffee table. Lots of chasing ensued before it was just hanging out in our radiator having a staring contest with my husband. Within ten minutes of setting your trap, our little buddy was in the bottom of a trash can being taken over to the local park. Thanks so much for giving us an option that makes my gentle husband and his fearful wife happy!
A bunch of fields were just cleared in my neighborhood, and now most of the homes in the neighborhood inherited the displaced field mice. They are driving me nuts, so I tried this trap last night. I can’t believe how well this worked for me. Within 20 minutes, I got one. By this morning, I had gotten at least 5 or 6. I would have gotten another if I hadn’t used such a shallow bucket. One paper tube landed upright, and a mouse was able to climb right out.
Anybody got any extra wrapping paper tubes? Toilet paper, anything?
I have just set one up with my vacuum cleaner tube to a bucket of water.
Not sure if I have a mouse, but I found what might possibly be mouse poo under my couch, and I had one once before so its likely. I am terrified of them.
Fingers crossed.
LAST NIGHT I WAS LOOKING FOR A HUMANE WAY TO CATCH FIELD MICE IN MY KITCHEN THEY WHERE REALLY DOING MY HEAD IN FOR WEEKS IVE TRIED EVERYTHING AND SO I SET UP THIS TRAP AND WENT TO BED AROUND 3 AM I DECIDED TO GET UP FOR A DRINK WHEN I WENT INTO THE KITCHEN I NOTICED THE TRAP HAD FELL INTO THE BIN AND I NOTICED MICE DROPPING IN THE BOTTOM OF THE BIN THEN THE TUBE START MOVING AND I KNEW I HAD CAUGHT A MOUSE IN THERE I TURNED AROUND AND A SECOND MOUSE WAS LOOKING AT ME SO I SET UP THE TRAP AGAIN WITH PEANUT BUTTER WENT TO BED AND WHEN I GOT UP THERE IN THE BOTTOM OF THE BIN WAS THE LITTLE CRITTER THAT WAS LOOKING AT ME FROM THE NIGHT BEFORE THIS TRAP WORKED EVER SO WELL SO THANK YOU FOR THE TRAP IDEA EXCELLENT JUST ONE TO CATCH NOW IN THE BEDROOM HERES HOPING IT WONT TAKE LONG THANK YOU AGAIN …. EVERYONE SHOULD TRY THIS TRAP IT REALLY WORKS
Genuis idea. I am impressed by the simplicity of your design, yet effective way of humanely trapping mice.
I hate industrial glue as the mice die after enduring hours of excruciating pain.
I used a simple plastic bag with a small opening and treat inside the bag. I was able to catch 8 or 9 of them and released them just off my apartment. Two days later they all came back, and I don’t want to redo the plastic trap again, as it is too cumbersome.
Thanks for your idea, I will try and hope it all goes well.
we gotta obey this policy for the mouse the mouse that we are waiting for we wanna catch the small mouse who just came in our house this thursday
its good
what if they build a nest around your recessed lighting in the ceiling, you turn on the light and burn down your house, now will you kill them,duh
Little Johnny walked into his dad’s bedroom one day, only to catch him sitting on the side of his bed sliding on a condom. Johnny’s father, in an attempt to hide his wood, bent over as if to look under the bed.
Little Johnny asked curiously, “Whatcha doin’, Dad?”
His father quickly replied, “I thought I saw a rat go underneath the bed.”
Little Johnny replied, “Whatcha gonna do, screw him?”
yo bob had over 1,000 mice in his house
thats so cool i am going straight home after work and trying that. i just caught one today and what i did is i put a deep container on the floor with some peanut butter inside all the way to the end and the mouse went in i picked up the container and put the lid on … YES i caught that sucker
thats so cool i am going straight home after work and trying that. i just caught one today and what i did is i put a deep container on the floor with some peanut butter inside all the way to the end and the mouse went in i picked up the container and put the lid on … YES i caught that sucker
This is excellent if you’ve got kids who might stray onto a normal trap. It’s even better than those plastic humane traps. I had one but… no mouse for a few days… forgot all about it… oh dear, perhaps not so humane after all.
Great idea, but be sure to use a tall waste can with smooth interior walls. Those little beasts can jump high when they are frightened. I used almost this exact method once to catch pet mice that had escaped.
I set up this trap for 2 days straight and I still haven’t caught anything! What prompted me to set this up was when I saw two mice in the kitchen feasting on the food. I decided to clean up behind the cabinets/shelves and I found three dead mice… got rid of them and set up the traps but still nothing!
MY friend George has a mouse infestation and being an older gent will not see the little B***** harmed in any way , I have now at last found something he himself fills good about and as soon as I locate a 20 foot bin we will commence with operation “EVICTION”.
Many thanks fingers crossed
Or, you could get a cat. Unless you have one like mine who used to share his food with the mouse.
This is a great idea. I’m a social worker and have had guns pointed at me, my life threatened in various ways and NOTHING scares me more than a mouse. But, I still don’t want to be inhumane to them. This is genius at its purest form.
I set up this trap on my counter top and the next morning it was in the empty trash can without the mouse. He is a sly little sucker. I want him out of my house but I don’t want him to suffer. I will even drive him to the country with a little snack pack if he will just go for the trap. I’m going to keep trying.
Like Jed Clampett always said…. “Weeeee doggie!” It totally works!!! I had 3 spring traps set and this mouse kept cleaning the bait out of them without tripping the traps. I set up your suggestion in the kitchen, then headed to the garage to set up another one. In 5 minutes before I could set up the next trap I heard a sound in the kitchen. The little sucker was about 2 inches long and I understand why the traps wouldn’t trip. He kept trying to jump out of the can but couldn’t jump high enough. My cat loved torturing him in the can and finally grabbed him and took him outside.
Hi Kerrie,
I think that’s wonderful that you care enough to encourage humane treatment of living things. There are humane live mouse traps in many hardware stores, etc. where food is used as a bait and the door shuts behind them. This will cause a little added expense but will probably work in more situations than the bucket idea. They can be set on any surface.
I filled a bucket of water and drowned his ass. If you release them they will come back (or bother some other poor human). Better than poison which results in a stinky house when they die. Next victim, please!
Note from Chris: I’m not sure if I want to be keeping these less than nice comments on my site. Debating…
Let me expound upon my initial posting… I’m not for burning (as an earlier poster had said) or otherwise torturing mice or anything else (except Islamo-fascists who know where roadside bombs are). I simply wanted to dispatch the mouse quickly so that he wouldn’t suffer at the hands (or paws) of another in the wilds a mile or more from my house. I derived no satisfaction from my actions other than knowing that I am simply reducing the rodent population and its inherent filthiness in my particular domicile. Otherwise, peace be to all.
I am a human being, a product of a whole lot of evolution. Mice have not evolved. They have been mice for only the creator knows how long. Mice are near the bottom of the food chain…. remember that from school? the food chain, where animals eat other animals? Please take your pity and “humane” gestures towards the lower species and keep them to your self. You lower yourself and degrade what it is to be the top species on the planet by giving a crap about how a mouse “feels” when you kill it. All life is a precious thing but we should never forget how we made ourselves the most advanced species because we wanted to… mice do not want, other then to be. No ambition no future other then to be food for something else. I am not food(excepting the worms when im dead) and I will not feel bad for how food feels when it dies.
Also that is a darned nifty trap you made there 🙂
Note from Chris: Thanks for your backhanded compliment Hu-Man, but c’mon, don’t hide your advanced being behind a false identity.
Stumbled across this last night on Google after getting incredibly upset that this little bastard mouse kept cleaning the peanut butter off the snap-trap without setting it off… sneeky little thing. I caught his 3 brothers and sisters, but he was the “smart” one. Tried this around 2:00 am, and was woken up but a scratching noise around 3:30 am. Gotcha’! Little bastard. Killed it with my BB gun, and threw the body in the trash can.
Me – 4
Mice – 0
by*
hmm, I was gonna say, I’m gonna kill the mouse too, but after reading Matts gruesome tale, maybe I won’t now.
I got a huge mouse problem. the tunnel idea might just work.
ps good luck with my email addy
hmm, I was gonna say, I’m gonna kill the mouse too, but after reading Matts gruesome tale, maybe I won’t now.
I got a huge mouse problem. the tunnel idea might just work.
FABULOUS!!!!
I have just set it up coming off my garden wall for an unwanted rat.
A Trash can, curver box lid and peanut butter on bread with a little plastic tray as the unbalanced surface…..will let you know. THANK YOU!!
It’s the greatest idea! I just included it in my blog entry; http://crypto-cranium.blogspot.com/
This should provide some thoughts to those who ask WHY????
Great idea! Also a quote, then a question:
“Also, folks have asked how this could work if you don’t have a counter or table.”
Who doesn’t have a table or counter? Or at least another wastebasket you could turn upside down to provide the critter access to the elevation!
What if you don’t have a trashcan?
Brilliant worked a treat set it up and went to bed and just got awoke by a mouse going bonkers in the bin. Anyone in Ireland make sure you use a very tall bin cause the little bugger was jumping about 2 feet in the air trying to get out.
Its nice to be humane,But a rat is a rat.So i fill my bucket with gas. And then attach a battery operated barbque starter to it.When the little bastard falls in,BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A RAT KABOOB. FUN SHIT.
get a cat?
gonna fill my bucket with petrol when its caught. little gits chew wires and all sorts in my kitchen
I didnt try this trick but a mouse fell into my empty garbage can 10mins after i cleared it out…and you know what i did after i discovered it couldnt get out I POURED BLEACH IN THE GARBAGE CAN AND WATCHED IT DIE.
now to only catch the other fuckers in my room 😀
I set two spring traps and had a bag of poison for them. They can like the peanut butter out without setting off the trap. With that in their tummy they have no interest in the poison. How would you get a wild mouse interested in climbing up a ramp as proposed? Sounds unlikely to me.
Right now I’m sitting in my lazyboy chair with a BB pistol gun waiting for the little shit to come out again.
I want a foolproof trap.
extend the trigger on a rat trap by using a 3rd of a popsicle stick taped to it, then superglue birdseed to the end,a little oil on the trigger catch won’t hurt either.Last but not least put drywall screws through the bottom to hopefully impail them.Sounds humane to me
Rule of thumb, if you think you have one mouse you have six, if you think you have two mice you have a dozen.
Good idea. You should probably improve this idea.
ADD MORE PIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
im going to try this idea tonight! ive been trying to catch him for about 3 hours now…and i really didnt want to set a glue trap.
i hope it works for me!!!
ps – i plan on letting him live. i do not intend to light him on fire, shoot him with a bb gun, or any of the other things that people have said they will do to the mouse once they catch it.
i guarantee theyre all bluffing just to get a rise.
do you need to use a ramp? or will mice up the table by itself?
hey! Thanks for the info, I’m trying to make a new pet =), anyways, a mouse fell into my pool the other day, poor thing… so today I rescued it. I then put it in a cardboard box until my friend came over, (she has two dogs, one of them just had puppies… so cute! A cat, and a ferret, she used to have a mouse and a rat) so I asked her for some advice, luckily the poor little thing didn’t want to bite either of us so I cleaned out a crap infested cage that used to belong to her mouse and I tried to put it in, unfortunatly it got out and, sure enough, little Buster Brown (the Dacshund I’m dogsitting) comes running to the scene, takes a bite on it, then drops it and it runs away, now, as much as I don’t want to hurt it, I told Buster to go after it. He didn’t find it, so now I have the cage with some bread crumbs in a trail as bait, I better check it soon, the only thing is, I have to trap it, it’s not like a racoon trap from the humane society. Anyways, i’m off to check my trap.
P.S. i’m going to try what you did, but instead of making it go into a trash can, it will fall into the cage =), thanks again for the ideas, try to make more!
Fantastic, it works! Only difference is I placed a small balrog in the trashcan in case the mouse tries to run back up the tube before it falls.
my god! this does actually work! tried this just today and i’ve caught 2 mice already! make sure you use peanut butter. they go crazy with it (one of them kept coming back to the spoon that i used to scoop some of the peanut butter). great idea!
this didnt work at ALL
i take all that i catch down to cityhall and turn them lose. it gives them bastards something to do.
I tried it with jelly and danish.
I ended up in my own trash can.
I was hungry.
Note from Chris: Thank you for the laugh bob 🙂
i did that but changed it for whoever said it might get hurt durin falling so i made a bended shightly tube so it slides into another box without getting hurt. 🙂
PS: i have a tame mouse and i think it likes going through the mini version that i made
i also kept 1 female mouse that i caught.
Wow Paul, you’re a real peacenick. One question precious, what’d you have for Dinner tonight? If someone else didn’t do the dirty work for you and kill it you’d probably starve to death you weeny. Killin ain’t fun but it’s a neccessary part of nature. Creatures eat other creatures to survive, it’s called the food chain sweetheart, not my plan but I recognize it’s the way it is, become one with it, or starve.
As far as bombs and all, well, if we hadn’t fought many of the wars we have, we would not be free. No, this has nothing to do with Iraq. If you need a good example look up a guy named Hitler, google him, he’s in there. If we hadn’t rose up and beat him down we’d all be speaking German.
Yeah, it’s not fun or comfortable, just necessary. Now quit your whining.
Btw, cool mouse trap.
I just put peanut butter on the counter and when they come out I shoot em in the head with my BB gun. It’s more sporting and gives em half a chance, I figure it helps their legacy; no mouse wants to go out looking stupid falling off a ledge in a toilet paper roll…
We live in the country, so field mice are not uncommon, however with the cooler they are staring to move inside. We caught two adults last week in a trap purchased at a feed supply store. As I can’t kill anything live, we caught humanely and let them go.
This morning we caught a little fellow in the same trap. I concerned we might have a family of them. We can continue to use the trap as it is effective, but how soon do we bring in an expert. We are trying to sell the house and don’t need the extra baggage!
I should’ve done that instead of putting sticky tape on the floor and watching them struggle and die. Silly me.
okay…i tried it 3 days in a row. the first day i didn’t have the paper roll hanging off the counter far enough, so the little critter came in the tube and ate all of the peanut butter. the second day i used a different peanut butter, one that i won’t even eat, and he decided that it wasn’t for him. the third day i went back and corrected both of my mistakes, and only 2o minutes into my sopranos episode, CRASH, there he was just peaking up at me…
He is resting comfortably, and tomorrow he will get a 1st class ticket to the medford woods.
thanks for the great idea.
Simple! I’ll have to give it a try next time I have mice around.
You anti-humane sickos have the wrong ideas. To simplify, replace the wastebasket with a shredder, and add a simple ramp to allow the tipping tube to activate the shredder. But personally, I find that a bit messy.
From Chris – Thanks Ken. You really should stop wasting your talents on blog commenting. Consider a career in comedy.
This is brilliant. Took a couple of nights to bag the critter but got it in the end. I used a combination of peanut butter and Nutella for bait. Modified the design slightly by using a kitchen roll (instead of a toilet roll) and taping two coins to the base of the end on the worktop. The extra weight stopped the mouse from accidentally pushing the roll off the worktop instead of going inside and also allowed a longer proportion of the tube to dangle in the air. The mouse was released at a local park in the dead of night.
4am this morning i wake up (very light sleeper) to hear something moving around on top of my bags in my closet..sure enough about 25 mins later her comes my cat that NEVER comes in my room staring at the crack in the closet ready to pounce and before u know it cat see’s mouse i scream mouse runs and cat runs out the room I THOUGHT ALL CATS CAUGHT MICE….lol..it was HORRIBLE i’ve been up all morning trying to catch this lil bastard…so yea i set up 3 of those toilet paper traps into the can so i pray it works ..its been an hr already ..* keeps fingers crossed*
Simple, old-fashioned mouse trap. If you grew up with a barn… you might already know this one:
Put a 5 gallon bucket on the floor. Lean a piece of scrap wood like a ramp from the floor up to and over the edge of the bucket. Put a 1/2″ or so of birdseed in the bottom of the bucket. In the morning, empty all the mice out of the bucket… set it up again. Put 3″ of water in the bucket plus a couple big squirts of dish soap and float the seeds on top if you want to exterminate them. (The soap speeds the drowning).
Other: Victor makes a nice compact electronic trap that instantly kills them with an electric jolt (AA batteries)… and blinks an LED to tell you when it is done. Open door, dump out the body. $20 at Home Depot.
And remember the rule of house mice: If you think you have ONE, you probably have TEN.
i ended up here because i googled “get a mouse out of the house” and this is what i got…
i have two options that worked for different rodents:
i tried the peanut butter in a tube thing for a mouse, he was completely disinterested! unlike my hamster, who fell for the “put books leading up to a bucket with peanut butter at the bottom and he’ll fall in” trick)
what ultimately worked for me the fastest was find where he’s hiding and make only one exit hole for him. there you wait with a bucket/box close to the ground and snag him. i got lucky, he was in a closet and i bunched up a shirt and stuffed it under the door, left the doorway cracked to mouse-size, then waited with a bucket quietly. i thought he was going to come out the opening, but instead, he burrowed under the door into the shirt, which was awesome because i could watch where he was going to pop out and i was ready with the bucket which i dropped over him, then slid a record album under the bucket and picked it all up.
this is probably helpful to no one, but i am excited i am a mouse catcher!
humane? get a fucking life losers. There mice kill them all
Note from Chris Losers? Really? You sign your comment with Billy Dee Williams and we’re losers?
If you have mice in your house and you want to kill them rather than release them, why not try just leaving the gas on!!
If you have mice in your house and you want to kill them rather than release them, why not try just leaving the gas on!!
http://issmousetraps.blogspot.com/
Very humane! And very bright idea! I’m sending a link to this page immediately to a couple of friends of mine!
🙂
“it crawled up the side of my chair onto the sleeve of my shirt”
It probably wanted to cuddle you.
Mice are so cute.
Theres one that was in my room 2 days ago but haven’t seen it since, and luckily it hasn’t got stuck to any of those disgusting glue traps set by my landlord!
I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time. I also catch in Mice Cubes and release to the park and stream area down over the hill from my house. I say, “Go and be with your family.” I believe they have a right to live, just not in my house 🙂
o.k. . .
I don’t kill animals for fun (I will eat them because I enjoy them. . how many of the bleeding hearts on here eat meat. . ) but. . I have no problems with killing my mice quickly. . is leaving them in a bucket over night, scared, humane?. . or is killing them more humane? Or do you provide him with therapy for his terrible capture?
Nice idea though. . like it for that 🙂
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! My wife was at her wits end and was having trouble just walking around the house knowing we had a mouse. We’re vegetarians, so of course killing them isn’t the way we wanted to go. But we didn’t want more, so after a week and a half of absolutely no luck with the Victor tin cat, we reluctantly laid out the neck breakers. I hated to do it. But it didn’t matter, cause they never even triggered them!! Then we found your solution, and it worked like a charm. Well, almost. We didn’t use a deep enough basket, so he was able to jump out. But he kept falling for it. finally, I used just a stiff thin cardboard from a box and it worked. We just released him in the forest preserve. Sadly, there was more than one, and we found a little dead one too. Don’t know how or why he died. He wasn’t in the trap, but seemed like he was on his way up to it. He died on the stack of magazines leading to the trap. Weird.
We’ve got it set up again in case there are more. THANK YOU AGAIN!!!! BRILLIANT!!
Two day! This work great. But now our kids think we have new pet.
I set up a unused paint can on the top step of my basement stairway. But! to my supprise, it was a mole not a mouse. What a freaky looking critter..
You can free mice from glue traps by pouring a little olive (or other) oil on them. You just have to be sure to check them daily so that they don’t a) starve to death or b) chew their limb off to escape…
I have a very nervous little mouse-shaped house guest that I am currently trying this on. I have used a scrummy piece from a very delicious chocolate croissant.
we had mice problems the mouse jumbed out of the box
We’ve done the humane traps for the past five days and have caught a mouse every single time. But now we wonder if it’s the same mouse over and over again. And if it is, how could they be smart enough to find their way back to our house, but dumb enough to wind up in the trap over and over again? There’s woods at the end of our block and we walk in a bit, but maybe it’s not far enough. Any other ideas? We hate the glue traps — so cruel!
Great Idea!!!!! Thanks, PoPo
For all you people that like to kill mice you guys are just great morons you know why I love mice and I will always let them go.
Everytime we cook fried rice, the mouse will come out. Glue trap and other two different kinds failed to catch it. 2 minutes search in google and I stopped at this page. 1 hour later, the mouse is in the garbage can. Now I am googling how to get the mouse to a pastic container ;-.
Thanks for you great idea.
This is great, it’s like practical jokes on mice.
We’ve got a little dude running around our house right now, and I gotta catch him before my boyfriend finds out about him and gets a trap.
Rob . . . ppl like you turn out to be mass murderers. you freak… usually the first sign
1. torture animals for pleasure then eventually kill ppl. . . good thinng im a cop.
i had a mouse for a bit now in my bed room it was a smart little bugger tryed all sorts to get rid untill just now its about 3 in the mor iv just killed it ,,well when i say killed it i mean cooked it ,,what i did was found where it was coming from as soon as it came out blocked its way back in chased it for a bit got it after about 15 mins i taken it out side and nailed it to my shed door by its taill got my phone out and set it to recored got a tin of wd40 and a lighter lit the lighter and made a burner with the wd40 and cooked the little fu**er and i got a vid as well if you want to see it email me at paul_hutchinson_1@hotmail.com
What a great idea! This is my first mouse experience and I want to be as humane as possible. I noticed most of you are using peanut butter or peanuts. Is this their favorite food? I was thinking about luring the mouse with cheese…
i have a mouse in my mouse. the poor little critter is only looking for food.
i left a jar of peanut butter open on my floor,tommorow im going to move the jar into my living room, then next to my back door,and after to the porch, hopefully the mouse will follow it.
i rather buy it a jar of peanut butter then kill it.
great idea though.
And for the guy paul and the other cruel ppl, how would you feel if somebody ruined your home by building a house and then you go to get warm and get some food and they attack you.
Remember if it werent for rodents and primates many of the items we use today wouldnt be here.
lipstick,and medications and stuff. so be greatful and have a heart.
Yeah, mice love the peanut butter its like their favourite thing in the whole world, although mine seem to have wised up after their mates started disappearing!
We had a particularly bad infestation a few years ago, and successfully used the tube trick- we used a longer tube from cling wrap, and after 3 days when we counted the tally on the fridge, found that we’d caught about 15. Go share-house living! We used to sit at the kitchen table with a few beers, chatting away, and bag up heaps of the little fellas.
I hate to think about hurting anything our mouse seems like a babby my boyfriend thought it was a tea bag I hope to catch it before my puppy gets it . She would’nt know that she is hurting it she would play so I hope this works!!!!
Just done it and caught the we shit within 2 hours! such a better way of getting rid of them, I just dont see the point in killing them.
Cheers for the info!
I came home from vacation to find that an unwelcome house guest had moved in. It took me until the next evening to realize it was a mouse. I immediately went out and purchased two of those DCON no view no touch traps, one humane trap, and three ultrasonic emitters (I am terrified of critters in my house). The mouse was fast and smart (I named it Speedy). Didn’t even go near the store bought traps. The ultrasonic emitters did nothing. I tried this method the first night using a small waste bin and a toilet paper tube. Found the toilet paper tube in the waste bin the next morning without a mouse. The next night I came home late and saw him run into a closet, so I shoved a towel under the door. Today, I opened the closet door – no mouse. Tonight I heard him in the kitchen again so I bought a much larger trash can and reset the trap with a paper towel tube. Took about two hours, but the mouse is now at the bottom of the trash can. I put duct tape over the top so he couldn’t escape. I also used a chair to secure the trash can against the wall so he can’t topple it over. Tommorow I’ll drive him to a nice park a ways away with all sorts of picnic tables and some nice high grass. Hopefully, that will be enough to keep him occupied.
If you guys do not like the idea of a humane mouse trap, go somewhere else. It’s sad that you have nothing better to do than to troll people who have a different opinion than you.
OK, I tried a somewhat different version. I took a peanut butter jar (Skippy’s CHUNKY!!) that as nearly finished and placed it in a black trash bag. I then took the tube from a paper towel roll, and tied the bag around it. I made a ramp from a box….the tube went up the ramp and at the end, my new friend fell into the peanut butter jar!!
I just picked the bag up, and released the little pest in the same place I let go of the last few….right under the crack of the doorsill of my landlord’s front door.
BTW captured in less than 20 minutes.
i tried this method. the first night i caught 7 mice. The second night i caught 9 mice. Last night, there were no mice. Hopefully i caught them all.
I had no idea there were that many mice in my home. this technique really works!!!
I am just curious HOW it is able to catch so many in bulk? I am not resetting the trap multiple times per night. i simply set it once, and then the mice flock to it. Maybe they see the other mice and think a party is going on in the bucket. Hmmmmmmm
Will tell all my friends at work how well it went. It was so easy to build I did it myself
For every one mouse you see you can have as many as 100 that you don’t see. This trap works but releasing them does not solve the problem. Mice carry diseases and they are also incontinent – they poop and pee continuously where ever they walk. YUK
This trap works wonderfully, bagged me my mouse on the first night of using it (though I think there are more yet to be caught). I changed the toilet paper tube to use a larger tunnel just so they didn’t accidentally push the tube over the edge before entering it.
But I must say setting the mouse loose doesn’t seem really humane to either the mouse or other people.
You can’t just make the mouse someone else’s problem;just look at all the people complaining about others dropping off mice near their houses.Not to mention, you obviously didn’t want it in your house so why would you then go and willfully do that to someone else?
But of course if you don’t give the mouse a new home then it will likely be eaten or die anyway so all you’ve done is try to remove yourself as being the cause of its death in your mind.
If you really don’t want to kill it, and you don’t want to screw over your fellow man, the only thing is for you to do is keep it.
So get over the fact that a mouse might look cute once caught, and just kill it or else make it your pet (which I am guessing you don’t want to do since after all you came here to find out how to catch it and get it out of your house.
