How to catch a mouse without a mousetrap

Humanely

I had a little friend visit my apartment the other week, and for a while there I was ready to make peace with him and co-exist. But after I cleaned up the place and ordered pizza one night, and it crawled up the side of my chair onto the sleeve of my shirt, I knew it was time to bid farewell.

Here's how I caught the critter:

1. Get a toilet paper tube and crease two lines to form a flat sided tunnel.
   
2. Put a treat on one end of the tube: A cracker and dab of peanut butter works great.
   
3. Get a tall (at least 20 inches) bucket. A trash can works well.
   
4. Balance the tube precariously on the edge of a table or counter with the treat hanging directly over the tall sided receptacle.
   
5. The mouse will scurry to the treat (they like tunnels) and fall into the trap.

Set the fella loose at least a mile away from your abode.

Postnote: It worked within the hour.

Also, folks have asked how this could work if you don't have a counter or table. Simple: get a piece of cardboard and crease it to make a ramp up to a small trashcan.

SEMI-RELATED ENTRY: How to kill a fly without a flyswatter

Comments

[Tomas]

Trap set. Lookn forward t catching the little bugger...

[Amanda]

Set this trap up last night after I went into my kitchen to find my mouse crawling through the burner holes on my stove. Woke up middle of the night and he had knocked the tub over in the garbage can. Set it up again and same thing this morning. If someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong or have any tips let me know. This seems to be the only thing that works and we have had him for a month. Oh and he won't go anywhere near peanut butter.

[jun]

Unbelievable! Caught the mouse in 2 hours! Had so many sticky traps in our house and the mouse seems to know to avoid it. This really works!

[snook]

Not all mice like peanut butter. I eventually found out that salted cashews are irresistible.

[junglejill]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! The mouse I had was too small for any live capture trap I could find. It just slipped right through the bars. This method worked within 5 hours!

I used a paper towel tube; I think it might not have worked with a TP tube. The bucket was only about 35 cm tall, but there was no jumping (disappointing, actually.)

Thanks to this, I didn't have to resort to cruel methods or spend any more money on catching that adorable ball of fur that's been shitting under the pillow. This should be the #1 result on Google for mouse traps.

[ditchdoc7893]

Have the trap set. Can't wait to get this little ba$7@rd! I hate mice. As far as I'm concerned they are rats! Don't want them anywhere near my house, let alone in it!

[billyXray]

one of my three cat's is a real killer this year, mice and shyte loads of baby rabbits. But, Sid the cat brings them in alive, plays with them in a corner of the kitchen where he knows they can't escape his Evil, long torture till you die game. Now, if we get there in time for the rabbits, we will retrieve rabbit and release far from home, But if it's a mouse, we leave him to it and clean up afterwards.

Mouses revenge;-

I'm sat in my living room at the moment while writing this knowing there's a mouse behind my piano, I've pushed Sid behind the piano but he turned a ran to his feeding bowl. So now I've set this trap of yours, I'm waiting patiently and if I catch him alive, I'm putting him in the special torture corner with Sid Vicious; I hope it works and I'll keep you's lot posted.

[Mousecatcher]

Totally works!! Brilliant!!

[Carlie]

OK, bucket trap set. Can't stand these little beasts any longer... Waiting for that sweet sound of a mouse dropping into a bucket (I never thought I'd find myself saying that...) Hopefully my partner is home to get rid of it by the time that happens:-)

[Andrea]

My mouse adores chocolates! Lindor and Ferrero Rocher! He even tried my box of biscuits that we bough in France...he tried every biscuit, and I guess he didnt fancy any of it!
We discovered he is leaving somewhere in the kitchen. He is a very clean mouse! trust me! that's why we cant find where is living. No droppings, no mess, we found the chocolates paper still in very good condition, just a few tears. he doesnt eat rubbish..but chocolates! he doesnt enter any of my units, but for safety, I wipe my work top with spray bleach every morning before even put the kettle on. We hide the chocolates and I guess he is on a diet now, as he is eating BANANAS! Really!

I kept looking for ideas online and came across with yours!, my husband and I are very positive with this one!

I had such great laughs reading tho the comments! Men are all much the same! I can see my husband saying things exactly the same I have red here! I cant wait to catch him, as we already confronted him one morning...he is quite cute, and definetely dont wanna kill him. But we dont have place for 3 here. I am quite sure it will work this time! and we will catch Stuart for once! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING YOUR IDEA! and THANKS EVERYBODY THAT SHARED YOUR COMIC COMMENTS! IT MADE ME LAUGH! IM HAPPY IM NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT CARES ABOUT LIVING CREATURES!

