Steve Smith's Humane Mousetrap
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Steve Smith's Humane Mousetrap Do you need to lose weight? Have a look at my other site - Steve Smith's Walking for Weight Loss
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Received 01/05/07
Hi,
Writing from Columbus Georgia USA. Recently in
the wall of our dining room we'd been hearing a lot of rustling and
scratching. Fearing the worst, that we had mice in our walls I did a web
search on humane traps and found your link.
Last nite, built the trap and set it up in the cabinet (i'd made a hole in the sheet rock so it could get out there to it.
Lo and behold a note from my wife on the cabinet door showed success.
To my complete amazement what did I find in the trap but a 5-6 inch skink (a type of lizard) I've attached a pic I found on line as I didn't have a camera handy. At any rate, plugged the hole he was using to get in and released him back out into the wilderness no harm done. Thanks again!!
Chris Smith
Received 18/04/07
My office has been harassed for weeks! The
mouse/mice have been tearing up our snack foods in our desk drawers and
leaving "reminders" that they've been walking on our desks. We've
set up sticky traps and some of my office mates have even baited the sticky
traps with food but no success! I'm so glad that I went and searched Google
for "Humane Mouse Trap" and came upon your site! The trap design
is so easy and it only took a few minutes to get it rigged up. I used a
plastic storage container on top of a metal baking sheet. I set 1 up in my
office and baited it with a small chunk of a chocolate bar (since that's
what the mouse attacked and ate off my desk). The first night came and went
with no action but another night did the trick! I came into my office this
morning to find co-workers laughing and hollering at the little brown mouse
that I had trapped! Thank you so much for putting this trap design on the
web! It's been a great help and I've reset the trap to see if we really do
have more than one critter in the building or if it was just that little
brown one that was causing us so much trouble! -Amy Los Gatos, California, USA
Received 29/03/2007
Just to let you know it still works!
After a bit of fiddling and reading comments from other uses got the set
trap. Took two nights but mouse took the bait of Japanese rice
cracker - used as we had found these dispersed around the house,
particularly in son's trainers, after mouse had got into kitchen, chewed
through cotton bag and then cherry picked the rice crackers, leaving the
doritos, crisps and twiglets for us!
We all got up at 6.10 am this morning to see
the mouse in the trap and hubby took it to the town park for release.
Thanks again, will recommend your site to
friends and family with a mouse problem.
best wishes, Hilary Henderson
Received 12/11/06
Hi, I just want to say thanks about the
information about your free humane mouse trap. We have just brought a
house a few months ago in the country on the edge of a forest
(in Southern Finland). Until now we have not had a mouse problem at all
but since the cold weather has started the forest mice are venturing
into our home. We did not really know we had mice until we were away
from the house one weekend to return and discover mice had been rummaging
through our cupboards.
We wanted a humane mouse trap but all the
shops we looked only had the snap traps or the boxes where you put poison.
Neither of these are an option we would ever consider, we have
moved from the city into their domain so to speak and we need to respect
that. After a quick search in Google I found your page and luckily
had all the parts needed to make the trap. The only problem was we had
nothing to hand we could really use for bait so ended up using a
piece of small sausage. That night nothing happened (probably due to the
bait we used). The next night we decided to try some chocolate (read a few
articles saying it works well). I actually used a chocolate sweet
that's a little like a maltaser but with harder chocolate outside and
chewy inside (called pollys, they are from Sweden and you can get
them in Ikea), its a real good choice of bait because it can be
attached to the end of the BBQ stick real easy. To cut a long story short
within an hour of setting that trap we had caught our first mouse. Cleaned
it and set the trap again and within 30 minutes we had caught another. The
next night we had nothing (no mouse ventured into the trap) but today
we have just now caught another.
We currently have all three mice in
an old fish tank and tomorrow we will release them into an old
derelict house which is about 2 km away from here. Hopefully they will
like it there plus they will be warm enough from the cold winter. One of
them seems quite tame, while of course we have the tank in a secluded and
dark place, when we venture close one of the mice comes up from the straw
we have in there to have a good look at what's going on.
Anywayz, I'm happy to report that so far your
trap is 3 for 3 in catches which is very impressive for something so
simple. Attached are a couple of pictures, one showing the trap ready for
action and the other with its first catch. Its quite nice because one can clearly
see the chocolate sweet used as bait and the greedy mouse :)
Regards from Finland
Adam.
Received 08/11/06 Steve, Received 10.10.06
Received 29/08/06
Just
to thank for the great home made design to rid us of our unwanted
house-guest. (although my wife thought it was “sweet” and wanted it to
stay until it discovered our food cupboard) Anyway, yesterday I saw
your website, set two traps and this morning we now have the house back to
ourselves (see pictures!) The mouse is enjoying its new home in the
woods far from here! Received 31.07.06
Hi Steve, two weeks ago we realized, that there was a new roommate with us in our
apartment. We called him (?) Eduard (which is german for Edward, I think).
Because we didn't want to kill him, we bought several different mousetraps,
which should catch him alive. However the little fellow was to smart for all
the traps we bought. Yesterday I was finally about to collect and buy the parts, which would
be necessary to assemble a hightech infrared mousetrap. But then I stumbled
upon your webpage and gave your construction a try... and this morning
around 5 a.m. Eduard was caught in our bedroom with the first trap we set
up, following your instructions. We hope, he is happy now in the park where
we brought him. So thank you very much for that bright idea. Find attached a picture as evidence and three links to (german) websites
describing hightech infrared moustraps. Looking forward to see "Eduard" on your webpage. All the best to you. Angela & Rainer Cologne, Germany Received 28/07/06
Received 15/07/06
Received 05/07/06
Received 22/06/06
Hi Steve - I sent you an e-mail after we trapped a
little mouse within 12 hours of setting your humane trap. I ID him and it
wasn't the mouse that I'd seen running around my kitchen. Sure enough we set
up the trap again and caught a second mouse within a few hours . . .he's the
guy I'd been seeing. I released both mice in the same area so hopefully they
were reunited. We did set up the trap one more time, just in case there was
a little family running around in the house but so far, day four, no other
mice in the trap. I'm the gal that has five very lazy content cats. Glad
they aren't mousers . .Sincerely, Received 20/03/2006
Hello, We've had a mouse running around part of our house for several weeks.
