Feed: Mouse Traps That Work - AggScore: 97.8

Mouse Glue Traps

If you’ve done any shopping around for a mouse trap, then you’ve probably run across the class of traps known as the glue trap. Some people may also refer to them as sticky mouse traps because the mice are caught by sticking to the adhesive. The name isn’t what’s important though… What you’re really here to find out is whether or not glue traps actually.

The short answer is yes. You can catch mice with glue traps. The general premise is that there is a very strong adhesive on one side of the trap. When the mouse gets lured to the bait (either placed on the trap or a scent of the glue), it will walk on the trap and get stuck. This is where it gets ugly though. The problem is that the mouse is not killed immediately. As a matter of fact, once it gets stuck it will struggle to free itself from the trap. This is the problem with the glue trap. They are not instant kill, which leaves mice to suffer through a long and painful death.

Glue traps are one of, if not THE, most inhumane type of trap you can deploy to get rid of mice. During a mouse’s struggle, they are known to rip out their own hair exposing raw skin. Some mice even go so far as to chew off their own legs to try and free themselves from the sticky situation. Eventually the mouse will die of starvation, dehydration, or even suffocation. It can take on the order of several hours, even DAYS, to finally kill the mouse using a glue trap.

As you would imagine, the cruelty of these traps has caused numerous animal rights groups to speak out against their use. These groups aren’t necessarily against killing mice that have invaded your home… the mice don’t belong there. What the groups oppose is the cruel and tortuous method for killing them. There are many other types of traps that are equally, if not more, effective than glue traps. They are also much more humane in their kill method. If you’re really concerned about the well being of the mouse, you could even look at humane live catch traps.

The moral of the story: avoid glue traps. Check out some of the other mouse traps that work on this site. You’ll be glad you did.

Humane Mouse Traps

Even though mice or rats are a very destructive rodent, some people have a hard time killing them. When you think about it, the mice aren’t in your house with malicious intent. They are there for one reason, and one reason only: they’re programmed to survive. Their primary motivation is to survive, not make your life miserable. Why do they deserve to die just because they found the wrong place to make a home? They are a living creature, that you shouldn’t kill… You might even think they’re kind of cute. If any of these thoughts are running through your head, then humane mouse traps may be what you’re looking for.

How can a trap be considered humane? Isn’t the most humane thing to do is let the mouse to its thing, and you do yours? Sure, if you don’t mind having mice as roommates… also, if you don’t mind dealing with electrical problems should they chew threw wires. If you don’t mind the risk of disease, go ahead and live with them. Share the food in your pantry with a bunch of mice… go ahead, I dare you. Mice aren’t going to leave on their own. You’re going to have to do something to get them to leave. If you’re worried about the little guy suffering, humane mouse traps are the way to go.

When talking about “humane” traps, you can really mean one of two things… Humane might mean that you can kill the mouse, but you don’t want it to suffer. There are international standards for the humane treatment of mice. If a trap is to kill them, they must be killed within a certain time period. This is something you will most often see when looking at electronic mouse traps. If you’re going to kill a mice with an electric shock, you want to make sure that the mouse dies rapidly and doesn’t go through undue suffering via a prolonged electric shock. The standard for killing a mouse is to have it die in 10 seconds or less. If a trap doesn’t guarantee this time to death, it is considered inhumane.

Other people take the meaning of “humane” traps to another level… they believe that humane means you don’t kill the mouse at all, but catch it in a live mouse trap and then release it far away from your home. There are quite a few traps on the market that fit this billet. Though there is a wide selection, they usually have one thing in common. The mouse can enter the trap, but it can’t get out. This can be achieved in a variety ways: one way trap door, falling into a container they can’t jump out of, or even a tilt mechanism. The end result is the same … the mouse survives the initial trapping. One thing you need to strongly consider is whether or not you’re willing to check a live catch trap regularly. If you have good intentions to use a live catch trap, but you don’t check it regularly, you’re actually inflicting more pain and suffering on a mouse than if you just killed it. Think about it… if you leave a mouse locked up in a chamber for days, it will die of dehydration and exposure… a long tortuous death full of suffering. If you can’t check your traps at least a couple times per day, do yourself and your mice friends a favor and deploy humane lethal traps vice humane live catch traps.

