Inexpensive mouse trap

[nickel plate]

We keep a travel trailer on some mountain property that someday we will build a home on. Every trip up, interior mouse cleaning takes place to the point of frustration. We leave NOTHING food wise in the trailer and I have made tropical rat guards out of plastic soft drink/water bottles by cutting them in half and installing on all of the exterior penetrating plumbing, steel wool in anything that looks like a mouse could squeeze through, etc. I am now taking the fight to them-20 feet into the woods where they live.
Found this design on the net:
Materials:
1- plastic bucket
1- thin metal or wood rod slightly longer than the bucket's diameter
1- regular sized soup type can
1- plastic soup type can lid cover to replace the removed top lid of the can.
1- "diving board" either a wood 1x2", 3" or 4" or a straight stick or branch.
1- small jar of Jiff creamy peanut butter (is that crap real peanut butter?)
water-enough to keep the mouse from touching the bottom of the bucket
Here's what you do:
Drill two opposing holes through the diameter of the plastic bucket 90 degrees from the existing metal handle. Make the holes to fit the size of your choice of rod and down enough from the lip of your bucket to make your choice of can a couple of inches lower than the "diving board".
Drill a hole in the center of the existing soup type can bottom and similar in the plastic lid-make the holes SLIGHTLY larger than the rod so the can will free wheel easily.
Smear the can spairingly with Jiff and some on the "diving board" to leave an uphill scent.
The length of the "diving board" will vary due to your application. The idea is to make it terminate past the lip of the plastic bucket just far enough away from the soup can on the rod so the mouse has to STRETCH OUT to reach the peanut butter baited can and walla-spins into the water, swims until drowning.
Live release? Use no water and a very slick and deep bucket.
I tried this one evening two days ago and even with some light rain, trapped six.

 

[Taylortractornut]

we used to use this but just a spring loaded strip to dump them. We would catch a few and then let the rat terriers train with them. Or give them to a friend with a pet snake.

 

[Big Bri]

really good idea. . . will have to set one of those in the shop. Thanks

 

[Cami]

Thank you for the stroll down amnesia lane! Squatters at a lake near the village where I grew up had rigs like this; they'd fill the buckets with the little squeakers.

 

[ray66v]

I have been told that if you set up the same thing, without the can, and cover the water with sunflower seeds, you will catch a bucket full of chipmunks.

 

[heehaw]

been having a heck of a problem with mice this year in my barn...i have seen this before but never actually heard from anyone that used it: i have spent a lot of $$ on glue traps an poison this year, will be making one of these now that i know it actually works
heehaw

 

[horsebroke]

I, too am going to try this. I have several hundred bales of Alfalfa horse hay stored in one of my barns - and 2 years ago, I put out D-Con to try and control them. BIG MISTAKE. It did do a number on the mouse population, but it also RUINED almost 200 bales!... The doggone mice would stuff their cheeks full of D-Con, and take it back to their nests - IN THE HAY. Then they'd die, and I'm left with hay with D-Con and dead mice all over the place. I couldn't take the chance of feeding the D-Con hay to my horses - I know what it does - so I wound up loading up the 200 bales and took them to the local land fill. I lost a dog a couple years ago who'd eaten some D-Con - and it ain't pretty.

So - since then, I've tried a bunch of different types of mouse traps, paper, etc - and nothing seems too satisfactory.. Also, I use peanut butter in the traps - and it works - but doesn't last long - the ANTS eat it up. So when I try this bucket idea, I'll wrap the bottom with sticky ant paper to reduce the amount the ants are taking of my peanut butter..

Thanks for posting the pix.

 

[Travelover]

I've used a similar design for years, but without the tin can. Instead I made the ramp in two pieces. The ramp over the top pivots on the edge so when they go to the end for the peanut butter, it tips them into the drink. The ramp then lowers itself back into position. The bottom half of the ramp is just attached to the side of the bucket and goes from the floor to the outboard end of the tipping ramp.

 

[Redbug]

That's pretty ingenious! I wonder if a bigger bucket...say a 35 gallon drum, (with the top cut out), would work also for squirrels. Set the board, (2x4), from a tree to the barrel.

Them squirrels are driving me and the dog nuts around here! Looks like a better plan than poison.

 

[ElDorado]

Been using an easier version at deer camp for years. Bucket and ramp is the same, difference is float something - piece of wood, styrofoam, anything that floats. Lather the floating item with peanut butter and angle the ramp towards the water.

As you lie there at night you can hear the little s*#@ splash and excercise (for a while). Works every night.

Good Luck!