This is a great thread – have spent the last hour or so perusing in and barely got halfway…
We have a really annoying mouse problem in that they are scurrying about in the walls and ceilings making noise but there’s precious little we can do about it.
Our house is a 70’s built terrace and the beams that hold up the ceilings run through longditudinally through all the houses in the row, meaning the problem is not in our hose solely, (it’s a mouse highway basically) and the ‘gaps’ where they are coming in are totally innacessable unless we tear down all the plasterboard ceilings in the house (not gonna happen)
We’ve caught 15 in the last two-three months in the one accessible place we’ve found where we can actually set traps (I was hesitant about old-skool snap-traps but they were the only thing that would fit in the space and feeling bad about killing them fades after about the first 5.) This place is skirting-board radiator that they run along but seem to have got wise to the traps and stopped using that particular avenue of traverse.
But what to do about the ceilings? My gut feeling is to cut some inspection holes and then nuke the spaces with as much expanding foam as I can reasonably afford but this will be a very inexact application due to the inaccessability of the space. And it will stop them going ‘across’ the width of the house but not actually coming in.
I blame the ‘care in the community’ fellows three doors down who love animals and have no concept of hygiene.
Ideas? I might try out peppermint oil but fear this won’t last long on the clever little cockney buggers. I tried ultra sonic clickers but they did nothing, and surprisingly were totally audible and not silent as per the packaging. Waste. Of. Money.
I swear some of the noises are of creatures bigger than mice. Did I read somewhere mice and rats won’t co-exist? I bloody hope so….
this is hilarious, i can keep my dad up all night but it isn’t directly my fault ahhaha
I just moved into a new apartment and have seen a small brown mouse running around in the kitchen. It runs from behind the fridge to under the stove. I was pretty cool with this until I saw it run across my bedroom floor last night. I put out glue traps in the kitchen and bedroom, but no mouse yet (it’s only been a few hours). I am going to try putting some peanut butter in the middle of the glue trap to see if that will serve as incentive.
If that fails, I am going to try the bucket method as it sounds very effective. I am totally paranoid that there are hundreds of them hiding in the walls and they will never be completely gone.
I’m considering getting a cat if this will prevent the mice from coming in. Can anyone tell me if getting a cat is actually effective and has solved the problem?
Within an hour of putting peanut butter on the glue trap, the mouse was in the trap. It was really sad watching him stuck in there alive, but I can’t handle having it in the house. I picked up the whole trap with the mouse attached, tied it in a plastic grocery bag and threw it in the garbage can outside. I guess he will eventually just die out there. It’s below freezing point outside, so he’ll prob just freeze. I don’t want to get sick from mouse pee and poop, and if I let him go, he’ll just come back. I still have 3 more glue traps baited with peanut butter out to see how many more of them there are.
I really want this to work. My wife saw a mouse by our front door, and I know there’s been one in the hallway. But the breaking point was reached and hour ago when I saw one run into my daughter’s room. I just set it up in the hall, we’ll see how it does.
if u fill the trashcan with bleach will the mouse detect the ordor?
I have tried the trashcan method with a bucket but it’s not working.After trying for two nights i set up the trap in the same room as me as it comes in occasionally.It went right past it so i don’t think the odds are good.I’d rather not kill it and my landlord is talking about putting bait down.I don’t mind it but as there is a risk of disease and it chewing through my cables(i have a studio)i have to get rid of it somehow.Any other ways of catching a mouse humanely?I know where it lives and have thought about trying to go in and catch it but if i fail it will probably go somewhere else plus if i have to use bait i know where to put it.Thanks.
best idea ever, Now if people try this and use it they will not waste traps and money for them.I ll try it out for sure.
Thanks for the idea
It took me several days of reading, a little bit at a time, to read all the comments here, and I’m finally done!
I feel like I finally accomplished something and I can now get on with other projects!
I have been in tears because of not knowing what to do about all the mice in our mobile home. We have one mouse
cube that I have been emptying right next to a field, several times each day for about a week, then I got tired of
taking out one mouse at a time! Two years ago we had 6 of the cubes and it was easier to deal with having lots
of mice. I loaned out 5 of the cubes, never got them back & now I can’t find them in stores! Last year we had no
problem with mice because our skirting was perfect, no gaps anywhere. After the fire that burned down the mobile
home behind us also destroyed much of our skirting, mice have come in galore!
When I did an internet search for no-kill mouse traps, it came up with this site amoung others. Thank You!
I copy-pasted all the GOOD (not evil) ideas and lots of mouse info from the comments. I’m going to try 3 of
the traps included here.
Now that I have read so much info about mice and the diseases/infections, etc. that they have, I don’t know what
to do with them after catching them! (45 MILLION people died because of mice!) We have fleas in our home, too,
because of dog-sitting for my son, until a month ago. I don’t want to end up with any disease from a mouse, and
I don’t want to pass it off to a neighbor, either! Our grandkids come here sometimes, and I want our home
to be mouse-free, like it was last year. That was soooooooooo nice.
This is not a human, so it’s not relevant to use the word ‘humane’ here.
Sounds a little too simple, but let me tell you, it works. About 20 minutes after I set the tube up, I put a very small piece of cracker with a little Jiffy peanut butter on it and wham, one mouse in the bucket! Amazing, simply amazing!
great idea but put water in the bucket and walla mouse is no longer anyone problem EVER.dump later in toilet and flush the little bugger .
Um. I tried the alternative suggestions early in the thread. Now how do I get rid of the mongoose?
Sounds ingenious… we used a different method… we caught our litle friend by trapping her in the bathroom then caught her with a coffee cup and a large spoon. Then we put her in a cage with food, water, fluff and a wheel…. week later we caught her sister…. they seem very happy in their new home!!!!
Sounds ingenious… we used a different method… we caught our litle friend by trapping her in the bathroom then caught her with a coffee cup and a large spoon. Then we put her in a cage with food, water, fluff and a wheel…. week later we caught her sister…. they seem very happy in their new home!!!!
i will either set it on fire or pour boiling hot water on the mouse
hahahhaha lol nice 1
I do not care if it is humane or not. I pay the mortgage on my house, and I did not invite these little devils over! I have a small infant also and cannot stand the thought of them crawling around her at night! I have tried everything except poison, and the only reason I dont use that is because they stink like hell when they die in the walls!
have to try this, i have had a lot of pets as a child, mice, hamsters and even a rat, i think this lil guy is so cute, would it be totally wrong to keep the lil guy as a pet in a small aquarium once caught??
Nice idea but the mouse i have’s clever, if he sees something obvious like this he’ll just scurry past. Either your mouse is very dumb or you were lucky.
I want to say a big THANK YOU for posting your information. I tried a couple of other humane traps that didn’t work. I set up this trap with the paper towel roll (with peanut butter on the end) off of the kitchen countertop with a big garbage bin. It wasn’t until me and my partner went to bed that we heard the dog barking. It worked! I am SHOCKED how high mice can jump! Good thing we had a huge garbage over 2 feet high otherwise it would’ve jumped out. We drove it to the beach this morning and released it. I think there is another mouse so we will set up another trap tonight. Thank you so much for your advice. The best part is that it didn’t cost a dime and the mouse survived!
where theres one mouse theres a colony, if you are seeing them that means there are so many that they send out scouts for food you get one theres already another to replace him, mice can fit through an opening the size of a dime so they can get pretty much anywhere in your house. They are also diesease carrying creatures that are known to be fatal i.e. the plague, haunta viruse, these can kill especially children, if you catch and release your just giving it your neighboors thanks friends, and guess what you still have more mice!
Can’t wait till I catch one. I put a sticky trap in the garbage can so the damn thing won’t get out. -Going to poke that bitch with a stick until he dies.
this is a bullshit idea, didn’t work for me, next morning mouse wasn’t there, it made a big hole in my thrash can, my $8 is gone! 🙁
Nice idea, try some water in the can so the potentialy infected pest can’t jump out, climb out, or live long. I’m a wildlife biologist, you don’t want to keep house mice in the food web…ever.
I saw a little bitch on christmas eve and found these posts while googling about mouse traps and pesticides. It is not undestandable how she got in my apartment because I never leave the door open and there is no visible holes in the walls. I am gonna try the idea. If it works hot water will be poured on her for a hot exit from my apartment. I did not invite her.
I am stunned at how ignorant some of you people are. All this crap about having to kill mice or otherwise the world will become overpopulated with them. You do not even have the most BASIC grasp of how the natural world works. Mice and man have existed for centuries without humans drowning in seas of rodents. The fact is, the mouse you release into the woods is one more meal available for an owl, fox, snake, whatever. If the food supply goes up, the hunter population goes up. And vice versa. It’s really very simple and you have NO NEED to fear that releasing even a dozen mice into the woods will make ANY DIFFERENCE AT ALL to the overall wild mouse population.
Great Idea. I’ve had em jump into a bucket of water from a bench in the outbuildings. I use snaps and sticky’s next to each other. Sometimes instead of just poison, I’ll crush poison and mix with pnut butter. I live in the country and I’m the biggest predator. The hawks and coyotes don’t mess with em. They like the rabbits, small birds and turkey’s more. Racoons and possem don’t do much to keep em down either. Don’t own a cat(just another thing to take care of). If we didn’t kill em through the years we would be overrun with em. Just think about the problems in NY. Don’t worry, they’ll be around long after we are gone. They don’t make war on their own kind like we do. Ben doing this for years and haven’t run out of em yet but I haven’t given up!
I haven’t tried the tube balanced on the edge of a counter, but our Havahart model 1020 works well with peanut butter with chocolate bits mixed in.
We will rig up a piece of hardware cloth leading up to the rim of a 5 gallon bucket with some peanut butter & chocolate.
sticky traps-bullshlt
poison traps-bullshlt
This trap-bullshlt
Good ol fashion Pop traps-2 bodies and countin
on a sidenote, i hope you all are half as concerned about the well being of the PEOPLE living in this world as you are on these little RODENTS.
Peace
P.S. Littlepixel your story is hilarious.
As humane as it sounds it could easly die
Mice are rodents. One mouse pair can reproduce every 45 days with 10-20 in their litter. Get real people. Humane? The are engineered to have only 10% survival rate. Kill ’em all!!
By the way, mice and rats WILL co-exist as long as the rats don’t/can’t catch the mice. Best solution for these buggers is Tomcat (or similar) poison blocks. The scout takes it back and the colony and many more will come to eat from the poison blocks. Smell? Mice are small buggers and don’t smell when they die. Colonies smell when they die, but I’d rather have that than the diseases they are carrying on their gritty little paws. And if applied consistently, the poison blocks will keep them away. I live on a farm, and no cat can beat these poison blocks in my barns. I have lived in NY and mice are a constant existence in buildings. They just never lived long in mine when I used these wholly legal green blocks. Plus it doesn’t hurt putting a thin, i repeat thin, layer of PB on them. Mice and humans find PB to be enticing to their detriment (mice = death; humans = high LDL & triglycerides).
This trap didn’t work for me: first night, mouse pulled tube back and ate bait. Second night tube and bait in can.
What did work was a combination of Ander’s and k’s ideas. 5 gallon bucket trap, filled with water.
For all you “live and let live” pro vermin types out there: I hope you can always live the cushy life you are obviously used to, because if things ever get tough you aren’t going to make it. I mean, think about it. You are basically handed everything you need to live and you can’t even kill a mouse.
For the idiot above who said he was going to light the little f**k*er on fire, what goes around comes around, do that & maybe someone will have the luxury of watching you burn in h*ll, Bastard!
WHAT A NEAT AND SIMPLE IDEA. I TRIED IT LAST NIGHT AND IN LESS THEN TWO HOURS I CAUGHT THE LITTLE RAASCAL.
THANKS SO MUCH. I USED A PAPER TOWELL TUBE.
my mouse pet just ran away…it’s sort of my fault too because i let it go on the top of her cage when i shouldn’t have.. anyway, i’m now trying to get her back this method..i hope it works 🙂
my pet mouse just ran away…it’s sort of my fault too because i let it go on the top of her cage when i shouldn’t have.. anyway, i’m now trying to get her back this method..i hope it works 🙂
I can’t believe this worked on the second night. The first night I used 1 small tube and somehow the mouse got the cheese without falling into the bucket. Longer tube was the trick. This mouse built a nest in my new garden equipment engine. Cost $200 to repair it. I was going to take care of it Sopranos style, but thanks to your simple trap. He is now comfortably living about 1 mile away.
Brilliant! I have bought “humane” traps before, but not having any went on line & saw your idea. Having emptied my recycling box i didn’t have any toilet roll tubes, so made one out of a catalogue. My bin was the wrong height so at first I tried the tube over the sink aimed into a tall tumbler- the tube fell in, but no mouse. Seeing my fat little friend I decided he might have been too FAT for the tube so just knocked it. SO, I made a larger tube out of an empty muesli box, put my bin on an up-turned bucket and adjusted the sink unit surfaces height with a chopping board: tube found in bin, but NO MOUSE! Persevered, set it up again & left house. Returned a few hours later- EURIKA! MOUSE IN BIN! So out I went carrying my bin- my poor little friend crouched in the bottom- & walked till I found a pleasant place for him. Now I will find out if he has a large family…. Thanks for your good advice!
Yesterday I saw a small brown mouse scampering around the stove and floor area while I was on the laptop. Really unnerving in a weird way….natural instincts kicking in? Too late to go to the hardware store, so I searched “catch a mouse” and found this great non poisonous, inexpensive way to catch the critter on your website. I used a small cake mix box with the ends opened up (this was in the recycling)and the cracker and peanut butter on the end. I used the tall kitchen garbage can underneath, with the box half hanging over the counter above. Back to the computer, and within 1 hour I heard a noise as the cake box and mouse tumbled into the garbage can! We drowned the mouse by adding water and holding him underneath the water with a broom. This seemed a quick way to exterminate the vermin and we didn’t have to touch the dead mouse, as we dumped the water and now deceased mouse into a corner of the yard. I set up the box and cracker again but didn’t catch another mouse…..Hopefully it was the only one. Thanks for helping me out in a hurry. The web is amazing!
We’ve had at least one (probably more) of them taking the mickey out of us for some time. When I found this page I thought I may well give it a go after unsuccessfully trying to corner one of the beasts earlier today. Set up the trap on the counter of the kitchen with some peanut-butter-like-substance on the unbalanced end and a tall metal container (~1m in height) below. Only a few hours later I was sitting in my home office when I suddenly heard some metallic bumping and scratching noise – and indeed one of the buggers managed to get caught in the trap, frantically (and unsuccessfully) trying to hop out. Interestingly though, the toilet paper roll with the peanut-buttery-thingy was still where I placed it but the mouse was in the container! Short car journey later we released the bugger in an industrial area and are now waiting to see if there are more of them willing to rid themselves of our place. Thanks very much for helping out with this great idea.
Just wanted to post that with all these mouse problems, it seems to me that there is only one mouse running around, getting shipped off “humanely” from one house to another. But don’t worry, when he gets here, I’ll get him for good 🙂
i’ve tried the humane way, but when i saw the “droppings” on a window sill behind my CHILDREN’S dresser, i knew that/those little rodent(s) had to go. i just want them out of my house. And I’m at the point i don’t care how i get rid of them. i’m going to try the t.p. roll first, and put them in a few places.
the mose and my cat are having sex and lokin at me, im turned on, i like the mose, its sexy, sexy mouse.
i put the mouse in my arse, it tickles, is this humane, i think its dead, its beginning to smell, is thi normal?
there are about 4-5 rats running around in my house i hate rats sooo much that when i see them i feel like as if its crawling all over my body so i decided to stay @ my parents house until my hubby doesnt catch everyone of them
I’mter trying and hoping— if I’m lucky enuf to catch the critter he will take up residence at a neighbor’s–he made an untrue discusting remark about me
I’ve been here trying your lovely little trick for over two hours and it isn’t working.
Your idea is not effective. It sucks…
It would be a lot easier for people like me who want to humanely catch a mouse, if people like you didn’t post such useless means of doing so.
So, THANKS A LOT!!!
My god!!!!
I have been held hostage by a furry fellow all evening. I am going out to by those ultrasonic repeller TOMORROW!!!
apparently they really do work.
Regards
This will hopefully work. I don’t mind the mouse but my mom freaks out. He was a pet at one time but he got away and once I catch him I have to let him go. =/
Hi. Thanks for the great idea. My husband and I are in the process of testing it now. I am SICK of mice. I saw one on my counter this morning, so I told my husband that enough is enough. I want it caught. So, when we get it, we’re keeping it. Oddly enough, I hate mice on the loose, but they’re kind of fun to keep as pets. Plus, it keeps my cat busy when they run around in the hampster ball.
the mouse in our house is hard as nails. we got a snap trap stuck some bait on an waited. the mouse ran to the trap grabbed the cheese, ate it, turned on to his back, grabbed the bar an did 3 sets of 20 bench presses with it.
Next time we got some rat poison again we waited an he came ran up to the poison got out a £50 note rolled it up an snorted the lot an jogged off casually. How did we know he was a he i hear you say. well we got a cat next he only fucks it every night.
1 hard mouse
I saw your trap a year ago on this site and never thought I’d have to use it.
Well I discovered that mice moved onto my porch and started eating seeds from the bird feeder. I set the trap on the porch and caught one after 2 hrs. I released him into a field. I’ll set it until they are all gone.
Thanks so much for this awesome and humane idea!
Let me start by saying my life is not great right now. Due to various circumstances I live in a garage. Been in said garage for about 2 months. Tonight I learned I had a roommate, maybe more than 1.
I took the liberty to set up a tent in the garage as to “protect” myself from this/these creatures. I am extremely tired/irritated and disturbed by my recent findings. Tomorrow I will most likely set up your trap. The creature I saw was small and extremely fast. I DO NOT like mice or any infestation for that matter.
I’m a 34 year old guy with a college degree and I now LIVE IN A TENT INSIDE A GARAGE!
Yep, 2008 is proving to be a pivotal year…
holy cow! it worked
tent guy, you may think your year is going bad but just think: you’re probably the only guy in the country if not the world with internet access in your tent!
As for the mouse trap, what do you do if the mouse is on the floor? You’re pretty stuck for this idea then, huh?
Chris, I have a mobile broadband card for my laptop. Ironically, I only get dial-up speeds with it.
Wish I had some advice to give about your floor mouse.
My update:
I have set up the trap described in this post. I have also set up a “clap” type trap. Both traps contain Colby Jack Cheese. I will let the mouse choose life or death.
I have seen the mouse twice today. At about 7:30am he was climbing on the outside of my tent. I was inside the tent. The material of the tent has the effect of amplifying his sounds when he is climbing on it. I also could see his shadow as I had left a light on all night hoping it would discourage him from entering, which it did not. I kicked the shadow on the tent and he was gone. I believe I slept about 4 hours last night.
This afternoon I saw him run across the counter (this is where food used to be). He saw me and ran back into the other side of the garage. I have not seen him since. I have repositioned the traps according to where I believe he likes to enter.
As I sit here next to my tent I anxiously await his arrival and fate. In fact I’ve started drinking. It’s amazing, this tiny fricken creature has managed to rule my world.
More updates to come as they happen…
PS
The ONLY thing I like about the mouse is that he led me to this web page. I think this thread is so fascinating because most of us arrive here in such a frantic state of mind. Also, I think this thread could be turned into a book “Of Mice & Blogs”. But what do I know, I’m just a guy living in a tent in a garage…
Paul (chillin23185@yahoo.com),
You are also a moron. Grow up and learn about the real world.
Update from tent guy –
The mouse has been captured by the method described in this post!
The clap/snap trap did not work. The mouse kept getting the food without the trap catching it.
The mouse is in the can outside. I’m too tired to deal with moving him. It’s cold out so I feel somewhat bad, but that’s the way its got to be.
I’m ready for a decent night’s rest…
Why do so many people want to set the poor little guys on FIRE? Seriously. Some people are sick.
It’s typical behavior from the less evolved of the human specimen to see a naturally occurring life form that they displaced by building a neighborhood on top of their turf, and think “kill it! it’s a pest! a nuisance!” Reading half of the paranoid, BS responses here calling for the extermination of these “pests” just makes me all the happier that neither I nor anyone I know is so dense. Enjoy dragging society down. Natural selection will eventually wipe you morons out, you are suffering from a serious brain dysfunction that forces you to live without any rhyme or reason, and any ability to see beyond 5 minutes into the future. Disgraces. For all of those who know their place within the ecosystem, thank you.
I use a variation of this trap for catching bait mice for fishing. Also a bigger version dug into the ground also catches garden pests like rabbits and woodchucks. My modification includes a hinge so the tunnel does not fall into the trap, but resets for the next mouse. Hang the bait from a string at the top of the tunnel too. Be sure to use a smooth metal tunnel as well, so the mouse can’t hold on and climb back out. I know some people put a few inches of water and an inch of cooking oil in the bucket to drown the mice… However I like mine fresh and live!
Tx for your idea. Surprise your site been along for such a long time and no one summarize your site. Had to read thru all the comments. It was time consuming.
Aside from people promoting product, there were three traps worth mentioning. First is this site trap. Secondly, 5 gallon pail with bait dangling on handle. Third, coffee can with x. Fourth, plate and bowl by romanian. Fifth, unsure on plastic handle milk bottle for they might be willing to fall or gnaw string. Do a find on mention so u do not have to read a lot.
There are flaws in traps. For rodents can gnaw thru shoebox trap. Users comment that rodents can jump very high. Assume rodents are smart and thus make no chance of escape – jumping out of can. Suggest a very tall can or do not provide good footing for jumping. One user says to put 6inches of water for hey can jump at least 20inches or 3 feet.
With regards to bait, peanut butter, bacon, or cheese should be effective (oily, smelly, moist). Ketchup mention and I do not know how effective. Change bait for would u eat very, very stale food.
Some mention flaw with toilet or paper towel tube. For eg., mouse retreat tube and thus not falling into bucket. Mouse jumping out of bucket.
Personally, I like bait on handle for they are things I can find in the middle of the night and it works with no jumping due to some water in bucket. If concern on killing, put small piece of styrofoam to act as a lifejacket. Do not provide footing for jumping.
Have a peaceful enjoyment of dwelling.
Fabulous idea! I’ve got a few little scoundrels in my house that I’m going to try this on. BTW to the psychopaths out there: burning, boiling, asphyxiating and freezing…these are humane ways to kill a mouse? How illogical.
Update!
Seems some of you are looking to keep mice away. Well… I use moth balls strewn about the basement in cloth bags. the smell keeps the mice, rats, squirrels, and other pests out of the house. However, the chemical that moth balls are made of can make you sick if you end up breathing the vapors. Since I have a Michigan basement the vapors don’t build up too bad, as the ventilation is good down there. The same trick works in the attic as well for bats, rats, and squirrels that get up there. Having a 150 year old farm house, you get a lot of uninvited guests and you learn how to keep them out.
Using the live traps for my fishing baits and other garden pests I do outside, as I have no critters indoors!
Disposing of the little critters is even more fun! I prefer eating some of them, but I don’t eat the mice or rats or bats. Squirrels and rabbits I like! I heard that mice should be eaten whole and raw though, as you loose a lot of nutrition if you clean and cook them. I suppose the same is true for bats and rats! But I will let the bass and pike have the mice, as they really like the little treats!
If you are an apartment dweller, you should get ahold of the maintenance personnel as they have the responsibility to deal with the pests…
Very very great idea!!!!!!!!! I have a hole family in my wood shed but I want to keep them! ( I’m just a a 13 year old kid ) Thanks for going threw this trouble.
great idea! ive already caught one. There is a new “major chain” coffee shop setting up in my small town. it will be the first chain business aside from a chevron in my little town. and its a few miles away from my house…….
I was up all night! After the mouse appeared out of nowhere and tried to crall up my foot (!) I freaked and found this page. After setting the trap I read through it all night but it was a nice distraction from my panic! I like the little mouse I think but I want to see him or her gone! There is no room for us both!
In my case the trap did not work! I think the mouse isn’t hungry! I feel guilty too because I had food out and I am sure the mouse has been eating from it without my knowing for the longest. I’ve seen a mouse once, several months ago. Maybe it is the same one??
Since 5 weeks I am dealing with a bad respiratory infection and now I have come to think if it couldn’t be the mouse causing this problem??
I want this mouse out of my house! NOW!
I had such a bad night, no sleep and my body is itching and I do not want to touch any food I have at my place. And since it tried to come up my foot I am scared of vacuuming my floors too because I am scared it will run up on me again!
I think this is gonna teach me a lesson. I am not the most tidy person in the world and I guess living in a NYC apt doesn’t allow much procrasination.
Well, we tried this, with a cardboard ramp leading up to an empty metal popcorn tin. We put a little peanut butter at the very bottom of the ramp, a little more in the middle, and a very thin trail all up the ramp leading into the tube, which had a bit of peanut butter at the end, with a little curving down underneath the tube.
We left the room so it would feel safe to come up the ramp, barricading the hallway entrance with cardboard and duct tape to keep it in the living/dining/kitchen area. We kept checking it every few hours, and would find that the peanut butter at the very bottom was gone, but the rest was still there. I think the little critter couldn’t climb the cardboard. If we had a more grippy surface, I think this would have worked beautifully.
We saw it darting around the living room and so we chased it. We eventually got it into the kitchen, under the fridge, and blocked off the door to the kitchen with cardboard and duct tape. Then my fiance pulled out the fridge as I stood by with a bucket to trap it under. Then we could see it running around behind the fridge but couldn’t reach it, so he thought of the shop-vac, since it has a long extension tube and it seemed like it would possibly suck the mouse up without killing it, or at least wouldn’t make a mess. Well, he got it, taped off the end of the tube, and then took it outside. Checked the bin and it was there, dead, but intact. I am choosing to believe it went very very quickly, with its spine being dislocated from the suction.