I also want to talk shortly about some inhumane techniques for getting rid of mice. Sticky mouse traps, or glue traps, are one of the most inhumane type of traps. While though they are effective, a mouse is not killed by a snapping bar or an electric shock. The mouse dies a long painful death of dehydration and exposure. Some mice are even known to chew off their own limbs in an attempt to free themselves from a glue trap. Remember mice are programmed to survive… if it costs them a limb for their life, they’ll go for it. Sometimes they’ll chew off their limbs and still die. How can that be considered humane?

Let’s consider one thing before you choose to purchase a non-lethal mouse trap. You have to free the mouse somewhere. No, dropping the mouse off in your neighbor’s backyard is not sufficient. For one, your neighbor wouldn’t appreciate it very much. Two, it probably wouldn’t work anyways… They have a very keen sense of smell and can find their way back home. It has been reported that you can drop off a mice a mile or more away, and it will still find its way back to its nest. You know what’s more irritating than having mice in your home? Having to catch the same darn mouse over and over again… This is something to consider. Do you have a place sufficiently far away that you can drive the mouse to and free? If not, you’re probably better off killing the mouse with a humane trap.

That about covers it. Let’s recap with some of the pros and cons. If you have anything to add, please use the comment section to help your fellow homeowners take care of their mice problem.

Pros:

• You don’t have to kill the mice to get rid of them
• These traps are safe to use around children or pets because there are no dangerous components

Cons:

• You need to check the traps frequently
• Mice may come back if not release far enough away

Victor M2524 Electronic Mouse Trap

The two traps I’ve previously reviewed on this were the Agri Zap Rat Zapper and the Victor Multi-Kill Electronic Mouse Trap. Both are good at what they do, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. What I want to review in this article is yet another electronic mouse trap that gets the job done. One of the most appealing aspects of this mouse trap is that it is relatively inexpensive in comparison to the other electronic mouse traps that I’ve reviewed. The trap I’m talking about, in case you didn’t catch the title, is the Victor M2524 Electronic Mouse Trap.

This is the second electronic mouse trap from Victor that I’m reviewing on this site, so I should start off by pointing out one of the primary differences. The most notable is that this trap is not a multi-kill unit. What I mean by that is it can’t catch more than one mouse at a time. It is definitely reusable – you just have to dispose of the mouse after each successful catch. That’s not a big deal. It’s just like any other “regular” trap. What’s so appealing about this electronic mouse trap is that you can buy 5 of these traps for a single Victor Multi-Kill trap. This is a HUGE advantage because now you’re playing the numbers game (and you’re starting to tip them into your advantage). If you deploy one trap, you’re only going to catch a mouse if it wanders in that ONE area. If you deploy 5 traps, you have FIVE OPPORTUNITIES for that mouse to come across your traps. If you think that increases your odds of catching a mouse, you’re right.

The biggest problem with mouse traps is not that they don’t work, it’s that people don’t use them properly. The most important thing to consider when catching mice is LOCATION. If you deploy a mouse trap where the mouse aren’t at, you’re not going to catch any mice. If you deploy 5 traps, and 2 or 3 of them are where the mice are, you have a really good chance of catching mice. That’s one of the reasons why I love this electronic mouse trap.

So now, you may be wondering whether or not this trap works. Yes, it does. It works pretty darn well, but there are some things you should know to get the best results. First of all, when you deploy the trap, you want to make sure that the electrodes are clean. After a kill, use a Q-Tip or something similar to remove any hair or other debris from the electrodes. More importantly, make sure you don’t have any bait on the electrodes. You don’t want to shock the peanut butter! That will simply drain the battery or insulate the mouse from the electrical shock.

Another important thing to recognize, and this applies to all mouse traps, is that you shouldn’t put excessive bait on the trap. You don’t need to put a huge mound of peanut butter on the trap to attract mice. The goal is not to get a mouse to SEE it (mice have horrible eye sight!). It’s to get them to SMELL it. A trace amount of bait is all it takes to trigger a mouse’s keen sense of smell. Scrape a little bit of peanut butter on the bait station, and you’re set. You’re just trying to get the aroma on there, not provide a healthy food source for the mice.

What you also get with this trap is the normal benefits with electronic mouse traps. The effective kill rate is higher because once a mouse is properly positioned, it’s zapped and rendered lifeless. It’s very humane because this kill occurs within a few second of contact. A snap trap or glue trap, on the other hand, is extremely inhumane in comparison. Consider a mouse that triggers a snap trap that is not optimally placed. It could be squealing and trying to escape the trap for an hour before it finally dies. How about being stuck to a piece of paper so long that you try to chew your limbs off to get yourself free (hardly humane). An electronic shock administered to the mice is over in a few seconds, and the mouse is unconscious before it’s dead – it literally doesn’t even know what hit him.

