Does anyone know whether I need to wash plastic traps before resetting them (didn't break skin or anything on the previous mouse). I have noticed that the mice seem to be avoiding traps after a mouse has been caught in them but I can't work out if it is to do with a scent, whether it is behavioural(they've seen the dead one there and learnt) or whether I am just imagining things :hug:

I've never washed them and always catch more mice.

 

Do you find they kill the mice or just trap them and you have to kill them after? I've had to drown most of the mice my trap get and thus I don't like them much.

Well in the interests of fast removal (as we were close to having a mini plague for a while there) I have had three methods running recently. I have had the plastic traps which have always killed the mice(it actually says on the pack they have a better kill rate than the old wire ones), poison (not my first choice but unfortunately became necessary) and a live catch box trap. Any that end up in the box trap go into my wheelie bin and get a holiday to the tip

It didn't seem to bother our mice. Infact when they saw a dead mouse in the trap they cam up and ate it. It was horrible I would go and empty the traps to find little meaty skeletons sticking out on=f the trap with its head perfect. Sometimes only the head was left.

mice are very weary they send out a scout if the scout does not return they stay clear for a few days depends on the family unit really

try chocolate on your traps works every time

move your trap about 1 foot away from where you placed it last mb

We use a "Tomcat brand" enclosed Poison Bait container as we have dogs as well and this prevents the dogs and our kids from touching it. This appaers to be working fine.

 

I have heard with the traps that you should wash or replace them after catching mice. Also Peanut Butter works really well as the bait for your trap.

... and place them up against the wall as mice always scurry along the skirting board.

I have had the most success by putting them next to the wall between the skirting board and the plastic tub we put our recycling in as this was a route they often used to take. I am also using the Tomcat bait stations and have had a nearly 90% reduction in mice at a guess just trying to get the last few straglers and stop any new ones from moving in now.

 

As far as trap bait I have been using a tried and true that we use to bait live catch wildlife traps for small marsupials. Peanut butter, oatmeal and a pinch of birdseed all mixed together and put in a blob on the trap, caught one in each of my traps with this the first night

Good advice MB.

 

I've found that mice follow scent trails so not washing the traps helps catch more. Also Bunnings sells a gluey substance that is irresistible to rodents - I left a bottle lying around and the micies chewed through the plastic top to eat it!!

I also use peanut butter and never wash the traps (unless it gets really messy). If you have to wash them, don't use anything that smells too much as they'll stay clear.

Well we have had victory!!! We are pretty sure there was only one pair and they produced a single litter (they weren't around long before we became aware of them) A few weeks ago we caught the adult male he was the first to go) which is probably lucky as of course without an old enough male the female wasn't going to produce anymore. Over the past week we caught 4 babies. Then on Sunday morning we woke to a horrible smell in our entrance hall. I spent the afternoon pulling apart the hallway cupboard and eventually found the adult female(the stinky one) and another baby dead from the poison we had put out. We have left the traps and poison out for now but we have seen no new evidence of mice since then so we are hoping that was all of them

Here's hoping for your sake...

We've got mice too, lucky our cats are sort of psycho and kill anything they can catch. Lucky they haven't tried for my birds yet!..