[Pixie]

Just set this trap. Not sure my bucket is going to be tall enough, Hoping that this will work as my Landlord will probably set poison or snap traps otherwise!

Fingers crossed.

[Dani]

My husband and I are crediting your trap with catching our little visitor! Our two cats have been staring at the ceiling in our basement for a few weeks now, and I made a joke to my hubby about having some sort of infestation or another. Well, my husband saw the mouse tonight, and couldn't catch him! I found your trap online, and we set it up, and about an hour later we heard a noise in the basement. My husband went down to investigate, and our cats had cornered the little guy when he'd tried to come down for the peanut butter bait! He scooped the mouse up in a cup, and we just got back from releasing him at a nature park near our house. Hopefully that's the last of them, but we'll leave the trap up to be sure. Thank again! :)

[Andy]

I have so much experience in dealing with mice but this idea is a bit new for me. You have opened a new horizon of how to get rid of mice..I love sharing...

[jake krongard]

What time of year do they come?

[Cynthia]

This is fantastic information guys! I have been trying to catch my mouse for about two months now and no luck. I tried the black catch 'n' release traps but all he did was open the cage where the food was and took it out leaving the trap still set. Then I tried the regular snap traps, sprayed the bait with fly spray (lol I know, I was desperate), and again the food gone and trap still set.

Tonight, for the first time, I am trying the bucket method with the ramp, baited toilet roll on a stick and the bucket filled with beer/oil/water/detergent. Lol, I know, again I'm desperate!

I'm a little concerned after reading that if there's one then there's usually more. I hope I can catch all of them with this trap because I'm sick of that musty rodent smell, no matter how much I clean it's still there.

Now that I've read that mice can jump high, I won't underestimate it!

Thanks for the tips guys :)

[Zachary]

Mice are nasty I have them in my car I have over 20 trapts in my trunck!!! Got one this morning. There pooping everywhere !!! And I got glue traps!!

[claire bear]

Yeah just realized how old this post is...

Bladders or no bladders, they're still pissing their filthy diseased urine in your home, next to your food and food prep area.

We've caught 3 mice in 4 days on a snap trap. And I clean like a maniac! What the freak!

MYTH: Mice are cute little critters
FACT: Mice are diseased carrying disgusting rodents, they bring fleas and many maladies into your home.
Puppies are cute mice are scary little monsters.

[Janae]

I know this is a pretty old post, but people are still replying so I thought I'd share this.

Mice *do* have bladders (I had to look it up).

More facts from myths here: http://www.victorpest.com/advice/rodents-101/myths

[claire bear]

UPDATE: First night, nothing. Second night, w.a small snap trap placed against the wall...Snap! Ew blech and on its back before it can make it to the nice trash can. No suffering and quick...mice don't see well and use the walls as guidance when they're scurrying about. But thanks for the bucket idea. We're going to set up a few more snappy snaps just in case. Omg they're as scary dead as they are alive.

[claire bear]

UPDATE: Mouse is caught! Did not catch the mouse on the first night w.the trash can...
BUT an old timer SNAP TRAP placed against the wall (mice use the wall for guidance when scurrying about bc they don't see very well) did the job before it could get to the tube/trash can area...I didn't want to have to use the snap traps bc it's messy. BUT it does kill them fast so they don't suffer. The snap trap hit so hard it flipped the mouse on its back ew ew ew it was gross, I won't say think goodness for guys bc many girls aren't afraid of a dead mouse but this girl is so thank goodness my boyfriend was here to clean it up...I felt terrible to see it but it was the only way to go.

[Islander]

Interesting fact for you mouse lovers - mice do not have bladders - so they pee as they go aka if there is poop there is their pee close by if they are on your shelves or table tops they are leaving pee there too.

I too have a mouse problem - in my basement/crawl space the filthy little creatures have ruined alot of stored items and I face a massive clean up of their poop/pee etc - so far 1 stuck in a glue trap 1 in a snap trap I suspect there are more this weekend I will be spending many hours cleaning up and bleaching all the concrete and wood in the basement to remove the stench. I am going to add the bucket trick to my arsnel - I will however add 6 inches of water so the little bastards drown

[claire bear]

My fiance and I moved to a brand new building...over a month ago we discovered mouse droppings under our sink eww blech...so we immediately set up a few glue traps (we freaked out) the next day I noticed it's small paw print on one of the traps (sh!t didn't work) and the treat from one of the "SAFE" catch and let it go traps was gone...AAAH the little FnCkER! Everyday I frantically mop and clean the counters and floors.

