Mouse Trapping

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5 Top Tricks For When Mouse Traps Don’t Work

Have you been laying traps in the house but catching no mice? It’s a common problem, but there are five smart tips that will help you put that problem right.

It’s all about what you know ... and these tips are the secrets that the professionals don’t usually share with you.

1 - Use traps right against the wall.

Don’t allow a little bit of a gap, because the animal will use that gap to get around the trap and not get caught. Make sure that your trap is pushed right up against the wall, leaving the rodent with absolutely no choice but to run over it. Mice rarely run across the center of a room or space, because this is where it will be most vulnerable.

2 - Use two traps together.

Do you already have your traps pushed right up against the wall? Okay, how about adding two traps together, side by side? If the mouse is able to hop right over the first trap, it is unlikely that it’ll be able to hop right over the second one without setting off the trigger, too.

3 - The more traps the merrier.

Whether you think you have one mouse in your house or a hundred, use more than one trap. Using one trap to tackle a rodent infestation will be like trying to empty the entire Pacific Ocean using just a teaspoon.

NEVER. GONNA. HAPPEN.

The more traps you have, the more success you’ll have with them. Make a note of all the spots in which you have noticed mouse activity, and use those spots as trap-placement spots. Put traps in every place you have seen rodent activity, providing it is safe for you to do so.

4 - Don’t worry too much about bait.

Bait is important, yes, but not even the best bait in the world is enough to lure a stubborn, smart mouse into a trap. Mice, rats, rodents in general are very smart animals. Not just smart, they’ve shown themselves to be much more emotional than we thought they were going to be. Once upon a time, cheese would have been enough to lure the mouse into the trap, but not now.

If a trap has already been almost trapped by cheese in a trap, it may choose to avoid cheese. This works in the same way that trapped-and-released mice tend to avoid live cage traps afterwards. They learn from those lessons. That’s why trapping and releasing mice is such a bad idea. The mice that have been captured and then released usually prove many times more difficult to trap afterwards.

If one bait doesn’t work, try another. Don’t stress yourself out trying to find the ‘perfect’ bait type, though. It doesn’t exist, although using whatever food the mouse was noted stealing is definitely worth a shot.

5 - Check traps immediately.

Would you go anywhere near a trap that currently has a dead mouse in it, if you were a mouse? No. And it makes sense that these creatures would avoid a trap with a dead mouse in it. You should check traps regularly, mostly to ensure that those traps are ready to catch another one as quickly as possible, but also to ensure that no mice are sent packing by the scary sight.