Our housecat is useless and our old, traditional mouse traps are driving me cray-cray by falling apart after one use or a dry snap. So, with this winter's new housemates coming in from the cold, we've got a problem. This is not a situation I can have going on in my house. If they helped with the mortgage and promised not to chew the wires and burn our house down it might be okay, but it's just not happening so it means all-out war on the rodent population. My husband, also frustrated, was like, "Find me a better mousetrap, trapper lady." I think I did. These look snazzy, so I bought them. They're super easy to bait, open, and they auto-set so they're a breeze if you've only one arm. They're also merciless little gadgets with teeth on them. It's actually better this way because the pressure from the teeth keeps mice from wiggling free in desperation to escape before the lights go out. They are easy to place, the pan triggered at a very light touch with a piece of paper but didn't set itself off when I put it down, which was way more pleasant than the umpteen times I've had to reset or trash traps for an accidental dry-snap this year. Right after I put the kids to bed a mouse got into this trap and I heard it go off in my master bedroom. When I got up, here this little bugger was. Dead as a doornail. Pleased is an understatement here -- I am freakin' beaming. These things are treacherous for the mice and glorious for this housewife. Also, the chickens are loving a good mouse-treat. Here are some helpful hints when using any mousetrap: Put only a very tiny dollop on the center of the bait pan, no more than a shallow smear, so they have to work to get it by going over the trip plate. Mice are sometimes trap-familiar, especially if they've escaped or fooled traps before, so you need to convince them to go that extra mile and put pressure down for their treat. Do not make it too easy -- that's a beginner's mistake. Funnel them into the area you want so they have to put their paws on the trip plate which WILL trigger this trap. You can even do what real trappers do with large game, which is buttress behind and around the trap along a known mouse path -- which is exactly what I did to catch my first mouse with these. I made a cubby so he had to meet the trap along the wall, doom-side forward, versus him coming from the rear and ultimately finding a way to lick the pan from the ineffective rear direction. It makes them more liable to hit on the trap because they're comfy and are guarded by their surroundings but you're really directing them into a death zone. You can even put a trick or tease drop of Peanut Butter at the front of the trap (just a teeny tiny dot, no more than the size of a head of a pin, so they get enough confidence to go for the doom-bait in the center of the bait pan). Five stars, at this point. I'll update with the kill count or if the efficiency wanes. UPDATED: Caught 9 mice. Our house is clear as of right now. Traps are still left out and set. These things are GNARLY -- in a good way -- and I think if you use them right they'll do right by you. Mouse-free-house! 2nd UPDATE 12/19/2018: They've gone over a year satisfying my bloodlust for uninvited house pests and have caught untold wire-eaters over the summer and into fall. Numbers are lowest in years since we got these last year, now that we are back into winter, the ceiling is quiet. The hush of success brought to us by these hungry devices is welcomed. They. Are. Fabulous.