A few days later at the corner of my eye it came out and headed towards my puppy's food area. LAST straw, ran to home depot and bought 30 dollars worth of traps. And 3-4 weeks later, nothing, the smart fncker is eating my puppies food and crapping everywhere. I WANT IT DEAD!!!! DEAD!! YAH YAH, animal cruelty. I'm a vegetarian, I love animals, I feel bad for the little sh!t but I gave it the chance to leave in a nice safe trap filled with food.

BUT now it will (hopefully) fall in a trash can lined with glue traps. I just want it dead and out of the apartment, that's all Q_Q if I let it go it will come back or maybe go to a house of a family with a new born and crap on the baby. Okay let's hope this works!!!

[Kym]

Weeks later, this still hasnt worked. I am beyond annoyed now. Have resorted to bait blocks.

[JuliaB]

So...found out we had a mouse in our house today. My boyfriend wanted to straight up kill it, but I said no. He knows me, and my love of all things living. So I googled ways to catch and release mice, and found this. Tried it, using two pennies as counterweight and a dab of peanut butter, and within the hour, we had one caught! A cute little bugger, too! Would love to keep it as a pet, but my boyfriend is afraid of any diseases it may be carrying, so going to leave it in the garbage can with some bread and then take it out to the park tomorrow. =) Leaving the ramp up for the night to see if there's anymore. Thanks a bunch for sharing this method!

[Amanda]

I was playing outside with my bff at nite ( plannin 2 have a sleepover ) and we noticed a little hole in the side of the house. It was rite near the door, we thought it was nothin so we continued to play. Later, we started hearin scurrying and surely enough, it was a mouse. LOL me and me bff are BIG animal lovers and we obviously don't want to kill it. So I'm gonna try this trap! I'll keep ya posted!!!!!!

[F p]

Correction. In England!!

[F p]

Listening to the radio. Did u know there are more pest (rats, mice etc) in this world than humans!! Ridiculous! Wanna kill the little c@@ts!!

[sarah]

So I have been trying a bin trap but no luck! !!!!! Have tried with a platform and bait on the end - with a can so they jump over it to get peanut butter doesn't work I may be to hasty as that he only been one night - as you never only have one mouse this is now creeping me out poison bait in chocolate is being taken at least 20 so far in different rooms of the house errrr.... I'm wondering could.my ramp be too steep I want rid of these everyday they are here I know they are breeding any further suggestions

[skyalise]

wow i have a rat and a mouse in my house and they are coming from my basement Landry-mat there is a big whole in the wall this really helped me get rid of the rat

[copykatparis]

It really worked, but I'm not sure how -- since the tube is still in place, but sure enough TWO little mice are glaring at us from the bottom of the bin! Perhaps, since we had to make a tube out of sheets of rolled-up paper, it was so slippery that it just dumped them in without falling in itself... very strange. We were disappointed at first when we saw the tube still in place on the shelf -- then the neighbour's young child peeped in the bin and told us it had two mice in it. This is a brilliant idea!

[Dave]

The cardboard glue traps get used as snow shoes by the mice! Use the Glue Trays and bait blocks. And you are not doing your neighbor any favors by driving a mile away and introducing to your neighbors, your pests...

[Kym]

I need to try this as the mouse in our house scares the crap out of me, found poo on a window cill this morning, GROSS! This mouse ran up my partners leg the other night. I go to bed thinking is this mouse guna crawl up me in bed? Scaredy cat I know. Will give this a go and let ya know how it went. Fingers crossed.

[Eileen]

Worked well for me. We caught a ton very quickly. Note that they are GREAT jumpers, that was the only problem.

[frank g.]

First night... Still waiting...keep you posted..

[Della]

Luv it. Dats great! A no-kill catch.
Thx

-Della W.

[MERCED, CA]

I found your idea today. Got home; set the trap and it took the cracker with the peanut butter within minutes...smart little pest! Decided to set the trap again, but this time I used a paper towel roll. Within 10 minutes we heard the roll fall into the trash can. Got him!!! Wow, a very effective method...
THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing it!!

[James]

The people that killed the mice....Why? Must be mean-spirited types. The mice weren't trying to harm you. Would it have been too much trouble to take them just over a mile away?

