How the Most Common Types of Mouse Traps Work

A mouse infestation presents a serious problem for a home or business owner. If you are facing such a situation, you may be interested in attempting to eradicate a mouse infestation before reaching out to a professional for assistance. With this in mind, you may wonder what types of mouse traps are available to you and how they work. The more common types of mouse traps available to you include:

  • Traditional snap trap
  • Glue trap
  • Live-catch trap
  • Electric trap
  • Poison bait trap

Traditional Snap Trap

If you desire to attempt to rid your home of mice on your own, your best bet is to use a traditional snap trap. This type of device is also known as a spring-loaded mousetrap.

You bait a snap trap with some type of bait that will be appealing to a mouse. Typically, home and business owners bait these traps with bits of cheese or a smear of peanut butter.

When a mouse attempts to remove the bait or at it, the trap is activated. The spring releases a thin bar with great force. The bar snaps down onto the mouse, killing the rodent. The general consensus is that this type of mouse trap is the most effective and humane way in which you can eliminate mice from your home or business.

You need to place these traps along pathways that mice appear to travel in your home. Mice forage for food and nesting materials and tend to use the same pathways on a recurring basis when they are out and about foraging.

Glue Trap

While traditional mouse snap

traps are deemed the most humane ways of eradicating mice from your home or business, glue traps typically are regarded as the most inhumane. A glue trap is baited in a manner similar to a snap trap. When a mouse steps onto a glue trap, the animal becomes ensnared in the glue. A mouse ends up dying a slow and arguably excruciating due to a lack of water and food. Glue traps generally are not recommended.

Live-Catch Trap

Some home and business owners are opposed to the idea of killing even a nuisance animal like a mouse. Thus, they take advantage of live-catch traps. As the name indicates, these traps are designed to be baited and thus attractive to mice. When a mouse enters into a live-catch trap, the device activates and traps the rodent inside.

The trapped mouse is then transported to another location where it is set free. The mouse needs to be released in an area a reasonable distance from the home or business.

As a courtesy, the mouse should not be released near other homes or businesses. Some communities have specific ordinances or regulations regarding the manner in which animals (including mice) can be trapped and released.

Electric Trap

Yet another type of mouse trap available to a home or business owner is one that utilized electricity to dispatch of a mouse. As is the case with other derivations of these devices, an electric trap uses bait that is attractive to mice. Typically, an electric trap is designed in a manner that uses the mouse itself as the means of completing a circuit that results in the electrocution of the animal.

For example, a circuit may complete when a mouse sets for onto an electric trap. In the alternative, the circuit might complete when the mouse tries to remove the bait.

Poison Bait Trap

Finally, poison bait represents another means of trapping and eliminating mice. This type of trapping scenario involves the use of bait that is designed to be attractive to mice but which contains some type of poison. The poisons contain everything from very powerful substances that cause the near-immediate death of a mouse to others that take five days to a week after ingestion before a mouse dies.

A poison bait trap oftentimes is not the best solution. If there are children or pets in a home, this type of mouse trapping process can present a very real, serious risk to their health. In addition, after a mouse ingests some types of poisons, because of the delay before death occurring, a mouse may end up in an inaccessible part of a home or business. Thus, the mouse dies and the remains cannot easily be removed, resulting in what can be a significant stench.

Professional Assistance

The stark reality is that a mouse infestation can have seriously negative consequences in a home or business. Thus, many home and business owners recognize that the best course in dealing with such an issue is to engage the services of an exterminator or other professional to remove mice from a home or business.

Once mice have been eliminated from a home or business, the aftermath of an infestation needs to be addressed. A mouse infestation results in dangerous waste being left behind that includes droppings, dried urine, nests, and even the remains of deceased mice.

This type of waste can carry dangerous germs, including something called the hantavirus which has the potential for causing a fatal illness in humans. As a result, a home or business should consider seriously hiring a rodent droppings cleanup specialist to eliminate this dangerous waste from a home or business.