There is a plethora of mousetraps that can successfully rid your facility of mice, some available in stores and others you can build yourself at home.
A homemade mousetrap can save you a lot of money if you have a lot of mice to catch and need multiple traps. Materials are usually free or very, very cheap. Plus, you can "recycle and reuse," two of the three elements of "greener" consumer habits.
Finally, making your own mousetraps at home will be a fun and creative learning experience for the whole family.
Read on to find out how to make several homemade mouse traps that really work!
table of contents
- How to make homemade mousetraps
- I need a good human trap
- Make a homemade trap with the help of a bottle
- Easy to make soda bottle mousetrap
- How to turn a 2 liter bottle into the perfect mousetrap
- Are there homemade mousetraps that kill them?
- homemade electric mouse traps
- The 2 Best Tricks That Really Work
- What's really the best?
How to make homemade mousetraps
You can literally make homemade mousetraps using your trash (empty 2 liter bottles) and some other common household items. You can find a wide variety of homemade trap plans online, and there are probably hundreds of different specific traps if you take into account all the ways similar traps can differ based on "extra" features.
Anyone can make a homemade mousetrap with minimal resources.
It usually takes just three steps to make a homemade mousetrap.:
- Research the different cheat options available, select one, customize it if you like, and study how to build it.
- Gather all the necessary materials and tools in one place.
- Patiently follow a step-by-step guide on how to build your specific trap, or write one yourself based on your previous research and stick with it.
I need a good human trap
One of the reasons many opt for a DIY mousetrap, aside from saving money and the sheer interest of the project, is to make sure your traps are humane.
What is the best human mousetrap?? Hard to say. There are many human traps both in stores and in the DIY world.
But here are some things a human mousetrap will avoid doing.:
- Death by suffocation, drowning, or any slow, agonizing method.
- Poisoning that works slowly and can make the predators that eat the now sick rodent sick or even kill them.
- Letting the rat suffer long hours trapped in sticky glue, cutting off its tail, pulling off its whiskers, or mutilating any other part of its body.
- In many cases, a humane trap will not kill the mouse at all, but will work on a catch-and-release basis.
Several of the bottle-based mousetraps listed below are fully human.
Some of them are not; but of course not everyone is as concerned about these issues as others. Some just want to kill mice, and don't really care how. Others are more sensitive to the plight of the rodent population.
Make a homemade trap with the help of a bottle
The first bottle trap that we are going to instruct you to make is one of the hardest to make, but also perhaps the most humane.
It's a small 16-ounce soda bottle OR a full 2-liter bottle, dangling up and down on a specially bent suspension wire. A block of wood or the backwards cap of the bottle with the end of a coat hanger through it blocks entry when the bottle is swung to the "down" position.
The mouse's own weight moves the bottle up and down, so that when it is at the (rear) end of the bottle, the entrance is open, but the mouse is not near it. When it descends while the mouse is moving towards the exit, the exit hangs.
Four human characteristics of this trap are:
- The mouse receives oxygen and does not suffocate.
- The mouse is not harmed in any way.
- You can even leave food in the trap until you're ready to release your catch.
- You don't even have to manipulate the mouse when it's released, so it won't catch your germs and it won't trap your germs (fair enough).
To build this trap, bend the suspension wire(s) to form a support that the bottle can swing from, while one arm of the wire is threaded through the bottle through the small holes you drilled.
You need to test the bottle a bit to make sure it's at the right angle and position, but you want to spread the weight of the bottle almost evenly on the "balance wire" below it so that it balances itself based on the presence or absence of mouse weight. .
And you also need to make sure that the bottle is tilted upwards (open position) when you don't have a mouse, and that it fits snugly into the locking mechanism when tilted downwards (closed position). A little testing, and maybe a few tries, and you've built this clever little trap. Then just glue a little PB inside to assemble.
Easy to make soda bottle mousetrap
Probably the simplest and easiest to make of all bottle traps is the "funnel" variety.
Mice that enter these traps slide down the funnel, which is an inverted cut from the top of a 2 liter bottle, and into the rest of the 2 liter bottle below. There's no way they can get back, so unless they can knock the trap off, they're trapped.
Here are the steps to build a DIY funnel style mousetrap:
- Cut the cap off the 2 liter soda bottle, cutting just above where the label is (or was).
- Pour some sand or gravel into the bottom of the bottle to weigh it down. Or you can pin or glue it to a piece of cardboard for stability.
- Turn the top (funnel piece) upside down and press down on the bottom of the bottle. Then tape the circumference with tape to make it more secure.