This trap has an LED that blinks whenever a mouse is caught. This only blinks for 24 hours before turning off, so you should check this trap daily. If you haven’t checked it in the last 24 hours, you’ll want to open it up and look inside to make sure you didn’t miss anything. The reason the light turns off after a while is because you don’t want a blinking light to drain your battery. You want to save the juice to kill mice, not flash a light – it makes sense when you think about. Similarly, when the trap is turned on, the light stays illuminated for 2 seconds to provide notification that it’s working. It then turns off – don’t be alarmed, the trap is still engaged. It’s just conserving battery.

Finally, for the squeamish at heart, what you want to know is if you have to touch it. No. Once you catch a mice, all you have to do shake the mouse free from the trap. You don’t have to pry back a spring loaded bar to free the mouse from the trap. You don’t really need to look at it even. Just shake it into the garbage can, and once you’ve done that pop open the lid to clean it off. Don’t worry – you’re not going to find any blood or guts inside of this trap. Worst case you’ll see a little bit of hair. Big deal – it’s not a dead mouse.

So that’s about all I have to say about this Victor mouse trap… If you’re wondering how long the batteries last… A set of four AA batteries will get you around 50 kills. Deploy a few of these, and you’re going to have a pretty potent defense against a mouse infestation.

Don’t take my word for it about this mouse trap, check out the reviews on Amazon. You’ll have the low ratings, as you would with any product, but I attribute it primarily to user error. If you deploy this trap the way I’ve described, without over baiting the product, it’ll catch mice without a problem.

 Buy It Now on Amazon! 

Victor M260 Multi-Kill Electronic Mouse Trap

What kind of website would this be if I didn’t give you a choice to decide what would the best mouse trap that works for you and your needs. The next one I want to review for you is manufactured by a name very well known in the pest control industry, Victor. The Victor M260 Multi-Kill Electronic Mouse Trap is their entry into the electronic class of rodent trap, and it’s a strong one at that.

If I started out by saying that this is the best electronic mouse trap on the market, you’ll probably continue reading this article through the eyes of a skeptic. Reading that at the start of the article may make you decide “NEXT” as you continue your seemingly never ending quest to find a mouse trap that works. Do yourself a favor and take the time to read this one through to the end. On this website, I don’t want to give you a big sales pitch on why you need to buy this trap or that trap. I want to give you the facts so you can make an educated decision. That being said, this is a pretty darn good electronic mouse trap.

The engineers that designed the Victor Multi-Kill Electronic Mouse Trap have done an excellent job building a trap that plays into the natural instinct of mice. The most notable thing you’ll find is the tunneled staircase designed to draw mice in. Mice don’t like to be in wide open spaces. Their natural tendency is to hug the walls or travel in tight places that offer the most protection. When mice are in their natural habitat in the wild, if they run across the middle of an open field a bird or snake will pick them off without much effort. If they crawl through rocks and in tunnels, it makes them less exposed to their natural predators. This instinct plays in here as well as they seek out the small dark places. The staircase was lab tested to improve the efficacy of drawing the mice into the trap. That’s why you find it in this high end design.

From a usability perspective, the trap is unrivaled. One of the big problems with typical snap traps or glue traps is that you have to frequently check them to see if they’ve caught anything. If they did catch something, or if the mouse tripped the trap and got away cleanly, the trap is no longer doing it’s job. It works once and it’s done until you interact. That’s the beauty of the Victor Multi-Kill Trap… it’s MULTI KILL. That means, you can deploy it, and overnight it can catch up to 10 mice before the chamber needs to be emptied. Mice are lured into the trap by some bait (peanut butter, oats, whatever…). The tunneled staircase design helps to draw the mice in and up to the top where there is a shock chamber. Once the mice enters this chamber, the Victor mouse trap springs into action and administers a fatal shock to the mouse that is 100% effective. There’s no chance of a mouse entering that chamber and coming out alive. It just won’t happen. Once a kill has been made, the mouse is dumped into a storage chamber and an LED is illuminated to let you know that there is a mouse in the chamber. Whenever it is convenient to you, you can come by and empty the chamber. Now I wouldn’t leave a dead mouse in there for days, but it’s not something you have to check 5 times a day either.