Poor little mousie. It was actually kinda cute. But rodents are NOT allowed to live in my house. It’s probably for the best that it died. I certainly didn’t want anyone else to have to deal with a pest in their house, so I didn’t want to let it go, so I don’t know what I would have done if this trap worked and then had to kill it. I think it came in when my fiance came home last night. I haven’t seen a mouse in here before, and I’ve never seen mouse droppings, and judging from how much this guy would run around, I think I would have seen it before. Now to put my apartment back together and clean everything – we totally tore it apart!
I’m grateful for this blog entry and comments. Reading through them when I was waiting for the trap to work and panicking about having a mouse in here did wonders to keep me semi-calm!
This has been quite entertaining. I just wasted half my day reading this entire site and I’m not even entirely sure I have a mouse!!!! I feel sorry for so many of you as you seem to be on the brink of insanity over an animal that would fit in the palm of your hand. I am also appalled at the amount of weirdos wanting to set them on fire. To not care enough to use a humane trap is one thing, but to use a humane trap for the purposes of torture is disturbing. I suspect these are the same psychos that are murdering and raping people as well as molesting small children with absolutely no remorse.
I’ve heard of this trap before, but I’m pretty sure it won’t work for my situation. We’ve got a nest in the attic and tons of little baby mice running around. It would be a pain to keep setting up the trap while keeping our cats away from it and/or the mice caught in it if we can’t get to it right away. Any suggestions?
Lol i have 2 in my bedroom, quite cute and im watching them edge closer to the mouse trap so i can watch them die as much as i want them to live whats the point? catch them humanely so they can go into someone elses house and cause havoc, no thanks. Just remember one mouse can have upto 10 pregnancies a year and each pregnancy up to 15 babies can be born and them babies can reproduce within 6 weeks, kill them.
This didn’t work… our mouse stole the paper towel roll and has since figured out how to foil all modifications we made to this trap.
I’ll try it. I really hope it works! My pet mouse sliped out the bars of her cage and might be loose in my room. I hope it works quickly, I have three cats!
We now have one of these traps in addition to 6-7 out of 8 snap traps in the basement. Admittedly, we modified it by adding 3 inches of vegetable oil covered water to the bucket. I say 6-7 because one broke, and we just can’t find the last one. Anyone out there seen mice stealing peanut butter baited Victor Quick Set snap traps?
Also, the snap traps are ahead by 2 points (mice).
omgosh you just saved my life with the ramp method!!! phew. You are a genius
I tried this several times but i got so bored waiting that I ate the mouse treat myself but whilst getting it i fell victim to the trap and i am writing this from inside the bin
p.s the mouse is laughing at me
Fuck mice!!
Just use a TRAP!
Quick easy death for a diseased rodent.
I shot one yesterday in the face with a BB gun…
little blood droplets all in my cupboard. Ewww…
Its either dont set traps, or buy a cat.
Either way, they wont be in my home.
Awesome! I’ll be the millionth person to say thank you. I set mine up on the kitchen counter, over a bucket and caught a mouse within 15 minutes!
Weird thing is, I’d never *seen* them until now, only their “calling cards”.
Excellent work.
Great idea, Just set it up so have to wait and see. Mice are more active at night so may have to wait a while, this wee thing was in my babies nursery and crawled over my 10 month old boy, that was enough for me, I know I’d have a heart attack if it happened to me so have to catch him and get rid.
I tried this with a rat. It was a 5 gallon bucket using peanut butter as bait. The rat fell in between 12am and 3am but managed to jump out!!! grrr. He has eluded multiple Victor Traps too and just came back from a 2 week vacation when we thought he left our home. I am either going to fill the bucket with 6 inches of water so he cannot jump or get a Zapper trap next.
oh my gosh. that is really mean….but at least it doesn’t kill them!!!
(: (: (:
my pet mouse got away somehow out of its cage and the cage dint have a scrach on it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how did it get away!!!!!!!!!
ny way i wall try this!
Wow! That’s really smart! I have a mouse problem and I really want to get rid of it. What other types of food can I put on the trap?
well,,, i need to catch a rat.
can i use this way??
and can rats and mice just jump out of it?? please reply
This works GREAT but with a small change…I used my microwave oven instead of the trash can, once the little criminal fell in I gave him his last meal than set the timer for 2 minutes.
I know lethal injection would have been more humane but the little bastard wouldn’t stand still
I used your standard snap/kill mousetrap baited with cereal. To be specific, I used a single coco puff. Worked like a charm. I positioned the trap against the wall next to the garage pail in the kitchen.
Any similar type cereal will do the trick, such as a fruit loop or sugar corn pop. These rodents like sugar, childrens cereal are great for that.
I placed another snap/kill trap next to my refridgerator. Again, baited with coco puff cereal. Snuffed out mouse number 2.
I used your standard snap/kill mousetrap baited with cereal. To be specific, I used a single coco puff. Worked like a charm. I positioned the trap against the wall next to the garage pail in the kitchen.
Any similar type cereal will do the trick, such as a fruit loop or sugar corn pop. These rodents like sugar, childrens cereal are great for that.
you people are sick for killing the mouse after you cath it. btw sayed al afghani guy, you are gona go 2 hell for the things ou do 2 mice, its haroum. if i ever meet you, ill break your legs and arms and watch you snake across the ground you fucking piece of shit. i cuddle the cute things after i catch them
I had a mouse in the house and this really came in handy
Thanks !
Chalk me up as another satisfied user. It’s 5am in Japan and I was woken up in my futon by the sound of scrabbling little feet from the other room. I lay there for a while, trying to listen for the sound of the TP roll dropping, but after 5 minutes, realised the frantic feet might be it trying to get out. I carefully went into the other room and saw the roll had dropped, but when I peeked in the trash bin, no mouse. I was a bit disappointed and looked around, then looked in again. The mouse had hidden in the roll when I’d gone in! Yeah! Such a small, cute fellow but I can’t share my apartment. I’m going to go bike out somewhere a bit aways and drop him off in the countryside. Thank you for this great idea! It only cost ¥1580 for a suitable trash can (plus ¥69 for an impulse-buy ice cream).
I used a dab of peanut butter at the end and stuck in a solitary pumpkin seed, just in case the PB wasn’t enough.
I hope there aren’t any more. I don’t have any other TP rolls handy! I just happened to finish a roll 2 days ago.
Mouse caught! Whoohoo! 5am bike ride…um, less whoohoo. But the mouse is too noisy in there to let me sleep. =_=
It works!!! We’ve lived in our house for eight years and this is our first mouse. We didn’t want to use a trap to kill him, but wanted to figure out a way to just get him back outside. We used a platform (piece of cardboard) to rest the papertowel tube on and put peanut butter on the end. We set a tall trash can underneath. We left it over night and sure enough, this morning in the trash can was the mouse. The mouse was trying to get out and I couldn’t believe how high he could jump. So, make sure whatever he falls in, it is tall! Unbelievable method!
Well google ‘catching mice’ and this is what you get. Lots of great suggestions on this thread BTW. Anyways, I was babysitting a dog and forgot to remove the dog food from the floor before bed. I woke up to the sound of the kibble being eaten. I live in a basement bachelor apartment, so there’s not much place to go. I chased him around abit until he settled in the kitchen, under the cupboards. I could hear him as I was reading this forum and he kept popping out to taunt me. Eventually I saw him again and he crawled into a gap between the living room rug and the floor board. I’m trying to bait him out now, but I can’t hear anything. Is this where he came from? I’d like to put some steel wool to fill the gap, but I don’t want him to rot in the wall. This is the first time I’ve heard and seen one since I moved in here. I don’t wanna share space with this cute rodent, so he he to go. Is he setting up shop in the wall? Will he be back? Help!!
denis
WOW THIS ARTICLE WAS AMAZING. U DID A GOOD JOB ON THIS WHO EVER WROTE IT.
Humane…….I guess y’all want disease and such around y’alls house……remember what the black plague did to europe………im gonna nail the sob with my 12 gauge!!!!!!!!
MY DAUGHTER HAS GOT MICE IN HER HOUSE AND IM GOING TO TRY THIS. SHE FOUND ONE RUNNING ACROSS HER KITCHEN BENCH TONIGHT NEXT TO THE BABYS BOTTLES IT MAY BE A HARMLESS WAY TO CATCH IT BUT WE HAVE BEEN TRYING FOR WEEKS AND IF IT WORKS IM GOING TO KILL THE LITTLE SOD FOR MAKEING HER LIFE A FEAR ZONE
If you put 6-8 inches of water in the bottom of the bucket you don’t have to worry about driving around letting mice go. Swimming wears them out pretty fast.
what a idea man
Amazing. Worked within half an hour of set up after a few days of trying to conceal snaptraps with no success.
I drowned the poor little sod as freeing it in central london would only result in some other idiot getting infested. Felt bad about it, but hey ho.
The trap is still out with more tubes in case he’s got family…
I recommend watching the mouse’s habits for a couple of days before set up as they seem to get bolder as time goes on.
Thanks for the tip, it worked a treat, and much quicker than I thought it would.
would this work with a rat????
I have a humane trap but he has sussed out to not go in it and we have been trying to catch him for about 3 weeks now
he lives in the attic and comes down through the walls, i think he came in as a baby and now he can’t get out, i have set the humane trap in the loft and in the kitchen where he comes out and i just can’t get the bugger to go in it, though he tries to pull the food through from the side
he is a clever one i will give him that but in a min i will have to kill him and i really don’t want to
Not sure Boo, but it’s worth a try. You might use a larger receptacle.
we caught a mouse by trapping it in a fake burrow
i think this is very good way of traping a mouse
It worked like a charm. I had tried the commercial ones like mouse trap, glue, one-way pipes, etc. All of them failed. But this bright idea worked the first time I tried. Appreciated for helping solving the problem!!!
I have 2 pet rats and one of them always runs away! I usually catch them chewing the couch, next time she runs away i’ll use this trick and post if it worked. Another thing you could do is: Get a 2/3 liter of soda (empty duh!) cut the top 8 inches up, put the lid part back in upside down, tape it and everything, then tape/screw the bottle to a piece of cordboard so that he can’t push it over, then put food in the bottle! Usually you’ll catch more then one because they think theyfound the jackpot of cheerios/gronola bars! Another good trick is to use peanut butter because it has more scent to carry around the house.
This is a really good way, but heres the sad thing. i caught a mouse overnight and the next morning it was dead (must have broken something during a fall) and there was these little pink jelly bean sized mice next to it… should i kill them? or take care of them (im half humane…)
the hell?! the mother rat just started moving?!!!
I have had mice in my house for the last couple of months and although i am not sure of the exact number i know there is definately more than one. I am a vegetarian who is strongly against the killing of animals but tonight i have laid down snap traps and poison although it is breaking my heart to do so. there is many people out there who will think im sick n cruel but i just have no choice. For the past two months i have placed a number of humane mouse catchers around my home but have not caught a single mouse i made my own using the tips online but have still had no luck i am finding droppings in every room of my house every day i can hear them running around my bedroom when i sleep and the last straw is my daughter has had a persistent cough and generally not been well for the last few weeks i have put up with these mice for over two months in the hope i could catch them alive and set them free but it just isnt working i feel terribly guilty as i dnt believe in the killing of any animal but my daughters health is now being affected and she has to come first and although in an ideal world it would be nice if the mice in peoples homes could always be caught humanely and set free but it is just not the case i dont want to end the lives of these mice and i know in doing so it will probably make me feel immense guilt for as long as i live but i have persisited in trying to catch them humanely and now i have to put my child first she is more important
after haveing a mouse in the house for about the last 2 months now i have drawn the line with it after i woke one night n it was crawling on my bed!!!!! despide how cute it is ive decided to get rid of it n i dont care how it goes… ive tried mouse traps, poison and finding them both innafective.. ive been finding green mouse droppings everywhere through out the house so im guessing its a mutant mouse… im just hopeing the toilet rol n penut butter tube thing works…
This totally worked and I thank you!!! My dad said to use a bucket of water and a 5 gallon bucket. I put one on a ramp and one off the counter that way I was covered. I saw the stupid thing running around all over my counter and appliances and was totally sick and tired of it. I tried regular traps and that darn mouse just licked the PB off of every single one. I was so pissed off. I just wanted to thank you for this idea!!
well i tried the bucket thing.. it didnt work for me… but finially after weeks of trying a standard spring loaded mouse trap caught the little bugger this morning. but now i have found there is another mouse in the house an am starting to wonder how many there actually are… we dont ven know where they are living.. but the just seem to come from everywhere im even trying to catch them myself with a container… but i guess its only a matter of time
I once had a mouse in the kitchen. I greased the side of the galvanized steel sink and half-filled it with water. The mouse drowned overnight. I guess you could do the toilet paper trick so that it falls in there too…
Thank you so much for this idea. I live in Chicago, and could not find any stores that carried a humane mouse trap. Like some of your other posters, I had decided to coexist with my new friend (named Porcupine), but it turns out that he/she was a lousy roommate.
Just set the trap up. I hope it works. The drawing makes it seem foolproof. But I’ll be sad to see little Maisy go…
hi im onley 9 but i want to catch not kill a mouse do you have an idea its hard thow we have a tv down stairs thats were all the little cuttwes are i want to test it out help
if i get a boy mouse ill name it lucks girl yo
i have a mouse problem but i cant use your trick because its climbed upthe hollow wall and all kmy pipes are in there! but it really is a great idea hope i can use it some time!
I am going to try this, I hope that it works. We have a couple of them in our place and they get in one of our cupboards and eats everything in it so I am going to give it a shot.
I tried a variation (some peanut butter smeared on the inside of a 5 gallon bucket and a couple kibbles of dog food on the bottom for good measure) and the next morning all the dog food was gone and there were a bunch of mouse droppings, but no mice!!! I’m going to go back to home depot and buy a metal vent collar and spray it with pam, so they slide in but can’t jump out the side of the bucket… I’ll let you know if it works…
On a side note, I am NOT going to kill the mice… I will take them to a nearby park and release them for the family of foxes that live there! I eat meat, I’ve even slaughtered farm animals for my own consumption, but I’ve never been inclined to eat a mouse… I have no problem with killing them, especially if I can make it quick and painless, but since the foxes eat mice and I don’t, i say let them do it!
Analysis of an amazingly sticky message board.
How funny I would spend hours reading this board. It was more of a study in human nature than mouse traps for me. There appears to be 4 distinct personality types who have felt constrained to post about their mousing experiences.
1. The uneducated “kill and torture em” buffoons. This poster is infamous for using profanity to express himself because he lacks the vocabulary and intellect to get across his vengeful agenda.
2. The “Humane-ist” do gooder. This poster is the polar opposite of #1. In an effort to treat rodents with reverence the Humane-ist tends to lose sight of the value of human beings in the equation.
3. The “fault finder”. This poster finds an irresistable urge to point out the folly in posts he disagrees with. Whether its “but the fall might hurt the mouse” or “what about the Hanta virus if you let him live” comments, the “fault-finder” rarely posts new material.
4. The “analyzer” (me) This poster likes to discuss the mechanics of the trap (or the message board) with emphasis on the merits of different techniques and potential improvements to existing aparatus.
5. The “Joker” This poster finds the seriousness of the debate hilarious and can’t resist poking fun at the other posters with snide comments or the ever popular “I’m a mouse posting on this board” scenario.
6. The “reasonable” This poster takes a balance approach to the dilemma by understanding that if the mouse can be trapped and freed without glue, snap, or poison but released in an area where the likelyhood of reinvestation of his own home or anothers is very low, it is probably worth it.
By the way my trap worked! I took the mouse down to the river with my kids who helped me set it up. It was like a great science project. Miles from any homes Mr Mouse bounded off into a bush by the river. Because it was quality family time even the guy who was worried about wasting gas can’t argue!
wow, analysis is rude to people who enjoy the wholesome past time of killing rodents and swearing up a storm.
Anyway, cute story… We’ve rid ourselves of about 5 mice with the sticky crap and the spring loaded traps. But, now there are a few naturally selected remaining mice, who don’t fall for those. Plus, they got into some protein powder, and now eat dog food and jump off counters like they’re wombats or something. So, I’m gonna try this one out…the creepy (but cute) bastard comes into my room between 2 and 4am, tonight he peeked out at me from on top of my computer tower…that’s where I draw the line.
Cool trap. Here’s a different one: Get a motion-sensor spotlight, replace the bulb with a solenoid, place the solenoid under a hinged piece of plywood with the motion sensor aimed at the ply from above. Put PB on the ply, aim your ‘catapault’ at the nearwst window. Bingo- one self-resetting mouse evictor. If you’re into the demise of the rodent, aim it at the wall above your bin. Might be an idea to protect the wall with something washable. ;>
For an alternative victim-size-independent trap (little more complex than the dunny roll but much simpler than the electronic mouse-a-pault), put a lightweight rolling pin across a bucket so that the handles act as an axle. Nuttybutter on the middle of the pin, light layer of oil in the bucket to make jumping out difficult. Metal buckets are best- slippery. Big mice or rats don’t have to fit in a tube, but for the larger sized rodents water in the bucket may be necessary to prevent them pulling a ‘papillion’ on you. This may drown the smaller creatures, but the old standby of a small piece of styrofoam in the water will save the little ‘uns.
Then you can take ’em out and release ’em in a field- although finding a field with sensitive enough mines in it can be problematic these days.
And seriously- burning? Why? It’s our ozone layer too, you know. If you really want to torture the little buggers, cage them in front of the TV during the soapies or parliment question time.
Sorry, sorry- I know.. I’ve gone too far.
I find it interesting how calmly you all seem to be taking the rat infestations in your homes/caves.
Well, all I can say is that live traps are definately the way to go with mice, squirrels, and whatever other little rodents you have a problem with. Spray painted rodents are no fun when they are dead…..whereas live ones with funky designs and color schemes can really liven up the hood. I live in Chicago, so I have to order spray paint through the mail, but trust me, being able to walk down a chicago street on a nice warm spring day where everyone is laughing and wondering about these “punk rock squirrels” is a true joy……until you get on the slave train taking you back to the anthill that is. Ah well, there is always the walk home to look forward to with the prospect of seeing a euro-trash squirrel!!!!!
funny stuff, Dennis and Demos. Follow up, second night of trying this trap I caught my first bugger. The mouse is 2 inches tops (no tail) and was almost able to leap out of the tin garbage can (Da Bulls variety) 24-30 inches. I recommend metal can for this trap, and maybe a little water at the bottom, and the taller the better. Thanks for the idea website guy.
i cannot believe how far back this goes. almost 3 years. yikes. well i’m trying this trap right now.
it’s funny i’m the owner of 3 rats but jumped 3 feet in the air when i first saw the mouse.
ausem idia m8 cant w8 2 try it out
cheerz
Three days later, 2nd mouse, same trap. Excellent. All sightings including trappings have been between 10pm and 5am. (In case you have dogs who may be interested in setting them free before you get to them) Kudos.
I have recently caught three in my shed, using this humane method. Get a thick cardboard mailing tube and about 5 millimeteres from the end, using a sharp blade, cut a 2cm in length slot, this should be parallel to the end of the tube. get a used cola or beer can and cut the top and bottoms off, cut the can down the side until you have a flat square of tin. Lay it flat and place the cardboard tube on top. using a thick permanent pen, draw around the bottom of the tube on the tin, cut this shape out using scissors. The tin is too big to fit inside the tube, so you will need to trim it most of the way round except for a 5 millimetre piece at the top, this will slot into the the slot in the tube and bent over to cause a swinging hinge.
You will need o scree two small screws into the sides of the tube so that the swinging door swings only one way. The trick is, the mouse smells the treat inside, pushes the tin flap open and once inside, gravity forces the flap shut. If the mouse tries to push the flap, the screws will inhibit this.
I would recommend checking the trap acouple of times a day as they could eventually eat their way out of the trap. I have used this method for many years and the tip is to make sure the tin flap is swinging and not rubbing against the wall of the tube otherwise it may stick open and llow the mouse to escape.
We bought a trap from a shop but had no luck catching the mouse that was living in our kitchen. Tried the toilet roll method but still no luck. We then tried a pringles tube with only one end open and put some apple in it. We balanced it on the work top, put our bin underneath and it worked a treat. We were very surprised to find 2!! mice in our bin the next morning. My husband took them a distance away and released them. Thanks for idea
1359, May 1st.
Trap is set in attic.
Tall trash can, long cardboard ramp and two tunnels baited with Nutella.
I’ll check it when the Little Woman gets home.
The little mice scratch over my bedroom and hitting the ceiling is but a temporary solution, to get back to sleep…
Glad I found this, was ready to buy, buy, buy. Now I’m Wiley Coyote in the yard building Acme traps.
That’s cool but do you have any more ideas on how to catch a mouse without hurting or killing it because i have this stupid project on how to build a mouse trap but it can’t get out and it can’t be harmed. Please tell me if you do! My e-mail: sadiegirlxo106@yahoo.com
My shop is infested with mice, I have been nice about the catch and release thing, I should have tagged them because there just coming back, I named one of them charlie hes got some fire damage, almost hairless, the little fucker sneaks up on me in the office, charlie has seen some bad times. I hate to kill the fuckers but I am waging war here on a large scale, something like 20-1 odds, I may just have to start eating them like that guy in never cry wolf that might scare them away, Fuck that; flame thrower, mini-land mines, claymores, napalm and some sticky paper just to be cruel and watch them suffer, disease spreading sons-of bitches!
Plastic bags work well: find their trail of droppings and leave a plastic bag near the trail with some food and or garbage because they like more than food they like crap for building their nests, when you hear them rummaging through it at night close the bag they wont chew a hole because their scared shitless then you can do whatever you want with them, if you handle them where a thick leather glove and place them in a cage, I prefer to kill them because they reproduce quickly. Or get a rescue cat, the more wild the better because they are accustomed to catching mice.
holy eggs thats sweet
thats awesome
here is a better way if you would like to kill the mouse. same basic idea about the whole bucket and ramp thing. just fill the bucket (a little more than half way) with water. once you’ve done that, simply cover the top of the water with sunflower seeds. within one night, a had trapped two mice.They simply drown! i scooped them out and the next night a caught another! They just think its a bucket of seeds if they cant see the water. this trick works with any bag of bird seed. GOOD LUCK!!!
I tried this idea, but unfortunately it did not work. I am in Washington, D.C. and they apparently have very intelligent mice. The mouse ran to the toilet paper, pulled it back onto the counter, ate the food, and left. He was smart enough to know not to go through the tunnel and fall into the garbage can. I don’t know what degree he has, but I can sure say that he went to school.
It Works I Hope You Get Sponsered
I am SO happy to have found this!!! Last night, around 1am, I went to the kitchen for a drink and a very startled mouse looked at me, then ran to my stove and escaped. Being a full-time student, this free option is perfect! I was looking for a ‘humane’ option only because I don’t want to deal with the dead, possibly bloody little body…ewwww I’m going to try it tonight. I was thinking I would just put a trash bag in the can, that way I could just tie it up and take it to the dumpster, but now I’m thinking maybe it could climb out on the bag.
Oh yes the ‘mouse diaries’ started about 3 weeks ago when I saw the little black shadow of a rogue rodent skit in front of my TV whilst I was watching my favourite evening programme. It stopped in the middle of my rug, stared at me and get this – scratched itself nonchalantly then proceeded to lay turd everywhere on my rug. Previously had eaten my oven glove (nesting material) Incensed at the cheek of it I got onto this site and laid my trap as per instructions. Worked, but it escaped, (I need a taller bin) – my mousie is too clever for the humane one I bought, in fact I’d go so far as to say it regards that trap with utter contempt. I did have more humane feelings for it but as the weeks have gone on, I’ve want to make murder every time I have had to drag the vaccuum out to deal with the endless trails of turd. A friend and I scared it last time it did its ‘showtime’ thing on the rug and chased it right into a bucket, from where it jumped out 3 times amid the screaming and chasing chaos, and landed on the sofa (looked cute for one second on the cushion), then jumped straight back into it’s place behind the cupboard, leaving us all totally knackered. I’ve given it 3 more days to see if the above trap works, then it’s Pest Control time for my little lodger.
Thanks so much!!! Im a BIG animal lover (i also hug trees)and was looking for away to catch my little mousey friend
“Schnitzel Poo the 2nd” (Sh-knits-ul-poo)who has happily chewed through my garage…thanks S.P.!
Love,
Rae and Schnitzel Poo the 2nd!
thank you. I just found a mouse, and don’t want to kill him. this is perfect. please let it work!
Update: Mousie caught and deposited in a nice field some place he can now go play with other friends – i found him in the bottom of the bin this morning. Thought he was dead at first but was just very afraid. Wedged himself into the kitchen roll. I thought, ‘my, you fat little friend’, but he wasnt stuck, he was just hiding. So off he trots and will definitely use this again!
Just wanted to leave a quick comment about the glue traps, in case you were thinking of using them. We did not know our pet mouse was pregnant when she got out, and we set a glue trap for her thinking it was humane. She had the babies and they all climbed onto the glue but she didn’t. We found the babies when some were still alive and fatally pulled one of (the skin stayed). We were so horrified we took the trap + babies to our vet, who charged us a fee for each pinkie to euthanize it. So, do yourself a favor and don’t buy the darn glue traps.
it works …
:))
Any ideas for squirrels? Doesn’t have to be humane, just want em gone!
you need to realize for every mouse you see there are always five more you haven’t seen!!!
I have a mouse in my car how do i get it OUT.
it doesnt work the mouse im trying to get its even more scared than going to hell and back
i found that after you catch the mouse, every morning and random times through the day , just sneak up on the bucket and let out a loud ROAR!!!!!!
after about 12 or so times, it just has a heart attack
score 1 for me!
RRRRRRROOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!
see? works every time.
After months, and I mean months, of living with this little bugger in my apartment, I set up this trap with his favorite – popcorn kernels – and caught him the same night.
My only tip – if you’re using water, he’ll probably still be alive and sitting on the cardboard, so you’ll have to take that out to finish the job.
Thanks for the idea and best of luck to all!
yeah i just came back to my computer…seems my mouse has outsmarted my mousetrap he took the bread off the thing without setting it off…so i found his burrow in my cupboard and removed it but i was unable to catch him..he ran behind the dryer last i saw… anyway i have reset 2 mousetraps…but if they fail again i will try this…if he’s smart anough to outsmart a mousetrap then i think he may be worth keeping in a fishtank or something
For all you psychos burning mice to death, i hope you are aware that your possibly in the early stages of becoming a serial killer………… freaks.
Hope you get eaten by a Alligator, hauahHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA i would laugh my ass off, have a horrible life, may Satan shove his 15 foot fiery dick into your asses.
Stuff the humane crap, mice are dirty disease plagued vermin. I got a better idea, make yourself a pen speargun. Get a pen and remove all the pieces so that you just have a hollow tube with holes at both ends. Next get a rubber band & cut it so that you have one long piece of rubber. Place the rubber strip over one end of the pen so that you have even lengths of the rubber band either side of the pen tube and secure it with sticky tape. Next get yourself some little arrows or spears – those wooden sticks used for shishkebabs work a treat – place one in the pen tube and load it up in the same you would load a bow and arrow and then wait. I got one a few weeks ago, the little bastard had been eating anything and everything in sight and crapped everywhere, i cornered him under one of my stereo speakers and well the rest is history….
Mice are Cute Adorable Creatures, If Your Going To Kill Them Why Dont You Bring Them To A Pet Shop Or Set Them Free, How Would You Like It If I Set You On Fire Or Drowned You Ehh? You Killers Are Stupid Heartless F***ers. Go Get HELP! Theres Places For People Like You!:@
Two mice fell into a bucket of cream. The first mouse struggled for a bit and then gave up, so he drowned. But the second mouse kept going until he churned the cream into butter and climbed out.
This is a fantastic humane trap for catching a critter without hurting it. It worked first time and the mouse was hiding in the paper towel roll I used which had fallen into the bin with it. Absolutely unhurt, cheeky as anything. I just gently nipped together the two ends of the roll and transported it like that into woods nearby. I’m not so bothered if it comes back now as I know the trap works, the only thing is, what if it remembers it and won’t go in it again!
The mice at my house don’t use toilet paper
I like the glue traps. But if you have lots of mice, they get expensive. So: when you catch a mousem get scissors and snip off the legs and toss the mouse…you can now use the glue trap over and over.
Hickory dickory dock,
three mice ran up the clock.
The clock (being clever)employed a quantum lever
and now Schrödinger’s cat has the lot!
Nice try, but a non-mousetrap mousetrap has already been invented. It’s called a “cat”. Not humane? Tell Mother Nature that.
In Canada it is illegal to set vermin free. You catch it, you kill it.
wow spent all night readin these comments I was choking with laughter at some of it, sickened by some, and amazed at some!
These comments have been goin a hell of a long time some of you guys are very sick minded tho I’m guessin you put most of the twisted stuff up for a laugh at the reaction you get!
I’ll try this before anythin else this and the milk carton thing, I’m bothered the spring traps won’t kill quick or spatter diseased blood across my home, poison may not work and a lil dangerous to have around an inquisitive child, glue seems a tad cruel yeah olive oil may get lil Mickey loose but he may bite, um yeah a 12 gauge hmmm maybe a lil bit of an overkill!!! I won’t kill anythin I don’t really have to so I won’t be drowning, burning or poking it with pointy sticks either I jus need the poopin lil rodent out and away from my lil girl.I’d keep them as a pet but bein wild its kinda cruel and potentially diseased its a big no, humane capture and release many many miles from here is the way to go give the lil guy a chance if that doen’t work Mickeys got to die after all they do breed fast and I’m sure I won’t make a huge dent on the UKs mouse population
This idea worked for me, I caught 3 mice.
BUT now they must be onto me. I have not been able to catch anymore with this routine. Even though I have changed locations and what I am putting out for them to eat.
Some are still here, as I see their little droppings in the draw. How can I get rid of the remaining ones left??
Doing better than me I caught one last night after a few hours! I used two milk carton traps and two of the overhanging tubes one of the cartons had been tripped but lil thing was in the bucket….go figure haha
Think its jus a case of perseverance although if your only catching 3 mice every so often and the lil buggers are breeding at 3 to 14 in litter every month or so its a bit of a losing battle with just one trap!
well this morning my nephew and my son were playing near the fire place (which has a black marble look) and all of a sudden a lil runt dashed across the floor. At first i thought it was a toy car that one of them had kicked. But something kept me pondering. So i moved the couch and the lil bastard shot off behind the t.v and persisted to run along the wall panels.OF course i screamed and the kids yelled MICKEY MOUSE!! so i contacted a few strong men who were “busy” to help me move funiture and the washer and dryers. I was headed to put some clothes in the washer when i kicked the basket and the lil bastard shot off again!! so i closed off the laundry room and went and bought some traps. I researched what they liked, cheese, peanut butter, crackers etc. So ive been sitting here waiting for the little bastard… Like some, i have named him.. BEn, like on the JAckson 5. Of course i was laughed at. but hell. BEN U GOT A FRIEND IN ME!!!! sike. i cant wait for the bastard to get stuck so i can get some rest.!!
“In Canada it is illegal to set vermin free. You catch it, you kill it.”
They should pass a law like that in the states!!!
Catch a mice and you’re going to drive it down the stree a ways so it can move into one of your neighbors homes? Oh yeah that’s real f-ing mature… I guess your neihbors won’t feel you’re as humane as the rodents will.
I’m looking for good info on how to get rid of mice and I’m sick and freaking tired of reading messages by all these soccer moms and dads who preach about how “creul” snap and glue traps are… GET A F-ING LIFE!!! They’re fricken’ mice for crying out loud! Now I see on the news that they have found mice infected with hentavirus near where I live! :0
I’ll stick with snap traps (I buy the ones that come in the plastic enclosure – less messy and easier to set) while trying to keep them from entering in the first place, may be “creul” but better them than me no?
for the person who has a mouse in the car:
i found a reusable live capture trap called Victor. bought it at the hardware store. within 20 minutes of baiting it (peanut butter) and placing it along the wall, the mouse was captured. i put the trap, with mouse still inside, in a sandwich sized zip bag, and drove him to his new home – 3 miles away in 20 acres of woods.
i bought 4 traps for less than 10 dollars. i bet these would work well in the small spaces of a car. just check frequently – i can imagine it woudl be difficult to remove dead mouse odor from a vehicle.
Even if you drop the mice off 100 miles from your house, how do you know they aren’t coming back? Didn’t you ever see “Incredible Journey?” (OK, I’m showing my age here.) Anyway, if dogs and cats can travel hundreds of miles to get home using their “radar,” mice can too.
So kill the mice, they spread disease. One method:
1. Tip the container so that the mouse falls into a plastic (disposable) shopping bag. Close the top of the bag immediately so it can’t get out.
2. Swing the bag in a circle a few times so the mouse is “pulled” to the bottom by the force. Then–WHAM!–smack the end of the bag, with the mouse, on the floor. Don’t be shy–the harder you hit, the more likely you’ll kill the thing instantly, and won’t need to do a second smack.
3. Check to make sure it’s dead (it should be) and throw away bag and mouse.
And you don’t even have to wash your hands.
Only 5 minuets to no mouse. I watch a mouse I named Ecim scamper around my dinner for a week. on my stove. I tried glue traps. with bait but he could walk on them and not get caught. after he lifted the lid on my rice a moment ago I tried your idea. 5 mins. that’s it 5 min and he was screamin in my trash can. sorry but humane is not me. I did feed him a bit more (last meal if it were) but made him wash it down with 3 gallons of boiling water. sorry for the twist but I didn’t feel like going that “extra mile”
I like how many of you are concerned with “humane killing.” Kind of an oxymoron don’t you think? A mouse a self-aware sentient being. Is it really too much trouble to just put the mouse outside? Even if I let a mouse go outside and one of the neighborhood cats got to them, at least the cat got something to eat. I’m not just going to kill the mouse because I want to. A little sadistic, no?
IT WORKED!!!!!RIGHT NOW HE’S DROWNING IN A BUCKET OF WATER AND MY BOYFRIEND IS ALMOST CRYING FOR HIM!!!i love the fact that it worked in less than an hour ,I was planning on staying awake all night long to see it happen….AHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
Thank you. What an awesome idea. And my mouse will climb, as she/he has left pee puddles on my wooden kitchen chair seats. Tonight will be the night.
Thank you again.
This is a good idea, much better than a deadly trap
Thanks i used this idea, the mouse in my home climbs up a telephone cord to the window sill which is how i discovered him in the middle of the night, i got the bucket i wash my car with and put it under the cord where he could jump down and get the cheese i had placed at the bottom as bait. I caught him and i wanted to cover the bucket so he couldnt get out so i grabbed some oven bake foil and covered the top of the bucket, got into my car and drove down to the outside of a park and emptied the bucket outside of the car.
I served 5 years in the army, but cruelly killing an animal is cowardly and weak.
your poor traps have not captured me! i still roam free and surf the internet on your computer when you’re not looking!
i wouldnt mind just keeping the poor littal mice and kept them as a pet and that way they stay safe and in the end will die as a old mouse hehe 🙂
I’m trying this tonight, I’ve gotten 2 traps set. I’ve bought the black cubes that are supposed to trap the mouse, but the mice don’t go for it, and I’ve also tried the snap traps, but they just eat the bait right off and the trap never engages. I’ll let you know if it works for me.
thanks for the idea. i just saw a mouse come under my door and i thought the little critter would make a nice yummy snack for my snake 😀 so i needed a humane way to trap it obviously, so my snake can have the pleasure of devouring the mouse properly.
I got mice in my apartment now… a seasonal thing for me for the past 4 years. I find the traditional snap traps are very effecive but you have to get them in relatively dark places to give off a sense of security. Peanut butter has never failed. Never reuse a trap. It’s a one shot pop…the trap will snap over their necks or jaws and they will die quickly and peacefully. Don’t worry about the blood occassionally…Mop and Glow will take care of it. If it hardens..scrape it up with an old rusty edge and sprinkle the spot with a dash of salt for luck and good blessings.
I did this last night, but put my wallet in a larger tube. Found my wife in the trash this am, explains why I AM POOR. Thanks
I just got two baby rats and I forgot to put the top on the cage I have a trap set up I hope it works thanks
Hello!I tryed it but it wont work.But thx anyway!
i put tupperware on top of the mouse, slid the lid under the mouse, took the mouse outside.
if you’re going to kill it, you better get a triscut & eat it.
I know you are trying to be humane. But this is not at all humane. The mouse dropped off a mile from your home, is dead before you get back home. Confused and disoriented she will get eaten by predators…Mice are very social animals and alone in an unfamiliar place they do not survive.
The real solution is deterrents. Mice hate onions, plant onion plants around the outisde of your house, to prevent mice from entering.
Also keep onions in a basket near your potatoes and fruits, the smell will keep mice away.
ALL other foods should be kept in airtight (preferably glass) containers. Cardboard and baskets and bags do not work as mice eat right through that. All foods should be off the floor (no food under the sink please.)
And keep your house clean.
Amd the best detterent? get a cat. Most humane societies and shelters have many wonderful cats to adopt. The cat does not need to actually kill any mice, just the smell of the cat (cats mark their territory) will keep the mice away.
We live in our houses along side racoons, pigeons, squirrels, rats, mice, foxes, possums, all manner of bugs and all sorts of other animals…it is childish to try to control that.
I know that North American society is OBSESSED with getting ALL bugs and ALL other animals out of their house. But as humans we need to learn to live WITH these creatures (after all they have learned to live with us)
Once in a while we will see them, and it’s really no big deal, huge centipedes may freak you out, but honestly they are not even the size of your finger…how pathetic is it for you to be freaked out by an animal that is SOO MUCH smaller than you??? and a cute little mouse? please 😉
If you want to minimize the frequency of their visits, and live in a house that apears free of bugs and other animals, use detterents.
As I said earlier onions get rid of mice,
rosemary: flies hate rosemary (we think rosemary smells nice) hang a sprig of fresh rosemary in all your doorways and windows.
bay leaf hated by cockroaches.
cinnamon: ants love everything sweet (including lead wires) but they HATE cinnamon.
cedar oil or cedar wood, moths HATE it.
KEEP A TIDY CLEAN HOUSE with all foods in SEALED airtight containers.
stop trying to trap mice and kill bugs. If there is no food for them in your house, they will leave.
plus a mouse is VERY small, and may break her leg when she falls in your trash can, or bleed internally. And again (since they are so small) a mile for a mouse might as well be another continent.
Please THINK before you act, just because you came up with what you think is a cool idea does nto mean it is a smart one. And just becausse you don’t directly kill the mouse, doesn’t mean she will not die becasue of your actions.
and please remember to take care.
I am modifying with a pop can box, Mt. Dew to be exact. I have some cheese in the bottom, box with opening towards top, and a ramp. We are just waiting now, but the mouse should not be able to jump because of how the box is structured.
I just set up one of these traps in my bedroom, only i put water at the bottom so that dang pest cant think of ways to escape. hope it works
For those who think that falling 20 inches will injure a mouse, it’s time to learn a bit about physics: as objects fall, they will accelerate until their mass is offset by drag and then accelerate no further, as they have reached terminal velocity. One of the things that affects drag is surface area.
A mouse has radically low ratio of mass to volume compared to a person, and therefore, reaches a relatively slow terminal velocity. If a mouse, a man and an elephant jumped off of a 100 story skyscraper onto concrete, the mouse would bounce, lie still for a few seconds and run off. The man, on the other hand, would break and the horse would splatter.
Just remember that any trap that can attract and then hold the mouse will work. Mice are inherently curious (and perhaps a bit dim) and will fall for anything.
maybe i’ll catch them and then let them go in the subway. they won’t stand a chance against new york rats, but i don’t know how else to dispose of them that doesn’t involve suffocation, drowing, or fire (jesus christ, you guys).
Havn’t you folks heard of the mice plauges in Europe? Or the Rats in NYC? If we don’t controll them they will eat us alive like they do in some parts of Asia. Freezing them is the most humane way to put them down if you don’t have a tank of nitrogen. Nitrogen is often used in animal gas chambers and is very humane. Drowning is fast but not as humane. A brick or the back side of a flat shovel is quick but you need to have good aim.
you are awesome
Thats a good idea. You know what else works really well? Old School mouse trap. I just used one successfully and it only took two seconds to clean up the splattered brain matter! No driving anywhere or anything 🙂
It worked!!!
Now I’m gunna try a larger version on next doors cat.
worked like a charm! my boyfriend set up some glue traps (which i have a problem with) and hadn’t caught our little visitor. so i tried this yesterday with a toothpaste box – woke up this morning to a mouse in the trash can! thank you so much for this great idea!
LOL@rob&robbo&sayyed
LOL@ all the retards still hung up about their comments, and the karma guy too.
You guys make me laugh.
LOL@rob&robbo&sayyed
LOL@ all the retards still hung up about their comments, and the karma guy too.
You guys make me laugh.
Physics… A mouse, a man, and an elephant jump off a skyscraper. The mouse bounces, the man breaks, and the horse splatters…wtf? where did the horse come from? More importantly, where did the elephant go? Is this some sort of crappy joke? Perhaps an elephant at terminal velocity is equal to a horse at 400G acceleration. Force = Mass x acceleration. Or maybe it’s quantum physics you’re talking about. It sure seems like you know what you’re talking about.
Mice, rats, cats, bats, dogs, ants, bees or cockroaches – I’ve tackled ’em all and then some. I’m just astounded and amazed at the number of replies this humane post has received. A veritable plethora of rodent killing techniques! A ‘snap trap’ is my preferred weapon of choice. Never give ’em a second chance…
My, did I laugh at this one:
I did this last night, but put my wallet in a larger tube. Found my wife in the trash this am, explains why I AM POOR. Thanks
Very tempted to see if I can try this with the following implements:
Tube.
Boyfriend.
Boyfriend’s Wallet.
Trash can.
Reason: To attempt panicking boyfriend to rescue his wallet in tube, fall in trash and thus me rescuing my own bank balance to the state it was in before boyfriend moved in.
holy crap we caught one while we were out watching tropic thunder!!!
we used an empty cheerio honey nut box (we tore the two ends off to make it into a good tunnel) with guess what, honey nut cheerios as bait. thank god we used a super deep trash can to catch it, though. that little mouse can jump so high! it was jumping like crazy when we got home. if the trash can was any shorter, it would have gotten out.
anyways, thanks!!!
Oh gosh. I couldn’t believe when I saw this statement from one of the posts above…
“I’ll tell you why they don’t deserve humane treatment… They aren’t human!”
Humane: characterized by tenderness, compassion, and sympathy for people and animals, esp. for the suffering or distressed
Get a dictionary, moron.
Anyway, I too have a furry ‘friend’ that I just found scurrying across my countertops today. I just keep picturing it crawling on me while I sleep. I set up one of these traps up about two hours ago and it hasn’t worked yet, but I haven’t lost hope.
I have a cat, how worthless he is! Although I do feel bad when he kills them. I love animals, but my fear gets the best of me with this, much like spiders.
Hahaha, this is sorta happening to me right now. For the past couple weeks I kept thinking I was seeing something out of the corner of my eye, but attributed it to my bad eye site. Finally about a week ago I saw the little bugger as he scurried across my kitchen floor and figured I could live with him. This seems like such a quick, simple solution that I think I’ll try. Thanks!
It’s probably been said before, but you know, you could just get a cat.
Put a cat in the bucket….STAR WARS RETURN OF THE JEDI style.
But this IS a mouse trap! Except it’s non lethal, but still a trap! It’s a trap!
IT’S A TRAP!
You must be good at life. What an ingeniously simple way to take care of a problem. You should go into design if you aren’t already. This gets my stumble.
epic number of comments
What kind of food did u put in ur trap?
What kind of food did u put in ur trap?
I used peanut butter Renzo! – CG
wow great! thanks for posting this.
i’ve never had the problem, but now i know what to do without hurting the little guy! thanks!
Awesome idea, but i changed it a bit and put water in the bucket…works much better and easier disposal!
Thanks annon, and all the other folks suggesting ways to torture or kill the mice. Really, it warms my heart to keep comments open to collect and share your thoughts. But I think we get the picture. From here on out, I’m going to moderate. Keep your chin up, there are a ton of places to be cruel online. Try YouTube! – CG
I’ll have to run this by the feline housemates at home for approval, seeing though they’re the appointed pest control experts. The lack of sadism in this contraption will not work in it’s favour, as these housemates prefer to terrorise and torture mice rather than eat them.
Thanks for the post and all the interesting comments.
I’ve been dueling with a cute little mouse in my kitchen for about 2 weeks. I left him random treats and a small cup of water, and he pretty much stayed hidden under the refrigerator…until I found him running around my kitchen counters.
I set up the bucket trick using a 5-gallon bucket, the tube tunnel, and a treat covered in peanut butter. FAILED! The first time I found the tube on the floor, the treat gone, and the bucket empty. The second time I found the tube and treat in the bucket, but no mouse (how??!!).
A FIVE GALLON BUCKET IS NOT TALL ENOUGH. These little creatures have incredible jumping power.
Earlier this evening I heard a horrible scratching and splashing-water sound – little buddy had jumped into a steel bowl I had soaking in the sink and couldn’t get out. He was quickly transferred into a bucket, given a snack and a cap of water, and covered with an airhole. Tomorrow he’ll be personally escorted to a nearby cemetery where he can be free.
What size of bucket is everyone using? These desert mice are jumpers!
Another comment on snap traps. While almost always instantly fatal, they can be torture traps. I once saw a mouse caught in a trap by the end of its nose, desperately struggling to get away. Terrible.
Seriously, what is the mouse doing to you? Catch it safely and send it on its way where it can be free. If that means it becomes prey to a cat or bird – that’s the way the world works and there’s nothing you can do about that.
This is such a great idea. I had a mouse problem in my last apartment and I used tiny little plastic “humane” traps. They didn’t work very well, and they were so small that it was easy to forget to check them daily to see if I had caught anything. This one would be hard to forget to check!
I should also add that this is extra appreciated by me, I’m a rodent lover. I’ve had many pet mice and rats and I don’t think I could ever bring myself to destroy one, even an unwanted one who eats my leftover crumbs and poops on my kitchen floor. 🙂
The only thing I think I might change is to put some kind of padding at the bottom of the bucket, maybe some cotton balls or shredded paper. Depending on the height of the counter-top, that could be a big scary fall for such a little guy!
All the above ideas now below:
Best solution for these buggers is Tomcat (or similar) poison blocks. The scout takes it back and the colony and many more will come to eat from the poison blocks. Smell? Mice are small buggers and don’t smell when they die. Colonies smell when they die, but I’d rather have that than the diseases they are carrying on their gritty little paws. And if applied consistently, the poison blocks will keep them away. I live on a farm, and no cat can beat these poison blocks in my barns. I have lived in NY and mice are a constant existence in buildings. They just never lived long in mine when I used these wholly legal green blocks. Plus it doesn’t hurt putting a thin, i repeat thin, layer of PB on them. Mice and humans find PB to be enticing to their detriment (mice = death; humans = high LDL & triglycerides). [I just bought these.]
I use a similar trick, but I use a 6 gallon bucket, which I fill about 1/3 of the way up with soapy water. Then float some small wood chips on the top (like you would use for smoking meat). Let them form a nice carpet on top of the water then float a bottle cap of peanut butter in the middle. Make a ramp of cardboard than leads to the floor and secure it to the bucket with duct tape. The wood chips make it look like a solid surface to the mice, but will not support their weight when they fall into the bucket. Viola!! In the morning, drowned mice.
used a toilet paper tube, but I taped a nickel to the top of the supported end. That balanced the weight of the bait, and moved the center of gravity toward the supported end. This allowed more more of the tube to stick out in space over the trash basket, and the tube tips down more easily when the mouse goes into it (longer lever arm).
I use a variation of this trap for catching bait mice for fishing. My modification includes a hinge so the tunnel does not fall into the trap, but resets for the next mouse. Hang the bait from a string at the top of the tunnel too. Be sure to use a smooth metal tunnel as well, so the mouse can’t hold on and climb back out. I know some people put a few inches of water and an inch of cooking oil in the bucket to drown the mice… However I like mine fresh and live!
Oats mixed with peanut butter
ultrasonic repeller
TP ROLL, PAPER TOWEL ROLL, OR CEREAL BOX
To repel mice get snake droppings from a pet store and deposit them around the infested area. Most mice will steer clear of the zone
How about this one with an empty DVD spool instead of a coke can. The spool spins a lot better. I will see if it works. Still not sure whether I will use water or not, the picture is with water.
Mice have a great memory but they’re also blind. What I tried was allowing the mice to run through the room a couple of times without the glue traps being in their way. What their MO is is to go and eat a couple of bites and then run back to their nests. After they are back in their nest or just out of site I put the glue traps down in the places that I just seen them run. It’s takes a few minutes and some guts to watch the mice run back and forth through your room, but I seriously caught like 3 mice in 20 minutes. If that doesn’t work sprinkle some Decon (mouse poison) around your base boards and it will help.
Mice are pretty smart and will learn to stay away from traps when they see what happens, the only thing that gets them is curiosity. When they start avoiding the traps you need to take them away for a week or so and then put them back. They say to wash your traps with soap to get rid of the death smell also.
Roof rats on the other hand are not very curious and even smarter, they are harder to get but relatively easy to send away when you remove access to your roof.
Find a glass plate to be the base; this way you will be able to see if they are caught. Take a very small round onion or nut and poke a paper clip into it. On the other end of the paper clip, put a piece of tough bread, cheese or a nut. Balance a cereal bowl upside down on the plate. Prop one edge up on the onion. When the mouse crawls in and distubs the food, the onion will slip, the bowl will fall, and the mouse is caught. If the trap is sprung, you can flip the thing over and look through the glass plate to ensure that it wasn’t the one who got away!
A neighbour suggested taking an empty beverage carton (milk or juice), open the spout and fill half way with water, around the spout put oil or vegetable spray then put some peanut butter at the spout going into the carton.
Put a piece of wood or a wooden stick as a ramp against the carton, so mice can walk up.
pringles tube with only one end open and put some apple in it. We balanced it on the work top, put our bin underneath and it worked a treat.
Put a 5 gallon bucket on the floor. Lean a piece of scrap wood like a ramp from the floor up to and over the edge of the bucket. Put a 1/2″ or so of birdseed in the bottom of the bucket. In the morning, empty all the mice out of the bucket… set it up again. Put 3″ of water in the bucket plus a couple big squirts of dish soap and float the seeds on top if you want to exterminate them. (The soap speeds the drowning).
Other: Victor makes a nice compact electronic trap that instantly kills them with an electric jolt (AA batteries)… and blinks an LED to tell you when it is done. Open door, dump out the body. $20 at Home Depot.
Mothballs to keep them away
if you do find a hole … stuff steel wool in it and even the most determined rodent can’t chew through it to return.
Ketchup
cheerios/gronola bars
The real solution is deterrents. Mice hate onions, plant onion plants around the outisde of your house, to prevent mice from entering. Also keep onions in a basket near your potatoes and fruits, the smell will keep mice away.
Whew! I’ve been racking my brain for a year! I’ll give this a try. He’s getting thinner and I don’t know how he survives!
I am so glad I checked in here.
Have a little mouse in the house and no way will I use a trap where their little legs get trapped and they eat their own leg in order to get free.
Besides it’s just a little mouse and not a spider. LOL
That is awesome and very humane. I never though of anything close to that.
This is a very simple and humane trap setup. But why catch a mouse and dump it somewhere else only to have it contaminate someones place with feces and urine; destroy household items; and/or spread diseases they may carry? Just go spend a couple of bucks and buy a simple mouse trap. Not the cheap sticky pads but the good old fashion spring loaded ones where the snap of the metal spring crushing the mouses tiny skull is like music to your ears. Put some peanut butter for bait and set that trap up where you see numerous mouse droppings. Once you hear that “snap” go check up on the trap and hopefully you get to witness the trap crushing not only the skull but the life of that little pesky critter as it twitches its last moment of its life. Once the life has been completely squeezed out THEN you can take that rodent somewhere else to be devoured by animals or rot away naturally. Hope this helps.
