A better mouse trap?

Living in a 130 year old home, we get mice, it's far from air tight.  This time of year I hear little feet scurrying around in the attic at night.  This time of year they're looking for warmth, I get that.  All God's creatures, live & let live, but if I wake up to heat chewing on the beams somewhere the gauntlet has been thrown!

I've been using those old wood based snap type for years, even bent the hold down bar to make a hair trigger.  Little buggers just ate the peanut butter and giggled off into the night.  Then I tried these Victor Power Kill traps.  Got 2 in 2 days!  Easy to arm and you don't jeopardize snapping your fingers.

They found wifey's stash of chocolate, peanut butter grainy protein bars, THAT justifies the extra cost.

I'm the big game hunter around these parts. Just started using these. I've lost too many old style as they scampered away with them. Or they just eat the peanut butter and laugh at my attempts to clear them out.

Well the chocolate will help kill them. I need to go searching. This came up a couple years back and Fasted58 built one hell of a rig.

Edit

Here you go

Here is an interesting Rat trap from New Zealand ,  it uses a CO2 cartridge  to power a hammer that hits the rats on the head !   Not cheap  but it seems to work well in the forests of NZ where the rats have been eating the bird eggs  and protect critically endangered species.

Humane & Automatic Traps | Goodnature USA

I have had good results with the glue traps.  Actually caught 2 on one trap a few times.  For filling cracks there is a mouse proof expanding foam available.  

In reply to 914Driver :

Poison.

Did poison, tossed cubes into the attic, around the basement and outside where the dog couldn't get his nose.  They get thirsty and go somewhere else to die.

914Driver said:

Did poison, tossed cubes into the attic, around the basement and outside where the dog couldn't get his nose.  They get thirsty and go somewhere else to die.

They ended up dying in the wall of my brother kitchen  , so you never know !

Do not use the glue traps. They're quite inhumane. 
 

I have a 100 year old house. I use the old school victors and a bucket trap. Those traps in the first post look intriguing, as I'm currently nursing a bruised fingertip from trying to set the classic style trap. 
 

I also have some of the ones that vwcorvette posted; I've found them to be OK. 

I use Victor snap traps with the metal bait holder with MRE peanut butter, they never miss. The plastic bait holder not  so much. 

I haven't had mice in 5 years since feral cats moved into my neighborhood. I've seen their tracks in the snow patrolling around the house, garage and my vehicles. They are very thorough.

We had mice again a couple of months ago. Apparently the entire neighborhood was complaining on Next Door. We'd already had a remediation company come out twice before in the last 7+ years to seal exterior cracks, bait the attic, etc.

It didn't seem to work this time, we could see the tunnels of them eating through insulation in the attic. Finally went against our judgment and baited the trap and surrounding areas with poison.

Mtn, I know those traps are inhumane, but I honestly don't care when it comes to those disgusting disease carrying rodents that E36 M3 everywhere.

I'd love some feral cats guarding the neighborhood.

In reply to mtn :

In our last place, we had some new folks move in next door and they found a mouse. They were VERY much concerned with trying to do things humanely. They did not have success. Finally got to the point where they felt unsafe with a 6 month baby in a place with mice and had the management folks get involved. Got put up in a nice Airbnb for a few days, discounted rent for the month, and a few gift cards for their trouble. Anyway, business being business, traps were employed with vigor. Couple days into the process, neighbor came home to grab some stuff and found the poor little thing too far gone but not gone yet. They were quite upset. The little things can make rather big sounds when they want. 
 

he told me later that they should have just taken my offer to borrow a couple of my sisters cats. 

I've used the spinning bottle over a bucket.  Humane, works really well, and you can usually make it out of stuff you have laying around.

My grandpa had a barn infested with rats because of the horses spilling feed when they ate so I trapped a lot of mice and rats when I was young.   I was going through my Jeremiah Johnson phase and was running a trap line around the barn and pasture trapping rats with various types of Victor traps.

Be sure to  drill a hole at a neutral cornet of the trap and use it to tie the trap to something that a rat or large mouse can't drag away.   

Also I agree peanut butter is great.      Put the traps perpendicular to the wall, with the trigger nearest the wall,  near a path they would follow to get into a hiding place because sometimes they just run over the trap by accident and get snapped before they get to the peanut butter.    

I haven't had much trouble in the past 8 years at my house but there have been about 4 so far in the past couple months. 

My cats do a good job of dealing with them quickly. 

Whatever anyone ends up doing, I know mice are gross and annoying and super destructive, but glue traps literally are the worst... It's basically torture, and they're no more effective than a good Tomcat trap.  

californiamilleghia said:

914Driver said:

Did poison, tossed cubes into the attic, around the basement and outside where the dog couldn't get his nose.  They get thirsty and go somewhere else to die.

They ended up dying in the wall of my brother kitchen  , so you never know !

We lived in an 1890 farmhouse with orange grove on three sides.
Grove rats get big, and a house like that is impossible to seal up.

I learned the lesson about not using poison. They don't leave, and even after they start to decompose it's hard to figure out where they hid. 
 

One was in a wall, another was in the insulation of the (soon to be replaced) oven. 
 

Only used traps after that. 

Ultimately, a corn snake that lived in the barn where we kept our pony was the answer. The snake got in the house a couple of times, we just put it back in the barn. It got enormous eating those rats. 

golfduke said:

Whatever anyone ends up doing, I know mice are gross and annoying and super destructive, but glue traps literally are the worst... It's basically torture, and they're no more effective than a good Tomcat trap.  

No, glue traps catch snakes too, snap traps don't. Main reason I use them. Never actually caught a mouse with one, but I imagine the screaming as it dies would be a good warning to other mice. 

And before anyone comes at me with "they don't learn like that", I suggest you go on YouTube and checkout the videos of mice and rats using sticks to trip snap traps so they can safely get the bait. They learn.

In reply to RevRico :

I still feel guilty for killing a black snake with a snap trap. I believe that the trap smelled like the rat that had been trapped in it previously. 
 

I'm surprised no one has imbedded any of these videos from Shawn Woods. He tests traps, commercial and home made, as well as recreations of historic traps. New videos every week on "Mousetrap Monday".
 

golfduke said:

Whatever anyone ends up doing, I know mice are gross and annoying and super destructive, but glue traps literally are the worst... It's basically torture, and they're no more effective than a good Tomcat trap.  

At least in our hood, they took the bait without setting off the snap traps....for a few weeks. That's why we resorted to glue traps and poison.

I'm not trying to be whatever, but this weird "that's mean to rodents" mindset is incredibly bizarre to me.

It couldn't be any clearer to me. I, for one, don't like to cause any animal to suffer unnecessarily. Or for that matter, at all.

I've caught over 20 in the last two weeks or so with the wooden Victor traps with the other yellow platform. Just set it on sensitive. The trick is to wedge the pb with in there so they have to work to get it. I usually set multiple traps and practice patience.

Edit: I have watched dozens of Shawn Woods/Mousetrap Monday videos on YT. He does great tests of all the traps. I'd go there if you want some recommendations and testing outcomes. 

His latest one with a shop vac is great, but it would be an expensive setup.