What do you use in your mouse traps?

Jim K

Jim K

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Aviation related: mouse traps in t-hangar.

I've always used peanut butter, but it seems they've taken all the preservatives out, so it molds in a couple weeks. What can I use that will work as well and not have to be changed or so often?
 
I like the just one bite bars. If they manage to miss the trap, they still die.
 
PB with some birdseed mixed in. That works for squirrels, too. Yeah, it doesn’t last very long, though. I think Home Depot and other places sell a gel of some sort. I haven’t tried it.
 
Those fruit snacks, you can mash them on the metal clip so they can’t steal them
The mice love those things
 
Anything sweet smelling, marshmallows work well.

I've started using the live traps because you can trap multiple at once. Trap might go weeks with nothing. Suddenly one goes in, next day there will be 4 in it. So other mice are the best attractant apparently
 
Racerx said:
Anything sweet smelling, marshmallows work well.

I've started using the live traps because you can trap multiple at once. Trap might go weeks with nothing. Suddenly one goes in, next day there will be 4 in it. So other mice are the best attractant apparently
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Mice are disgusting cannibals. A dead mouse in a trap is very good bait for additional mice. Maybe a good live trap with room inside for one kill trap is the way to go.
 
I use bird seed or nuts and hot glue them on the trip pad. That way they never get a seed and I just reset the trap. Also no moldy cheese or peanut butter to clean up
 
Ever time I have a rodent (ANY rodent including possums) problem I set a trap and it triggers in HOURS.

If your peanut butter is untouched long enough to mold, you ain’t got a rodent problem.

That said, know what ya mean… this is a good thread! I keep traps armed and baited continuously in girlfriends attic… I get cookie points for checking them (literally, latest batch arrived yesterday). Gonna switch to a better bait.
 
I have had several battles with rats and mice. I have had best luck with plain old snap traps (jumbo ones for rats) and peanut butter...but peanut butter (or cheese) has to be wrapped in a piece if socking or cheese cloth and twist tie to the trap lever or they can just lick it off without snapping...with the material they need to pull at it...then front of trap needs to be placed against a wall so they have to approach from the side.

Get dollar store peanut butter...sure that is loaded with preservatives!

If you do not have an active issue you are tying to eliminate and looking for just preventative I would get the large glue traps and sick a few actual peanuts in the middle into the glue. Those work great for the mice...rats can often work themselves loose if left for a while and you are not checking on the regular.

Regular peanuts in the cheese cloth or stocking on snap trap would also be a way to go and have longer shelf life.
 
MauleSkinner said:
Aircraft upholstery foam.
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Exactly :rofl:
Tools said:
If your peanut butter is untouched long enough to mold, you ain’t got a rodent problem.
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I hope that's the case. There's a couple hangars in my building that rarely open, so I assume they're infested. I keep traps set up all the time, but haven't caught anything since winter. As you know though, they'll be looking to move inside in the next couple months.
 
Skyrys62 said:
Still laughing...

I use a peanut and force it in there pretty good. They will dig to get it out. Usually lasts a while, plus you get a jar for the hangar desk.
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At the airport I'm at we have a small office that everyone eats in so no food is allowed in the hangar. A few things that will help reduce a mouse population is to keep the grass cut short, seal all the openings as properly as possible, & keep food and food odors out of the hangar.

BTW ... these will catch mice and do not need bait (although it helps). Multiple catch trap for mice
 
Shawn said:
I have had best luck with plain old snap traps
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Same. Another tip I pickup up from Mousetrap Monday youtube is to build a narrow box for the trap to force them to approach from the ends. Now that I think of it, he uses sunflower seeds for bait.
Daleandee said:
At the airport I'm at we have a small office that everyone eats in so no food is allowed in the hangar.
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Yep, no food allowed in the hangar or the airplane. Unless you're @masloki. Then you just do whatever TF you want lol.
 
I find that if I also put a trap at the base of each wall that bait is not needed. Those suckers run along walls rather than through the center of a room. I still use bait for some. I might catch a random every other month in warm weather, but winter is mouse jackpot.

I tried one of those live traps and found that I had to check them daily, otherwise, one mouse would eat another and it was a nasty mess to keep clean. I had left one alone for a week and found a liquid mouse, a half eaten one, and a recently dead one. Nasty.
 
Tunnel snap traps baited with peanut butter are irresistible and very efficient. Place along a wall. If there are mice around, they will get caught and killed within 24-48 hours. Works on chipmunks, too. Eliminated 15 of the buggers over 2 weeks in my garage environs.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
I find that if I also put a trap at the base of each wall that bait is not needed. Those suckers run along walls rather than through the center of a room. I still use bait for some. I might catch a random every other month in warm weather, but winter is mouse jackpot.

