Bob Engelhardt wrote:
I have been battling mice in my house for 30+ years. I haven't used
poison 'cause I didn't want them dying in the walls and smelling. Spring
traps are OK, but I don't like handling the dead ones and resetting the
traps. Last year I found the most effective trap so far, it might have
been here, I can't remember.

Anyhow, it is a 5 gallon bucket with a rod (3/16" +-) across the top,
through a hole on each side. On the rod is a plastic bottle (2" diam
+-), the rod through a hole in it's cap and bottom. I.e., the rod is
through the bottle's axis. There is a ramp (1 x 1 +-) on the outboard
end of the rod, down to the ground. Peanut butter is smeared on the
bottle and water is added to the bucket, a few inches deep.

The mice go up the ramp, step onto the bottle for the peanut butter. The
bottle rotates and dumps them in the water where they drown. The water
& mice are dumped in the toilet for disposal. One nice feature is that
it doesn't have to be reset to catch more mice. I once had 12 in it
when I didn't check for a week.

HTH
Bob


Dunno if I posted that one here or not, but I have been using the same
rig for a few years now and with good results.

In the winter (so this really is selectivly applicable) I use an inch
or so of antifreeze in the bucket. It will stay liquid and kills the
mice very fast, between the temperature and the ingestion thereof.

I place it where there is adequate access for the mice to climb beside
the bucket and I have no critters loose in my shop.

Had I creatures roaming, I expect the solution would be to form a
largish plastic funnel for the victim to slide dowm to it's doom. The
smaller opening would keep the interested out.

We had great success with catching mice in large steel salad bowls
that were used for the dogs' dishes. The mice would slide down the sides
to get at the last crunbs of kibble, and when they tried to get out, all
they could do was to scrabble up the sides 'till they lost traction.
When they jumped, they could only go straight up, and landed back in the
bowl. The most we got was three at once, pinging around like a furry
pinball game. :-)

Cheers
Trevor Jones