So I’ve told you a lot of the good, and if you check out the product page, they’re going to tell you a lot more good. Now I’m going to tell you the bad. Actually, it’s not that bad, it’s just that you should know what you’re buying before you buy it. This trap is designed to catch house mice. If you have field mice, they tend to be larger and may not fit into this trap very well. I’m not saying it won’t work, but I am saying the effectiveness of the trap may decline against larger mice because you just won’t be able to lure them in. So what do you do if you’re not sure? Buy the Agri Zap Rat Zapper Ultra. Yes, I know it says “rat” in the title, and you’re dealing with “mice,” but this trap works very well and is effective against both rats and mice. Whether it’s tiny little house mice, bigger field mice, or a big fat rat, the Rat Zapper will do the trick. What you lose with the Rat Zapper is the “multi kill” capability, so that’s something to consider before you make the decision to buy one over the other.

One other thing that I’d like to point out about catching mice. You’re not going to eradicate all mice from your home with one trap. That would actually be lucky if you did. To effectively mount an offensive against a growing mice population, you have to deploy MULTIPLE traps. By doing this, you can increase the coverage and thereby increase the likelihood of catching a mouse. One trap is effective only where that one trap is. Multiple traps are effective in multiple places. The point I’m trying to make is that buying one Victor Multi-Kill Electronic Mouse Trap may not be enough to completely get rid of mice. You will likely need to deploy multiple traps. If you have money to burn, you can buy multiple mult-kill traps. If you’re on a budget, I recommend buying inexpensive snap traps in addition to this trap. That way you get trap diversity and increased coverage due to multiple traps.

In summary, if you have a lot of mice and you’re looking for a trap that is a workhorse capable of killing more than one mouse in a deployment… the Victor M260 Multi-Kill Electronic Mouse Trap is the one for you. While it does have a hefty price tag, it will more than pay for itself when you’re able to rid your home of mice on your own rather than pay an exterminator to do it for you. You have the knowledge, now all you need to find is a mouse trap that works. The Victor Multi-Kill Mouse Trap works.

 Buy It Now on Amazon! 

Agri Zap – Rat Zapper Ultra

You might be wondering why I’m writing about the rat zapper, when this is a site about mice. There is a reason for that, and that’s simply because this “rodent trap” works. It works on both rats and mice, so if you’re not sure what type of rodent you have in your home, this is a perfect fit. If you do know it’s a mouse infestation, well this still might be a perfect fit for you because, well…. it just works. If you’re looking for an electronic mouse trap that works, then you look no further… that is why you’re here, isn’t it?

The Agri Zap Rat Zapper Ultra is an electronic mouse trap that administers a high voltage electric shock to whatever rodent wanders into its chamber. It’s claim to fame is that if it fits in the chamber, the rat zapper can will dispatch them. Keep that in mind if you have any cute little mouse hunters…. errr, I mean…. kittens running around the house!

The rat zapper is not a huge device and is a perfect fit for placement in areas frequented by mice. The trap is baited with ordinary food. I am a fan of the peanut butter, but you can also use different types of pet foods as well. The most important thing to remember is that the trap works, but does your bait? If you’ve had the trap for a week and you know you have ten mice running around your house… if it doesn’t kill any mice for you, it’s not the trap. I would guarantee that it’s the bait. Try experimenting with different baits – what works for one household may not work for mice in yours.

One of the noteworthy features of this electronic mouse trap is that it has an indicator light that flashes when a mouse is killed and in the compartment. I’m sure you’ll find a bit of pleasure checking the trap to see the light illuminated, realizing that you have one less mouse in your home. The other nice thing is that disposal is extremely easy. All you have to do is pick up the trap and tilt it into the garbage can. The mouse slides right out. You don’t have to worry about washing blood and guts from a snap trap or other mechanical device. All you have is a dead mouse, lying there in peace, almost as if it had died of natural causes. No smashed heads or broken bones. No blood, no guts, and no mess.

One of the biggest complaints you’ll read about the rat zapper is that it has a limited battery life. Of course batteries don’t last forever, but you can expect to kill at least 30 mice with 4 alkaline D-sized batteries. It also boasts a 2 year standby period (it won’t take that long to kill your mice, trust me). That’s quite a few mice on one set of batteries. It is likely that review is for the first iteration of the device that used AA batteries. The ULTRA version uses larger batteries and consequently has a longer lifetime. Just think about how many snap traps you’ll have to deploy to catch 30 mice (and think of the cleanup too – you’re either throwing the snap traps out or wiping the blood from the metal bar or teeth). With an electronic mouse trap, you don’t have to worry about that sort of thing. The mice is dead, and you dump it out when the little light is on.