Great idea………….I have two cats but I still have to catch the mice. I wake up at 3am to find the 3 of them looking at each other. This sounds great. Tha nks.
Great Post. I found this Very Useful “Balance the tube precariously on the edge of a table or counter with the treat hanging directly over the tall sided receptacle.
“. Hmm I will give it a try
It worked!!!!! I set it up on my kitchen table and caught one. Thanks a million 🙂
I just set up this trap with a tile going up to the bin then put newspaper to make it level and put the toilet paper roll with cheese.. nd cheese in the bin too so see if it works.. will hear a bag sooner or later
This really works! Caught the mouse with in a couple of hours!
Great idea it really works! Also for you guys who have roach problems all you have to do is go to your local pet store and buy a gecko. When you get home release the gecko and the next day you will start to see a difference in the roach population in your home. Plus gecko’s are completely harmless to humans, but if you have pets like cats or dogs that would put the gecko in danger. Another thing you might want to know is that when a gecko eat s its meal it make a creepy screeching sound(thats how it got the name gecko) so its suggested you buy ear plugs as well. if you have any quesions please contact me by email at: mattmess44@yahoo.com
This reminds me of something that the POTUS might think up if we we’re in Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator”. Nice work.
WTF?! Release them to multiply?! They’re PESTS. You kill flies, don’t you? Kill them with any trap you can that kills. I prefer spring traps so they don’t suffer too much. Poison is out because they stink, but KILL them.
cool my pet mouse got loose so ill give it a try
i’m a pest management technician aka exterminator. the best way to get rid of mice is to put out 10 or more snap traps with a small amount of peanut butter as bait. peanut butter is irresistable. also you can use some string on the trap, female mice love that even more than food for nesting purposes. mice have no emotions, they eat sleep die and mate that’s it. don’t worry about being humane to a rodent just kill it so it wont give you hanta virus where your lungs fill with fluid and you drown to death.
I have a mouse problem atm.Thought it was just the one who appeared just before i gave birth, since putting humaine snap door traps down, the mouse ate the choco and ran. Glue traps haven’t worked either, the first night it got traped, left half its fur but got away. After that the mouse has managed to roll the traps over and chew through the bottom to eat the choco. I have set poison down while i went away for the weekend. On return the poison had all been consumed. After about a week i was sure i could still hear him. Placed a piece of choco on the floor next morning it was gone.
Fingers crossed that this will work and rid the mouse, before i have to resort in some good old fasioned snap traps. Just dont like the idea of hearing it snap while im in bed.
Well fingers crossed that it is just the one
Just get a fucking cat.
I used many snap traps, some with the old metal tab for bait (peanut butter) and some of the newer yellow plastic fake cheese. Nothing happened. Then I baited all traps with bread since the mouse continued to eat the bread in the cabinet. It ate all of the bread on the traps and set off one trap but was not caught in it. So i looked online, found this article and tried it. The first night I set it up – mouse in bucket! I laughed and laughed because I felt like I had played a silly trick and it worked. Thanks for the idea.
a bucket of mice for my cat….fair enough eh?
Wat a g8t trap. the new plastic traps don’t work and if it did i don’t think i could deal with the bloody mess. Thanks for this idea.
Great idea thanks for your help because if you did not tell us how to catch mice, we can’t catch even a single mice only.
I just happened upon this and I’m going to try it out tonight. I hate mousetraps… just the sound of the trap smacking onto the mouse is too much for me. I hope this works!
I’ve tried all and always go back to the 5 gallon bucket of water. Float a piece of foil with some Peanut Butter. Then position the bucket with a couple of ramps leading up to the edge. Also place the bucket close to a small table or surface that the mouse might be on and place another plank that leads to the bucket. Three different ways to get into the bucket. Works like a charm.
Be humane to humans…mice are pests.
Exactly…humane?
Sounds like just what I’ve been looking for.
I tried your trap today, but sadly it didn’t get time to work. I forgot there was a snap trap out and my little visitor was taken by that. It hurt me to watch the poor little fellow (yes male) as he twitched there, his body caught by the trap. Big sad eyes looking up at me. I know they carry diseases, but I held the little guy, gently petting his back and talking to him. Telling him as kindly as I could that I was sorry, and that it was ok, he could go on and go. He was so warm and soft, giving one last twitch before his eyes went dim. I swore then, that no matter what happened next, I would never again use a kill trap. I think I’ll quietly bury this little guy, planting him in my garden so maybe he can get some rest. The trap, I’ll destroy. I hope my kharma and conscience can forgive me.
This works! I had the cutest little field mouse that somehow got into my house. Cute as he was, I still didn’t want him inside (and I don’t think he wanted to be there either), but didn’t want to kill him. I didn’t expect your idea to work, but set it up last night anyway. Sure enough, this morning, he was hiding inside the tube–in the bottom of the trash can. I was amazed. So I happily set him free outside — and hope he stays there. Thanks!
Thanks, definetly gonna try this. There’s a mouse in our garage that my brother is intent on killing. It’s up to me to save the poor thing before he does. 😉
I caught one mouse on each of the last two nights with this method. Thanks!
Absolutely brilliant. Completely humane. Worked like a charm. Only caveat is you need a can tall enough that they can’t jump out. Mice are very good jumpers- mine was, anyway. Thanks so much!!
“Humanely suffocate”? I believe that is an oxymoron. How is it humane to suffocate? Set the little guys free in a park or the woods.
Oh, and for the person who said “Humane is only for humans”, you’re wrong – it includes animals too. Here is the definition of “Humane” from Dictionary.com:
hu·mane /hyuˈmeɪn
–adjective 1. characterized by tenderness, compassion, and sympathy for people and animals, esp. for the suffering or distressed: humane treatment of horses.
2. of or pertaining to humanistic studies.
THANK YOU!!! Caught one within 2 hours. My kids named him and we set him free a couple miles from home. Hopefully he won’t find his way home.
“Just set one up, hope it works. By the way, for those of you who care about humane BS, when he falls for the trap I’m gonna set the little f***er on fire and watch him die.
Posted by: Rob | Nov 17, 2005 12:16:33 AM”
Here’s a great idea for getting rid of douchebags like Rob:
Place a 6-pack of any el cheapo beer out in the middle of the highway with a sign on on it that says “Free Beer!” (just like Wiley Coyote trying to catch the Roadrunner). For extra insurance, use a spot of SuperGlue to make it stick to the pavement!
I have a persistent mouse who can jump high who also hates either cheese or peanut butter.
I did find remnants of him having a buffet on my lawn greass seed i was using to overseed my lawn. half a bag of grass seed was gone with literally 50-70 pellets of mice feces all in and around the seed. i went to my guy in the nursery to get more grass seed (johnathon green black beauty seed)and even before i could tell him what happened the night before, he told me to keep the seed away from mice because they LOVE it. i laughed!
thanks for this tip i will use it but not with cheese or peanut butter, i will use lawn grass seed because they can’t stay away from it. i will hopefully let you know how it goes.
BTW, the mouse also went into my 20lb bag of rice so they LOVE that too.
It didn’t work… He walked around on the top of the barrel to investigate… I think I need a shorter barrel.
I bought a human trap its double sided they walk a 3 inches in it and it shuts they cant leave but damn this clever mouse doesnt go in it. I can tell that he’s been on it. ( I put flour on top to see foot prints.) I talked my husband in to not putting glue traps. But he has to go. Im glad I read this sounds like it could work. Thank you!
shame on people who kill mice.
it is inhumane to kill mice no matter how you do it.
tragula, I hope your wife will put you in plastic bag and try suffocate you.
Paul is right.
btw, I love Mice and my father is mice breeder 🙂
We have nice humane traps, if one of mice get loose in house. it happened before.
it worked and it was fabulous. one of my baby mice is extremely skittish and very adept at escaping my cage.
i managed to recover it. thanks 🙂
I made this and it finally worked on the 3rd time I set it up. The only problem is that the mouse fell in and died, too. That makes me kind of sad. I was hoping it wouldn’t have to die from this trap. It wasn’t a good thing to wake up to. :~(
this is a awesome idea. we currently have a mouse in our hosue and my mons wants to kill it but I knew there was a humane way of catching it without killing the little fella and saving money on buying traps. thx for sharing
great idea!
I set one up in my attic to catch the little guy I hear running around sometimes. Worked great, the crackers were gone and the toilet paper tube was in the waste basket, but he had escaped! Must have jumped out (the basket was only about a foot or so high). He probably learned his lesson and won’t fall for it again, so I might have to take more extreme measures.. poor litlte guy.
Brilliant! I had a baby rat (I thought it was a mouse before I caught it) around for a week. Tried all the bought mice and rat traps. Saw this suggestion one morning, and within hours had caught the thing!!
Definitely going to try this.
I have an aviary full of birds and a mouse who has taken up residence so obviously need a humane way to get rid of mr mouse. I’ve tried the usual humane traps but this is one smart mouse! So I’m going to try this and, fingers crossed, it’ll work!
Damn a mouse, I’d rather adopt five screaming kids from that show the “Nanny” then deal with mice! I consider myself a neat freak;always sweeping,vacuuming,wiping spraying, and the little bastards still come out. I sealed all my cracks and crevices and the little bastards still come out. You can’t help that certain foods no matter how careful you are will leave crumbs and the little bastards can smell from here to across the street. I went to Target a purchased a new product called the spin trap. I’ve caught 6 mice in two weeks, little bastards are falling like bad mortgages!
Gosh.. I tried one catch and release then I accuded to my buddy Victor.
http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/victor-mouse-trap-m040-p-56.html
5 cute and very dead f*ckers!
im worried he would hurt himself when he falls. i think i would put some snacks and padding at the bottom of the receptacle. and hope a buddy joins him so he wont be lonely.
worked like a charm… we had our friend for about 3 months… you’re free no little mouse… best of luck
Thanks for all the ideas. I just freaked out upon finding a mouse on my kitchen counter in the middle of a sleepless night. I have the bucket and creased toilet-paper roll ready; I’m just waiting for my room mate to bring home cardboard from her night job. Do you think I can catch the little pest during the day while I nap?
Hm, well, after several other trap types, I used this one. Attempt #1 failed. Last night the mouse got fat eating the ENTIRE glob of peanut butter and left the tube completely undisturbed… >:| This quest to capture the mouse has been going on for three days. Every time I mention the mouse, my wife tells me to read Moby Dick … Huh???
once you have caught one can u keep it as a pet?
This trap worked great for the first 6(!) mice. We chased the 7th around the house when we saw it boldly marching along against the living room wall. It took us about an hour to chase it into a bag and then scoop it up. The 8th mouse was crafty and didn’t fall for the trap. In fact, he took a piece of cracker at the mouth of the tube, and then left before going for the tasty peanut-buttered morsel at the end of the tube. I gradually moved the cracker back in the tube until finally, after about a week, he fell in. I am hoping he is the last mouse. I hope that every time!
Thank you for posting this information. It is very effective and it has been fun to see the mice and then release them far from our house.
I tried this last night and it worked. I was laying in bed and I heard the mouse and tube fall into the garbage can. I checked and their it was. I put the can in the garage over night and have just returned from releasing it back into the wild. Just in case there is more than one . . . isn’t there usually? . . . I’m setting it up again tonight.
Thanks.
Thanks for the tip on an easy, humane trap. We’ve got a little field mouse in our office, and while he’s a source of some diversion, I’m sure he’d much prefer to go out into the neighboring cornfield where he belongs.
Rob– You do realize that cruelty to animals is a red flag for psychopathy. I hope you get some help soon. God forbid you ever come near me or my pets. We’re all of us God’s creatures, just trying to make our way in the world. The mice were here millions of years before us, and I’m sure they’ll be here after our folly has rendered us extinct.
I have a super mouse in the house. He runs about 20 miles per hour and can jump very, very high. I don’t think that little trash can could hold him.
It worked! Our little mouse was too small to set off the traditional traps…just kept feasting on peanut butter every night…But this morning he was in the trash can after traveling through the tunnel to get the peanut butter.
Thanks for the great idea!
PS. Although it worked, if the mouse hadn’t been in the can this am…I was off to buy a nasty mouse trap…
Thanks ! i just saw the cheeky bugger running across my upstairs hall ! he’s in my toilet room, so I’ve locked him in there with the trap ! Hope it works, I was going to try one i heard that is similar but with a greased wine bottle over a ledge, until i saw this. Thanks again !
that is better than to kill it because that is mean to kill a critter like that because that is meean and that is good for old people because that is a really great good idea who ever made that you great and should make some good bucks because that is awsome to do that even if you don’t have any money so that would be great that is good for people who use the bathroom alot and it good for them and it is a great idea to ise that really who made that idea should have some really good great money to get to spend on somthing that they can make somthing
ees good thta is really good idea so keep uo the good work good people so have a good day or good night bye good for yoiu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks. It worked the first night….we did have to
put a small bit of tape on the bottom to get the correct balance. Funny, but effective and humane.
im gona try this but once i catch that disease bag im not gona set it free im gona set it on FiiRE!!! and squish it and step on it!!! MwAhAhAhA!!! i dotnc care bout it! it creeps me out next i see it…its dead
hahahaahahahaaaaaa
We have mice here at work, and the boss gave in to my hippy demands to try it my way (no kill). It took about 2 hours but I got one of them already with this method. Thanks!
Ahha, actually this is a very good idea. But don’t forget that, some mouses may pull that paper tube towards themselves 🙂
That’s amazing! I’ll try it tonight!
i did it rong so idk if i can catch it
a great hint to catch a lazy mouse 😀 thanks
I just wanted to say THANK YOU !!! You are brilliant and gave me my sleep back. We caught 10 mice altogether in our NYC apartment. They are all safely living in Central Park now…
the greatest idea i ever heard
just spotted my mouse about 30 min ago. searched google and found this site. just set my trap with chocolate syrup and vinilla flavoring about 5 min ago. i’ll let you guys know the results.
I have had mice come and go in my kitchen for as long as I have lived in my apartment. They are fairly easy to catch with glue traps on the floor; however these sneaky guys are now climbing in through THE STOVE and onto the counter!! (these are NYC mice by the way!) I have not been able to catch these guys that scurry around on my counter top for the last year! They just eventually go away.
Last night, I set up this counter style trap and then went to bed. I got up this morning and the mouse was caught!!!! I now have a remedy for my problem!
Thanks very much for this simple idea, I’m glad to know it works so cleanly and quickly.
One problem:
> Set the fella loose at least a mile away from your abode.
Please, let’s amend that to “… away from *anyone*’s abode”. Loosing the problem on someone else is pretty short-sighted and inconsiderate.
And yes, for those who can’t travel to unpopulated areas in a reasonable time, this does mean of course that you must deal with the trapped trespasser in some other way.
Okay, i have used a kitchen roll tube, some peanut butter and a big persil washing powder as a ramp to the bucket i am using.
Kitchen tube
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
#.;[]
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
x x xxxxxxxxxxxxx
x x x Persil x
x x x x
x x x x
x x x x
xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Rat runs up the persil box into
tube, then runs to peanut butter at end of tube (random symbols) hopefully its silly enough to fall into the bucket.
It was running around my living room :S
WARNING: I worked in back-country in Yosemite, and we had a mice problem so we rigged a similar system but just put peanut butter in the can with a ramp up to the lip. They will go for the bait anyway, and we were catching like six mice a day to set free. Here’s the warning part, check the trap regularly. One of our mice, understandably, covered himself in the peanut butter. The peanut butter mouse was left in the can with another mouse while we cooked dinner for that night. Screaming let us know that by the time the girl went to release the two, peanut butter mouse had his face eaten off. Just want to let you nature lovers know about the cannibalistic side effect of a “humane” peanut butter trap
I first used a toilet bowl roll – the mouse moved it and ate the cracker and peanut butter. Then I got a paper towel roll and set it up with cans around it so the mouse could not move it – well that worked great, we caught the mouse and let him out in a field a couple of miles from anyones home or business.
Wonderful humane idea!
i love this idea!
just a thought though, feral mice are usually not in the habit of crawling on people if they can avoid it. this sounds like it may have been an escaped pet.
I just wait till my cat catches them. He doesn’t know to hurt them, he carries them to the front hall and lets them go. They then run to the nearest hole which is a boarded up vent. Then I grab it’s tail and carry it out.
“Also, folks have asked how this could work if you don’t have a counter or table.”
What kind of ghetto MF’s can afford a computer to read this blog but don’t have a table in their house??
This is the best trap ever invented. Took about 2 minutes to catch the mouse. I treated him with cheese instead of peanut butter though. Thank you so much for this.
Hey if you don’t want to be humane you could always add water to the bucket.
What if we don’t want to get the mouse on the counter? My house is old, and the mice keep getting in through the air vents because our basement is just hollowed out earth under our house. So the stupid little critters keep coming in through the cracks. I need help!!
Very clever. I am impressed. Not only is it cheap and humane, it could be fun to watch. Place bets on the time frame.
What makes you think boiling a mouse alive is neither inhumane, nor cruel?
That’s painful, hence inhumane, and I can guarantee you it’s not immediate. Not to mention the boiling water causes the gut/intestines to explode outwards causing a big mess.
The most humane way of killing something is to hit it in the head powerfully to knock it out. Or anything else that will put a creature to sleep before killing it.
Paul,
Really, get a grip!
I also modified this method slightly. I have these really cool things called mousetraps. I place one on the floor with a bit of peanut butter and when the mouse tries to get the food the trap snaps shut and catches the mouse. There’s a bonus – it even kills the mouse.
This is such a great idea! We’ve got a mouse, and today he’s been crawling on our counter, and he’s avoiding our glue trap. I set it up on the counter a couple minutes ago.. Here’s hoping it works!Thanks for the advice!!
Hi, Thank you for this wonderful idea. And thank you everyone for your comments, I had a good laugh today.
I just set the trap up 5 minutes ago. I’m at the computer waiting to here him/her drop to its destination. when it drops I’m going to put HOT water in the tall trash can and curse it out.
When I sat down at my desk this morning and saw his/her little shit to my left I said that’s it “I’m going to get you this day”. And that’s when I decided to go on line and check out ‘how to get rid of mice’. This little sucker has made its self at home in my domain. By the way, traps don’t work. It took what I put in it, bacon, and went on its merry way. I’m sure this trap is going to work. It’s just a matter of a short time. I’ve seen this mouse and it’s a adult. Thank you again.
im going to try this, really good idea:), on a personal note once i catch this little fucker im going to buy bb guns and lay bullets on this fucker bam bam bam
brilliant idea but my dad is to stupid not to do it
i will test it myself
What an amazing tip! Apparently, it works with Portuguese mice too! I set up the trap and 15 minutes later the mouse was caught.
By the way, I used dry cat food – it worked perfectly.
Help
I have seen one mouse in my basement I am soo scared of mice. I put poison for it, it’s wont eat it what do i do to get rid of it I know it’s under my stairs. dont know how many???????? Help
I filled my bucket half way with water. Is that bad?
Who knew a 2005 post would still come up on the top spot in Google. I liked your solution a lot and set it up last night on my kitchen counter next to an older one of mine. Mine went like this:
Take a whole walnut. Split it in two with a pointy knife. Take one of the halves and hold it on its edge on top of a cookie sheet. Prop a large tupperware-style translucent container, bottom up, with its lip on the walnut’s edge, shell side out. Theory: mouse goes for the walnut, but to get to the core he needs to be under the container. As he tries to gnaw at it, the walnut slips and the container traps the mouse.
This morning I found the cardboard tube in the trash can, but no mouse. Under the translucent container, though, I could see one. I turned the whole thing upside down, slipped a lid under the cookie sheet, snapped it onto the container, then took the mouse out for a drive. I’m not sure whether this guy toppled over your tube, then got caught in my trap, or he had an accomplice that got away. I’m setting up again tonight.
Thanks so much!!!! i dont have any peanut butter but will buy some later!!! i REALLY hope this works for me!! my cat brings so many mice in… we have got at least 4 running around our groud floor!!!!
Worked brilliantly. I got the little bugger in less than an hour last night. He has been liberated to the city dump where he can live out the rest of his days with family. Cheers!
Hi 🙂 Good idea, i like my mouse though, i feed him cheese on my desk and he watches me play WoW!
After trapping mice in this humane way, I like to gently let them go on the driveway, then drag my boot across their backs, scraping them on the asphalt. If they are still alive, I insert pins in their eyes and watch them run around. Then I cut off their feet and tails, put them in the toilet, poop on them, and wait an hour or so before flushing them to their death.
I tired making the ramp one. It’s been more than 24 hours and I still didn’t catch the mouse 🙁 …
Good idea. I didn’t know I had a mouse roommate until I saw my cat strolling down the hall with the little bugger in her mouth.
Cats are pretty good mouse traps, but they’re definitely not humane.
Brilliant…
thank you! We’ve caught 2 mice in our basement so far. A small piece of snickers works really well!
Before you can release any animal that you catch, call your local animal control agency. It is their job to deal with the animals in a safe and humane way. Releasing these captured animals can cause health concerns with the public or disharmony with your environment. It is probably illegal, unethical and immoral to dump these animals into the wild.
i can’t believe it, but this worked! i just caught a mouse in my kitchen this afternoon.
thanks for the cool tutorial.
For those who like killing mice, Why not catch them then…. Take them to a pet store and see if they will take them. Possibly get money from it? Hehe! Or just let them go into the wild and get away fast before they follow. We have mice in our house, we set up sticky traps, bt them damn mice are too smart for those. Found a whisker and hair on one. My mom hates mice but you know what’s funny? Last night I bought a pet mouse. He’s so cute!!! I’m trying to catch and get rid of the other/s before they find him in the house. Don’t want poor little Guss Guss to get a disease from them. #_# I would be mad as hell!!! I tried this trap before but it failed but you know, I’m gonna try it again.
The trashcan needs to be about 3 feet tall. Mice can jump surprisingly far.
We live on the 7th floor of an apartment block and 12 months ago we had a small furry big eared visitor. How he got up here we will never know but we have spent the last 12 months trying to get rid of him! there was definitely only one mousey (big ears – and they were large)! First step, we laid poison, (he didnt eat it!), second step we laid several humane sticky traps (he managed to avoid them every time)! We tried intensive cleaning (no joy). Tried spraying with oven cleaner! Shooting! We eventually tried a high tech mouse trap under the trade name the Big Cheese! (that didnt work either)…. until…. we tried different baits. The instructions said try chocolate, nothing! Tried raisins, nothing! Tried fruits, nothing! Tried the fat off a slice of ham – within 24 hours big ears is RIP and down the shute! We are now happily mouse free due to finding the right bait and the right trap. PS: The big cheese trap whilst not humane (good) means that you do not actually have to handle mousey when he is dead, you can actually eject him from trap, downshoot and then reuse trap which hopefully we will never have to do again! Unfortunately, I am highly allergic to cats because nothing gets rid of mousies quicker than moggie and its green!
The genius of this plan is its simplicity. I am impressed
that is so cool! my inky (cat) caught a mouse once, she didnt kill it but she beat it up pretty bad.
Hey i actually have a mouse in my house and i hate rats I am 13 and he was in my room behind my hamsters cage and it scurried out and i screamed so loud that yall all probably heard me and I am going to try the tunnel thing if i don’t work i am going to go to a friends house cus that is disgusting to me!!
But anyhow I’m out!
I have a field mouse and my mom set up glue traps, and we left. When we got back he was stuck to the glue trap and she put it in a trash bag and threw it away. I was crying so hard. He is really stuck to the trap. Do you know of anyway to talk her into releasing him? She is afraid he will come back. Any answers are apperciated, trash is Wednesday and she is adding trash to the trash can so I need answers fast. Thanks so much,
Suffocation is not humane (tragula), nor is pouring boiling water on them (h2odragon). In fact, they both sound like forms of torture. 🙁
I used the ramp method yesterday and it worked like a charm. Actually, the first time it failed badly, since the captured mouse (as I approached him) simply jumped right out of the trash can! Amazing…
It eventually did work perfectly when I used a deeper can. I released the little fellow down the street after he’d eaten his peanut butter and cracker meal!
Thanks for posting this….nicely done……
It worked!!!! Tan damn pest is out of my life! I have been fighting with him for over a week:) Now I can move on…I guess until his cousin shows up:(
I caught 3 mice within 24 Hours and the 4th the second day..
Its so amazing!!
Thank you…
I also used a Christmas roll of old wrapping paper and cut off the same length as a toilet paper roll..
Placed some parmsean cheese at the end and one after another..fell in ..
I used a Walmart $2.97 Plastic Trash Can that can be found in the office supplies area..
Thanks again…WORKS GREAT..I will let them free at a feild when Spring arrives..I have all 4 in a Aquarium for the time being with a bottle of water and tubes for tunnels and lots of food..
I used a rat trap in previous years and hated seeing them dead and blood all over.. ITS a lot nicer this way and made me feel kinda good about NOT resorting to simple killing techniques..
First of all, great idea! Second of all, what the hell is humane about suffocation or burning while you drown? Would YOU wanna die like that? If you really can’t find somewhere close to let them go that isn’t in someone else’s yard, you might as well use snap traps. At least it’s usually fast, unlike suffocation or burning/drowning. But I don’t think dropping them in a big park or field is equivalent to giving them to someone else.
I guess I don’t get the humane side of this. I mean, think about it. Let’s say the next time you go to the grocery store, somebody wants to get rid of you forever. Would you rather that person kills you immediately… or when you’re reaching for some deli meat, would you rather fall into a 10 foot hole, get trapped in there for hours, finally be rescued, and then and only then find out that your rescuer is taking you somewhere deep in the Amazon to release you all by yourself. And then die. See what I’m saying?