[Hallelujah]

Nothing first night, just now caught the mouse (1am) second night! Thanks for idea

[Clay]

this will work great, now to add to it, this will get one mouse, chances are if you have one you have more. get a bucket at the top of the bucket you will want to run a thick wire across from one side to the other (this wire needs to be about an 1/8 inch thick so the mice can walk on it, on this wire you will put a plastic bottle with the thick wire running thru the middle (from the cap end to the bottom) now the bottle will spin easly on the wire, but your peanut butter on the bottle in the middle in several places around the bottle. the mice will walk up the ramp to the top of the bucket out across the wire and on to the bottle the bottle will spin and the mice fall into the bucket. i personally put about three inches of water in the bucket which keeps them from jumping and they will drown. where you may have many mice this will keep busy all night long or as long as the peanut butter lasts.

[Brigitte]

Thanks for this great idea! We had an infestation last year and my family insisted on using those snap traps :-( I felt awful about it. Now we have another one (or two, or three, not sure!) and they're not falling for those traps. I'm so proud of them. haha can't wait to try this method and hopefully set them free in the forest by my house- they're so cute, I don't want them to die, I just don't want them popping up all the time and scaring me (and also pooping on stuff and possibly spreading disease, etc). Thanks again!

[lindzmady]

this did not work

[lindzmady]

stiillllllll no luck. we set up the trap about 45 min ago.we had the lights on still nothing.eny advice

[lindzmady]

we r trying no luck yet

[Pete]

Tried this idea in desperation after "the mouse" had scorned at least four kinds of humane trap and cheerfully ate all the poison we put down. And now, ten days later we have already caught five mice not just one. We are using a longish, 20cm, counterweighted tube (an earlier try with an unweighted short tube was unsuccessful). And the bait is PB as usual plus grated chocolate, scattered down the length of the tube. I would not have believed that something so simple could be so much more effective than all the shop bought traps but it really is!

[Javier]

I set it up yesterday after listening to it rumbling around and at first it pulled the tube back and ate everything. Then it set it up again with a counter weight using coins and threw some food inside the trash can only to find everything gone! But as a last resort I filled the trash can with aboutand inch or two of water and left this morning and sure enough it was in there and could not jump all the way out. It did jump and made it 3/4 of the way up though, so be sure you use a big enough container. Thanks a lot for this idea, i have it set up again to see if theres more around.

[Lernen]

we have rats here, do you have any tricks how to catch rats?

[Crinkle Cut]

What a wonderful idea. We only spent 2 days trying to outwit the little blighter. Then we tried your idea and the next morning the mouse was caught. Until my husband tried to put the mouse in a "smaller" bucket and the little guy escaped. So tonight we will try again and hope he is not a fast learner. I suppose you played a lot of "The Incredible Machine" when you were younger.Thanks again.

[Cecile]

Hi ! My turn to tell my story :) (I red all the comments, it was very instructive and great fun too ! ) So, as most of people here, I first tried usual traps, and of course, they didn't work (but the cheese was gone, hum.) So I've made this search on google and find this page, great. I'm french, and I live in a little studio...And I search for hours a trash can or else high enough (I've seen this fury thing jump, it's amazing), and I just thought "man, americans have all huges things and big houses, how could I find something big enough here ??? hahaha )I eventually thought that my big glass flower vase could do, and I found some cardboard and was beginning to cut it to do the ramp, but, didn't see it was to close to the vase, and will I was trying to shape it, it push the glass vase, and it fell on the ground and smashed down all on the floor... - - Now, I REALLY didn't have anything big enough, and was really pissed of and hate the fury little cute thing. So, the day later, I went to a friend, living in a bigger apartment, and asked him for anything...We found a huge cardboard-made bag, and I could finally set up the trap. I placed it where I knew the mouse liked to go, balanced the tube (a big one, to be sure) with is favored cheese, at 5 pm, and wait... til this morning...It didn't work...:( The mouse didn't even ate the treat !!! And I sure know it goes there, and like the cheese, and it usually comes every night !!! I tell you, these animals are really intelligent, much more than we are, and I fear, they will rule the planet !!! Have you seen this film The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ? Well I think I will watch it again tonight... :) (But, I'm still hoping, since this ingenious trap worked with so much of you people, I'll try again, night after night !) Maybe I'll try one of these too : http://www.dezeen.com/2007/10/22/non-lethal-mousetraps-by-roger-arquer/ To be continued...

[AK]

Thanks for posting this... 2 lazy house cats and there's still a mouse roaming around. I just set the trap in the kitchen and will report back.

[veronique]

Solution for those of you who don't want to kill mice...

we have chickens out the back, the mice are rampant, they eat the chicken food at night, we can see the droppings in the feed.

