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What bait to use for a mouse trap.

(59 Posts)
kittylester Sat 09-Jun-18 10:18:44

Our cat brought in a live mouse this morning which, naturally, is now behind somewhere in the kitchen! EEEEKKKK!

We are out for the rest of the day so are going to leave a trap near where we think it is - what should we bait it with?

Greyduster Sat 09-Jun-18 10:21:17

Peanut butter, peanut butter and more peanut butter. The little beggars love the stuff!

Panache Sat 09-Jun-18 10:22:00

We have always used cheese and it has ALWAYS proved successful kittylester................however many advocate chocolate...........a case of Take your pick!!

Hope you are the lucky ones!!

Maggiemaybe Sat 09-Jun-18 10:29:02

It'll be a field mouse, so it'll hide somewhere and just make quick straight forays for food, not like a house mouse that scampers all over the house. So if you look out for droppings, they should show you where it's holed up. Then all you need is a man (or maybe a woman, but not in this house) with a pair of gardening gloves....

kittylester Sat 09-Jun-18 10:41:28

We saw where she dropped it so we know which corner it is in. I watched it all happen through the glass in the kitchen door. blush DH is good at catching them usually but it has disappeared behind the boiler boxing in.

We've gone for chocolate but it means that we could starve to death it we don't catch it because I'm not going back in there!

grannysue05 Sat 09-Jun-18 10:47:19

Maybe just leaving your cat in the house today will solve the problem.
After all, he/she caught the mouse in the first place.

Oldwoman70 Sat 09-Jun-18 10:48:26

Reminds me of a time many years ago when our cat brought in a mouse. I am terrified of the things (irrational I know but there you go). DH was at work so I went next door to ask my neighbour if he could deal with it. Unknown to me this 6' 2" burly man was also scared of mice!! He bravely came to my aid but was unable to catch it. All the time the cat was watching the antics - then after a while caught the mouse, and took it outside with what seemed like a look of contempt on his face!

Thingmajig Sat 09-Jun-18 10:59:26

We had a resident mouse in the shed over winter and put a bit of custard cream in the trap ... seemed to like it as it was in the trap the first morning! I've heard toast, peanut butter, chocolate etc etc etc, so think they'll go for just about anything!

SueDonim Sat 09-Jun-18 12:36:17

Peanut butter in a humane trap caught the two rascals we had in last autumn. Our two massive cats just sat and watched them running around.

lemongrove Sat 09-Jun-18 13:12:44

Those cats will have to get fit SueD grin put them on a one meal a day regime and see if their hunting improves.

We always bait a trap with chocolate Kitty but I imagine they also love peanut butter or chocolate spread.

SueDonim Sat 09-Jun-18 13:38:47

We have had them on a boot camp regime, Lemon but the biggest one lost almost nothing while the littler one got quite thin. Weirdly, it's the smaller one that eats the most. grin

Maggiemaybe Sat 09-Jun-18 13:38:57

We adopted our cats because a couple of field mice made their way into the house. We were sadly ignorant of the ways of cats and failed to realise that they'd bring in many, many more, and that they'd have no interest at all in catching them again once they'd got them in and let them go. Plus birds, a bat, a snake, long dead unidentifiable things crawling with fleas, and someone else's pegbag.

SueDonim Sat 09-Jun-18 13:50:38

grin Maggiemaybe. Our cats don't go outside so we don't get any little treats from them. Thank goodness.

Neither of them is very bright and I don't think they'd have the nous to catch anything. They're Russian Blues (rescue cats) but I don't think they'd last five minutes on the Russian Steppes!

Maggiemaybe Sat 09-Jun-18 13:54:39

Fortunately the old lady we have now rarely ventures outside. She's scared of her own shadow, bless her, let alone another living creature. smile

SueDonim Sat 09-Jun-18 14:13:55

Aww. I love elderly cats.

annodomini Sat 09-Jun-18 14:51:59

One year, we found that something had been nibbling the chocolate ornaments on the Christmas tree. Evidence showed that it was a mouse, so we knew what to use as bait. And it worked.

muffinthemoo Sat 09-Jun-18 15:00:35

My grandfather swore by chocolate.

My granny however swears by hitting them with a hammer....?!!

LadyGracie Sat 09-Jun-18 16:17:09

Definitely chocolate, Lidl dark chocolate works a treat, we caught 13 of the little blighters over a couple of months!

PamelaJ1 Sat 09-Jun-18 16:59:37

We are catching voles at the moment with peanut butter.

Baggs Sat 09-Jun-18 17:05:31

Peanut butter or a wee piece of Mars bar work here. Mice usually come in, if they're going to, in the autumn. I spend the rest of the year thinking up ingenious ways to use up peanut butter. Latest is putting a dollop in the bread machine when making bread.

Peanut butter cookies were a great hit with Minibaggs's Spanish exchange partner.

mimiro Sat 09-Jun-18 17:07:26

peanut butter yes and it takes work for them to get it.
long time ago in a 100 year old- old west mining town.we were rebuilding the place and living in the hotel,angora cat cleaned the place out for us.after about a month we were mice and bat free.
then cat got bored, and we would catch her carefully bringing mice in and letting them loose in the kitchen.playstation for cats was all we could figure.grin

mimiro Sat 09-Jun-18 17:11:16

sue none of my russian blues were hunters.had to import a mainecoon cat to take care of mice from ndn chicken farm.

shysal Sat 09-Jun-18 17:17:34

I hope the trap is cat-proof, could do a nasty injury! I have a couple in special boxes along the skirting boards behind furniture. Fortunately the days of trying to catch baby bunnies in the middle of the night seem to be over, but voles and shrews are regular 'presents'.

Yesterday I was watching a family of 8 blue tits on my bird feeder, when my lazy old Bugsie shot out and caught one baby as it flew onto the fence, killing it outright. I was so sad! sad

Belgravian Sat 09-Jun-18 17:20:34

youtube.com/watch?v=0K8lrVjT6fM

shysal Sat 09-Jun-18 17:25:08

By the way, I use peanut butter.