Thanks, it worked for me to catch one right away. Don’t be too much humane on little critter because it might cause the house fire by chewing electric wire and spread germs by feces.
lol love it
just set up with peanut butter
will reply with updates
[im planning on keeping the little mice 😀 i love them ive been feeding them the past few weeks and now i have a cage for them all to live in :)]
You could just keep your house clean…
I have a mouse-friend who has been sneaking onto my kitchen counter for about a month. He’s very considerate though, and so much in fact that I actually left a cookie for him one night (yes, I gave a mouse a cookie). But I realized that it was time to let him go since my fiancee who has been away for a month is coming back home, so I just now set up this trap that you found. I hope to catch him and release him into the wild tomorrow. I have to admit I’m worried he won’t be able to make it on his own, since he’s been depending on us for food every evening, but he’s a big mouse now and needs to move on. I put a few treats in the bottom of the trashbag so he will have sustenance until tomorrow morning, granted he is actually trapped. I’ll keep you updated.
I had to use a paper towel tube because twice the little critter took its snack from the TP tube.. The PT tube extended longer off the counter, and balanced well, so the whole body was at the end of the tube and fell into the can!
I’ve tried sticky pads and those worthless wall plugs that are supposed to send soundwaves. That damn mouse is making more holes in my house and irritating the hell out of me and my dog!! We’re going crazy!! I sure hope your plan works :.-(
I did this and it worked and caught the mouse in my office in under 20 minutes.
Fantastic idea, thank you.
In a bucket it is necessary to add waters
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language 😉
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo
Great idea!!! When I mentioned it to my husband he laughed and said that it would be so funny if it worked. So I motified it with a paper towel roll on our counter top into a trashcan and it worked in less than 2 hours!!! We even took pics to show to our friends who we knew would not believe us. Thanks for the tip and the laugh!
Gonna try your idea or one similar to it. Whether or not it works, I have been entertained by peoples ideas and comments (while these little buggers scrat around and laugh at me…. they reckon thay would just hop off when the toliet rolls starts to totter???’)
whhaaaatt??? 🙂
Hi, came across your site as we had a field mouse in the house. We have domestic mice and it tried to get to their food (but to no avail). One night I heard a ruckus and looked to see this mouse running around our mouse’s cage. My husband hates setting up the mouse-trap (that snaps their necks) as it takes time to set it just right. So I tried your method and it worked! But now my husband says if we release it, it will just cause chaos for others. If it were dead, it wouldn’t be a problem for us or others. So told him the pet barn have an infestation of mice and one more wouldn’t matter! 🙂 (I will release it in a woody park with lots of scrubs).
I tried the bucket method … the mouse jumped out of the bucket. Must be supermouse! I also tried with a humane live capture mouse trap, and that didn’t work either. Somehow it managed to get out. I will not be outwitted by a mouse!! Going to try and think of another way to catch it without hurting it.
I used the same solution, only to make sure it smelled the peanut-butter(because the trap was high up), Instead I put traces of the peanut-butter on the ramp so the mouse could smell it from a closer distance and make its way up to the tube (where the big chunk of peanut-butter is), I just got some peanut-butter on my finger and smudged little bits on the ramp.
IT WORKED!…. If you are going to try this solution to get more accuracy on catching your little friend, Don’t put lots of peanut-butter on the ramp because if you do it will take longer th catch the mouse… it will just eat the stuff on the ramp and then go back to its home (well somewhere in your home)and wont get to the tube so make sure you only smudge it in so it leaves a damp mark on the cardboard ramp don’t leave any eatable bits of the peanut-butter on the ramp.
Then once you have caught it put it in a nearby field or something thats the beast place…but not too close to your home….HOPE THIS WORKS FOR YOU!!!!
They say that this is the proper way to treat a pest. Trap them without hurting or killing them. Once they are trapped, they can be set free in an area that is far from your home. Setting them free in your backyard is like taking them for a walk in the park. They can easily come back due to their homing instincts. They are like Hansel and Gretel
there is a small plague in parts of Australia at present l have poisoned ,trapped etc the best trap so far is the bottle taped to a bench overhanging as much as possible with some tempting food in the end of the bottle a bucket underneith with 2inches of water in it. Coat the end of the bottle with oil or butter something slippery . it works and l have since bought my 9 ft python in to get the smarter mice
Bravo to the youth today with their bright intuitive minds figuring out these things and sharing their conclusions to others. Thank you.
and the balance thing works for just about anything a small piece of wood or piece of paper balanced over a basket will work just make sure that the mouse can’t get out and if you’re worried about to fall place a cloth or an old shirt in the basket this will keep the little fella from being hurt
This is a wonderful idea! Whoever thought this out is a genius of simplicity! Thank you!
I can’t kill anything that lives, even less if it’s a defenseless and hungry little rodent that’s never thought of killing me either.
I tried safe traps, but the mice caught on to it and never went in there. This however, will finally help me getting rid of them and releasing them at the park!
Thankyouthankyouthankyou!
Mouse and rat control is a lot easier than most people think. Preventive maintenance such as keeping lids on trash cans, eliminating entry points into your house and most importantly, sanitation, are crucial to controlling these pests. Uneaten pet food and piles of debris in and outside the house are havens for rodents. Sometimes elements outside your control, like having slobs for neighbors, or new construction in the area can easily attract rats and mice.
We’ve been putting up with mice for years at our woods cabin. They have peed in our beds, ruined our furniture and multiply like crazy. Some of them nested in a snowmobile engine and it cost $500 to fix it. The last thing I want to do is “release” the little lovlies. I use a plastic bucket filled about 1/3 with water (antifreeze in winter). Put a ramp from the floor to the top of the bucket. About four inches from the top where the ramp is, put some peanut butter on the inside of the bucket. The mice fall into the water and drown trying to get to the peanut butter. Too bad but they die.
the brandon that posted on nov 7 2005 your an A**hole!!!!……….my pet mouse got lose about 4 months ago so i Googled how to catch him and this trap idea is the best i set the trap around 12 and by 12:30 i had him back in his cage. thanks for the great idea!!!
It worked for me great idea..Except i added water to the container and it drowned Sweet huh..
CG: I’m not judging your action with my usual sarcasm, but I do think it’s pretty douche of you to share.
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You for posting this article! The store bought traps were more like mouse deterrants than mouse catchers. But this method worked the first night.
I just used a broom and knocked the little fucker out
Editor’s note: Not only that, you took the time to share the fact. Bless your heart! – cg
this work great.. i cought the mice within 30 minutes
We have a little visitor in our conservatory since leaving the back door open the other night.. as we speak the cookie and peanut butter treat is perched right over the waste paper bin.. been about 10 minutes but no sign so far.. wish me luck!
thanks, love ya. I really didn’t want to buy a “kill mouse” trap, which the people in the office were urging me to do.
I saw a baby chipmunk on the side of the road today, and he came up and nibbled my finger a little, and I thought I am going to be the parent(guardian) of this cute little thing, but I left him to nature to take care of instead.
Anyhow, I will try this method until it works, and it even looks fun for the both of us, my heart is relieved a thousand times!!!
Sans cardboard ramp and including a motion-sensitive trap tube and trash can with a plastic flip lid on it’s side this worked with a baby bunny that got stuck in my yard. It freaked him out a little, but his mama in the local field was happy to see her baby again. :3
Easy mod for this method. Replace trash can or bucket with toilet. Trap & disposal in one!
I must have Jerry and need a cat better than Tom. I have set two kinds of Traps. First was the bucket and ramp method. First night had the peanut butter at the bottom of the bucket with a ramp to the top. No luck. Second night had the trail of peanut butter going up the ramp. Peanut butter was gone off the ramp but still in the bottom of the bucket. Third night peanut butter up the ramp again with a glob at the end of the board so the mouse could see the rest of it in the bucket. Mouse would have to hang upside down to get it all off the board. No mouse and all peanut butter gone except for the bottom of the bucket. We got a second trap from a friend. Some wierd spin trap where the mouse walks in and the door closes behind and you never see the head chopped off type thing. Well it sat there for days. One night i put some peanut butter at the door to help entice it. It at the stuff and the trap didn’t go off. Did it again with peanut butter at the door and put more of it in the middle of the trap as bait. It came by that night and at the stuff at the door and the trap went off. The trap flipped over and the mouse then hopped on top to eat the peanut butter out of the center of the trap that is held in by a sticker. That little prick is smart and Jerry must go!
i’ve got a little mmooch in my room where my birds live. they drop seeds, he steal and noms them. now, i’m vegan, and i would feel just terrrible about killing something that’s done me no harm, and this is a fantastic way to capture the little bother!
Pat…..LMFAO!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Loved it! I have a mouse problem too. I am tryin a humane mouse trap similar to the one that you used. Accept the little monkey eats all the food before it, up to it, half in it and then must buckle and get out quick before the door shuts coz he always leaves the bit of food right at the end. Little bugger! This has been going on now for about two weeks!!1 the dog began hunting it but after a while now has given up the ghost too! If he does peak his little head out dog just watches it intently coz she knows the little bugger is smart and fast! It’s infuriating stuff!!!
Im all set! made my trap, on the couch just sitting to wait and watch coz he usually appears about now! Keep you all posted! Using cheese biscuits and cheese for bait:)
Well I set up the trap last night and guess what…..it worked!!!!! I woke up this morning to what I thought was an empty trash bin but there in the bottom was the toilet roll; I went to pick it up thinking that mouse had managed to ellude capture but the toilet roll seemed awfully heavy when I went to pick it up and when it started moving, there was the mouse hiding inside it!!! yay!!! Just went and realsed a kilometres away in a nature reserve. Settingup again tonight as I have no idea if it was just the one mouse or if there is more; time will tell! Thanks again:)
Just discovered one in my kitchen. I set up the trap but I used bread and honey since I don’t have peanut butter. Hopefully in the morning I’ll have a result ^^
I have been seeing this little mouse for a couple days. We forgot to pick up a mouse trap so I tried this. Within 20 minutes he fell right into the tall box we had set up. He is so cute !!! Worked great ! Wonderful idea !
To those of you that think that killing mice is the only way to keep them out of your house. It only takes a miniscule amount of time to find the entry points into your house(usually by hot water pipes) and plug them with(fanfare) s.o.s. pads. or steel wool.
The mice hate the stuff and wont/can’t chew through it.
On a brighter note. I caught a young female deer mouse in our house by hand. Then a month later we caught another one using this method.
She ended up being pregnant and had a litter of 5 cute little babies about three weeks ago. They’ve reached the ‘popcorn’ stage and we will be releasing them back into the wild(and far far away) in a little while.
Thanks for this trap idea.
thank you so much! this worked the very first night and I have been trying to catch these buggers for weeks! Having a tall enough bin is crucial – I used a storage been that is just barely 20″ high and it almost jumps out-I will be using the trash can from now on. Thanks again for such a GREAT idea that really works! SO glad to say goodbye to the mouse.
i like this trap.
i m going to kill each by each
😛
For those who use GLUE traps…as long as you check them every day…and they are alive….you can use vegetable oil and drizzle it over their feet or wherever they are stuck…they will eventually slide off. Take them to the woods or a park to do it..because once they slide off..they run away fast to the closest watering hole and tell the other mice. “You’ll never guess what just happened to me.”
This really worked! Our cat brought a mouse into the house from the garage. We set the trap in the laundry room where the mouse was, and closed the door (blocking under the door with a towel). In the morning, the mouse was in the trash can. My husband took it out to the street and dumped it. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
most of comments were as fun as the op’s mouse method. Luv ya all!
My mom spotted a mouse streaking around her NYC apartment a few days ago. Tried glue traps (baited with cashews, rice, or chocolate) – nothing. Tried spring traps and humane traps – nothing. Today, found this page on google. My mom doesn’t have a tall garbage can so I set up a bucket with glue traps at the bottom. I placed a paper towel sheet on top of the bucket with one edge taped to the bucket so it wouldn’t fall into the bucket with the mouse. I placed a piece of cooked pork on the center of the paper towel. (Mice like meat, and my hope was to tempt the mouse enough to overcome its hitherto trap-avoiding judgement.) I placed the trap in the kitchen where my mom had spotted the mouse.
A few hours later, I noticed one corner of the paper towel was down, though the paper towel was still up and the pork was untouched. The mouse was caught on the glue traps in the bucket. I killed the mouse and dumped it in the garbage.
Thank you!
I will try your method. The only reason I don’t like traps is because I have a 7 pound dog I don’t want her to get her foot in it. I have used several “no touch” traps and then flush them down the toilet when they are dead. If I catch one in a can I will let it go some place else. I would rather they be dead and thrown out because they just have more and more mice to bother me or others. If they do enough damage you will stop thinking about humane treatments. One of them ate a hole in a leather easy chair and had babies. Please tell us how to find out how they are getting in and how to block the entrance.
Thank you!
I have 2 mice. a small one and a large one. I’ve tried all the tricks. They are “smart” about glue pads and traps. I’m trying this tonite. Wish me luck!
Thanks for the excellent directions.
We caught our mouse using this method.
It helped out big time. I wanted an effective and non-lethal way to catch the critter.
I didn’t want to kill it, I just wanted it out.
This worked perfectly!!! My husband saw the little bugger run out of our BR last night before we went to bed. Don’t know how it got in the house, but I used the ramp method with the toilet paper roll attached to the cardboard in such a way that it would drop down the moment the mouse approached the PB. As was suggested I only put the PB at the end of the tube. I set the trap around 3 in the afternoon and at 3 in the morning we were awakened with the sounds of little feet at the bottom of the trash can. Thank you so much!!!!
What is with you murderous people. Its a live mouse trap for a reason… Leave life alone and just let them go free.. So simple. Sick people.
Its not inconsiderate to let it loose, believe me, there are already hundreds in every neighbourhood. You are doing no more damage by letting it go in a nearby park…its just laziness, the true reason.
Very Very good idea. thank you.
“My friend” was very upset… look what he did with the paper tube . he didn’t touch the food
and water inside of the trash can.
http://www.wegif.com/gifs/Idoru/6931846/
I’d be mad at that tube too I figure! – cg
nice idea but work this also practicually ? Normally a mouse is not on a desk but more on the ground
Works well on a desk
THANK YOU!!!!
Just got 1 like this.
Live long and prosper!
We share 98% of our genetic material with mice. They are smart and kind creatures. Thank you for posting this. Most of the posts heartened me. The cruel posts reveal a cruel person, plain and simple. What goes around, comes around… eventually.
I tried it and it worked but the mouse climbed out by itself into the free horizon. How come it didn’t happen to you? What am I doing wrong? Thank you.
this little mouse has been in my hose for a week. i’ve tried conventional traps for days with no result except for missing peanutbutter. i have two regular traps sat up in the pantry along with 3 of your traps all going to the same trash can. we’ll see what happens
just knocked one down and got away… 2 left
definitely works. got one already. set them all back up again. ::creepy music:: THERE MAY BE MORE!
This definitely works! Caught two young mice so far, just waiting for mom to fall for it, but I believe she is a little wise to my plan!
This trap works!! Have caught a mouse each night for the past 2 nights. Hope thats all of them.
well i have a pet rat that got out of her cage. she went behind a very old and important buffet, scared she may chew/scratch up it? anyways i hope this works!
All you need to catch mice is the bucket. I take a paper napkin and wipe the inside of peanut butter jar, then drop it into the bucket. Place the bucket against a wall or furniture. Mice will find it, and you might just catch all the mice. Just be sure the bucket is tall enough so they can’t jump out. 5 gallon plastic buckets work well but some mice can climb out. A tall metal trash can is perfect. A little water in the bottom will cause hypothermia, then just toss everything away
My son helped a zecada(sp) one time( the big buzzing bugs in trees) helped get it out of it shell, set it on a nice branch to let its wings unfold and maybe get a bite….I came back 10 minutes later to check on it and a normal bee came along and ripped off one of its wings…..lesson…
Nature can be cruel. i wouldn’t stomp the little guy, but you cant control what nature has in store…
I have had a mouse in my apt for a week now, can’t get it out and now its stealing food from my pet rabbit. I plan on building this trap tonight, and i will put water to drown the sucker. If i could i would but some gas and light a match.
The truth is i live in NYC and setting it free just makes it someone else’s problem. Live and let live? It should have thought about that before it broke into my house and took a dump on my counter top. Mice aren’t on any endangered spices list, there is no need to save them all. And this one has it coming! And if i’m a sick fuck for wanting to see this little bastard floating dead in a 5 gallon bucket, then so be it. But this sick fuck is going to enjoy walking around her house barefoot and not worrying about every little crumb or bump in the night.
Note from Chris, author of the post: I feel ya Kimmers, this isn’t a great solution for densely urban areas, but lighten the fuck up.
THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU!
Many years ago, when my boy was little and we were living in just one room, I spent several nights unable to sleep, moving every single piece of furniture around trying to find a mouse. One night I knew it was just behind a box at the toilet and I just kicked the box with all my might. I still cry when I remember it.I promised to myself that I would never kill another one ever again. But living in victorian houses, that’s what you get:a couple of visitors a year. I try to, kindly, walk them to the front door and hope they go somewhere safe.I also find then so cute, but I am sacared by the way they move and the pests they carry. We are not supposed to live with them. I will try the bucket method!
Holy wow! that was so awesome, the trap worked great!
Although I think it worked a little better though after I taped 2 quarters on top of the counter end of the toilet paper tube to act as a counter weight. It let me put more of the tube off the counter and gave it a much more stable feel like it wasn’t going to get knocked off by accident, though when the mouse went in the trap still worked perfectly.
The other thing I noticed was that I think the mouse responded better to a mulitigrain cherrio.
A few days ago I found out I had rodents in my garage.
I’m not sure what they are exactly, but I think they’re either mice, shrews, or rats. I plan on trying this trap out later today. I sure hope it works for whatever the crap they are!
I need to try this badly
Works like a charm! I used a tall floor vase as container with a cardboard as a ramp and some peanutbutter to lure the mouse.
I set it up for one night and already cought the little beast. Now its time to check if there are any more mice creeping around in my apartment.
Once ehen i came back from a trip i found a dead mither mouse ( died of old age) and two dead babies close by. I set up a similar trap exept ut used a two litre pop bottle was taped to the edge of the container and used counterweights. A few day ago i went in my crawl space and saw two running in the plastic covering our insulation and discovered we have an infestation. Our home-made live trap was too bulky and i resorted to using regular snap traps. After i killed two i realised how cruel it is. I found ur trap and im hapoy to say its caught NINE!!!! Thank you so much. I think there all happy in the park a few clicks from my home 🙂
oh no! my first mice since living in this house for three years – repairs on one of the entry ways gave them a chance to come in, i think. my dog got one (with a big paw intended for play, not murder) but the second (and only other, i hope) was more elusive. i searched and found this set up and oh yes!! this worked the first night! the little friend is now free (and far away from my house) and there have been no new visitors in the week since i set this up (i am keeping it up for a while, however, until i can seal up breaches.)
Thank you so much for your illustration. I print out the picture of the cardboard ramp for my father. He built it exactly like the picture and for 3 days, we were unsuccessful catching it that way. We went back to the countertop method and it worked within 48 hours! Our bucket was 14.5 inches high and it is important that the bucket be at least 17 inches high. Once he fell in, he did a vertical jump straight up in the air trying to get out and I can see half of his body higher than the 14.5 inch height when he was in the air. He kept jumping up a few times and I had to immediately use a lid to cover the bucket.
My 16 year old daughter insisted on a live trap for the mouse we’ve had in the kitchen for a couple of weeks. She set up this contraption with a toilet roll innard, but the crafty mouse escaped it 3 times! The roll fell just as it should, and the mouse was sitting there on the stove when we went to check it out. She determined that the roll was too short, or at least the mouse was too quick for the length of roll.
So we unwrapped a paper towel roll. And within less than an hour of first set up of the original, there he was, trapped! She cut off the piece of roll with PB on and dropped it in there. The crumpled newspaper she had me put in there to break his fall made a great nest of hiding places for him. All night he scrabbled around in there every few hours.
And this morning she was up and ready for school early enough to have me drive her out to the nature preserve, where upon she ran through pouring rain to a clump of brush under large trees where she released him, and I dropped her off at school soaked but happy : )
Addendum to my earlier post… I have to stress how important it is for that bucket to be taller. I think we got lucky that he was caught when we weren’t sleeping. If it was in the middle of the night while everyone is still in bed, he would have jumped out of that 14.5 inch bucket and escape!
Worked for me the first night. I didn’t even have to crease the tube. Just some peanut butter on a nut and a kitchen trash can did the trick. This was after other humane plastic traps did not work.
I have 5 cats and no mouse in his right mind would move in to my house. However, two of mine are super hunters and bring home their catch. Occasionally one gets loose. I wont kill any animal, and think this method sound great, but with an open bucket I would just be making him a sitting duck (mouse?) for the cats. Any suggestions?
It worked! However, we used a tall cardboard box instead of a plastic bin. The 1st night the mouse moved the TP tube but was able to eat the Peanut Butter without getting caught. Maybe I didn’t have the tube over the edge enough? 2nd attempt, same thing. I used a penny to counterweight the tube, but it must’ve been too-well balanced. 3rd attempt, my husband suggested using a paper towel tube rather than the toilet paper one and wham! We caught a mouse within a half hour! Since the whole point of catching them this way is to NOT kill them, we took the captured mouse to our nearby estuary and let it go. We reset the tube that night and in the morning we had a second capture. Again, we let it go in the open fields. We’ve reset the tube and wait to see if any more mice are in the house. Thank you so much for posting this idea! Our local hardware stores only sell kill-type traps and/or poisons and I don’t feel it necessary to go that route. Live and let live, right? Good luck!
Okay so it was awhile back when I posted in this thread, This trap did not work for me but better yet, back when I had my pet mouse I put him in his ball and taped the ball to a kitchen table leg. Put traps all around and left Guss guss alone in the kitchen. Minutes later “Snap!”, Shadow, the mouse that was in our house eating our stuff, Was caught 🙂
I bought a friendly mouse trap…. but this mouse in my house refuses to be caught….. I watch him on CCTV…. he first stole the first trap… yes its true…. he dragged it off and ate the bait…. we have been trying to catch him ever since… he posses in front of the wild cam I have… I almost expect him to come on scene with a straw hat and cane ( cartoon style)we have tried all kinds of baits but he just wont be caught….. I really do not want to harm it.
Ok heres my story we have a mouse not wild but a pet that escaped when it was a baby. its been running around our kitchen for at least a year we have tried traps and other things we have caught it before but it escaped the cage …. very clever. mum hates it as it lives in our cooker so everytime we want food we have to steriles everything really annoying. I have used my other mice to test out your plan one fat and one roughly the same size as the runaway IT WORKED 😀 we just hope the runaway will be more gullible this time. wish us luck xx
I don’t think people realize what threat and infection deceases the mice spread. Before you write bs like live and let live you have to know that since they have very little of natural predators these days especially in urban environment (the actual place that see the true infestations not one or two mice running around some place in suburbs)they will procreate at rapid rate. The one you release infests somebody else home and can climb a child’s feeding table and they child can get very sick or even die from the infection. These beasts poop everywhere and by the time one even discovers them can be late. I am sure most of you eat meat- what do you think it packed itself neatly into a container in the supermarket? Live and let live! Mice are VERY VERY dangerous for health. If you don’t want to kill them then don’t -I know that I can’t even go near to mouse traps but you don’t have right to release them and make it somebody else’s problem. Then keep them in your house since you find them so cute. See how fast 2 mice will become thousands in a matter of months and you will have asthma, liver problems etc. Their feces is very dangerous.
Dear Flower,
I don’t think people realise the threat that Humans pose, what with their ability to spread disease and infection and to outright kill everything else. Before you write patented bullshit like “Kill all mice” (I paraphrase, of course) you should consider that Humans are very few natural predators these days, particularly in an urban environment. They will also procreate at a rapid rate. The beasts defecate everywhere. Live and let live! Humans are very dangerous for our health, and the health of all other creatures! See how fast their population grows! And they leave their crap everywhere!
Yours sincerely,
Mouse C Mulligan, Mouse Sociologist
I am student at Temple University in Philadelphia and, having been from a suburban area, have never really had a problem with mice. We have one now (dubbed “Mickey”), and he is not really too bad other than pooping everywhere (we think it’s only one… >.<). Being a nursing major and knowing about the diseases they have the potential to spread, I immediately wanted to trap and kill it. Done. My roommates objected with the usual "live and let live", but they didn't want to set up any sort of trap although they didn't want it in the house. After the usual "clamp" traps failed. I mentioned this idea, they liked it, but did not want to release the mouse. I added a layer of water about 5 inches deep to the bottom of the bucket and now this trap all of a sudden works better than the clamp traps with the same effect. awesome idea thanks! http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_cjjiQ4yPuiA/S5MzgKE3jVI/AAAAAAAAAGk/8DMmy14GWSU/s400/IMG_0010.jpg
I dont know whether the structural make up of my uk toilet tubes are some how too light to balance precariously on the edge or whether i was piling on a bit too much of a feast for it, but hasnt worked so far – It ate my honey and marmalade and walked away with a full stomach, maybe il try the longer kitchen roll tube
Thanks a lot for posting this trick. Worked for me the first night! Now I look like hero in front of my wife 🙂
We were going crazy trying to get rid of a mice. It avoided all the glue and spring traps we setup for few weeks. I honestly did not believe your trap is going to work because I felt our mouse is too smart to fall for this. Paper tube hanging over the bucket looks like a trap from mile away 🙂
Anyways, we caught it on first attempt. I glued two quarters to one end of the tube to balance it out as per somebody’s else advice here. For bait I used few pieces of cheerios.
I also poured like half an inch of water at the bottom of the bucket (no glue trap) so when mouse felt down, it got wet and could not climb up, probably because the bucket became slippery and mice was heavier when wet. I could tell that mice can jump pretty good, because in the morning when I discovered its trapped, it could still jump almost on top. I believe that if I did not put water in the bucket it would escape. The reason I did not put more water was I didn’t want it to get drawn. I released the mice in the park like mile away from my house.
Thanks again!
