We live in an old farmhouse, set back in a wooded/field area. Mice are kinda par for the course, but I thought I had gotten them all. Tonight I noticed that the bar of soap by the sink looks…nibbled is the best way to put it. No droppings on the counter, nothing aparent in the trash, but the soap is nibbled. Does anyone know if mice have an affinity for Irish Spring soap? I’ve set the traps again, I use rat traps for 2 reasons: #1, I don’t fuck around, and #2, they’re so strong that I am pretty much assured the mouse is killed instantly, I don’t want the mouse to suffer for being a mouse, but I do want them gone, y’know? I baited the traps with gumdrops, should I use soap instead? Advice apreciated.
Umm… I would imagine a properly baited mouse trap ( Jelly Belly jellybean squashed onto the bait holder never fails because they have to work to get it off) will be more effective as I suspect a rat trap trip sensitivity will be less sensitive to the light nibblings of a mouse and the trap bail is so big it may miss the small mouse entirely.
My family has a number of cabins and cottages that go unused for many parts of the year and in my experience, yes, mice will eat soap.
And ants will burrow into Bit-O-Honey’s and die. Then the candy will slowly close around them so you can’t tell anything is amiss until you bite into it and find half of a dead ant left. But I digress…
I’ve heard that peanut butter is great bait, but you may want to wait for the opinion of the esteemed DaveW0071. That man is a genius when it comes to pests.
DaveWoo is indeed a genius, but all I know is that earlier this year when I was baiting traps, the peanut butter trap took 2 weeks to be tripped, the gumdrop one, about 90 minutes. YMMV
You would be wrong. Play with a rat trap sometime, but watch your fingers! 
Gee, thanks!
I already answered this question in Dave’s Live Journal.
But, honestly, Sue, I’m flattered!
And Dave, I would imagine that trap placement may have been a factor in the gumdrop/peanut butter lag time. Also, using a rat trap on a mouse is like using a bowling ball to squish an ant. Yeah, it works, but…
Stick to the mouse-size ones. They wouldn’t sell if they didn’t work, and I’ve used enough of them to know.