When we catch mice in the live catch method such as this we just take the bucket out and offer it up to the chickens, they love eating mice and are extremely quick, they spend ages chasing each other around the yard and the mice have no chance.

chickens are well fed, live in a cleaner environment, they are so grateful for the protein that they lay us beautiful eggs and everyone is happy :)

[Sofia]

My cat is very smart she decided to bring mouse from garage
inside of my apartment (she likes to make friend, you know... Tom and Jerry). 2 month ago she brought one (I think female) for winter fun, very convenient to have friend inside in such horrible Chicago weather. And everything would be not so bad if tonight she wouldn't bring another one - looks like male, big and smart, jumped over 9" lamp shade which I covered him. Once in a while she brings her old friend in the middle of the night to me, when I'm asleep and let her free again. Now, when I have two illegal emigrants who can produce big family it's to much for me. Tomorrow I will try to make mice camp with help of your advise and peanut butter. Will keep you posted... :)

[Erin]

This worked in 7 minutes. Thank you!

[destiny]

ok im gonna try this, i lost my hamster today & i rly wanna find HIM before im gonna go get another because i still have that guarentree 4 him. I ONLY HAD HIM FOR THREE DAYS THEN I WENT TO TAKE HIM OUT & HES GONE! HES NOT IN HIS CAGE!!! :"( his name was DRAGON. if its works then i say......... THANK U!

[peep]

This is a great trap! We set this up with 3 tubes with a dime as a counter weight, and got one the first night. Super for baby mice!

[Unknown]

Now a 2 liter bottlewith some bread or cracker broke up that has so
E peanut butter on it will catch a mouse wouldn't think they cud fit in he but they can. And put it in the spot where you think the mouse is going at and check it in about 30mi s or hour and it will be in the bottle. Best part is screw cap on and he surely trapped but even without that they can't get out because I've watched several I trApped couldn't find the he and it works really well js

[sfcindy]

Does anyone know how to modify this to catch a small rat living in our garage? We've tried springs traps to no avail. It just eats the peanut butter off the trap. Wouldn't the tp roll be too small for a rat? The exterminator called these rats "roof rats".

[fulhamfellows]

Thought other methods of catching our furry lodger would be too unkind and tried yours instead, just as described - with the addition of using a bucket that has a lid.
Caught our mouse within the hour and have rehoused him in the local park.
Thank you.

[Ethan]

This set up is PERFECT! We've caught two in the past two days. Ours have been outsmarting the traps and poison, but they seem to be falling for this one. HA!

[Tom F]

I live in a new build appartment, above a restraunt. I noticed we had mice after randomly finding a dead one on my open-planned kitchen floor. Since then I have seen another one or two in my flat.

I'm not interested in poison because 1)It's cruel and 2) I don't fancy it rotting away in my home.

I'll try this soon for sure, especially as they've started helping themselves to my naan bread.

NO ONE TOUCHES MY NAAN, GOD DAMMIT!

[joselyn]

So since about a month ago I heard the pitter patter of little feet but I figured it was nothing. Mind you, my room is on the second floor. So since I got the flu I slept in my living room I actually saw it about 2 inches high and 4inches long.
We tried to get it out of the closet but it ran behind our computer deal. We moved the desk and tried to get it away from there , then it ran up the stairs .
We didn't know what else to do but we think this could work actually, from seeing that it worked for most people we've decided to try it

[Lindsay]

This really worked! Silly mouse will stop eating my peanut butter cups now:)

[Chelsea]

When I first found this technique, I was a little skeptical it was actually going to work, But I can honestly say IT DOES WORK! The first night we had it set up we caught a mouse, The very next night we set it up again and caught a second mouse. I have caught atleast FOUR MICE IN 2 WEEKS of using this method. Surprisingly this method works better than the 15-or-so death traps we have arranged around the house(havent caught even 1 with the death traps) THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS:)

[Eimantas Noreikis Charlie Walcott Gyan]

It don't work, the rat took the food but then it went backwards and escaped!!! Rats and Mice are more smarter than humans are! :D

[saskia]

even our spanish mouse understand this, but ours jump really high,
So take care the trash can is high enough!!!! thank you great thinking!!

[mike]

any idea if this will work with rats?

[Zay]

Wow! I tried the tp tube--no luck for about an hour. (After dark) Then I set the tp tub and a papertowel tube side by side. Turned off the light, went into another room. 25 minutes later I checked: Zowie! both tubes were down in the bucket along with the little gray mouse! I think he bumped the tp tube, then went through the pt tube. Fantastic!! Thanks!

[Anna Sauve]

I tried this yesterday! It worked! But, I was going to release them but...they were baby mice!! I had caught a mouse in a normal mouse trap a couple days ago and I'm guessing it was their mama...I felt really guilty so I put them in a glass tank (I washed it first and put in some fodder) and now I'm keeping them as pets. I'm feeding them well and I talked to a vet friend of mine and she told me what to feed them! Now my mouse problem is gone and has been replaced by a mouse blessing, THEY ARE SO CUTE!!!!