We've tried several techniques for trapping him and so far none had worked.
As we live next door to a farm, we expect to see rodents, and regularly see
them outside, but normally they don't get in. This one had been particularly
clever at avoiding traps... until now! This morning I tried Googling for 'humane mousetraps' and came across
your page. I built your trap at lunchtime, and by 7pm we'd managed to catch
it! We think there is only one around, but I'll keep the trap set up just in
case there are more - we'd noticed that this mouse was partial to chocolate
(and Bombay mix!) and baited the trap with a bit of Mars bar, as suggested
by someone else. So far that's a 100% success rate for us. Picture of the cute little
critter attached... Thanks for the ingenious design and for taking the time to put it up on
the web :) We're off the release him into the countryside now. Cheers, Mark Received 31/1/2006 Hi Received 05/01/2006
Steve
Happy
New Year!
I've
had great success with your device. Early one morning my wife saw
something scampering behind a cupboard as she entered the kitchen and soon
had me searching for solutions. By mid morning I had discovered your trap
and quickly had one made.
I
used a rectangular glass Pyrex dish (the better to see through) with a
couple of blobs of blutack along the 'hinge' end (to prevent sliding on
our tiled floor). As we had wire coat hangers to hand I used part of one
of these for the strut rather than fiddle with skewers, cocktail sticks
and sellotape.
FOR
BAIT I USED A SLIVER OF MARS BAR.
Within
a couple of hours (honestly - literally - before midday - in broad
daylight) I had caught two mice. Thank you very much for your simple and
effective design; my contribution is to recommend as bait A SLIVER OF MARS
BAR!
Best
Regards,
Seymour
Legge
Hampshire
Received 1/12/05
Hi Steve,
Great idea - the trap was successful on the second try. The first time,
the agile little critter managed to flee before the dish fell down,
taking the cheese with him!!. I found dish down, cheese gone, but no
mouse. So, for the second attempt, I reduced the height of the support
holding the dish up from about 4 inches to about 2 inches, so that it
would take less time to fall down. I also made sure the skewer was
longer inside the trap so that the bait was positioned far from the
'entrance' so that the mouse would have further to run to escape. Also
used bread as the bait, which stays securely stuck on the skewer
ensuring that the mouse will disturb it enough to trigger it - bread
doesn't break apart like cheese.
He is now running wild and free in the nearby park, if he has managed
not to be eaten by anything yet. Happily at least it's relatively
mild out tonight.
Please find picture attached
Cheers,
- Hugh Thomas
Received 11/09/2005 I
had tried absolutely everything except poison. The mice had learned
how to extract bait from all my traps without ever setting them off, or to
just bite through them to get out. I created one of your traps in
about ten minutes – I used the wire coat hanger modification, and
chocolate cake rolled into a ball with peanut butter as bait. First
(huge) mouse at 1:00 am, followed two hours later by a second, smaller
one. Both now wandering around the Cotswold countryside feeling a
little miffed, I suspect. So far we appear now to be a mouse-free
house and can sleep again at nights. Whoever said “quiet as a
mouse” had not lain awake in our bedroom (which is below the kitchen
floor) listening to their nightly invasions. Received 6/6/5
Hiya,
Me
and my partner where shocked to find an albino gerbil living in our
skirting boards. We had no idea where the little blighter had come from or
how he had gotten in our walls, but he was coming out into our flat
through a hole in the gas cupboard. We where about to go out and buy a
humane mouse trap for £10 when we came upon your site and decided to give
your trap a go first. I have to say that we where doubful of catching him
at first and thought it might take a few goes. But we set up the trap this
afternoon in our gas cupboard and left to go to my parents and when we
came back we found him inside the trap, and we quickly transfered him to
one of the cages we had from when we had pet rats.
He now
seems quite happy munching away on some gerbil food that we bought today
and doesn't seem stressed out at all. Although we now have the mamoth task
of trying to find his owners. Lol.
I have
attached a rather blurry picture of our little gerbil friend, covered in
dirt from the inside of our walls.
Thank you
for sharing your wonderful trap with us.
Jeanette
Hodkinson
Received 18/05/05
Received 05/01/2005
Steve, Great site! The mouse in our house was getting so tame I thought he was going to start showing up for dinner at the table with a tiny fork and knife. I built the trap (using a pink cocktail stick for a bit of flair of course) and we got him the first night on the first try! (1 trap, 1 mouse) We've since released him and are content knowing that he wasn't hurt in the process. Thanks for a great idea! Amanda and Jorge Salt Lake City, Utah Received 28/12/04 Another success (1-for-1) and a big Thanks from Mousie! My daughter had a mouse living in her car for the last few weeks eating crumbs off the floor (good) but it was starting to take stuffing out of the seats (not good). We were going to try to find a mouse-sized Hav-A-Hart or equivalent I googled "Humane Mousetrap" and found your web site. Your trap worked great. We set it up in the trunk of her car. A few hours later and now Mousie is cozy and warm in his new domain (a big aquarium). I used the skewer/toothpick/tape mechanism for the trigger. First I tried cheese, but Mousie just nibbled it without setting off the trap. Then I tried smearing peanut button on the skewer instead of the cheese and that worked right away. Mice are nice. Last August, I found an orphaned baby mouse, fuzzy, but with eyes still closed, at the town transfer station (dump). How could I leave him behind? I took him home and fed him 'Kitten Formula" that comes in a little box like a kid's juice box until he was ready for solid food. Six months later he had grown into a big, healthy mouse, but all he wanted to do was to get out of his cage. I can relate to that. It was still too cold to let him go outside, so after a lot of consideration, one night I left the lid open a bit on his cage. When he discovered he could get out, he was So Happy! He ran around in circles on the floor, climbed back on the table and Thanked me. I am not kidding. Then he ran off to explore his world. I thought I would never see him again. But the next night he came wandering back, climbed back in his cage and ran in his wheel, just for fun. After a couple of nights he stopped going in his cage, but he kept coming back every night for months. He would climb up on my computer desk and wait for me to give him a treat (peanut), then hang our for a while keeping me company. One day he stopped coming, and soon thereafter I found his little body behind the refrigerator. Very sad, but I know he had a good life. -steve-
Received17/12/04
Unbelieveable. Like many I'm sure, I
read the comments and thought, yeah I bet it's not that good and he
probably wrote most of these comments himself, but now I am a
believer. 1 trap and 1 mouse in 3hours. Have
reset trap incase Mickey has some mates! Let's hope he was a
loner.