In the class of electronic mouse traps, the agi zap rat zapper is a front runner. Even though it’s designed to kill rats, it can handle mice without even breaking a sweat. Though it is more expensive than deploying traditional mouse traps this year, over the lifetime of this device, it will surely pay for itself year after year. You do want to get rid of mice with a mouse trap that works, right? If you want to know where to buy the rat zapper, your best bet for the lowest price is to click here to go to Amazon. While you’re there, you can check out the overwhelmingly positive reviews. When 80% of the reviews are 4-star or better (for a mouse trap), you know you’ve got yourself a winner.

 Buy It Now on Amazon! 

Electronic Mouse Traps

We wouldn’t be in the 21st century if there wasn’t a company that tried to use technology to solve a common household problem. The problem is mice in your house. The technological solution is electronic mouse traps. These devices are actually pretty cool. They work by luring mice into a tiny compartment with some type of bait (if you’ve read any other articles on this site, you’d know that I’m a big proponent of using peanut butter to bait mice mouse traps). Once the mice are in the compartment they don’t have to push a paddle to release a spring loaded trap. All they do is walk in and touch some electrodes that complete a circuit and administer a lethal shock which kills the mice instantaneously. If this sounds cruel, it’s actually not. You should look for devices that comply with the international humane standards for killing mice. Yes, there are actually regulations that dictate a lethal trap must actually kill the mouse within a certain time period so as not to inflict unnecessary pain and suffering on the creature. Unless you’re some sort of deranged psychopath, the purpose isn’t to torture the little guy… it’s just to get him and his friends out of your house, so it doesn’t cause YOU unnecessary pain and suffering.

So now that we have humane kill standards out of the way, there are a lot of other nice features of this type of trap. Most of them have a compartment where the dead mouse resides. You don’t have to see or handle the dead mouse. You simply have to dump it out into the trash to dispose of it (preferable not the one under your kitchen sink – you should walk this one straight outside). This is a great benefit for the squeamish or faint of heart.

The other benefit of this type of mouse trap is that they can typically catch more than one mouse at a time. If you set a snap trap or other type of trap, you have one shot at catching the mouse. If the mouse snaps the trap and gets away, you’re out of luck. You have to wait until the next day or whenever you get around to resetting it. With an electronic mouse trap, you can typically catch multiple mice in one deployment. Depending on what size trap you get, you may actually be able to catch several mice in one night without emptying the trap each time. Check the label to see what your mouse capacity is. Some traps even have a little indicator light that lets you know a mouse is in the compartment. That way you don’t have to open it up frequently to check. Just look at the indicator light… Also, if you’re not going to be around to check your traps several times a day, look for one that has a chamber than can hold several mice. That way you won’t be missing any opportunities to catch mice if the chamber is full.

So if an electronic shock kill mechanism sounds dangerous, don’t worry. It’s not. Every electronic mouse trap that I’ve seen has a safety feature that deactivates the electrodes when the door is open to the kill chamber. That way when you are emptying it or baiting it, you don’t have to be worried about getting any electrical shock. Similarly if a small child or pet starts playing with the trap, they won’t get electrocuted. Compare that with a snap trap, where if they start playing with it, there’s the risk of snapping a finger off. So if you have small children or curious pets, an electronic trap for catching mice may be your best bet depending on whether or not the traps will be easily accessible.

So I’ve told you all of the good things, and you’re pretty much convinced that this is the type of trap for you, right? Well, I would be negligent in my duties if I didn’t tell you the tradeoffs you’re making by going with a trap of this type. So what’s wrong with them?

The biggest thing working against electronic mouse traps is that they tend to be much more expensive than your typical low tech trap. You probably figured that out on your own though. More feature, more technology, more expensive… this becomes an issue when you’re formulating a strategy for ridding your home of mice. Recall in the article about snap traps, I suggested that you should deploy SIX (6) snap traps per room. With electronic mouse traps, it would be prohibitively expensive to deploy that many traps per room which decreases your coverage.