[Jackie]

HOLY CRAP!!! It took less than 2 hours for this to work for me!! I'm simply amazed. It sidestepped the glue traps in its path and went straight for the peanut butter at the end of the tube. I counterbalanced the tube with 2 quarters as several people suggested. Thank you!

[Dirtyduds]

Thanks to this superb idea...i went up to our loft to store some xmas prezzies and found that 1 or how many mice had riffled through the selection box's, so i bought some traps, set them and checked daily.....nothing just the chocolate had gone :-/
So i googled and found this page, I set it up and bingo, the next day i had me a mouse, set it free, set up the tube again and bingo! another mouse caught, two days two mice caught without any life's lost,think i might need to buy more peanut butter, amazing! great idea thanks.

[Agnes]

I caught a mouse by accident this way once. I had a tall garbage can in my office. I saw a mouse go in and out of of a few times. There was a plastic garbage bag lining the garbage can and the mouse could climb up it to escape. One day I emptied the trash but did not have a new liner. I heard some squeaking and thumping and discovered the mouse was in the can, jumping up to try to escape. I took it to a big field away from houses and let it go.

[First time mouse catching]

I'm trying this mouse catching I've got the humane trap set up fingers crossed it works

[Roger]

Louise - stuff the holes with wire wool/steel mesh. If they still get in, buy glue traps, put a low wide obstruction across some of your doorways with a glue trap laid along the only gap. Give it a night or so and they'll all be sat patiently on the traps waiting for you to get rid.

[louise]

i have just moved into a lille wooden house iv discovered 3 mouse holes in the house i left my dog treat twist things on the bench when i came back from work over 1cm had been nibbled off it and there was mouse poop on the fllor near my washing machine. should i call someone to get rid off them should i fill the holes in.. so stressed. x

[brandog]

if it does work i want to stomp on its f_ _ _ing head and throw his guts in the lake(X-X)BY YOUR HOUSE BY THE PRETTY FLOWERS

[melkin]

It helps if you actually include the link...

;)

[melkin]

Here is a link for a repeating trap, much like the author spoke about. I like it because it resets itself each time! (disregard the parts about the water if you are doing this humanely)

[Hopeitworks]

I decided to try this , I don't want to kill the poor thing, hes just trying to live so if it does work I'm going to set it free by a lake about a mile from my place(:

[Ladd]

Thanks a lot for posting this trick. Worked for me the first night! Now I look like hero in front of my wife :)
We were going crazy trying to get rid of a mice. It avoided all the glue and spring traps we setup for few weeks. I honestly did not believe your trap is going to work because I felt our mouse is too smart to fall for this. Paper tube hanging over the bucket looks like a trap from mile away :)
Anyways, we caught it on first attempt. I glued two quarters to one end of the tube to balance it out as per somebody's else advice here. For bait I used few pieces of cheerios.
I also poured like half an inch of water at the bottom of the bucket (no glue trap) so when mouse felt down, it got wet and could not climb up, probably because the bucket became slippery and mice was heavier when wet. I could tell that mice can jump pretty good, because in the morning when I discovered its trapped, it could still jump almost on top. I believe that if I did not put water in the bucket it would escape. The reason I did not put more water was I didn't want it to get drawn. I released the mice in the park like mile away from my house.
Thanks again!

[Fran]

I dont know whether the structural make up of my uk toilet tubes are some how too light to balance precariously on the edge or whether i was piling on a bit too much of a feast for it, but hasnt worked so far - It ate my honey and marmalade and walked away with a full stomach, maybe il try the longer kitchen roll tube

[Jay]

I am student at Temple University in Philadelphia and, having been from a suburban area, have never really had a problem with mice. We have one now (dubbed "Mickey"), and he is not really too bad other than pooping everywhere (we think it's only one... >.<). Being a nursing major and knowing about the diseases they have the potential to spread, I immediately wanted to trap and kill it. Done. My roommates objected with the usual "live and let live", but they didn't want to set up any sort of trap although they didn't want it in the house. After the usual "clamp" traps failed. I mentioned this idea, they liked it, but did not want to release the mouse. I added a layer of water about 5 inches deep to the bottom of the bucket and now this trap all of a sudden works better than the clamp traps with the same effect. awesome idea thanks!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_cjjiQ4yPuiA/S5MzgKE3jVI/AAAAAAAAAGk/8DMmy14GWSU/s400/IMG_0010.jpg

[MouseCMulligan]

Dear Flower,

I don't think people realise the threat that Humans pose, what with their ability to spread disease and infection and to outright kill everything else. Before you write patented bullshit like "Kill all mice" (I paraphrase, of course) you should consider that Humans are very few natural predators these days, particularly in an urban environment. They will also procreate at a rapid rate. The beasts defecate everywhere. Live and let live! Humans are very dangerous for our health, and the health of all other creatures! See how fast their population grows! And they leave their crap everywhere!