I tried one of those live traps and found that I had to check them daily, otherwise, one mouse would eat another and it was a nasty mess to keep clean. I had left one alone for a week and found a liquid mouse, a half eaten one, and a recently dead one. Nasty.
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Yes, that is the downside. But for those folks that live at the hangar or are there everday those traps work well to catch mice in groups as they travel together. Putting a glue trap in the bottom makes it easier to clean ...
 
chemgeek said:
Tunnel snap traps baited with peanut butter are irresistible and very efficient. Place along a wall. If there are mice around, they will get caught and killed within 24-48 hours. Works on chipmunks, too. Eliminated 15 of the buggers over 2 weeks in my garage environs.
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I knew an exterminator years ago that talked of using tracking powder (restricted use pesticide) to coat the inside of a 3' piece of PVC pipe that the mice loved to run through. A tunnel trap sounds like it would be another great idea ...
 
Tools said:
Ever time I have a rodent (ANY rodent including possums) problem I set a trap and it triggers in HOURS.
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I would just like to point out that possums are marsupials, not rodents.

Talking to my Mum in the UK the other day, she claims that Marmite on grated cheese works very well as bait for rats, but I'm damned if I'm going to pay whatever extortionate price they charge for imported Marmite over here.

I recently got an electric trap, baited with some peanut butter on crust of bread. I had to move it to some undergrowth because the local skunk kept trying to get in to it. It got the rat I was after, although I didn't notice for a couple of days and by the time I emptied it the ants were already burrowing lots of little holes in to the body. Made me very glad I don't suffer from trypophobia.
 
Dave Theisen said:
Whatever bait you use, the most effective way is to put it in the next guy’s hangar. :)
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Great point. That's one reason to use a trap (multiple catch as noted above) that doesn't require bait (food) as that bait might attract the mice you didn't have into your hangar ... :dunno:
 
Daleandee said:
BTW ... these will catch mice and do not need bait (although it helps). Multiple catch trap for mice
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I used those for a while when I inherited the old farmhouse we grew up in. We lived on a hill surrounded by crop fields, and when the heavy rains came, so did the herd of mice. Would catch between 5-10 over a couple days with those...it was nice to not need to keep baiting.
The worst part was what to do with them all when it needed emptying. Had to run them all the way across town to the ex-wifes yard.
 
I made an accidental mousetrap in a barn once. Left an open bucket of used motor oil in there and didn't touch it for a year.... there were a lot of dead mice in that bucket.
 
CaptainXap said:
Talking to my Mum in the UK the other day, she claims that Marmite on grated cheese works very well as bait for rats, but I'm damned if I'm going to pay whatever extortionate price they charge for imported Marmite over here.
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Wouldn't Marmite be considered a repellent, not a bait?

:)
 
Twinkies... they'll survive a nuclear fall out
 
Raisins. Maybe gummy bears?

JimK is a farmer, keeping active traps in non occupied buildings is important, even if there are no mice there, as the future may change to many mice moving in. Rodents, not just mice, can do amazing damage to electrical and electronic equipment in a short time. Just peeing on the top of a computer card case can destroy the whole thing. Prevention feeds them at the trap as soon as they arrive.

I used peanut butter, but in my house. It did not mold, but probably drier air.

I tied the raisins on with a very thin wire, that ended traps snapped and empty.
 
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Whatever you use, please don't use poison. Secondary poisoning is a real thing despite what all the poison companies say, and it kills the ultimate rodent removal machines, raptors.
 
I tried different mouse traps, and was very disappointed with the results. The traps kept popping; either they were crappy traps, or very sharp mice. The kill ratio was abysmal.

My nephews told me that they used a 5 galllon bucket with water (or antifreeze for winter) on the farm as shown below. I fill with about 2 gallons of fluid so they don't have a chance to jump back out.

It will catch several mice, which is great as I don't go to the hangar too often. Beer can (empty, so you need to drink it, as if you needed a reason ...), coat hangar and some peanut butter.

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Many sites out there showing you how to do it. Here is one...

fivegallonideas.com

Bucket Mouse Traps | Five Gallon Ideas

This simple, quick to build design traps many mice or rats in a single trap and doesn't need to be reset between mice. There is no better mouse trap!
fivegallonideas.com
 
Bucket traps work great, but not in living spaces while you're there. Snap traps with a nut glued to the trigger work well, as do electric traps. Poison has issues as others have said, and glue traps just seem too cruel even for a mouse.
 
My hesitation with a bucket trap is the smell if I don't make it to the hangar for a couple weeks. Something about dead mice floating in water makes me gag a little. That's the thing I hate about poison too. They crawl off somewhere hidden to die and you have to smell them. God forbid they die in the plane. Blech.

Glue traps leave you with the option of killing the poor thing or letting it starve to death. Snap traps are at least usually a nice clean kill.
 
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Jim K said:
Yep, no food allowed in the hangar or the airplane. Unless you're @masloki. Then you just do whatever TF you want lol.
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Just to be clear, I brought enough to share when violating the house rules. And I was not alone in violating them. :nono:
 
masloki said:
Just to be clear, I brought enough to share when violating the house rules. And I was not alone in violating them. :nono:
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I figured if I was going to have mice in the plane anyway I might as well get a sandwich out of the deal.
 
Jim K said:
My hesitation with a bucket trap is the smell if I don't make it to the hangar for a couple weeks.
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That's why you use antifreeze even if it's not freezing temperatures; it seems to pickle them so there's no smell. We use the bucket traps when we leave our cabin closed up for a couple of months during the off season.
 
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