Don’t let that dissuade you though. This type of trap has its place in your arsenal. If you have identified the trails frequented by mice, you have a big advantage. Mice tend to hug the walls when going from place to place, which means you can place one of these heavy duty multi-kill traps along that mice super highway, and pick them off one at a time – possibly several per deployment. If you have several mice, I recommend using a combination of multiple snap traps and an electronic mouse trap (or two for more widespread problems).

That’s about all I have, so hopefully you’ve learned a thing or two about electronic mouse traps and have determined whether or not it’s the type of trap for you. If you have any questions or tips, please feel free to leave a message in the comment section. That way everyone can benefit from the information exchange.

Pros:

• Capable of catching multiple mice in one deployment
• Excellent for use around small children and pets due to safety mechanism that prevents accidental shock
• Storage compartment hides dead mice and minimizes handling for the faint of heart
• Kills mice in accordance with international humane kill standards

Cons:

• More expensive than low tech mouse traps
• Typically larger than regular traps, so it’s difficult to deploy in small spaces

The Better Mousetrap

In the field of catching mice, there are a lot of different mouse traps to choose from. Each manufacturer is always trying to one up the other and create a product that distinguishes their trap from their competitors. That’s exactly what you’re going to find here with The Better Mousetrap. This is another product where the company truly tried to innovate and solve some of the most common problems involved with the snap trap design.

One of the biggest consumer complaints with snap traps is that they always seem to get their fingers snapped in the trap when trying to set it. The last thing you want to do is chop off a digit when trying to catch a mice. It’s not outside the realm of possibility with some of the more cheaply manufactured snap traps. The Better Mousetrap addresses this with an easy design where you simply squeeze the trap open and it sets itself in place. I read this customer comment on Amazon, and I didn’t think I could say it better myself, so I’ll quote him here:

In contrast to the wooden devices first introduced in early 12th century Europe, these traps are extremely easy to bait, set and place. You have to try really hard to hurt yourself with one of these — in fact, I don’t think it’s possible. The entire design is very clever and the product photo on amazon doesn’t do them justice. A quantum leap forward in trap design.

- Varmint Hunter (Connecticut)

Another nice feature is you’ll never have to touch the mouse. Once you catch it, you can just use the release mechanism by squeezing the lever back and the claw will let go of its catch. After that you simply have to rinse the trap off, bait it, and set it again to catch more mice. As they say it’s “press to set, and squeeze to eject.”

Just like any snap trap, just setting one is not going to solve your mice problem. The experts recommend you set 6 traps per infected room (conveniently they sell these traps in packs of 6). That way you’ll be sure to catch all of the mice that may have had the misfortune of invading your house (I say it’s their misfortune because with a trap like these, they’re going to wish they ended up in your neighbor’s house). If you like your neighbor you could always send them to this web site, so they too can rid their home of mice.

So if you’ve decided that snap traps are the way to go for your mouse control needs, you have a decision to make. My recommendation is to go with either the Snap-E Mouse Trap or The Better Mousetrap. In the snap trap class of mouse traps, they truly are best in class. I don’t think you’re going to go wrong with either of these traps. If you find yourself up against a larger infestation, I would actually recommend getting 6 of each type and varying the trap type. One of the techniques to improve the effectiveness of your anti-mice campaign is to actually vary the techniques and traps used. In some households, the Snap-E trap may catch 10 mice to the Better Mousetrap’s 1 mouse. In other households it may be the exact opposite. It depends on the mice and it depends on the living conditions. Some traps may look more “natural” to a mouse in your home versus another type of trap. You’ll need to experiment to figure out what works best for you, or just use both!

 Buy It Now on Amazon! 

Victor Easy Set Mouse Trap (M038)

The picture on the left of the Victor Easy Set Mouse Trap is probably exactly what you were imagining when you began your quest for the best mouse trap. It is a very traditional looking snap trap. Its base is made of a flat wooden board, and it has a metal strike bar designed to effectively kill any mouse that triggers the release mechanism.

This trap is somewhat unique in that it claims “no bait required” to catch mice with it. The plastic yellow Swiss cheese shaped trip paddle is impregnated with a scent designed to attract mice. I’m a bit skeptical of claims like this. I have no doubt that the scent attracts mice, but if you saw a plastic molded object that smelled like your favorite food would you jump in and take a bite? I’d say probably not. You might investigate the scent a little bit out of curiosity, just as mice would do, but is that enough to get the mouse properly positioned for strike bar? Maybe, maybe not… if you do choose to purchase this trap, I’d still recommend using a bait like peanut butter to attract mice. Nothing like real food to lure your mouse friend further into the trap.