Setting the trap took a little time, but
then it suddenly clicks how to do it. I used the slight
modfication of blue tac to help prevent the prop
from slipping easily, but still leaving the trap ready to topple. I
loaded it with satsuma and peanut butter as i knew he was a citrus
freak.
Was an easy way to safely capture Mickey,
who is happy roaming fields a mile away.
Thanks for your help!
Debbie
Received 14/12/04 Dear Steve, Brilliant! In spite of scepticism from Mrs, I built the trap without any difficulty and caught the mouse on the first try. Unfortunately, I can't use the trap again, as the mouse ate the cocktail stick while waiting to be released. I attached the cocktail stick by binding it to the skewer with thread and securing each of the bindings with a drop of PVA glue. Best wishes, David Received 06/12/04 Hi
Steve,
Received 04/12/04 Thanks so much for posting your humane trap site. Received 28/11/04 Hi Steve, Great trap - three hours and I got it! One possible improvement though; try using a length of wire coat hanger (say ten inches), with a 90 degree bend about 2 to 3 inches along. I did this because I didn't have a skewer and I think it was probably sturdier. Cheers again, Andy Received 28/11/04
What an inspiration!
On Friday night (Nov.26) I discovered we
had a mouse in our brand new house. Our little kids don't always shut
the doors tight, so I'm not surprised it snuck in.
I Googled "homemade mouse trap"
and came up with your site. After a couple of tries I got the trap
working great. At 3 am, Nov. 28, the mouse was captured. My
hubby's store-bought humane traps were untouched. lol
The mouse is now scurrying through a field
somewhere, at least a kilometre away! Too bad about the freezing rain.
Thank you for your innovation and
inspiration!
Cheers from Canada
Wendy
Received 26/11/04
Steve,
Thank
you for your advice. I`ve set all the mice free in a nice country
place - all seven of them.
From
Arthur aged 8.
Received 25/11.04
HI
we
found out that a mouse was living in our garage about 3 days ago when
it started chewing up my foam floor mop! Then the next day my
neighbours cat was camped outside my garage door and wouldnt leave.
Didnt want to kill the little thing by using a horrible trap or
poisoning him so looked for humane traps yesterday afternoon with no
success. Came on the web last night and found your site, so i made up
the trap, baited with peanut butter, and went to bed at midnight. At
3am we heard the bang and went down, husband tapped the tin and said
it was empty, lifted the lid and there was a very surprised mouse!!!!
Shouted at him and he put the lid back down before mouse escaped.
Transferred him to a cool box with a lid and husband released him.
Dont know what the neighbours would have thought him wandering round
our estate at 3.30am with a cool box and slippers on!
Will re
set it tonight to make sure he was alone! Many thanks, youve been a
great help and i really appreciate it.
Jules
Owen
Received 15/11/04
Dear Steve
Good website. I
successfully and humanely deported my resident mouse, which had
cleverly evaded capture by the traditional and lethal traps. It had
however eaten the three cheese meals I had set out for it. I had been
thinking about possible humane ways of transporting the mouse alive,
and I was particularly pleased to find your suggested method. What I
used was:
8" × 4"
× 2½" bread tin
10" barbecue
stick
Cardboard triangle
Metal tray about
10" diameter
I trimmed and bent
the stick at right angle 6" by 3", with the cardboard taped
to fix it. Put two bits of 'Bluetac' at end of tin and a small piece
of cork to stop the short end of the stick from slipping.
I baited the end
of the stick with Camembert and peanut butter - surely a feast for a
small mouse - and to my great surprise it worked first time! When I
released the mouse next morning, it had barely woken up after a
night's rest digesting its meal.
To strengthen the
bend in the stick, I have now araldited a cross brace of the same
stick material. I have now just left a bit of cheese out, to see if
there is another hungry mouth to feed!
Richard [London]
11/10/04
Hi Steve,
Thanks for such a simple, but effective problem to
our mouse problem! I saw a mouse run across our bedroom carpet
about 10 days ago. The next day, my husband set two traps, but
the little critter kept eating the cheese without setting off the
traps. This evening I searched the internet hoping to buy a
humane mousetrap, and there was your site - brilliant!
Myself and my two children (age 4 and 7) set about
constructing the trap, and set it up in my bedroom. When Daddy
came home, they rushed him upstairs to show him our trap, and Daddy
sniggered a bit, thinking that will never work! But only 3 hours
later, we heard a 'clunk', and sure enough there was the little mouse,
trying desperately to get out from under the dish - no chance mate!
We got our son out of bed to have a look at it,
but unfortunately our younger daughter was fast asleep. She will
be so cross that she missed it tomorrow when she wakes up! But
we will set it again, just in case...
And my husband - well seeing as he had no faith in
the idea, he had the pleasure of driving the little mouse up the road
to let him go :o)
Many thanks
The Barnes Family, Cambs, England.
