Victor Snap Traps

[JoeWras]

I have one word for mouse problems: CAT.

Cats relentlessly patrol their territory, including places humans can't reach, and they don't tolerate invaders.* When we had a cat, we never had mice. After the cat died, within a year we had a field mouse invasion on our hands. Yech.

*Yes, now and then, God makes a cat that doesn't fit the pattern.

No joke.

I know I have voles in the front yard. I never saw one, until...

Our cat is an indoor cat. One day he slipped out and within 5 seconds, I saw a bundle of twigs in his mouth that was making screeching noises. I'm like: "What is that?" He wanted to bring it inside, but I managed to make him drop it. It was a vole. The sticks I saw were the legs.

Cats are amazingly fast. I have no idea how he got that vole so fast.

 

[f35phixer]

Mountainsoft

I’ve been doing the same for years in the garage. Never bait the trap.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81lRuU70vaL._SL1500_.jpg

Well lost one trap, somewhere in crawlspace.... guess i find it when i close space up in winter ;-(

I'm going to get some victors with the yellow plate

No clue where they are coming in? Take closer look this winter

 

[CaptTom]

OK, one of my "yellow fake cheese paddle" traps got a mouse last night. Watching the replay on my security camera, the mouse tried for a while to reach over the paddle (trigger) to reach the bait (peanut butter) in the little slot at the base of the trigger. Eventually it put enough pressure on the trigger and got snapped. My conclusion is that unless you place the trap somewhere the mouse is going to step anyway, bait is needed.

I still think that model trap can be too sensitive. It seems the wire which goes in the plastic notch in the trigger doesn't always seat properly. Sometimes it lets go before I can even place the trap. This just happened to be a good set.

My tormentor came by last night, after that other mouse was trapped. He tried several times to reach into the Flip-N-Slide, but each time he stopped just short of the tipping point. He splayed his back paws and tail way back, keeping his center of gravity beyond the pivot. Once they learn how something works, they can't be fooled. This is the first mouse who I've ever seen walk away from that trap, so I have to give him some grudging respect.

 

[Piper20]

The yellow paddle traps have a Firm and Sensitive adjustment on the paddle. Of course it’s yellow and very small, hard to see.

 

[CaptTom]

You're probably right. What seemed to me as inconsistent sensitivity could be simple pilot error. As I recall, the angle of the notch on the trigger has to exactly match the angle of the hold-down bar or it slips out as soon as it's set. I'll peer inside the notch next time I set one to see if there are two different angles.

My tormentor took the night off last night, so I'm not going to touch anything today. Sometimes they get careless once they get used to things not changing.

 

[sengsational]

Mice are curious, so changing things up somehow might get one to get careless. Good thing you all aren't trying for rats... they're way smarter at avoiding traps.

I've only had one battle with mice, and that was because they found grass seed in the shed. Once I got rid of the food, blocked a few holes, and trapped the few locals, I haven't seen any since.

 

[f35phixer]

well went to Ace and got 4 victor cheese platter traps, put a wonderful serving of peanut butter and I'm writing this forgot to add sunflower seeds.. Oh well when I clean these four out with four dead mice I'll use some seeds.. positive thoughts....

 

[jazz4cash]

I’ve used the Victor traps with a bit of string tied to the metal bait “shoe”. Saturate the string with PB.

 

[target2019]

Well lost one trap, somewhere in crawlspace.... guess i find it when i close space up in winter ;-(

I'm going to get some victors with the yellow plate

No clue where they are coming in? Take closer look this winter

Yeah, the crawl space is mysterious. It's a good idea to stake those traps to something solid. Long string will do the the trick.

 

[f35phixer]

well that was a good start with cheese plates, 2 of 4 had a hit and two licked clean, so will try that string trick next !

 

[Gearhead Jim]

I like the sticky traps. Kinda expensive, but I don't get many mice even in our 150 year old house on the mainland. Only had one mouse in our townhouse on windward Oahu. Got him in 10 minutes with the sticky trap. End of story.

We've had better luck with the glue traps than snaps. They have helped us eliminate mice and chipmunks in the house. Ginda gruesome, but effective.

 

[dheb]

I've been known to put a little WD40 on the trap mechanism, to make it snap super easily

 

[TKDenver]

Years ago when I had this same problem I found out I had rats! Too big for the trap to capture ...