The traps will work if you deploy enough of them, but you may find the design to feel cheap in your hand. It’s not as solid or well thought out as the Snap-E Mouse Trap. That being said, you can get 4 of the wooden Victor Mouse Traps for the price of 1 Snap-E Mouse Trap. Just remember that you get what you pay for.

From what I can gather, this version of the trap with the plastic trip paddle is of inferior quality to the Victor trap with the metal trip paddle. If you can find the metal version, this trap might not be so sad. It’s not that you can’t catch mice with this Victor Easy Set Mouse Trap, it’s that the name may be a bit of a misnomer. You may find it frustrating to try and set this trap because you’ll likely have a bunch of misfires in the process. The trigger can be very sensitive but it is adjustable depending where you latch the strike bar. The problem is that you need it to be somewhat sensitive so that the mouse can’t just walk all over it, but it can’t be so sensitive that a light breeze sets it off. Finding that balance proves challenging to some.

If you’re still interested in the Victor Easy Set Mouse Trap, you can read the reviews and buy a 4-pack at Amazon for a few bucks – click here to check it out. Before you pull that trigger (no pun intended), I’d highly recommend you reading more about the Snap-E trap I reviewed previously.

 Buy It Now on Amazon! 

Snap-E Mouse Trap

If you’re looking for a durable snap trap that will catch mouse after mouse, then look no further than the Snap-E Mouse Trap. In the overall mouse trap hierarchy, this would be classified as a snap trap. This is a very well designed mouse trap that has several advantages over the traditional wooden snap traps. You can say technology really upgraded a tried and true method of killing mice with this one.

So what makes the Snap-E Mouse trap special when compared to your regular garden variety snap trap? The most notable is that it’s made with a polystyrene and steel construction. That means that this trap is very durable and easy to clean. The problem with wood is that it tends to absorb moisture and other animal fluids during a kill. With the polystyrene construction it doesn’t absorb like wood which means it resists both stains and odors. That makes this trap economical and readily available year after year. You don’t have to replace it after one kill, just clean it and re-deploy.

Another benefit of the Snap-E Mouse Trap is the pre-formed bait cup. This has several advantages. First, it makes baiting the trap easier because there is a well defined location for the bait. It also ensures that you’re baiting the trap in the location that will best position the mouse for a kill shot when the trap is activated. This reduces the chances of bait stealing. From what I gather about the trap from various sources, it’s not 100% effective in achieving its goal, but it’s a lot better than the traditional wooden snap trap.

This mouse trap also has an oversized trip paddle to trigger the snapping mechanism. This makes the trap more agile and enables it to catch a mouse from whichever angle it approaches the trap, whether it’s from the front, back, or the sides. This is important because the mouse isn’t necessarily going to approach the trap from the ideal angle. A highly desirable feature of any mouse trap is that it can appropriately account for this, and that’s what the large trip paddle accomplishes.

The final thing I want to mention about this trap that shows you how well thought out the design is has to do with the strike bar. The Snap-E Mouse Trap is designed to have a vertical strike bar that effectively halves the distance it has to travel to catch a mouse. A typical wooden mouse trap requires the strike bar to be pulled all the way back to the opposite side of the trap so that it’s horizontal. As you can see from the picture on the right, the strike bar on this mouse trap is vertical. This cuts down on the time the mouse has to react once it triggers the trap. This should directly translate into a higher success rate.

Overall the Snap-E Mouse Trap has an intelligent design that is an excellent choice for anyone looking to deploy snap traps to deal with their mouse problem. Its solid construction and durability make it a top choice that won’t leave you running back to the store after every mouse you catch to repair a broken trap.

Don’t take my word for it though. Check out all of the satisfied customers by reading the reviews on Amazon. You can purchase the trap individually, but assuming you want to take the advice of the experts by deploying multiple traps in the affected area, there is also a 6-pack available.

As always, I’d like to hear your feedback with this mouse trap, so please share your experiences if you’ve used it. If I am recommending it to my visitors, I want to make sure that when you read this, it’s still the quality trap it was when I wrote this.

Happy hunting!

 Buy It Now on Amazon! 

Snap Traps

When you think of mouse traps, this is probably the one you’re picturing in your mind. I just want to start off by saying that even though the snap trap is very traditional, it’s not necessarily the best trap for your needs. I encourage you to explore all of your options before deciding that this is the only choice for you. Technology has evolved significantly in the arena of pest control and getting rid of mice. Take the time to explore your options and then proceed knowing that you’ve made a well informed decision. That being said, snap traps are good and one of the few types of mouse traps that work time and time again.

The typical snap trap is characterized by a wooden board with a spring loaded bar that snaps when the trap is tripped. It doesn’t have to be made of wood, though that’s likely the type you’re most familiar with. There are several designs that are made of a plastic, or polystyrene material. Unlike the cheap wooden ones, these can be used year after year. The reusable snap traps are great, but one thing you will have to remember is that you need to dispose of the dead mouse when you’re done. The disposable traps you just pick it up and drop the whole thing in the trash. The reusable one, you will have to disengage the bar and drop only the mouse in the trap. Then you’re going to have to clean the trap according to the manufacturer’s directions (if none are provided, you can use a mild detergent preferably one that is not strongly scented as that may deter future mice). You have to clean it, not just because it’s dirty, but the scent of the dead mouse may also deter future mice from walking into the trap, thereby minimizing its effectiveness.

To get this trap to work for you, it’s very important to have the right bait.  If you think that’s cheese, then you’ve been watching too many movies.  I’m going to let you in on the secret bait that’s sure to work: peanut butter.  Now it doesn’t matter if it’s creamy or chunky, so don’t ask which is better.  What makes this a good bait is that it attracts mice, for one.  More importantly, it’s sticky and requires a mouse to fully commit to getting the peanut butter.  Mice are naturally very timid and cautious creatures. Once they get a little taste, they will go in for a little more because the bait is stuck to the trip paddle ……. and that’s when the trap will get ‘em!

Are you tired of the mouse stealing the bait? Have you ever deployed a snap trap, where the mouse somehow gets the bait, but the trap doesn’t get the mouse?  That’s exactly what we’re trying to prevent with the peanut butter. It could be that the trigger isn’t sensitive enough, but maybe the mouse was able to just lift the bait from the trap without tripping it.  Because peanut butter is so sticky, it will help in tripping the paddle to launch the snapping bar. Now I can see a lot of people putting a whole mound of peanut butter, thinking more is better. This is the WRONG way to approach it. Sometimes “less” truly is “more.” If you put so much on there and the mouse can eat off the sides of the mound for a month, without getting close to the trap, what have you accomplished? Or even worse it takes a bite, triggers the trap, but is so far away from the snap that the bar misses – nine lives are for cats, not mice! Then all you’ve done is given it and all of its friends a free meal. These are the most common pitfalls when deploying this type of trap.

Probably the worst part of using snap traps is dealing with the dead mouse after you’ve caught it. Sometimes the bar will come down so hard that it will actually decapitate the mouse and you’re left with an even bigger mess on your hands. This isn’t the norm, but it’s been known to happen. If the sight of dead mice leaves you weak in the knees, then you might want to consider using a different type of mouse trap – one that conceals the mouse and hides it from view. If you’re not worried about seeing a dead mouse, then this just might be the way to go. This type of trap is probably the most commonly used for a reason – that’s because it works.

So how do you use snap traps to get rid of mice? The people that complain they can’t get rid of mice using snap traps are probably having problems because they are not properly deploying them. I’m not going to get into the details of where to place traps here, I’ll save that for a future article. What I do want to tell you is that you can’t deploy one snap trap and think your mouse problem is going to be solved.

Experts recommend that you use around 6 traps per infected ROOM!

If you just see signs of mouse in your kitchen, you’ll want to deploy 6 traps in your kitchen. If you see signs of mice in your kitchen and your garage, you’ll want to deploy at least 6 traps in each area. Don’t be fooled into thinking that one snap trap is going to be the end of your mouse problems. You’re going to need more than that.

That’s about all I’ve got on snap traps. If you have any questions, please feel free to use the comment section, and I’ll try to get back to you in an expedient manner. So let’s wrap things up by summarizing the pros and cons.

Pros:

• Very inexpensive
• Easy to bait and set (if you don’t by the really cheap ones – those can be a pain)
• Effective at catching mice
• Humanely kills mice nearly instantaneously

Cons:

• You can only catch one mice with the trap
• You will have to see and handle a dead mouse as well as dispose of it
• Not pet friendly or good for use around small children