Yours sincerely,

Mouse C Mulligan, Mouse Sociologist

[flower]

I don't think people realize what threat and infection deceases the mice spread. Before you write bs like live and let live you have to know that since they have very little of natural predators these days especially in urban environment (the actual place that see the true infestations not one or two mice running around some place in suburbs)they will procreate at rapid rate. The one you release infests somebody else home and can climb a child's feeding table and they child can get very sick or even die from the infection. These beasts poop everywhere and by the time one even discovers them can be late. I am sure most of you eat meat- what do you think it packed itself neatly into a container in the supermarket? Live and let live! Mice are VERY VERY dangerous for health. If you don't want to kill them then don't -I know that I can't even go near to mouse traps but you don't have right to release them and make it somebody else's problem. Then keep them in your house since you find them so cute. See how fast 2 mice will become thousands in a matter of months and you will have asthma, liver problems etc. Their feces is very dangerous.

[Rachel]

Ok heres my story we have a mouse not wild but a pet that escaped when it was a baby. its been running around our kitchen for at least a year we have tried traps and other things we have caught it before but it escaped the cage .... very clever. mum hates it as it lives in our cooker so everytime we want food we have to steriles everything really annoying. I have used my other mice to test out your plan one fat and one roughly the same size as the runaway IT WORKED :D we just hope the runaway will be more gullible this time. wish us luck xx

[Peter C]

I bought a friendly mouse trap.... but this mouse in my house refuses to be caught..... I watch him on CCTV.... he first stole the first trap... yes its true.... he dragged it off and ate the bait.... we have been trying to catch him ever since... he posses in front of the wild cam I have... I almost expect him to come on scene with a straw hat and cane ( cartoon style)we have tried all kinds of baits but he just wont be caught..... I really do not want to harm it.

[Travis Aristidou]

Okay so it was awhile back when I posted in this thread, This trap did not work for me but better yet, back when I had my pet mouse I put him in his ball and taped the ball to a kitchen table leg. Put traps all around and left Guss guss alone in the kitchen. Minutes later "Snap!", Shadow, the mouse that was in our house eating our stuff, Was caught :)

[IBShel]

It worked! However, we used a tall cardboard box instead of a plastic bin. The 1st night the mouse moved the TP tube but was able to eat the Peanut Butter without getting caught. Maybe I didn't have the tube over the edge enough? 2nd attempt, same thing. I used a penny to counterweight the tube, but it must've been too-well balanced. 3rd attempt, my husband suggested using a paper towel tube rather than the toilet paper one and wham! We caught a mouse within a half hour! Since the whole point of catching them this way is to NOT kill them, we took the captured mouse to our nearby estuary and let it go. We reset the tube that night and in the morning we had a second capture. Again, we let it go in the open fields. We've reset the tube and wait to see if any more mice are in the house. Thank you so much for posting this idea! Our local hardware stores only sell kill-type traps and/or poisons and I don't feel it necessary to go that route. Live and let live, right? Good luck!

[Nancy]

I have 5 cats and no mouse in his right mind would move in to my house. However, two of mine are super hunters and bring home their catch. Occasionally one gets loose. I wont kill any animal, and think this method sound great, but with an open bucket I would just be making him a sitting duck (mouse?) for the cats. Any suggestions?

[MT]

Worked for me the first night. I didn't even have to crease the tube. Just some peanut butter on a nut and a kitchen trash can did the trick. This was after other humane plastic traps did not work.

[Rosie]

Addendum to my earlier post... I have to stress how important it is for that bucket to be taller. I think we got lucky that he was caught when we weren't sleeping. If it was in the middle of the night while everyone is still in bed, he would have jumped out of that 14.5 inch bucket and escape!

[c]

My 16 year old daughter insisted on a live trap for the mouse we've had in the kitchen for a couple of weeks. She set up this contraption with a toilet roll innard, but the crafty mouse escaped it 3 times! The roll fell just as it should, and the mouse was sitting there on the stove when we went to check it out. She determined that the roll was too short, or at least the mouse was too quick for the length of roll.