 

[Sunset]

Well lost one trap, somewhere in crawlspace.... guess i find it when i close space up in winter ;-(

I'm going to get some victors with the yellow plate

No clue where they are coming in? Take closer look this winter

To find where they are going in, on a bright sunny day go into the crawlspace with a flashlight and all the lights off. (block off windows first if you have them).
Then sit for 20 minutes and look towards the exterior wall, you may see a bright light.
That is how I found the A/C pipes had a 1/2 inch space around 1 side that would let mice in. I filled it with caulking.

 

[sengsational]

I filled it with caulking.

The pesky buggers sometimes chew through some hole fillers. Apparently steel wool is effective. But I like the idea of filling the holes. You're not guaranteed to find every one, but you might, and if you do that, and make sure there's nothing to eat, your problem is solved in a more permanent way than endless trapping.

 

[rtt1961]

Bought new ones

Many nice ideas. I went out and bought the new snap traps with a plastic piece instead of the curved metal. It was much more sensitive than our older ones that were all metal, other than the wood base. It caught the mice when baited with peanut butter. I'm saving some of the ideas here because we still have the old all metal ones.

 

[Kat07]

I started using Victor Electronic Mousetraps a few years back. It runs on batteries, which last a long time unless you catch a lot of mice. The mouse gets electrocuted instantly as soon as it enters the hole and steps on the metal plate. The bait is placed at the far end. When you see the light flashing, it means a mouse has been caught inside and you open the top and dump the mouse in the garbage. Victor M250S Indoor Electronic Humane Mouse Trap - No Touch, No See Electric Mouse Trap https://a.co/d/9QG9MzU

 

[CincyDave]

I started using Victor Electronic Mousetraps a few years back. It runs on batteries, which last a long time unless you catch a lot of mice. The mouse gets electrocuted instantly as soon as it enters the hole and steps on the metal plate. The bait is placed at the far end. When you see the light flashing, it means a mouse has been caught inside and you open the top and dump the mouse in the garbage. Victor M250S Indoor Electronic Humane Mouse Trap - No Touch, No See Electric Mouse Trap https://a.co/d/9QG9MzU

Never hear of this before. Looks like it could be pretty pricey compared to the snap traps.

 

[Kat07]

Never hear of this before. Looks like it could be pretty pricey compared to the snap traps.

You can use the same trap over and over. I just like the idea of the mice dying immediately and I can just open up the top and dump them in the garbage.

 

[Sunset]

You can use the same trap over and over. I just like the idea of the mice dying immediately and I can just open up the top and dump them in the garbage.

Plus there is the sizzle and the faint BBQ smell

 

[CincyDave]

Electric chair for mice!

 

[Jerry1]

You can use the same trap over and over. I just like the idea of the mice dying immediately and I can just open up the top and dump them in the garbage.

One thing I like about the standard snap traps is that they’re cheap. I don’t reuse them, I just toss the dead mouse trap included. I don’t even touch the trap because I use my grabber tool. Thankfully I don’t have many mice, but I set one by my generator in the fall and usually catch one or two. They like to get up on the engine because the generator has a heater to help it start easier in the winter so it’s warm and covered. I don’t blame them.

 

[Kat07]

Plus there is the sizzle and the faint BBQ smell

Yeah, that too!

 

[Qs Laptop]

One thing I like about the standard snap traps is that they’re cheap. I don’t reuse them, I just toss the dead mouse trap included. I don’t even touch the trap because I use my grabber tool.

Yep, these traps are less than 50 cents each at WalMart.

I use two quart ziploc bags to dispose of the mouse and trap. One bag is held open in my left hand, the other bag is covering my right hand. I grab the dead mouse and trap with my covered right hand and slip the mouse/trap into the bag in left hand. I seal the bag with the mouse in it, then place that bag assembly into the bag that was covering my right hand and seal that one too. Double sealed death trap.

I only got 5 mice this year, but last year I got 16, 17 if you count the one that got away dragging a mouse trap clamped around his tail. I didn't have any traps that were sprung this year without a mouse in them; last year I think I had 2 mice that got away. I attribute my high success rate to the dental floss trick.

 

[OldShooter]

... I use two quart ziploc bags to dispose of the mouse and trap. One bag is held open in my left hand, the other bag is covering my right hand. I grab the dead mouse and trap with my covered right hand and slip the mouse/trap into the bag in left hand. I seal the bag with the mouse in it, then place that bag assembly into the bag that was covering my right hand and seal that one too. Double sealed death trap. ...

Wow. Complex. I pick up the trap with the mouse ensuite, hold it over the garbage with my left hand and pry up the wire bail with my right. If the mouse doesn't fall out into the garbage I will shake the trap a little, then as necessary push on the mouse with a finger to loosen it. I don't consider this to be flirting with danger. After handling mice and traps though, I do wash my hands.