I decided to try this , I don’t want to kill the poor thing, hes just trying to live so if it does work I’m going to set it free by a lake about a mile from my place(:
Here is a link for a repeating trap, much like the author spoke about. I like it because it resets itself each time! (disregard the parts about the water if you are doing this humanely)
It helps if you actually include the link…
😉
if it does work i want to stomp on its f_ _ _ing head and throw his guts in the lake(X-X)BY YOUR HOUSE BY THE PRETTY FLOWERS
i have just moved into a lille wooden house iv discovered 3 mouse holes in the house i left my dog treat twist things on the bench when i came back from work over 1cm had been nibbled off it and there was mouse poop on the fllor near my washing machine. should i call someone to get rid off them should i fill the holes in.. so stressed. x
Louise – stuff the holes with wire wool/steel mesh. If they still get in, buy glue traps, put a low wide obstruction across some of your doorways with a glue trap laid along the only gap. Give it a night or so and they’ll all be sat patiently on the traps waiting for you to get rid.
I’m trying this mouse catching I’ve got the humane trap set up fingers crossed it works
I caught a mouse by accident this way once. I had a tall garbage can in my office. I saw a mouse go in and out of of a few times. There was a plastic garbage bag lining the garbage can and the mouse could climb up it to escape. One day I emptied the trash but did not have a new liner. I heard some squeaking and thumping and discovered the mouse was in the can, jumping up to try to escape. I took it to a big field away from houses and let it go.
Thanks to this superb idea…i went up to our loft to store some xmas prezzies and found that 1 or how many mice had riffled through the selection box’s, so i bought some traps, set them and checked daily…..nothing just the chocolate had gone :-/
So i googled and found this page, I set it up and bingo, the next day i had me a mouse, set it free, set up the tube again and bingo! another mouse caught, two days two mice caught without any life’s lost,think i might need to buy more peanut butter, amazing! great idea thanks.
HOLY CRAP!!! It took less than 2 hours for this to work for me!! I’m simply amazed. It sidestepped the glue traps in its path and went straight for the peanut butter at the end of the tube. I counterbalanced the tube with 2 quarters as several people suggested. Thank you!
I tried this yesterday! It worked! But, I was going to release them but…they were baby mice!! I had caught a mouse in a normal mouse trap a couple days ago and I’m guessing it was their mama…I felt really guilty so I put them in a glass tank (I washed it first and put in some fodder) and now I’m keeping them as pets. I’m feeding them well and I talked to a vet friend of mine and she told me what to feed them! Now my mouse problem is gone and has been replaced by a mouse blessing, THEY ARE SO CUTE!!!!
Wow! I tried the tp tube–no luck for about an hour. (After dark) Then I set the tp tub and a papertowel tube side by side. Turned off the light, went into another room. 25 minutes later I checked: Zowie! both tubes were down in the bucket along with the little gray mouse! I think he bumped the tp tube, then went through the pt tube. Fantastic!! Thanks!
any idea if this will work with rats?
even our spanish mouse understand this, but ours jump really high,
So take care the trash can is high enough!!!! thank you great thinking!!
It don’t work, the rat took the food but then it went backwards and escaped!!! Rats and Mice are more smarter than humans are! 😀
When I first found this technique, I was a little skeptical it was actually going to work, But I can honestly say IT DOES WORK! The first night we had it set up we caught a mouse, The very next night we set it up again and caught a second mouse. I have caught atleast FOUR MICE IN 2 WEEKS of using this method. Surprisingly this method works better than the 15-or-so death traps we have arranged around the house(havent caught even 1 with the death traps) THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS:)
This really worked! Silly mouse will stop eating my peanut butter cups now:)
So since about a month ago I heard the pitter patter of little feet but I figured it was nothing. Mind you, my room is on the second floor. So since I got the flu I slept in my living room I actually saw it about 2 inches high and 4inches long.
We tried to get it out of the closet but it ran behind our computer deal. We moved the desk and tried to get it away from there , then it ran up the stairs .
We didn’t know what else to do but we think this could work actually, from seeing that it worked for most people we’ve decided to try it
I live in a new build appartment, above a restraunt. I noticed we had mice after randomly finding a dead one on my open-planned kitchen floor. Since then I have seen another one or two in my flat.
I’m not interested in poison because 1)It’s cruel and 2) I don’t fancy it rotting away in my home.
I’ll try this soon for sure, especially as they’ve started helping themselves to my naan bread.
NO ONE TOUCHES MY NAAN, GOD DAMMIT!
This set up is PERFECT! We’ve caught two in the past two days. Ours have been outsmarting the traps and poison, but they seem to be falling for this one. HA!
Thought other methods of catching our furry lodger would be too unkind and tried yours instead, just as described – with the addition of using a bucket that has a lid.
Caught our mouse within the hour and have rehoused him in the local park.
Thank you.
Does anyone know how to modify this to catch a small rat living in our garage? We’ve tried springs traps to no avail. It just eats the peanut butter off the trap. Wouldn’t the tp roll be too small for a rat? The exterminator called these rats “roof rats”.
Now a 2 liter bottlewith some bread or cracker broke up that has so
E peanut butter on it will catch a mouse wouldn’t think they cud fit in he but they can. And put it in the spot where you think the mouse is going at and check it in about 30mi s or hour and it will be in the bottle. Best part is screw cap on and he surely trapped but even without that they can’t get out because I’ve watched several I trApped couldn’t find the he and it works really well js
This is a great trap! We set this up with 3 tubes with a dime as a counter weight, and got one the first night. Super for baby mice!
ok im gonna try this, i lost my hamster today & i rly wanna find HIM before im gonna go get another because i still have that guarentree 4 him. I ONLY HAD HIM FOR THREE DAYS THEN I WENT TO TAKE HIM OUT & HES GONE! HES NOT IN HIS CAGE!!! :”( his name was DRAGON. if its works then i say……… THANK U!
This worked in 7 minutes. Thank you!
My cat is very smart she decided to bring mouse from garage
inside of my apartment (she likes to make friend, you know… Tom and Jerry). 2 month ago she brought one (I think female) for winter fun, very convenient to have friend inside in such horrible Chicago weather. And everything would be not so bad if tonight she wouldn’t bring another one – looks like male, big and smart, jumped over 9″ lamp shade which I covered him. Once in a while she brings her old friend in the middle of the night to me, when I’m asleep and let her free again. Now, when I have two illegal emigrants who can produce big family it’s to much for me. Tomorrow I will try to make mice camp with help of your advise and peanut butter. Will keep you posted… 🙂
Solution for those of you who don’t want to kill mice…
we have chickens out the back, the mice are rampant, they eat the chicken food at night, we can see the droppings in the feed.
When we catch mice in the live catch method such as this we just take the bucket out and offer it up to the chickens, they love eating mice and are extremely quick, they spend ages chasing each other around the yard and the mice have no chance.
chickens are well fed, live in a cleaner environment, they are so grateful for the protein that they lay us beautiful eggs and everyone is happy 🙂
Thanks for posting this… 2 lazy house cats and there’s still a mouse roaming around. I just set the trap in the kitchen and will report back.
Hi ! My turn to tell my story 🙂 (I red all the comments, it was very instructive and great fun too ! ) So, as most of people here, I first tried usual traps, and of course, they didn’t work (but the cheese was gone, hum.) So I’ve made this search on google and find this page, great. I’m french, and I live in a little studio…And I search for hours a trash can or else high enough (I’ve seen this fury thing jump, it’s amazing), and I just thought “man, americans have all huges things and big houses, how could I find something big enough here ??? hahaha )I eventually thought that my big glass flower vase could do, and I found some cardboard and was beginning to cut it to do the ramp, but, didn’t see it was to close to the vase, and will I was trying to shape it, it push the glass vase, and it fell on the ground and smashed down all on the floor… – – Now, I REALLY didn’t have anything big enough, and was really pissed of and hate the fury little cute thing. So, the day later, I went to a friend, living in a bigger apartment, and asked him for anything…We found a huge cardboard-made bag, and I could finally set up the trap. I placed it where I knew the mouse liked to go, balanced the tube (a big one, to be sure) with is favored cheese, at 5 pm, and wait… til this morning…It didn’t work…:( The mouse didn’t even ate the treat !!! And I sure know it goes there, and like the cheese, and it usually comes every night !!! I tell you, these animals are really intelligent, much more than we are, and I fear, they will rule the planet !!! Have you seen this film The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy ? Well I think I will watch it again tonight… 🙂 (But, I’m still hoping, since this ingenious trap worked with so much of you people, I’ll try again, night after night !) Maybe I’ll try one of these too : http://www.dezeen.com/2007/10/22/non-lethal-mousetraps-by-roger-arquer/ To be continued…
What a wonderful idea. We only spent 2 days trying to outwit the little blighter. Then we tried your idea and the next morning the mouse was caught. Until my husband tried to put the mouse in a “smaller” bucket and the little guy escaped. So tonight we will try again and hope he is not a fast learner. I suppose you played a lot of “The Incredible Machine” when you were younger.Thanks again.
we have rats here, do you have any tricks how to catch rats?
I set it up yesterday after listening to it rumbling around and at first it pulled the tube back and ate everything. Then it set it up again with a counter weight using coins and threw some food inside the trash can only to find everything gone! But as a last resort I filled the trash can with aboutand inch or two of water and left this morning and sure enough it was in there and could not jump all the way out. It did jump and made it 3/4 of the way up though, so be sure you use a big enough container. Thanks a lot for this idea, i have it set up again to see if theres more around.
Tried this idea in desperation after “the mouse” had scorned at least four kinds of humane trap and cheerfully ate all the poison we put down. And now, ten days later we have already caught five mice not just one. We are using a longish, 20cm, counterweighted tube (an earlier try with an unweighted short tube was unsuccessful). And the bait is PB as usual plus grated chocolate, scattered down the length of the tube. I would not have believed that something so simple could be so much more effective than all the shop bought traps but it really is!
we r trying no luck yet
stiillllllll no luck. we set up the trap about 45 min ago.we had the lights on still nothing.eny advice
this did not work
Thanks for this great idea! We had an infestation last year and my family insisted on using those snap traps 🙁 I felt awful about it. Now we have another one (or two, or three, not sure!) and they’re not falling for those traps. I’m so proud of them. haha can’t wait to try this method and hopefully set them free in the forest by my house- they’re so cute, I don’t want them to die, I just don’t want them popping up all the time and scaring me (and also pooping on stuff and possibly spreading disease, etc). Thanks again!
this will work great, now to add to it, this will get one mouse, chances are if you have one you have more. get a bucket at the top of the bucket you will want to run a thick wire across from one side to the other (this wire needs to be about an 1/8 inch thick so the mice can walk on it, on this wire you will put a plastic bottle with the thick wire running thru the middle (from the cap end to the bottom) now the bottle will spin easly on the wire, but your peanut butter on the bottle in the middle in several places around the bottle. the mice will walk up the ramp to the top of the bucket out across the wire and on to the bottle the bottle will spin and the mice fall into the bucket. i personally put about three inches of water in the bucket which keeps them from jumping and they will drown. where you may have many mice this will keep busy all night long or as long as the peanut butter lasts.
Nothing first night, just now caught the mouse (1am) second night! Thanks for idea
The people that killed the mice….Why? Must be mean-spirited types. The mice weren’t trying to harm you. Would it have been too much trouble to take them just over a mile away?
I found your idea today. Got home; set the trap and it took the cracker with the peanut butter within minutes…smart little pest! Decided to set the trap again, but this time I used a paper towel roll. Within 10 minutes we heard the roll fall into the trash can. Got him!!! Wow, a very effective method…
THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing it!!
Luv it. Dats great! A no-kill catch.
Thx
-Della W.
First night… Still waiting…keep you posted..
Worked well for me. We caught a ton very quickly. Note that they are GREAT jumpers, that was the only problem.
I need to try this as the mouse in our house scares the crap out of me, found poo on a window cill this morning, GROSS! This mouse ran up my partners leg the other night. I go to bed thinking is this mouse guna crawl up me in bed? Scaredy cat I know. Will give this a go and let ya know how it went. Fingers crossed.
The cardboard glue traps get used as snow shoes by the mice! Use the Glue Trays and bait blocks. And you are not doing your neighbor any favors by driving a mile away and introducing to your neighbors, your pests…
It really worked, but I’m not sure how — since the tube is still in place, but sure enough TWO little mice are glaring at us from the bottom of the bin! Perhaps, since we had to make a tube out of sheets of rolled-up paper, it was so slippery that it just dumped them in without falling in itself… very strange. We were disappointed at first when we saw the tube still in place on the shelf — then the neighbour’s young child peeped in the bin and told us it had two mice in it. This is a brilliant idea!
wow i have a rat and a mouse in my house and they are coming from my basement Landry-mat there is a big whole in the wall this really helped me get rid of the rat
So I have been trying a bin trap but no luck! !!!!! Have tried with a platform and bait on the end – with a can so they jump over it to get peanut butter doesn’t work I may be to hasty as that he only been one night – as you never only have one mouse this is now creeping me out poison bait in chocolate is being taken at least 20 so far in different rooms of the house errrr…. I’m wondering could.my ramp be too steep I want rid of these everyday they are here I know they are breeding any further suggestions
Listening to the radio. Did u know there are more pest (rats, mice etc) in this world than humans!! Ridiculous! Wanna kill the little c@@ts!!
Correction. In England!!
I was playing outside with my bff at nite ( plannin 2 have a sleepover ) and we noticed a little hole in the side of the house. It was rite near the door, we thought it was nothin so we continued to play. Later, we started hearin scurrying and surely enough, it was a mouse. LOL me and me bff are BIG animal lovers and we obviously don’t want to kill it. So I’m gonna try this trap! I’ll keep ya posted!!!!!!
So…found out we had a mouse in our house today. My boyfriend wanted to straight up kill it, but I said no. He knows me, and my love of all things living. So I googled ways to catch and release mice, and found this. Tried it, using two pennies as counterweight and a dab of peanut butter, and within the hour, we had one caught! A cute little bugger, too! Would love to keep it as a pet, but my boyfriend is afraid of any diseases it may be carrying, so going to leave it in the garbage can with some bread and then take it out to the park tomorrow. =) Leaving the ramp up for the night to see if there’s anymore. Thanks a bunch for sharing this method!
Weeks later, this still hasnt worked. I am beyond annoyed now. Have resorted to bait blocks.
My fiance and I moved to a brand new building…over a month ago we discovered mouse droppings under our sink eww blech…so we immediately set up a few glue traps (we freaked out) the next day I noticed it’s small paw print on one of the traps (sh!t didn’t work) and the treat from one of the “SAFE” catch and let it go traps was gone…AAAH the little FnCkER! Everyday I frantically mop and clean the counters and floors.
A few days later at the corner of my eye it came out and headed towards my puppy’s food area. LAST straw, ran to home depot and bought 30 dollars worth of traps. And 3-4 weeks later, nothing, the smart fncker is eating my puppies food and crapping everywhere. I WANT IT DEAD!!!! DEAD!! YAH YAH, animal cruelty. I’m a vegetarian, I love animals, I feel bad for the little sh!t but I gave it the chance to leave in a nice safe trap filled with food.
BUT now it will (hopefully) fall in a trash can lined with glue traps. I just want it dead and out of the apartment, that’s all Q_Q if I let it go it will come back or maybe go to a house of a family with a new born and crap on the baby. Okay let’s hope this works!!!
Interesting fact for you mouse lovers – mice do not have bladders – so they pee as they go aka if there is poop there is their pee close by if they are on your shelves or table tops they are leaving pee there too.
I too have a mouse problem – in my basement/crawl space the filthy little creatures have ruined alot of stored items and I face a massive clean up of their poop/pee etc – so far 1 stuck in a glue trap 1 in a snap trap I suspect there are more this weekend I will be spending many hours cleaning up and bleaching all the concrete and wood in the basement to remove the stench. I am going to add the bucket trick to my arsnel – I will however add 6 inches of water so the little bastards drown
UPDATE: Mouse is caught! Did not catch the mouse on the first night w.the trash can…
BUT an old timer SNAP TRAP placed against the wall (mice use the wall for guidance when scurrying about bc they don’t see very well) did the job before it could get to the tube/trash can area…I didn’t want to have to use the snap traps bc it’s messy. BUT it does kill them fast so they don’t suffer. The snap trap hit so hard it flipped the mouse on its back ew ew ew it was gross, I won’t say think goodness for guys bc many girls aren’t afraid of a dead mouse but this girl is so thank goodness my boyfriend was here to clean it up…I felt terrible to see it but it was the only way to go.
UPDATE: First night, nothing. Second night, w.a small snap trap placed against the wall…Snap! Ew blech and on its back before it can make it to the nice trash can. No suffering and quick…mice don’t see well and use the walls as guidance when they’re scurrying about. But thanks for the bucket idea. We’re going to set up a few more snappy snaps just in case. Omg they’re as scary dead as they are alive.
I know this is a pretty old post, but people are still replying so I thought I’d share this.
Mice *do* have bladders (I had to look it up).
More facts from myths here: http://www.victorpest.com/advice/rodents-101/myths
Yeah just realized how old this post is…
Bladders or no bladders, they’re still pissing their filthy diseased urine in your home, next to your food and food prep area.
We’ve caught 3 mice in 4 days on a snap trap. And I clean like a maniac! What the freak!
MYTH: Mice are cute little critters
FACT: Mice are diseased carrying disgusting rodents, they bring fleas and many maladies into your home.
Puppies are cute mice are scary little monsters.
Mice are nasty I have them in my car I have over 20 trapts in my trunck!!! Got one this morning. There pooping everywhere !!! And I got glue traps!!
This is fantastic information guys! I have been trying to catch my mouse for about two months now and no luck. I tried the black catch ‘n’ release traps but all he did was open the cage where the food was and took it out leaving the trap still set. Then I tried the regular snap traps, sprayed the bait with fly spray (lol I know, I was desperate), and again the food gone and trap still set.
Tonight, for the first time, I am trying the bucket method with the ramp, baited toilet roll on a stick and the bucket filled with beer/oil/water/detergent. Lol, I know, again I’m desperate!
I’m a little concerned after reading that if there’s one then there’s usually more. I hope I can catch all of them with this trap because I’m sick of that musty rodent smell, no matter how much I clean it’s still there.
Now that I’ve read that mice can jump high, I won’t underestimate it!
Thanks for the tips guys 🙂
What time of year do they come?
I have so much experience in dealing with mice but this idea is a bit new for me. You have opened a new horizon of how to get rid of mice..I love sharing…
My husband and I are crediting your trap with catching our little visitor! Our two cats have been staring at the ceiling in our basement for a few weeks now, and I made a joke to my hubby about having some sort of infestation or another. Well, my husband saw the mouse tonight, and couldn’t catch him! I found your trap online, and we set it up, and about an hour later we heard a noise in the basement. My husband went down to investigate, and our cats had cornered the little guy when he’d tried to come down for the peanut butter bait! He scooped the mouse up in a cup, and we just got back from releasing him at a nature park near our house. Hopefully that’s the last of them, but we’ll leave the trap up to be sure. Thank again! 🙂
Just set this trap. Not sure my bucket is going to be tall enough, Hoping that this will work as my Landlord will probably set poison or snap traps otherwise!
Fingers crossed.
My mouse adores chocolates! Lindor and Ferrero Rocher! He even tried my box of biscuits that we bough in France…he tried every biscuit, and I guess he didnt fancy any of it!
We discovered he is leaving somewhere in the kitchen. He is a very clean mouse! trust me! that’s why we cant find where is living. No droppings, no mess, we found the chocolates paper still in very good condition, just a few tears. he doesnt eat rubbish..but chocolates! he doesnt enter any of my units, but for safety, I wipe my work top with spray bleach every morning before even put the kettle on. We hide the chocolates and I guess he is on a diet now, as he is eating BANANAS! Really!
I kept looking for ideas online and came across with yours!, my husband and I are very positive with this one!
I had such great laughs reading tho the comments! Men are all much the same! I can see my husband saying things exactly the same I have red here! I cant wait to catch him, as we already confronted him one morning…he is quite cute, and definetely dont wanna kill him. But we dont have place for 3 here. I am quite sure it will work this time! and we will catch Stuart for once! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING YOUR IDEA! and THANKS EVERYBODY THAT SHARED YOUR COMIC COMMENTS! IT MADE ME LAUGH! IM HAPPY IM NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT CARES ABOUT LIVING CREATURES!
OK, bucket trap set. Can’t stand these little beasts any longer… Waiting for that sweet sound of a mouse dropping into a bucket (I never thought I’d find myself saying that…) Hopefully my partner is home to get rid of it by the time that happens:-)
Totally works!! Brilliant!!
one of my three cat’s is a real killer this year, mice and shyte loads of baby rabbits. But, Sid the cat brings them in alive, plays with them in a corner of the kitchen where he knows they can’t escape his Evil, long torture till you die game. Now, if we get there in time for the rabbits, we will retrieve rabbit and release far from home, But if it’s a mouse, we leave him to it and clean up afterwards.
Mouses revenge;-
I’m sat in my living room at the moment while writing this knowing there’s a mouse behind my piano, I’ve pushed Sid behind the piano but he turned a ran to his feeding bowl. So now I’ve set this trap of yours, I’m waiting patiently and if I catch him alive, I’m putting him in the special torture corner with Sid Vicious; I hope it works and I’ll keep you’s lot posted.
Have the trap set. Can’t wait to get this little ba$7@rd! I hate mice. As far as I’m concerned they are rats! Don’t want them anywhere near my house, let alone in it!
THANK YOU SO MUCH! The mouse I had was too small for any live capture trap I could find. It just slipped right through the bars. This method worked within 5 hours!
I used a paper towel tube; I think it might not have worked with a TP tube. The bucket was only about 35 cm tall, but there was no jumping (disappointing, actually.)
Thanks to this, I didn’t have to resort to cruel methods or spend any more money on catching that adorable ball of fur that’s been shitting under the pillow. This should be the #1 result on Google for mouse traps.
Not all mice like peanut butter. I eventually found out that salted cashews are irresistible.
Unbelievable! Caught the mouse in 2 hours! Had so many sticky traps in our house and the mouse seems to know to avoid it. This really works!
Set this trap up last night after I went into my kitchen to find my mouse crawling through the burner holes on my stove. Woke up middle of the night and he had knocked the tub over in the garbage can. Set it up again and same thing this morning. If someone can tell me what I’m doing wrong or have any tips let me know. This seems to be the only thing that works and we have had him for a month. Oh and he won’t go anywhere near peanut butter.
Trap set. Lookn forward t catching the little bugger…
I am going to try this and see how it works. My concern is having to build a ramp since I wouldn’t need it on the countertop. I dont know why there are people on here trying to drown the mice, that is incredibly cruel. I also suggest NOT using peanut butter, the peanut butter gets stuck to the mouses throat and eventually kills them, this is what I have read, so of you are trying to catch this mouse in the kind and compassionate way then I would recommend cereal or something like that, that will not get lodged in their throat.
I don’t want to release! I’m setting snap traps at the bottom of the bucket!!
I have one running around in my drop ceiling and didnt want to kill it. Opened a panel put a roll up there with a big garbage can underneath. waiting to hear a plop. This is perfect thank you.
Daughter and I tried it while staying in cabin w/family.It worked! Great
idea. Thanks for posting.
wow, after 2 hours of setting this up OUTSIDE we had caught our mouse and dispatched it to 2 miles away near to the canal – thanks massively, Janet
We caught him in 1-2 mins but we just spooked him into it but when we went to tell our aunt he scurried away so you need a tall bucket but we didnt need foot just scare him into it
I KNOW PEANUT BUTTER WORKS ABOUT BEST,THINK THAT BALANCE TRAP IS AWESOME IDEA,HATE KILLING ANY ANIMAL,PEST OR NOT,STICKY TRAPS WORK BUT WHERE YOUR GO WHEN YOU GOT A LIVE MOUSE STUCK IN IT,QUESS YOU COULD CUT OUT CARDBOARD AROUND FEET AND TURN LOOSE IN WINTER,THERE ARE SNOW SHOE RABBITS,NOW WE HAVE SNOWSHOE MICE,THATS CALLED EVOLUTION
it really worked fine, got 4 in a row ! the only problem is, if one escapes, forget it! The mice “talk between themselves” and they dònt fall in the trap anymore…
I set up the trap and i hope it works because I really want to see if my 3 year old brother really is seeing mice in our barn and i hope he isn’t scared of them because he wants to keep it for a pet.
10 mins later we went out there and he saw want was at the bottom of the bucket and he and I were amazed me mostly because he was really seeing mice out their…..there were TWO mice in the bottom he called them Fuzzy 1 and Fuzzy 2.
To prevent them from jumping, just fill the bucket one foot high with water. Cant jump and drowns then.
After so much damage experienced, absolutely no mercy.
If you catch a VD will you just take meds until the bacteria are dizzy then spread them to your neighbors?
Total extermination rulez!
Just saying to Bert (the first comment)… I hope you drown just like the mouse/mice you drowned. You are an ignorant dick who stupidly thinks we are above mice.
Once again, I hope you die a horrible, slow, painful death.
I often wonder if this will happen to me one day as I meander down the aircraft boarding tunnel
Shouldn’t of posted this as the smart people (like yourself) who have the intelligence to value life will think of a way to get the mouse out by themselves. Only the dumb fucks will use this to trap and kill the mouse since they have the brain capacity of a cat.
There’s one in my grandmas den right now, gnawing in between the walls. I’m trying to sleep and am very tempted to shout “sod off!”. Time to lay back with loud music and hope this bucket plan catches the furry little bugger… (-_-)`
Called pest control, set traps, glue traps, nothing… After losing lots of food to this (hopefully just one) … I set the bucket/tube, and …….Caught the bastard.. tks
Here’s A “BAIT IDEA”
I started spotting a mouse about a week ago, was able to corner it and yes I shot it. I have 2 kids, 1 small, also single mom and didnt have much choice at the time. But I just seen another today, so I know there is probably more.