So we unwrapped a paper towel roll. And within less than an hour of first set up of the original, there he was, trapped! She cut off the piece of roll with PB on and dropped it in there. The crumpled newspaper she had me put in there to break his fall made a great nest of hiding places for him. All night he scrabbled around in there every few hours.

And this morning she was up and ready for school early enough to have me drive her out to the nature preserve, where upon she ran through pouring rain to a clump of brush under large trees where she released him, and I dropped her off at school soaked but happy : )

[Rosie]

Thank you so much for your illustration. I print out the picture of the cardboard ramp for my father. He built it exactly like the picture and for 3 days, we were unsuccessful catching it that way. We went back to the countertop method and it worked within 48 hours! Our bucket was 14.5 inches high and it is important that the bucket be at least 17 inches high. Once he fell in, he did a vertical jump straight up in the air trying to get out and I can see half of his body higher than the 14.5 inch height when he was in the air. He kept jumping up a few times and I had to immediately use a lid to cover the bucket.

[melissa]

oh no! my first mice since living in this house for three years - repairs on one of the entry ways gave them a chance to come in, i think. my dog got one (with a big paw intended for play, not murder) but the second (and only other, i hope) was more elusive. i searched and found this set up and oh yes!! this worked the first night! the little friend is now free (and far away from my house) and there have been no new visitors in the week since i set this up (i am keeping it up for a while, however, until i can seal up breaches.)

[I hate inhumane]

Once ehen i came back from a trip i found a dead mither mouse ( died of old age) and two dead babies close by. I set up a similar trap exept ut used a two litre pop bottle was taped to the edge of the container and used counterweights. A few day ago i went in my crawl space and saw two running in the plastic covering our insulation and discovered we have an infestation. Our home-made live trap was too bulky and i resorted to using regular snap traps. After i killed two i realised how cruel it is. I found ur trap and im hapoy to say its caught NINE!!!! Thank you so much. I think there all happy in the park a few clicks from my home :)

[manny]

Works like a charm! I used a tall floor vase as container with a cardboard as a ramp and some peanutbutter to lure the mouse.

I set it up for one night and already cought the little beast. Now its time to check if there are any more mice creeping around in my apartment.

[Savio D'Cunha Ferreira Paulo Baptisat]

I need to try this badly

[Ron]

A few days ago I found out I had rodents in my garage.
I'm not sure what they are exactly, but I think they're either mice, shrews, or rats. I plan on trying this trap out later today. I sure hope it works for whatever the crap they are!

[Kyle Adams]

Holy wow! that was so awesome, the trap worked great!
Although I think it worked a little better though after I taped 2 quarters on top of the counter end of the toilet paper tube to act as a counter weight. It let me put more of the tube off the counter and gave it a much more stable feel like it wasn't going to get knocked off by accident, though when the mouse went in the trap still worked perfectly.
The other thing I noticed was that I think the mouse responded better to a mulitigrain cherrio.

[Stella]

THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU!

Many years ago, when my boy was little and we were living in just one room, I spent several nights unable to sleep, moving every single piece of furniture around trying to find a mouse. One night I knew it was just behind a box at the toilet and I just kicked the box with all my might. I still cry when I remember it.I promised to myself that I would never kill another one ever again. But living in victorian houses, that's what you get:a couple of visitors a year. I try to, kindly, walk them to the front door and hope they go somewhere safe.I also find then so cute, but I am sacared by the way they move and the pests they carry. We are not supposed to live with them. I will try the bucket method!

[Kimmers]

I have had a mouse in my apt for a week now, can't get it out and now its stealing food from my pet rabbit. I plan on building this trap tonight, and i will put water to drown the sucker. If i could i would but some gas and light a match.

The truth is i live in NYC and setting it free just makes it someone else's problem. Live and let live? It should have thought about that before it broke into my house and took a dump on my counter top. Mice aren't on any endangered spices list, there is no need to save them all. And this one has it coming! And if i'm a sick fuck for wanting to see this little bastard floating dead in a 5 gallon bucket, then so be it. But this sick fuck is going to enjoy walking around her house barefoot and not worrying about every little crumb or bump in the night.

Note from Chris, author of the post: I feel ya Kimmers, this isn't a great solution for densely urban areas, but lighten the fuck up.

[the dude]

My son helped a zecada(sp) one time( the big buzzing bugs in trees) helped get it out of it shell, set it on a nice branch to let its wings unfold and maybe get a bite....I came back 10 minutes later to check on it and a normal bee came along and ripped off one of its wings.....lesson...

Nature can be cruel. i wouldn't stomp the little guy, but you cant control what nature has in store...