A dead mouse was found in the basement the other day. Mrs. Cardigan, to her credit, did not freak out but did insist I deal with the situation promptly. I bought a couple of mousetraps and am trying to figure out the best bait. My first thought was cheese, but maybe I’ve watched too many cartoons in my time.
What do you think makes effective mouse trap bait?
Peanut butter
Peanut butter. Sweet, fragrant, greasy, delicious. Sticky, too, so it sticks to the trigger, requiring the mouse to dig/scrape to extract it, making it more likely that the trap will actually fire.
I’m thirding peanut butter - it’s worked for us in the past.
Remember to check the traps daily to avoid the joys of dealing with putrefying mouse.
Fourth on the peanut butter. Especially that oily organic crap.
I actually have a jar of cheap peanut butter just for mouse trapping. I used a sharpie to draw a skull and crossbones on the label.
I like the classic victor metal/wood traps. I don’t like the ones with a plastic bait station.
Take a small pinch of the soft, inner part of a slice of bread. Smush it onto the metal bait holder. When it dries it will be attached. Take a small amount of peanut butter and coat the bread piece. This will get your mouse. If they don’t get it licking the peanut butter, once they dig into the bread they’re done for.
If you don’t get it in a few days, add fresh peanut butter. Just like with fishing, fresh bait works best.
Also a vote for Peanut Butter.
A fun rabbit hole to go down on YouTube is rat/mouse traps. There are some zany and some practical designs.
Yup PB. One warning. Don’t use too much or they will be able to eat without getting caught in the trap.
Peanut butter is really the only answer.
Well that’s interesting because always have a trap set in my garage and when I used the Victor traps with a metal bait station, I never saw so many sprung traps with no dead mouse to be found. The TomCat trap with plastic, cheese shaped bait station is my go-to. Never fails.
Has anyone mentioned peanut butter? Because it’s the best.
I like the reusable plastic traps with a simple push spring set. Also easy when disposing of the, um, corpus delicti.
And consider using peanut butter as bait. I suppose chicken liver pâté would be as simple and effective to use, but it’s not as cost effective as cheapo store brand peanut butter.
you have that many mice? or do you normally buy really expensive peanut butter?
I sprinkle a little shredded cheese on top of the peanut butter. I’m a traditionalist.
Heh. The dedicated jar is for work, home, barn, shed, tack-room,etc. This time of year I am setting traps all over for the mice that do not like outdoor living in cold weather.
And yes, we don’t use a lot of peanut butter but the stuff we buy is fresh ground at the local farm market. A little tub costs more than a giant jar of Jif.
I have had luck with peanut butter, but I have also had luck with a piece of a gumdrop. Odds are you’re more likely to have peanut butter, unless it’s around Easter or something.
I’ve heard that peanut butter is good, but pieces of cotton and similar materials are better – mice collect them for nesting materials, and are willing to pull on them to get them free.
I’ve never tried it myself, but, considering what I have seen mice taking from my storage shed for nesting material, I can easily believe it.
In order — peanut butter, cooked bacon, some flaked/shaved laundry soap. Something about soap always seemed to attract mice back at the farm to the point Gramma kept her laundry soap in mouse-proof containers. Too many boxes ended up chewed into and even after she went to a pail with a lid the odd dead-trapped mouse in the soap was not unknown. I have used it to bait traps when nothing else worked and it worked so hats off to Gramma and I keep that one in mind as needed.
Sexy girl mice.