I came across this site while doing research to get rid of problem.I’m not trying to sit and hunt them down 1 by 1, haha. Gonna try this first thing today, and I’ll let u knw how it works.
But I wanted to pass on some advice I got from few people as what to use for bait. I hade 4 people tell me beef jerky, or better yet “slim jims” was the best and only bait they use.
This lady said she just caught 50, she moved into a new/old house And they have 4 CATS, but this was previous owner problem, she used “slim jims” and caught 50 in 1 week. and hasnt had any problems since. They closed up all the holes and cracks with wire mesh or steel wool pads u use to clean with. So hope this might help lure your mice into the tube/traps. She used the old slap traps with that bait. FYI
**Remember you have to fill in and close of any way for the mice to get in. As u get rid of them, follow there dropping, usually there will be an area with a concentrated poop and if you look real close, you will find a tiny crack and thats where they r coming in from the walls. So start there, then move outside/under house/basement, that my problem. they keep coming in where holes are drilled through brick in my basement for piping to come into mechanical needs. I tried caulk but it weathered, shrink in winter. Then they chewed insulation from around pipes and squeezed in. But I’m gonna use steel wool and wire meshing.
I’ll keep u posted on what works and if I fish any mice this week. I’m a great fisherman, so i think I’ll gettem.
GOODLUCK EVERYONE…
FYI
I also never saw a mouse dropping, until I started cleaning really well after I killed that mouse. I followed along the wall, using carpet cleaner and bleach on walls. I opened my coat closet and there they were, but only about 7-8 droppings. So after I cleaned, I started checking and there’s 1 area he was getting into my main house. You would’ve never guessed, it wasn’t a hole, just a 2 inch wide and maybe 1/4 inch high if that, in the corner. Almost like the carpenter didn’t mind his measurment was a little off, it was a coat closet, who would ever see it?!?!
Well I’ll tell ya who saw it, THAT MOUSE, thats who… LOL
Guys.. I saw a mouse on a Wednesday, following Saturday saw poop, and chewed up bags… Did a good clean up. Sunday, more food bags attacked. Monday, pest control came, spread traps around, and did catch anything. Tuesday night Ive set up Chris “trash can/tube/peanut butter” – genius idea. We got the he/she bastard. Saturday, found out that the bastard WAS a she – how? Saw 2 crawling/closed eyed babies on the kitchen floor. Got everything out of that cabinet, and found 2 more babies – and their nest. The mom made her nest in a mexican runner (in the trash now)… Moral of the story: if you have a hungry mouse, she may be eating to feed her babies. After an OCD clean up session, no more signs of droppings anywhere in the kitchen. Going to buy plastic bins to put all my table cloths, towels, linens or anything that could be used for nesting.
Just wanted to let you know if you ever catch a mouse or anything on a glue board, use olive oil to release it. It works reall well. Also, will work if you step on a blue board. Use Olive Oil.
This does work if you stick with it and maybe modify slightly. Initially I put the toilet paper roll on the edge of the counter and weighed it down with a couple coins, but the mouse took it upon his or herself to spin the toilet paper roll around towards itself, ate the peanut butter, and, of course, pooped for good measure. The next night my wife suggested we very weakly tape the roll to the counter with some electrical tape. This forced the mouse to actually enter the tunnel to get the treat, and its weight was enough to break the hold of the weak tape, and we caught it very easily. It’s an excellent, no muss no fuss trap if you only get mice in your house once in a while, and don’t like dealing with traps and gore.
Seriously amazing! I set out some glue traps tonight because I recently discovered I had a mouse. While watching my little “friend” walk around them I researched and found this. Thank you !I set it up and started reading the comments lol im not even finished reading them yet and I already caught my mouse. I set it up again because after hearing other people’s stories I imagine there is more than one. Genius!!!!!!
Amazing!!!!! I thing that this really will work here is the story. So my friend got a mouse from a pet store. The mouse got lose, and he started scaring everyone. The mouse started to eat punut butter, jelly, crackers and grapes. It was a pain. Now all of that is going to go away!!!!!!!.
How do you get the mouse on the counter?
I just had to leave a comment because if it wasn’t for you I would still be living with those nasty mice.I set up the trap you recommended and have caught 3 mice in three days. Thank you soooo much!
I did this last night. I lined the inside end with peanut butter and set a 2ft tall plastic bin under it (no liner). This morning, tube is in the bin and nothing in the bin. Two droppings inside. Its black, short grain rice looking and hard. Is this mice? How the heck did it climb out?
hey so i have a hamster and so obviously i have food…well this little mouse has been around getting in to my hamsters food a few nights ago i thought i heard something but wasnt sure..i had my light off but looked anyways and i thought i saw something very small and dark colored run across the nightstand where my hamster was and down under my bed…i didnt do anything about it or say anything to my parents…then a few times tonight i heard it and saw it for sure so i found this and i gotta say its a great idea i just hope hes not to smart since i know he saw me looking around for him and setting it all up…either way thank you so much (:
great idea gonna try it
I had a little friend ( means the mouse ) over at my house he chewed a whole tip
Of the door frame we flipped the bed over and moved everything to the bathroom it was crazyyy thanks for the tip 🙂
This is the first time I have had mice living in my house since I was a child. At first I thought I would have to go buy poison or traps but since I have been out of work I have been looking for more ‘homemade’ ideas. I just set the trap; 9:50am, Thursday, Sept 13, 2012. Let’s see how long this takes. My little mouse or mice, not sure, is pretty brave. Coming from the living room behind the couch into the dining area and then on to the kitchen during the day while I am sitting at the table sewing or crafting. Yesterday we had a fight, he wanted to go into the kitchen and I kept seeing him and making a noise made him go back. We did this several times until i guess I missed it or he gave up. I’m pretty sure he didn’t give up. Update when I catch him. Thanks for posting the idea. A thank you everyone for posting your updates!
This worked amazingly well and quickly, too. I used a few bits of a raspberry to tempt my little guy. He seemed a bit confused when I let him go outside.
Thank you!
would carrot work?
Hi guys I gave this Mouse trap a try lastnight simply because the live traps I bought have had no success at all anyways I set the DIY trap up and returned the following morning to find that the tube was gone so I assumed I had caught my 1st Mouse however upon inspection of the box it was empty, completely empty! the cheeky little sod was too clever and was not fooled and instead of entering the tube it opted to drag it down the ramp and under the tv cabinet to enjoy it’s spoils! despite failing in capturing said Mouse I must admit I tip my hat to the little fella
I’ll try again tonight but with a modified version
So glad to find this page. I was looking to find another no-kill trap. I have a holey house so it’s really a mouse house rather than mine. I can’t move and I can’t be buddhist about living with them. I’ve trapped alot in a no-kill trap and then set them free into a wooded area far from my house. But I’m going to try this. I’ve gotten good results with peanut butter but will try the jerky. Also I learned that mice can die very quickly without water (and in some cases people drowning them) so if you have to wait for hours to return them alive to the wild – a bottle top of water should be in the bin.In my case I have a great mouser cat living with me and he always alerts me to the fact by bringing it to me much alive. He doesn’t ever kill them. Then I take over the trapping process. It’s worked pretty well and I’m working on fixing up all the holes. Since moving in 1989 I think I caught and released about 25 mice but they use to just stay in my attic. Thanks for the diy and all the comments and tips.
I’m planning on using your method tomorrow, this poor little mouse must be terrified. I don’t believe in killing an innocent mouse that got stuck in my house. Hopefully this works, wish me luck!
Left out for a couple of hours. The mouse is now in the local park!
Just about to try it
Wish me LUCK!!
Mouse traps are one of the most effective ways to capture mice and ultimately eradicate the mouse infestation that has invaded your home. Before professionals choose poisons and products with toxic chemicals, they will choose traps to honor the safety of your home. Not only are traps effective in mouse control, but mouse traps are economical in that they do not cost a lot of money to buyTo.
It didn’t work we lost to bin bags of food and we had to use old fashion traps and kill them
About to try. I had rescued a baby mouse yesterday and lost him >.> but she is still in my room because I left peanut butter bait and he is eating it when I’m not there.
Omg gotta try this I gotta mouse how is fond of cooking sheets after I cook somthing on it he ( I think )every night he is on nom noming on the crispy bits ugg he is soo messy and soo loud!
THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!! We had one that got into our stove we set up this trap and within a few hours he was in the empty trash bin and is now outside. This was helpful and does work.
Tried it… My mouse was too smart for this he pulled the tp tube fully onto the counter twice and got the pb out. I brought a humane trap but if he goes for the other two traps he’s getting snapped. I’d rather not deal with a dead mouse but atleast it will be dead and not squirming on a glue trap.
Just something of note to those asking about using things like carrots or other similar foods: I would avoid doing so. The mouse may end up choking to death on a big hard piece of vegetable like that. You could try placing a roasted pumpkin seed in the tube as an alternative.
Fantastic! After a month of trying out 3 tin traps (at a cost of about $70) I had caught exactly zero mice. On the first night of setting this up I had actually caught 2 mice at the same time in a single roll! I’ve now relocated about 12 mice – just a few fiendish ones to get now…
TO THE pEOPLE USING THIS TRAP.
PLEASE STOP RELEASING THE MICE NEAR MY HOUSE. I’M ABOUT TO GO CRAZY
I have 2 mice in my house please tell me how to caych em cuz the go all around the traps I have im thinkin bout puttin roast beef om the ttaps sumbody hp me I dont like mice
Thank you for this post. I had a mouse that evaded me for 3 days, Little blighter !
I read your post last night and set about making the trap. I was disappointed when I found it empty this morning. I checked the trap all day and then this evening there it was sat happily in the bottom of the bin eating itself stupid. It has now been released away from the house.
I have reset the trap in case there is another (Hope not)
Thanks again :o)
thx this worked well! we have mice everywhere in our community and for some reason they always end up at our house… anyways they come up on our deck and come in through our fireplace they dug a hole through it. ive always wanted a pet and i had a hamster cage that one of my family members used to own, so when i caught the guy i filled up the water bottle took it along with some cheese and stuck em in the cage along with my mouse. i now have three four mice, sugar, jasmine, nutmeg, and cocoa, along with the other mice i caught i built a tiny house fit for mice put it in our local park and continue to put mice in it everyday, i would suggest to do this because it is good. just put one cracker barrel bar of cheese or other type of cheese bars in the house, it should last about three to five days. you should also put three bottles of water a day in there. dont forget to put more in time to time or they will die. also remember that you will need to put more stuff in according to how much mice you get. once again thx!!!
Thank you. Used a Christmas cookie last night and let it out in wooded area today!
Thank you. Used a Christmas cookie last night and let it out in wooded area today!
Thx. For ur idea but it didn’t work i have to sleep in the guest room who knows till when I find the right sulition it’s hard but I’m gonna go for it xxx from kimmy
This method worked well for me. However, toilet roll may be too short so try using empty kitchen roll instead as it is longer and increases the likelihood of success.
After reading the comments about mice pulling the tube back onto the table or down the ramp and getting the bait, I’ve come up with a solution with I think will work – fold out a paper clip to make an L-shape. Make a hole in the bottom of the tube, just off centre. Slide the short end of the L into the tube from the other end, and guide it into the hole using two fingers of the other hand through the other end of the tube. Then tape down the long end of the L inside the tube. This should stop the mouse from being able to pull the tube back over the edge of the table. My tube would not balance, so I also taped an old cell battery inside the end on the table. I’ll update if it worked or not.
GENIUS! I’ve been trying to catch this mouse for several days in a standard humane trap but every night it took the food without getting caught. This worked a treat (used kitchen roll tube). THANK YOU
If you’re having problems with the mouse pulling the cardboard onto the bench, tape a wine bottle (or other large glass bottle) to the bench with the top hanging out over the bucket. Put the bait on the end of the bottle (peanut butter works best as it stays there) and oil up the neck of the bottle with oil, cooking spray or butter. The mouse goes out to get the bait, and slips into the bucket!
I will be using this today….I woke up to a grey fuzzy face in my bed….
Catch and release? Yeah I do too. I release then in my chicken coop. The girls say yum yum.
So glad I came across this brilliant idea, found a mouse in our house tonight, quickly put together the trap and within an hour there he was in the bucket! Thank you so much, would much rather keep them alive!
I actually like the drawings. Did you sketch on a Wacom tablet? Of course, the skill is greater than the tool.
As i sit here waiting, with anticipation, in complete darkness and silence, i cant help but ponder the struggles of my furry little nemesis. The fact that im on the 8th floor of my building alone is astounding. it almost kills me walking all those stairs so how he managed i dont know. Then theres the fact that ive been trying to poison him him for a week, unsucessfully i might add. the little bugger seems to be immune to rentokil. so ive built myself your ramp trap (but had to use some spring roll due to lack of peanut butter) to catch him. i then plan to release him 1 mile away from the top of clifton suspension bridge.
Fakeer, I drew this on an envelope with a pen then scanned it in.
This is awesome. I’ve never experienced mice in my life and I thought maybe I had one mouse in my house. I’ve caught four in twenty minutes of setting up the same trap consecutively. I’m pretty sure I have an infestation. But thank you so much. +1 for Peanut Butter on the end of the roll.
Set the “ramp method trap” up a few days ago after weeks of completely unsuccessful mouse hunting with commercial humane traps. Woke up to a loud “KLONK” last night around 4 am. Went downstairs to check, and FINALLY, there he was caught (well, one of them, at least), cute as a button, and very plump. Looking slightly confused. Mouse, not me. Me, proud hunter that I was, I ran upstairs to go grab my phone to take a PROOF PICTURE for the out-of-town boyfriend. Coming back down like 40 seconds later – guess who looked confused at the sight of the…eeeer…EMPTY trash can. ME, not mouse! Because mouse was probably laughing his little mousey ass off in some dark corner that he had just escaped to. How the HELL he got of the totally sleek metal trash can, that’s about 20 inches high…I HAVE NO IDEA…must have jumped.
So. Mouse. War is ON, just so you know!
I need to change the design a bit, as I don’t have a higher trash can (since I need my actual trash can for its actual purpose).
First attempt failed… I started with a hunk of bread but thought better of it and went out for some Jif creamy. That got his attention withing 30 minutes. I’m guessing he fell into the trashcan but then jumped out. Its 22″ high – might have an Olympic class mouse. Reset. 2nd attempt.
Attempt #1 Mickey went for the trap but was able to escape our trash can. In the garbage can, I saw the TP tube, some bait and poop. I couldn’t understand how he got out. The mouse is so small. Bait: dry pasta
Attempt #2 Set the trap @ 10PM with a taller bin. Checked in the morning and I thought it was another failed attempt until my husband checked 20 minutes and saw the tail sticking out of the tube. He was just hiding! Watching him in the bin, I realized how he got out the first time. He can jump almost 8x it’s height. Bait: Cookie w/ peanut butter.
Tip: I placed 2 small jars on each side of the TP tube in case the mouse accidentally knocked it over.
Thank you! I feel quite accomplished.
The only useful thing here for me, as I was in a rush to catch the mouse, was that mice like peanut butter, which I used as bait, till he got in my cardboard box, and I quickly shut the hole. I added a glass celieng to the box, so I could see him inside. The above examples only apply if your mouse is ON your table, but what if, as usual, he is UNDER the table, on ground floor ! Thanks for the humane tips here, and don’t forget, mice are VERY fast.
And remeber to put the peanut butter at the far end of the box, otherwise he will eat it and get back out, being as fast as thought! Also remember that mice will eat the cardboard box too in no time, to get out, so no use leaving it all night. You have to get rid of it, as soon as you’ve caught the little bugger.
Update: I had that really smart mouse that avoided the normal hardware store humane traps and could also apparently jump out of my 20″ slippery metal trash can (we named him “Harry Houdini”). After he fell in there once a few days ago, I changed the design of the trap so he probably wouldn’t have been able to jump out anymore. He still came up the ramp to collect little nuts I had put there to lure him up again after the first time he fell in the trash can – but of course he never went into the paper roll again. So I ended up taking the whole contraption apart and instead, putting this trap up:
http://www.amazon.com/Device-Reusable-Humane-Multi-Catch-Mouse/dp/B009Y63YGI
And while it took a few days, last night he finally went in. Ate the bait (which was a piece of pita chip smeared with peanut butter) and then tried to get out; I woke up from the little clattering noises of Mousy trying to open the trap doors. Took a proof picture and drove him about two miles away across a six-lane Highways into a park and set him free into a very thick, large patch of underbrush.
TRIUMPH AT LAST!
And now my mother is giving me shit about how I probably deprived a whole batch of baby mice of their Mom or Dad and how they would now all starve to death…well, I’m putting my trap up again, if they walk in, they will be released at the same spot as Harry Houdini and they’ll have every chance at a fulfilled mouse life outside of my house. If they don’t walk in, well…
Caught a mouse, I let it go at the park, as I walked off, I looed back, a bird “Magpie” had caught the poor mouse.
lived in an old house and mice came in when it got cold. They got into my pantry and were chewing boxes and I had no trap so smeared peanut butter about six inches down a trash can and sat it by the pantry. I had three mice in the morning
Getting rid of mice is very difficult. But not impossible. Effective technique and pesticide can do the job quite easier. I mostly depend on poison bait for controlling mice infestation. By the way thanks for sharing this article.
Thanks so much for this article. We have tried for a week or so to catch our mouse (maybe mice), using the snap traps and little box traps. We set this up last night and immediately caught one. This is a much better idea and greatly welcomed. I feel like we are getting somewhere now.
OK, just wondering, who are these people that dont have a counter or table????
if the mice can jump out of the bin try putting an inch of water in the bottom. Not enough so that it will drown but enough so that it cant jump high.
Thank you SO much! Worked fabulously first time 🙂
Cat just brought a mouse in and it got away and am 99 % sure it is in the guest room now. So I made this with two soda 12-packs and the trash can and closed the door to the room. Will check on it in an hour or so. Hope it works. Don’t want the cat(who is shut out doors until i resolve this) catching it.
First attempt he jumped out. Ate the bait and left some poops in the can. Tried using the can/PB method but I guess this mouse does not like PB. 3rd attempt he was able to grab the counter as the tube fell. 4th attempt today. Braced the tube this time and sprayed pam near the top of the bucket. If this fails I will just fill the bucket with a little water so he cannot jump.
Im going to set the trap up tonite but i wont be releasing the Vermin so he can go to someone elses House and cause them Grief,im going to squash the bastard!!!!!
This is so crazy that I can’t make this up. My mom walked into my room & said we have mice in our cabinets. I quickly looked online because I remember using a trash can before to catch a mouse in the past.
I came across this page & asked if had a toilet paper roll. I ran down into the kitchen set up the trash can, toilet paper roll, a little bit of peanut butter & turned off the lights.
15 mins later!!!!! I heard a noise & ran down into the kitchen then yelled up to my mom, “I caught one!”
We sat in the kitchen for a little bit & heard another one walking around in the cabinet & wouldn’t you know we watched as he crawled through the tube & watched as it fell into the trash can.
That’s two mice within 45 mins. We ended up driving 2 miles away & released them at a community park.
When I read that it works within the hour I must admit I was thinking ok the probability this will work is likely to be high. Never thought it would work so fast.
Just made the one with the ramp and trashcan! Gonna wait and see. I was going to buy a humane trap but I really want this little guy out now! We saved him from the neighbors cat and the little bugger got out of our extra mouse cage.Our first rescued mouse is our pet! We wanted to make sure he wasn’t injured and we were going to let him go. He isn’t friendly like our found mouse who jumped in my hand in the middle of the road! Boyfriend says he will never do this again. The wild mice are on their own. We saved a bat too but got him to the bat rescue!
I tried this trap in our barn with a 36 inch high trash can, but i have not caught anything. I think a squirrel is raiding my trap because the tube was in the can but nothing else was. I hope i can catch a mouse because i want to tame it and teach it to play basketball 😀
We call it the ‘Mouse Pit’
Ok so this trap definitely works..
Found some mice in our new home around re pantry and kitchen; it’s an old house with lots of drawers and spare cupboards.. So these droppings were everywhere and noises at night even saw a few but didn’t know how many mice we had as we couldn’t catch/kill any!
We got rid of the food cleared/cleaned all the house, used fox and some other animals urine to deter em from this pet shop used the ‘best’ ionic ultrasound pulsating noise sending mouse repellers cost about £15 a pop from eBay and ‘humane’ mousetraps, all to no avail & this continued for 6 weeks.. Then tried normal metal traps 8 in total and only caught 2 in the first night then nothing! It really started to spoil the peace and tranquility at home because my son is terrified of mice. Also the mice damaged the sofa as well as the carpet and we had to throw away a lot of food and constantly clean up the mess..
So finally I made a modified version of the trap above with a longer tube that tips into the plastic bucket about 20 inches high that has an angled floor to stop the mice ‘spring’ jumping out of it.. Must have killed about 30 mice so far in the space of 2-3 weeks.. Most nights there’s at least one mouse, most cought in a night =3. All shapes and sizes.. most are skinny and look sick.. Might start a business selling mice to a pet shop or snake owners as killing them is such a waste!!
Seriously though, I have lost all compassion or mercy towards mice!! Thinking of putting their heads on a chopstick or something to deter other mice, as we don’t know where they are coming in from as have blocked the entrances we could find.. The droppings have almost gone and they haven’t damaged anything since this trap was set up.. I salute the person who came up with this idea.. Mice are clever so we have to be cleverer!
We call it the ‘Mouse Pit’
Thank you.
Was awake all night because a baby found its way in from the cold and kept trying to share my pillow. Knowing they are social/emotional/intelligent, murder was not a viable alternative. However, no sleep is not acceptable either.
This is the perfect solution to resolve the conflict.
Thank you.
Hope this link stays for all like me who need it in the future.
Thank you.
Was awake all night because a baby found its way in from the cold and kept trying to share my pillow. Knowing they are social/emotional/intelligent, murder was not a viable alternative. However, no sleep is not acceptable either.
This is the perfect solution to resolve the conflict.
Thank you.
Hope this link stays for all like me who need it in the future.
This trap does not work me and my husband moved into this old house and there were some mice running around we tried everything. Finally we tried this! The mice did not want to go in that hole in the tub. There to smart for that.
This trap works extremely well.
I set it up & withinn an hour had a “HIT”. Unfortunately. the bucket wasn’t tall enough & the mouse jumped out.
I reset it using a tall trash can under the shelf in our pantry & have since caught 3.
I used to work at a garden center in New England. Chipmunks would always eat the birdseed we sold. I thought of a plan (probably inadvertently stole the concept, It’s too simple to be my own). This is not a no-kill solution but it worked.
Needed:
Large leaves (paper plates would probably work too)
Bird seed
5-gallon bucket
Fill the bucket with water and put the leaves over it. Put the seeds on the leaves. When the chipmunk tries to eat the seeds it drops into the bucket, the leaves keep it from getting out and it drowns.
Totally sad, yes, but totally worked.
Thank you soooo much – this was so simple to do and I had what I needed within easy reach… No trips to the hardware store! Mouse in the bin within 2 hours and dispatched to nearest park soon after. Must admit, carrying pink trash can in my pajamas at 4am to local park would have looked amusing!!!
Wonder if inverting a CONE into the bucket—like a dog “Collar of Shame” would KEEP the mouse in there???? Works on fish and wasps etc.
And—I get the whole “Life is sacred” thing—I do. I do wild animal rescue and rehab! But–mice can spread PLAGUE. And KILL you. The bubonic plague killed millions and could do this again. They can also carry many other diseases that can kill you. In the American Southwest this is a deadly problem and it is becoming more common as the climate changes. Hanta virus can KILL you!
Please IF you release these make SURE they are no where NEAR anyone elses house or business—they will be INSIDE before you get home. And this time they will NOT be eating the stuff in the tube-=—-
This actually works! Delighted! Caught a mouse but think it was so big it might actually have been a small rat. Our cats brought it in and played with it but it hid and we waited for it to come out but it didnt until we did this. Tha nks so much!
Trap set… Fingers crossed
Took less than 10 minutes to catch our little bugger! I do recommend the deepest can you can get your hands on, our guy jumped 2′ easy, but we used a “leaf & lawn” size can, so we still got him. Thanks so much for posting this – we’re 20 miles from the nearest store & the mouse showed up at 10 o’clock at night; it was great to use what we had on hand.
He CRAWLED up to the sleeve of your shirt, and you decided to ‘say farewell’ ? ……… so after he warmed up to you and decided to coexist with you, you decided it was time to bid farewell. its contradictory. the least.
I just discovered a mouse in my house at 0430am and no traps and it was on the floor not the table..duh…Most are not on tables. But this one was big and fat and I wonder if it is full of babies about to drop them in my house. OMG, Here I sat at 0515am and scared to do anything. But no cats either. Wonder how it came in and I do not want those diseases you mention and dam if I will take it to a park. What if it got out when I was driving and got away after an accident and they would never know what caused the fatality?
I went back to the comments trying to find the diseases they have and couldn’t find it. Guess I will have to google it. They sounded pretty bad. I guess the mouse took them with them for the night…omg.
Chris
Thanks for this page! I tried it out when I lived in Cameroon, in a house where mice and all kinds of insects could easily walk in and out. I tuned your method in some way filling the bucket half with water. I caught about 5 mice making the rest of them move out quickly the house. The water was not really a problem as mice are tough guys: the could swim for hours in it before freeing them….
Tried this with Nutella instead of peanut butter, worked just fine. Thank you, will use again if there ever is another mouse in the kitchen!
I hate to be “that guy,” but:
If you set up a trap specifically to catch a mouse, what would you call it?
Answer: A MOUSE TRAP!
(I might not exactly hate being that guy.)
My mom found a mouse in the van that ate some of her crunch candy bar and chewed a tissue and we are using this method because I would NOT let my mom or dad kill it we are going to catch it then let it go as gently as possibly after me and my sister hold and pet it a few times or we might keep it in our old gerbil’s cage. I love mice!
I tried it and it worked!
don,t let children pet or touch caught mice…they bite and carry bacteria!!!!!!