Received 5/10/4 Hi Steve, One mouse, one trap, one night. End of story! I hope your site stays up forever; it really is an elegant solution to pest control. Regards Kris
Received24/09/04 Dear Steve One more down! I just wrote a couple of hours ago to update and bang! another mouse fell for the bread. That makes 4 out of 4.Thank you once again, I am starting to wonder just how many mice there are in the house. Regards from sunny Spain. Miguel Núñez Received 13/08/04 Dear Steve: I hope this is one of a series of comments I should be sending as there must be four or five mice hiding in our house. I caught one a couple of weeks ago chasing it in the bathroom but I needed a trap for the others. It took 24 hours to cathch the firt one and I'm sure the rest should fall sooner.My wife wont let me keep them (sigh) so I am letting them free in a park nearby. Attached you will find a picture of our nibbling ex-guest. Thank you for the idea! (I'm sure the mouse is grateful as well) Miguel Núñez, Málaga, Spain Received 11/09/04
Hi there!
You trap is awesome! I had a family that
decided to homestead in my garage, so needless to say I didn't want to
kill these guys, just relocate. So here are the stats.
Trap set 6 times.
Mice caught five.
I also sent a picture of our first catch!
Received 07/09/04
Dear Steve,
Marvellous idea! 'Truffle' the
hamster escaped exactly one week ago. We managed to find out
that she was somewhere in the kitchen, having locked all doors and
determined where food left out had been taken. I removed
skirting boards beneath kitchen cabinets, searched inside washing
machines, driers, fridges and freezers, but without success. Complex
attempts at traps all failed! My wife camped out in the kitchen
to catch the hamster in the act.....no success.
It took me about 15 minutes to set up
your trap. Within two hours we heard the crash of the pyrex hitting
the tray and bingo we had our hamster!!
Nice one
Many thanks
Best wishes
Mike Blayney, Isle of Man
Received 12/07/04 Thank you for creating your site and showing us how to make the trap. It worked perfectly within two hours of having set it up and the little grey mouse was unharmed. Unfortunately my grip slipped while carrying the (full) trap through our garden on the way to the park the other side of the the river and mouse hurtled off into the flowers. I shall keep setting the trap up as it may not be the only mouse, or indeed it may get back in. All the best JK Received 12/07/04
Your website really works! As I was
looking around for a skewer to prop the dish on, I noticed some
movement under a newspaper on the kitchen counter. I immediately
changed the bag in the waste basket, held it to the edge of the
counter with one hand and moved the newspaper with the other.
The mouse naturally leapt towards the dark space of the
container and was caught!
If I hadn't been trying to build your
mouse trap I would not have had such an easy opportunity to catch the
little critter! Thanks for the great website!!!
Steve.
Received 29.06.04 Steve, Just wanted to let you know that I used your trap to catch a mouse that had been spending the night in my desk at work and eating all my afternoon snack supplies. The campus pest control guy came by and left glue traps, which seemed too cruel to me, so I found your instructions on the web, set my trap yesterday (I used a rectangular Sterilite clear plastic container, turned upside-down on its lid, with a bent chopstick and peanut butter) and caught the mouse last night. He's pretty cute and he'll soon be living peacefully in the Palo Alto hills. Thanks! Amanda Received 4.06.04 Hi, i am the neal shepperson on your feedback from ages and ages ago. I just thought i better let you know that the trap is still working and i have had about 7 of the little suckers now and am perfecting my manic doctor evil laugh which is the only taunting i am allowed what with the humane society having set up home in my house. So that's another thanks an i reckon a score of dish caught by my coat hanger/baking tray variation of your great trap. Neal Shepperson Received 01.06.04
And another one that's 2 with 100% success
Many thanks
-Dear Steve,
You really should have taken out a
patent.
Having in the last year caught a
mouse and a shrew using a stick and a whisky bottle box, the latest
mouse was performing disappearing tricks before my eyes.
Made your mouse trap and left it at
the spot where he last had vanished and arrived this morning, to find
a sweaty and stressed, but otherwise fine and caught mouse. I am
amazed and very grateful.
yours Michael
The Revd Michael Everitt
Received 2/6/04 Thank you very much for the instructions for your humane mouse trap. It worked first time brilliantly. As I set it up in the garage where clothes and biscuits had been nibbled, the husband laughed scornfully, the daughter commented on my madness, the son .. well the son hedged his bets ..... It took about 15 mins to set up, (if you don't count going out to buy a new pyrex dish and baking tray!) with barbeque stick, sellotape and cheese ... next morning, the loveliest little field mouse was huddled in the corner.We released it an hour later in a distant field and it bounded away happily! Thank you so much. Sharon Received 14.04.2004
Hi Steve
Thanks
for a great site! A
couple of days ago the cat brought in a mouse, which
promptly disappeared behind the fireplace. We
could not coax it out/find it anywhere despite a thorough search. I
though I would give the internet a try - I was expecting to have to
buy a humane mousetrap but was pleasantly surprised to see your site
at the top of Google's list!
Anyway,
I used the wire coathanger modification with a small lump of cheese together
with a transparent fridge salad container. and a wooden tray. It
took a bit of practice to get the coathanger bent correctly to get it
to stay up and to get the food at a sensible height, but around 15
minutes of tweaking had a working setup. Positioned
it near the fireplace yesterday. Finally caught the mouse at around
mid day today!
The
funniest thing was that the cat was asleep a few feet from the trap
and did not even notice the mouse until it triggered the trap! Suddenly
we had one very alert and interested cat watching one very scared
trapped mouse!
Thanks
again
Steve
Woodley
Maidenhead,
UK
Received 03.04.04
An excellent solution
First time around, the little devil got
away with the cheese (Davidstow Mature Cheddar). I reduced the height
of the short leg and rebaited. Within 2 hours I had him. Released
shocked, but unharmed.
Mark
Received 14.03.04
Hi Steve.
Great site, Please feel free to use my
comments, or edit as appropriate them to include them in your comments
page if you wish.
Thought your site was excellent, and after
my home-made humane trap attempts, had no doubt that your trap idea
would work. I used the wire coat hanger modification, decided
the best way would be to put the best way to put a slight kink in
the top bar of the L shaped hanger to keep the large heavy Pyrex
dish, so it was stable, but still easily triggered. I also found that
the 90 degree L bend was actually best at a lesser angle about 80
degrees to keep the bait in the air. A large Pyrex dish and long shaft
on the bait end and a shorter length on the bottom of the
"L" would help to ensure the safest trap for mousey.
