Mouse/mice trap

[1972VWbus]

Set it up an hour ago. We'll see how it does. You bait it with peanut butter under the yellow hood (back end). When they walk up the ramp and out the black plank it tips dumping them in the bucket (half full w/water).


Bet it won't be long before area mice/rats are gone.



It's sat at the back of RV near bike rack (storage yard).

[Berryfarmer]

I put a couple of those in our Horse Tack shed and they get one or two on occasion.

[Arch Hoagland]

I built one of those several years ago and didn't get any.

[boiledowl]

Originally Posted by 1972VWbus

Set it up an hour ago. We'll see how it does. You bait it with peanut butter under the yellow hood (back end). When they walk up the ramp and out the black plank it tips dumping them in the bucket (half full w/water).


Bet it won't be long before area mice/rats are gone.



It's sat at the back of RV near bike rack (storage yard).

just get a pack of those cheap victor spring clamps, fast easy kill.

[astrnmrtom]

Good luck. Looks like a decent design, and a variation on the home made bucket trap. With any trap, make sure you leave it in place for a while. The rodents can be wary of new things. If after a week or so, if you have poor results move it a different location. Refresh the peanut butter regularly. As for effectiveness, it varies by the number of mice you have competing for resources. The official term is Pest Pressure. If pressure is low mice are less desperate, and may avoid the trap even though peanut butter is a good bait. This time of the year mice are looking for good shelter.

Place it along a wall with the ramp at the base of the wall. While mice do cross open ground they prefer to navigate by running along against something such as a wall. It will increase the odds a mouse will find it. Use their instincts against them.

Make sure you seal up your rig. Don't rely solely on traps. Sealing up the rig is #1 priority.

[1972VWbus]

I have some 'Mice Dice' in the engine bay as well (6 of them). They contain square cube wicks that are soaked in pure peppermint oil. Mice hate peppermint oil. Went back a few days later to set the trap up and did not notice anymore activity. Had clean the previous activity up.

I put them (Dice) in after noticing a mouse had started hanging out on the drivers side intake manifold. Found some droppings and a small acorn. This was only after haven had the RV out a few days previous.

As for the trap it is at the rear of the RV between the bike rack (in hitch) and a fence. It is sitting on redwood chips. The remainder of the RV is on gravel bed. The end hangs out over the redwood chips.

Also sprayed some peppermint oil in the front engine bay area (area behind front grill).

[bpu699]

Originally Posted by boiledowl

just get a pack of those cheap victor spring clamps, fast easy kill.

Yep, work great, and humane.

[bobmar]

Interesting concept. I should try one.
We use TomCat snap traps. Never a miss and so simple ti set. Seldom need to rebait, they never get a chance to eat!!!

[bpu699]

Somewhat off topic… how does one find a dead, smelly mouse, in their RV?

Front of our rv started to stink, suspect dead mouse. Looked everywhere, can’t find it. Any magic to locating it?

[astrnmrtom]

Originally Posted by bpu699

Somewhat off topic… how does one find a dead, smelly mouse, in their RV?

Front of our rv started to stink, suspect dead mouse. Looked everywhere, can’t find it. Any magic to locating it?

No easy way. You pretty much need to follow your nose. Yes, the rig may smell all over and it might seem like it's impossible to locate, but just sniff, move, sniff, move until you hone in on the area. May take a step ladder to sniff in overhead places like the air conditioner vents, or crawling on your hands and knees.

You might try opening up the rig to air it out, then close up and start sniffing. Since you mentioned the front it could be behind the dash or in the heater. Look up under the seat bottoms too. If you see any little crawly bugs they could be maggots which means you are close. Some look like short worms, some are tiny and look hairy like a caterpillar. Look for an out of place oily spot which could be drips from the decaying body.

[Love2Pack]

I agree with all the above tap info. If you want to add Prevention to cure I have a lot of experience with this at a vacation house that is empty all winter. Mice in the garage, but never in the house where I remove ALL food and plug in 26 ultrasonic repellers, which work believe it or not. I must have murdered 100 of the poor things in various ways over three or four years before I finally threw up my hands and told my wife if she didn’t get rid of the bird seed in the garage, even though the mice could not get to it (heavy glass container, heavy well fitting lid), that I was DONE killing mice and fighting the problem she caused by enticing them inside. DONE, even if they ran over our faces in bed at night!

Not being willing to assume exterminator duties herself, she finally removed the bird seed and a day or two later ALL the mice were GONE! Lesson: Mice go where they can smell food whether they can get to it or not and whether there are ultrasonic repellers or not. Remove EVERYTHING EVEN REMOTELY EDIBLE from the the space you’re trying to protect and winterize vehicles rather than heating them in the winter. Mice want shelter, too. Don’t park on or near grass. Three RVs, not one mouse in 24 years.

[sibe]

Even in spaces with NO edible items, |I get the rodents that come in to breed,, a crack pr hole the sixe of a penny ot dime, they get thru..

In RV I have cleaned it out, and placed the bait blocks from a commercial buddy.. Mice/chippies. squirrel or your dog aint gonna make it.. 4 years nothing in RV other than on intake/airclear a small nest..

In house crawl space, that is SEALED but my outside camera caught then going up into the vinyl siding Corner channel, that gets them into attic them down walls etc..
SO
I did the snap traps after my dog flushed one from behind dryer stealing lint.. Got 7.. Mama and 6 smaller tikes,, I then placed the 5 gallon pail, with peant butter lure, and filled it half with car antifreeze,, antifreeze is also a sweet smell and attracts, they also sink in it and dont stink, as I dont always crawl under house weekly,, I have one in my attic,

So far we got 3 more in bucket, last 5 weeks zero..

I havea neighbor feeding the local Farm cats that roam, I have to mention dont feed, let them hunt.. LOL
It easier to keep my 3 Huskies from eating the cats then having dogs tear hole in my walls if they hear mice.. they have made a mess of a wall or two over the years..

[Love2Pack]

Wow, Sibe, that is the worst experience I’ve ever heard of. You have my greatest sympathies. For what it’s worth, bait blocks are seen as food to a mouse. That’s why they eat it.

In the depths of my troubles at our vacation house everyone who advised me said, “Get a cat.” It sounds like you need a whole family of barn cats. In your attic, a place with no food, you might have success with ultrasonic repellers. They were initially recommended to me by a fellow next to me on an airplane one day. He said two of them got rid of squirrels that liked his attic so much they chewed through the shingles to get in. He stressed that you have to choose one that puts out the right frequency to annoy the animals you have, higher for smaller animals. At the time I had skunks living under our deck. We lost so much sleep! Every time the parents would come back from eating the dog food my neighbors left outside the little skunks would get so excited they would spray so much I could actually hear it. Then we would have to finish the night upstairs as the wind drove their stench into our first floor bedroom. This went on for a year and a half! I tried everything anyone suggested and they all failed; mouth balls, loud music, etc. and I thought the ultrasonic device failed, too. I next resorted to pouring industrial strength ammonia, 12 times stronger then what the grocery store has, through holes I drilled in the cracks between the deck boards with the intention of shooting them as they came out. I put 9.5 gallons down there and … nothing came out. Their stench had remained and misled me, but they were gone. The ultrasonic repeller had done its job. I know that because after I put heavy wire mesh under the grass and attached it all around the deck they continued to return and try to get back in. So I set the repeller on a chair where they came under our fence and they stopped coming around for 4-5 years. Then they returned. When I checked the electronics inside the repeller I discovered a wire had corroded away. I repaired it and once again the skunks were gone. They work ….. if you get ones that put out the right frequency for your animals. Nothing keeps them away if they are hungry and you have food.

There is a web site called mousetrapmonday.com that I used to find very entertaining. Good luck, my friend!

[1972VWbus]

Update:


I had moved the trap after the first week and no catches. Just went and checked it and success...1 rat and 2 mice