- Spread vegetable oil all over the inside of the funnel to make it slippery so that visiting mice slip and fall into the hole.
- Finish setting up your trap by rubbing PB around the entrance to the hole at the bottom of the funnel, providing a ramp for the mouse to enter and placing the trap where the mice can find it.
How to turn a 2 liter bottle into the perfect mousetrap
This is my favorite homemade mousetrap made from a 2 liter bottle, although it's a little tricky (but still easy) to make. It may very well deserve the adjective "perfect". It closes when the rat tries to run with the bait and traps it inside, unharmed but with no way out (unless it learns to chew the plastic thrown in, which it can). 't.)
Are there handmade mousetraps that aren't bottle traps?
Yes. You can make a trap out of an old shoebox by cutting a hole in the top and gluing paper-thin doors over the hole you BP tie. You can flatten the bottom of a cardboard toilet paper roll, place it on a ledge above a tall bucket, and place PB on the other end. Or, some even used heavy glass, with PB on the inner top and supported by a nickel to catch mice!
This "snap lock" version of the bottle trap can be made using the following steps:
- Cut "almost" off the top of your 2 liter bottle. This time you want to cut a few inches below the tag line and make sure it has good spring action to close (leave an inch or two uncut).
- Use an awl to make a small hole on each side of your trap "door", about an inch above the cut line. Slide a toothpick through the holes.
- Now poke holes and insert another toothpick into the main part of the trap, maybe halfway through. Connect the sticks with a rubber band (one on each side of the box). Test it to make sure it closes nice and fast when you pick it up and release it.
- Tie a string around the neck of the bottle. Make sure it reaches the back of the bottle, then tie a loop in the loose end.
- Take a paperclip and unfold it with pliers. Create an L shape with the wire. Drill a hole in the top back corner of the bottle and place the paperclip in it.
- Connect the loop to the end of the clip that sticks out above the box until it is taut and the clip stays in place, but just barely. Place a piece of cheese on the inside of the clip and maybe drizzle with peanut butter as well.
- Don't forget to put the lid on the bottle: mice can crawl through very small holes!
Now, to use the trap, place it face down somewhere in your house that rats frequent. Please be patient if it takes a few days. Rats may explore the trap first to "make sure it's safe" before finally venturing out, grabbing the bait, causing the door to slam shut, and becoming hopelessly trapped inside.
Are there homemade mousetraps that kill them?
If you don't just want to catch mice, but insist on killing them (disgusting!), you can put water or antifreeze in the bottom of a funnel-style mousetrap. Or, you can put the same in amousetrap bucket.
And you can always poison the bait in any of the mousetraps we've mentioned.
If not, consider an electrocution trap such as the one discussed below.
homemade electric mouse traps
One more DIY option to remove mice is aelectric mousetrap. There are many variations of electric mousetraps. Some of them involve switches that lock doors to catch rats, but most electrocute rats instantly and painlessly. And so, although they kill mice, electric traps are considered by many to be quite humane.
A simple way to make an electrocution mousetrap is to connect jumper wires to sheet metal and a 12-volt battery. Of course, you need some electrical aptitude, and you should always put safety first. And don't use too high a voltage or risk hurting a child or pet.
Many other homemade electric mouse traps involve wiring snap traps or trapdoors to a lethal voltage for mice based on sensors that detect their presence or complete a circuit while looking for bait.
The 2 Best Tricks That Really Work
What are the two best DIY mousetraps? In terms of overall effectiveness, electric traps and bucket traps are probably the most productive for killing rats.
But bottle traps can also be very effective, and here are some advantages they have over these other two top options.:
They are safer (no antifreeze or electricity needed).- They are cleaner (no water to pour or dead rats lying on sheet metal).
- These are usually live capture traps.
- They are very easy and cheap to make, even in large quantities.
They are safer (no antifreeze or electricity needed).What's really the best?
It's impossible to say which homemade mousetrap is really number one because people value different traps for different reasons. Also, in different environments and with different rats, the type of trap that works best can vary.
Personally, I prefer the soda bottle mousetrap as the best DIY option, but there's no saying this is the best trap for everyone.
The best strategy is to try out various types of DIY traps over a period of time and see what works best for you and what works worst for your rats!
A rat infestation is a big problem. Rats contaminate your food, leave trails of droppings in your home, carry disease, and keep you up at night with their incessant scratching. But if you don't want to spend a lot of money getting rid of your rodent enemy or if you're just into creative DIY projects, making homemade mousetraps out of bottles, buckets, boxes and more might be for you!
You can find more details aboutcontrole do mousehere.