Also, I thought a good bait was chocolate,
but considered it important to be able to 'fix' the bait on somehow. I
then had a great idea. Here in the UK they have "Wagon
Wheels" they are 2 slices of chocolate biscuits with a thick
sticky marshmallowy centre. a bit of this with the coat hanger through
the middle of the marshmallowy bit sticks extremely well. This was
certainly not going anywhere and was firmly stuck.
Spent 10 minutes thinking about building
it, and about 3 mins in actually doing so!
Set it up in a room, about a foot from the
wall. 3 days passed, and I had not
seen any mouse at all. Usually I would spot him darting across the
edge lounge. Anyhow was beginning to think he had gone. Yesterday
weather was poorer, and I checked the trap and noticed for the first
time the trap had gone off.
Looking closer, there was mousey safe
& sound, and I drove him to some nice local woodlands and fields
for release.
100% success record. Have set the trap
again in case there's some of his friends in!!
Best wishes everyone, glad at least there's
this site that's nice to mice!
Received 10.02.04 Hi Steve, I tried your trap using a heavy Pyrex dish, about 9x9 inches, and a square of plexi-glass underneath. I had no success and was worried that the mouse might trip the trap on the way in and get smashed. I switched to a shallow, opaque plastic storage container which was also a bit bigger. I used a coat-hanger piece (bent at 90 degrees about an inch from the end) to prop up the side of the dish, and speared a small piece of bread with peanut butter on the other end. I ended up setting the food-end on the ground because I was having a hard time getting the edge of the bin to balance. The trap was still pretty "trippy" balanced this way, since the coat-hanger could still slip sideways. I have caught 3 mice in 5 days. Beautiful. Thanks, Julie, St. Louis, Missouri. Received 28.01.04 Awesome idea Steve!! Within about 2 hours of setting one up in my kitchen I had a cute little brown and white mousie! I had to use taped toothpicks as a modification as I didn't have anything else (we've been in our new house for about a month and are still getting some of the basic things that you don't think about until ya need them :-P ) My fiance, who's name is also Steve, and I were sitting here watching TV when we heard the trap fall. I ran out and sure enough!! My new digital camera hasn't arrived yet, or I would have taken a picture for your gallery. He's taking up residence in one of my spare hamster cages upstairs as we're in the middle of that huge snow storm in New York. I have 6 hamsters currently I'm raising, so I have a few spare cages for them as I catch them until spring. Hopefully he's the only one though. Super super design! Thanks so much for putting it out on the net for all of us frustrated with mice. ~ Lori L. Paparteys - Oneonta, NY Received 26.01.04 Hi
Steve Received 22.01.2004 Hi Steve, I had been trying to catch the mouse in my kitchen for a couple of weeks, with no success. I continued modifying my own trap ideas but still the mouse would escape. Finally, a friend of mine led me to Steve Smith's Humane Mousetrap. The first night that I set up the trap, I successfully caught the mouse! What a wonderful feeling of accomplishment! Thinking that I had solved my mouse-issues, the next night I went to sleep and was abruptly woken by the sound of yet another mouse chewing through a fortune cookie wrapper on my counter. Surprisingly, I was able to back the mouse into a corner and catch it with a plastic container (that is, after several minutes of chasing it back and fourth along the counter). The next day I looked underneath my kitchen cabinet to find that there was a gap between the drain pipe for the sink and the hole in the floor boards, large enough for a mouse to squeeze through. I filled the gap with a course grade of steel wool. I think that did the trick because I haven't seen any signs of new mice since then. The two mice that I caught have temporarily taken up residence in a cage in my house. I'm waiting for the snow to melt before releasing them in the woods. Thanks for sharing your fantastic mousetrap plans! Also, much thanks for your suggestion to figure out how the mice are getting into the house! Gail (Long Island, New York)
Received 22.01,2004 Hi Steve,
It took us over a week to catch our little shrew with the trap but
we are still delighted over our success! We are trying to think of
it as us fattening him up before sending the poor little thing out in
the snow since he had quite a feast every night with the food that we
set out for him. I'm not sure how he managed to lick the suet off
of the stick every night and not have it fall down since the simple
breeze created by the dogs tail would often make it fall.... He
must have been really clever! I didn't see any pictures of shrews
in your gallery so I thought I'd send one of our little guy to add to
the collection! Thanks so much for the wonderful idea!
Carrie,
Vilseck, Germany
Received 02.01.04 Hi
Steve, On
New Years Eve my youngest daughter (5) came running in from the kitchen in
tears because she’d seen a mouse. We live in the country and occasionally
field mice find their way in and decide it’s a nice place to stay. Where
at Hi Steve I want say how brilliant your mouse trap is. I saw a mouse run across my room and as I am only 12 I was scared to death. I asked my dad and we searched and found this brilliant website. The 1st night the mouse ate the cheese so the 2nd night we used a plastic lighter dish then we had caught him or her. The next day we set the mousie free with some food and we are going to keep using the trap to set them free outside. THANK YOU SO MUCH >From Rose, England Glouster Received 06.12.03
Hello
I just wanted to say thank
you for the great info. I found there were mice under my sink and they
were leaving a mess in my pots and pans. I had to wash everything
before I could cook. But I couldn't stand the thought of hurting them, so I
looked online for a safe ( for them ) way to catch them and found you.
It's great to see someone respect life enough to come up with your idea.
Within 2 hours of setting it up I had two cute little mice in it. Thanks
again.
Judy
Received 03.12.03
Brilliant website!
I never realised how amazing, and zippy, mice
were until I tried capturing them. I developed a few different types of
humane traps, with little success. I couldn't work out how to do the
trigger mechanism, which I suppose it a fundamental.
Anyway, just caught my first mouse with an
improvisation your trap design. I used a large flower pot 'weighted' down
under the tension of an elastic band. Attached is a picture, just before
the release. I couldn't get a picture of the actual release, because
Nibbles is too fast.
Thanks for the design tips!
Eamon Honan
SilverOnion Software Received 03.12.03
Hi Steve
Many thanks for the idea of your mousetrap. I
built it modifying the "trigger": I used a triangular
piece of thick cardboard
instead of the cocktail stick. It did work
every time. In fact I caught the same mouse 3 times (it escaped me twice
in the garden while I tried to take it away).
The best results I achieved with Camembert
cheese. It seems to be true what they show in cartoon movies like
Tom&Jerry.
Wojciech Barczak
Gdynia, Poland
Received 02/12/03 Years ago, I had a mouse problem in a little house I rented. I didn’t like using the mechanical mice traps, so I bought what was supposed to be a quick and painless poison. I woke one morning only to discover a mouse on my hall carpet, writhing in pain with blood coming out of every orifice. I was horrified and ashamed, and never used such products again. If a mouse problem came up, someone else dealt with it, not me. However. I now have a ‘new’ old house and it came with a mouse problem. What to do? I was going to buy one of those humane mousetraps from a catalog but I accidentally threw the catalog away. I went online to try and search out the company again. I did a google search on ‘humane mousetrap’ and lo and behold!, here’s your site. Something I could build for free and right now seemed worth trying out, so I did. I baited my trap with a cashew stuck on the end on the skewer, went to bed, and woke up to find the trap sprung….but no mouse? Yes, mouse! It was the same color as the old metal pan I used for the base and was huddled in the corner under the glass baking dish—unharmed. I will leave shortly to escort it to a new location, and set it up one more time tonight to make sure I have all the culprits. I am also emailing your web site to all of my female relatives, none of whom, like me, want the darling little critters in our homes, but don’t want to kill them, either. Thank you so much! K. Moore New Jersey, USA Received 29/11/03
Dear Steve,
Thanks a lot for your website on how to
build a mouse trap. Our garage is invaded with mouses! Unfortunately, all
the animal shops in our neighbourhood have run out of mouse traps (to
catch them alive). So I tried to build a mouse trap like you explain on
your website.
It works! After 3 hours we had our first mouse
catched!
BUT
I put it temporarily in a small cage, to
transport it - apparently the cage has too wide openings. It quite
incredible how this little mouse got out in less than 1 second!
So were back to the beginning. I will look for
a cage with smaller openings. Guess we have about 6 mouses in the garage.
I was fun for 1 week, but now the garage is getting crowded!
Thanks a lot for your trap design!!!
I'll keep you up to date on our mouse catching
activities.
see you later
Greetings from Belgium
Fibonacci
Received 28/11/03 Dear
Steve, We
discovered a mouse in our basement on Wednesday night and knew that no
stores would be open selling humane live traps due to the Thanksgiving
holiday. I searched on google
for a humane homemade mousetrap and came across your site.
I set it up Thursday morning, as my husband was silently laughing
that it would never work. Two
hours later the baking dish lay flat on the cookie sheet and we took the
whole thing outside, lifted the baking dish and there was our little mouse.
It really worked! Thank
you for a great design that allowed us to get rid of our cute little
houseguest without harming him. I
really appreciate it. Shannon
Weidemann Received 19.11.03 Hello Steve Another success for your elegantly simple design! We have been happily sharing our garden with mice for some years but when my wife spotted one entering the house through a ventilator grill and we found evidence of occupancy in our dining room we knew action was called for! A coathanger version of the trap, baited with a lump of peanut butter, brought our first captive, within two hours of setting it up and in broad daylight! That night, we caught a second. None since then but as there have been no further signs of mouse activity in the house we are inclined to think that all the culprits have been caught. I recall reading somewhere that although mice will obviously eat cheese, contrary to popular belief it is not one of their favourite foods. Nuts and cereals are much preferred. Certainly, peanut butter (the crunchy variety) seems to be an excellent attractant! Many thanks for your website.Phil Russell Received 18.11.03
Hi Steve,
Just wanted to say thanks for the info on your
web site. I used the coathanger version and caught my unwelcome visitor
the first night! Slight variation I used was to bend the end where the
bait went to make it more like a hook so the bread wouldn't fall off
straight away. Thanks again,
Martin Bromley, Bracknell UK
Received 08.11.03 Dear Steve, After 3 restless nights I realised something needed to be done about the scratching along the walls of my bedroom! A quick google brought up your website and when I got home last night I set up your trap. Finding a pyrex dish really doesn't want to stay on a thin wooden skewer, I thought I'd keep the thing upright with some blutack. A combination of very sticky blutack and easily removed bounty bar meant that when I got back from a night out the little beast had removed the prize and run off scott free! I rebaited and tried to plaster the bounty bar on the stick better and sat and waited in the bedroom.I didn't have to wait long and the mouse scurried out into the hallway in full view, desperate to reach his chocolatey treat. Foiled again - it escaped unharmed and fully refreshed. I thought I'd leave it until morning before rethinking the problem as it was now gone 2am. At 5.30am I was still lying there listening to the mouse scurryng round my bedroom fully caloried up for his exercises. Suddenly it came to me - I could abandon the blutack if I could stabilise another way, so I made a triangle of a further wooden stick and attached it to the base of the L-shaped baited stick so now it looked more like a hangman's gallows! I attached a more substantial truffle temptation and retreated to the bedroom. 2 hours later I was rewarded with a satisying clunk from the pyrex dish hitting the tray. 1 mouse caught safely and I settled down for some well-earned sleep. 1 success out of 3 attempts, not bad and now I know what to do should any of his friends decide to stay at chez Wheeler. Thank you for your idea. I know I will really appreciate it tonight when my head hits the pillow. Regards, Vanessa Received 03.11.03 This is an important and sad message from Rick. I have modified the site instructions about the height of the trap to prevent this ever happening again.
Hi Steve
We'll, last night I
stumbled upon your site and built a mousetrap, however, I had to improvise
a bit and use a coat hanger. I guess you would call it a successful night,
however, poor mousie was able to run a tad too far when the heavy pyrex
dish started to fall. My wife awoke to a mouse that was half out/half in
the trap. The dish landed right in the middle of his back and killed
him.
Better luck next time
(hopefully there won't be one.) I will modify the hanger to not be
as tall, and try to make the contraption a bit less sturdy so it falls
easier. Great site...our end result was what we wanted (no mouse) but the
final outcome wasn't quite what we had envisioned.
Rick Received 15.10.03 Nottinghamshire UK 15th October 2003 Dear Sir I found your excellent site, searching for "humane mousetrap" on google. There is a farm to the back of the cottage we rent and some field mice found their way in a couple of weeks ago. My local council wanted £30 to solve the problem. My own ideas for a trap were elaborate compared with your elegant solution. I used a bent coat-hanger and a roasting tray, with home-made bread and strawberry jam as a bait. I am one of those unemployed IT professionals. I used my iBook to make a movie of Mouse 4's successful capture, attached. There is only one more mouse left upstairs, some evidence was left on my 6 year old son's pillow. It was he who insisted that the unwelcome visitors were not to be killed. Sincere thanks from all of us, Mr Moore & family
Received 11.10.03
Hello Steve,
Your humane trap worked the
very first night I set it! The shish kebab stick had slipped and
dropped the glass cake pan twice within a few minutes after setting it,
but after setting it the third time I went to bed. I had been
worried that the heavy glass cake pan would fall on the mouse and
seriously injure him either entering the trap or trying to exit.
I had also thought the mouse might be able to take the cheese without
springing the trap. Or, that the cake pan would fall as it had the
first two times without a mouse entering. In fact it worked
perfectly, the mouse was unharmed, although he looked frantic to find a
way out, which he could not.
I used a wooden shishkebab
stick and bought a large cookie pan with low sides. I did not remove
the paper stuck on the cookie pan that comes with the new pan since the
paper helped the stick from sliding off the slick metal cookie pan.
We then took the mouse inside
the trap to the mountains about one mile away as you had suggested and
released him unharmed. I have a feeling that he is not the only
mouse in the house, so will set the trap again tonight. Thanks for
the web site. My wife had bought store-bought mouse traps, but
couldn't bring herself to use them. That is when I searched the
internet for "mousetrap" and "humane" and your site
was first on the list of search results.
Tom
Received 21.09.03 hi steve Yesterday, I was sitting in the basement when I heard something on the stairs. I went to see, and found a cute little mouse desperately trying to ascend the stairs, but only managing to fall down one step at a time. Before I could retrieve a bucket, it had made it's way to the floor and disappeared into the piles of junk down here.Throughout the day, I saw it running around looking for an escape, but it was too small to climb the stairs. I did a Google search and came across your humane mouse trap site. I followed your plans to the tee, but used a coat hanger wire for the stick rather than the bamboo skewer. I found it impossible to balance the pyrex dish on it, so I jambed the base of the stick into a small square of balsa wood for more stability. I had no success overnite, but today when I was sitting here at the computer, I saw it come out and head straight for the trap and start chowing down on the peanut butter. Alas, the balsa wood base made it too stable, and the glass dish wouldn't fall. Fortunately, I had my hockey stick nearby (typical Canadian), and was able to sneak over to tip the setup. The mouse was too involved with the peanut butter to notice me. It didn't panic at all, and I picked the whole rig up and took it outside to set it free. Thanks for the great idea! Bob Bardsley Montreal, Canada Received 11.09.03
Steve,
I
found your website 4 days ago after my daughter's pet hamster escaped.
We used a coat hanger bent into an L, a piece of banana, a glass baking
dish, and a metal cooking sheet placed in two places around the house.
It took use three nights, but after we changed to bait from bread to
banana, we caught Tickle the Hamster. Tickler is somewhat
traumatized by the ordeal, but he is alive thanks to you. My
daughter is thrilled and we're extremely grateful.
Thank
you so Much
Ellen,
Marc, Lauren & Tickle in Phoenix Arizona
Received 25/08/2003 i thought that mice had evolved beyond mousetraps for a time but your new take on the old figure 4 trap used in boyscouts is the best trap i've seen ever. i even bought a commercial grade humane mousetrap and the mouse seemed to have said "i'm not getting in that claustrophobic thing." but the glass casserole dish and cookie sheet with coathanger baited with bagel and jam really did the trick. i think it worked because it seemed like the trap wasn't a trap and looked like another set of dishes next to the sink and the commercial trap failed because it seemed like there was no escape. if you look at what a mouse does all the time it likes to have it's back or side to the wall and two ways to run. the dish seemed to say to the mouse in = food, other side = free. so it's good to set the trap by the wall we are really happy with the results. we just set the trap left it for a few hours and came back to mouse under glass. right now he's having himself a little "time out" and it's not like he's going to have a bad time in there. the coat hanger fell so there's a bit of air going under the rim of the dish and he's got a big bagel with jam to munch on while i finish this e-mail. so thanks alot for everything and i'll teach this trick to my family + friends for years to come. -sean +chel-c
Received 20/08/2003
Hi Steve--I
used your mousetrap design (as modified by Peter's email to use a coat
hanger) and caught a mouse on the second night I tried it. The
first night the trap fell but didn't catch anything--I'm not sure if the
mouse knocked it down and escaped or if it fell over by itself.
Thanks very much for your helpful website!--Mike
Received 01/08/03 Thanks Steve! I read your site after surfing for ideas. I made a trap this afternoon and set it up this evening with an old lunch box and some wire instead of the skewer. I had to put a little ramp up the side and little chunks of tasty cheese on it to entice mr mouse up and into the box. I found that an elastic band at on end of the trap helped to ensure the lid would go down fast and be more difficult to force up if the mouse or rat was strong. So I was in the bath and I heard the snap of the lid and then a lot of noise as the mouse tried jumping against the lid to open it. Well it worked first time so thanks very much for helping me to solve this problem. Now I know what to do next time. Cheers! James
Received 25/07/03
My 5 year old son's pet hamster escaped 2
weeks ago. We eventually tracked him down to the utility room, but
the hamster was now living under the floor. Being nocturnal, there
wasn't much chance of catching him surfacing for food unless I sat up
all night. My wee boy was really missing "Treasure",
and I reluctantly resolved to sit in wait last night. However,
yesterday afternoon I came across your website, and thank goodness I did.
I set the trap about 10pm baited with a piece of apple. Within the
hour, we had Treasure back! Fantastic. He seems unscathed by
his adventure and my son couldn't believe his eyes this morning when he
found Treasure curled up in his cage. Thank you for
sharing such a wonderful and simple idea with the world.
Jane Thomson
Received 24/07/03 Hi Received 05/07/2003 Thank you for such an elegant and simple design. I tried buying a humane trap but couldn't find a supplier on the day we first heard the scuttling so I built one using your instructions with a coat hanger. My wife thought it wouldn't work and to be honest I had my doubts. The next morning we had caught one of the little critters. Thank you again Gary Reah, West Yorkshire Received 18/05/2003 Hi
Well done on your idea. I
used your idea (with the coat hanger) and caught the culprit about 4 hours
after I set it up.
Again, well done and thanks.
Pete
Received 07/05/03
Dear Steve,
I just wanted to thank you for your humane mouse
trap idea. I caught my mouse within 2 hours. I didn't even
use a cocktail stick, just two lids and the bamboo stick bent to 90 deg.
Thanks once again for solving this perplexing
problem for me.
Kindsest regards
Susan Tosch
- Australia
Received 13/04/03 hi, just to let you know i made one of your traps an hour ago after feeding the mouse with a shop bought humane trap for months. I have been trying to catch him in a way my parents approve of, well i got him blindfolded him and took him to the woods so the little sucker cant get back. Thanks for the trap plans, i used the coat hanger variation and it works like a dream!! Thanks!! Neal
Received 20/01/03 I have just tried your trap (with a piece of coat-hanger wire instead of the skewer/cocktail stick - I found that a very slight v-shaped bend in the long limb of the wire right near the bend made it easier to set the trap). It worked twice in 24 hours and is set again in case of more customers. Thanks for sharing your ideas. John Received 28/12/02 I first hear him on Monday... My girlfriend, expressed concern
that I catch him humanely, so I looked for a solution on the Web. I came
across Steve Smith's
Humane Mousetrap page and read the plans for the trap. His plans
show the a design based on the classic figure 4 deadfall trap you'd find in
survivalists books. I read through Steve's site and settled on a
modified plan using a single length of wire coat hanger which I fashioned into
a L-shape and used a Pyrex pie dish and a white Corningware square baking dish
from my limited selection of suitable dishes.
I was going to wait till morning, but I'm kind of creeped out by it so now
I'm going to take him accross the train tracks and release him where he'll
avoid homes in the future.
Cheers, Alan Baumann http://arbaumann.com Received 04/12/02 Dear Steve, Thanks for sharing with the world your great mousetrap. It sounds really easy, and I'll definitely give it a whirl, as one of my pet mice have escaped for days now. However, I have a question, and that is: how will the mouse breathe? I come home very late at night, and it could be many hours before I am able to check on the trap. Will the mouse be able to breathe while she is in the trap? Also, could I just use an aluminum baking pan as the top part of the trap? (I could just put a book on top of the baking pan.) Once again, Many thanks in advance, Kelly Hsu (There is plenty of air in the trap for at least 12 hours - probably more as there is not an airtight seal at the sides. If in doubt use a metal tray and punch some holes in it. Steve) Received 14/11/02 Hi Steve, Thanks a million for the web-site and the mousetrap plans. Having discovered the usual evidence of our uninvited mouse guests I built your wonderful mouse trap. Baited with a small piece of bread and strawberry jam two guests were caught within an hour and released in a remote field. One slight modification which makes the thing easier to build: The kebab skewer, cocktail stick and adhesive tape were replaced with ten inches of wire cut from a wire coat-hanger and appropriately bent into a "L" shape. Keep up the site! Cheers, Peter Received 12/10/02
Hi! Just wanted to let you know that we used a
modified version of your trap about a month ago and it worked beautifully.
We had one female mouse, set the trap, and caught her the first night.
Perfect! She was released the next morning into a local field.
Thank you so much for posting this information on the
web!
Kim and Woody
Received 23/7/2
Hi Steve!
I am so delighted to have come across your site.
About two months ago or so we sighted our first little scurrying furball in
our dining room. My husband and I found our houseguest so endearing the
first few times we saw him, though somewhere deep down I knew we had to
do something soon, or else. Sure enough, we opened the cupboard one day and
there was evidence (LOTS of it) that somebody had been helping themselves to
our rice and pasta and cereal. And sightings had become so frequent that it
must have been a very busy mouse indeed if it were alone. I just could not
bring myself to buy poison because of the pain it causes them (and what did
they do to deserve that?!?), and my husband is permanently scarred from a
childhood incident at the family cottage, where he heard a mouse fighting
through half a night with a mousetrap that only partially worked. He spent the
next few nights gingerly disarming the remaining mousetraps and
enjoying his parents' conversation each morning about the intelligent mice
that could steal the bait without setting off the traps.
Anyway, we're going to try your method now. We'll
keep you posted on how it goes!
Take care,
Nina
Received 1/7/02
Enjoyed your website and your instructions for catching the buggers. Some years ago I caught a mouse by balancing a tin on a stick and sitting there waiting with a bit of string in my hand. Not a very efficient method as a long term solution.
I gave your system [which is ingenious] serious
thought for at least 2.4 minutes, but I am now too old for that sort of fun so I
went out to Armitages Garden Centre and bought an Advanced Live Mouse Catcher
for £4.99. It looks brilliant. Small, light and plastic see
through. All this happened in the last half an hour so we have not had
any success yet. I say we, because I bought my wife, Nina, one as well.
Well I do not buy her much. Mine had whole nut choc in it and she has
used peanut butter.
Info on the pack includes tel no: 020 8344 6808
Cheers
John Bosley [Huddersfield]
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