I thought this looked like a neat little project.

A Better Mousetrap

Scott writes - "This mousetrap design was used by my uncle decades ago, when his graduate students were studying territorial behavior of rodents in Iowa and Wisconsin. As I recall, they used hundreds of such traps, and caught tens of thousands of mice. When I was a kid, we did something similar in grade school after our teacher took interest in his methods.

I hadn't revisited this for at least 25 years, and then it happened. An infestation in our home. It was absurd, and my wife was going nuts.

I could have poisoned or otherwise killed the things, but I figured it'd be more fun (especially for my youngest children) to catch 'em live and release 'em in an appropriate wild area - though based on what my uncle learned, this is all pointless..."



Here's some related pages:

How to catch a mouse without a mousetrap



Homemade Humane Mousetraps

My gran used to have mice then got a Springer spaniel, pretty soon no (live) mice... My favorite non dog trap is a glass bottle/jar propped on a 45 degree angle with some chocolate in the bottom. Just empty out the mice every day!

Interesting idea Paul, I had never heard of that before ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Very effective and potentially humane if you are nice to the captive mice...

Ha ! They would be fresh meat for our cats!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Tom

A "Junk yard dog" with a pet cat just isn't right! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Paul - If it will help make things right, I also have a rottweiler, black & tan coon hound, pointer, and a beagle. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Ok I'll let you off then!

By the way Paul, what breed of dog do you have ? PLEASE don't say a French poodle !!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Tom

It always throws me off when I see these pictures of knives....with a cat in them?! Something I heard once...men with cats are not to be trusted....something like that anyway.

Hey! We have 3 cats in the house. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

(Hey! We have 3 cats in the house.) Point proven then... Not really Andy, you're sound! Sadly PK I'm between dogs, the last one was a Springer spaniel/ labrador cross, big as a labbie and as insane as a springer!! He was a great dog! I just haven't got time or the energy for another mutt right now. And if I did a bloody poodle would NOT be on the list!!! Bloody rat sized, yappy, snappy, little b****rds! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbdn.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbdn.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbdn.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />