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Mice are often portrayed as cute and cuddly animals that are generally quite friendly towards humans. Unfortunately, having a mouse in your home that isn’t a pet can be quite an unpleasant experience, as they can often cause problems with food contamination and the contamination of other materials within the home. These rodents also chew on electrical wires and pipes, and can spread parasites or disease to people or pets. Mice can make noise at night that you don't want, and an awful lot of mess, and for these reasons many people will want to get rid of their mice, and trapping is the best way to do this.

Traditional Lethal Mouse Traps
When most people think of a mouse trap they will almost certainly think of the traditionally designed traps where a spring loaded metal bar is mounted on a wooden pad, and bait is placed on the trap’s trigger. Once the animal touches the bait, the trap snaps shut killing the mouse. While this is a very traditional approach, it is still one of the most effective ways to kill a mouse.



Alternative Traps
There are a number of different types of traps that can also be used to catch mice, with a number of different techniques used to achieve this result. Some traps will have a glue pad that the mouse will stick to and be unable to move once it steps on to the trap, while other alternatives can include an electrocution trap that will kill the rat with electric current. Some traps can actually kill many without having to be re-set, which is often one of the difficulties of catching mice. For those people who are looking for a more humane and animal friendly option to catching a mouse, there are a number of live traps available. Some will be designed to catch an individual mouse, while others will be able to catch a number of mice. These will usually trap the mouse in a cage or container until the person who set the trap can return to deal with them.

The Location And Bait Of A Mouse Trap
Getting the right location for the mouse trap is vital, because mice will not be attracted over a long distance to the bait. Looking for a part of the property that is regularly used by the mouse will be a good place to start, and depending on whether the mice are inside or outside your home this can be a small hole in skirting boards or in the woodwork around the property. On the inside, try placing traps behind large items of furniture or other dark nooks and crannies that are ideal hiding places for mice. In terms of using the right bait, there are many different things that have historically proved to be successful in helping to catch mice. However, contrary to the myth that mice are irresistibly drawn to cheese, there are a number of other foods that can prove to be very successful. Chocolate, peanut butter, bread and even dry pet food can all prove to be successful baits for mice.

Handling And Removing The Mice
When it comes to handling a mouse, the same advice will be relevant if you use a lethal trap or a live trap, which is to wear thick gloves and to avoid contact between the mouse and the skin. Mice can carry diseases and parasites, and live mice will often bite if they are in a live trap. In terms of removing the mice, it is best to take them between five and ten miles away from your property, and preferably to an area away from urban developments before releasing them. It is worth noting that a number of states have regulations in relation to releasing wild animals, so ensure that you check with your local agencies to ensure that releasing the mice is acceptable in your state.

Analysis of different types of mouse traps

These days there are so many different types of mouse traps that it would take you an age to sit down, work out their pros and cons, and eventually figure out which ones are the best ones for you. We've decided to make life easier. We have done a completely analysis of different types of mouse traps, and some of the truths behind these so-called “humane” and modern rodent control measures might just surprise you. And not in a good way.



So, without any further ado, here are the traps you'll more than likely come up against in the journey to rid your house of a mouse problem:

Snap Traps

These are the more conventional, traditional traps. They have many pros — they're easy to use, easy to set, easy to bait, are relatively fool-proof, do the job and have done for many years, and they are cheap too.

There are some cons, of course, and these include being able to see a dead rodent in the trap, probably looking somewhat messy, being dangerous around kids and pets, needing to be checked and re-baited regularly, and also needing a few of them. These tend to work best when you place lots of traps down, rather than just one. You will also need to have some knowledge on the best places to set them. Well, unless you hire in the professionals, of course!

These are the traps that we would recommend you use. Even with their disadvantages, they still offer the most humane approach to rodent control and removal.

Live Traps

There are a few variations of these on the market these days, from cage traps to more enclosed ones, and everything else in between. The aim of the game when it comes to live traps is keeping the mouse (or rodent) alive. The problem you have with this type of trap is that you will need to find somewhere far enough away to release the animal. You should also be aware that rodents you release back into the wild rarely survive for longer than a few days. These are quite sociable animals, and they're territorial too. If they are in an unknown territory, there is a good chance they will be attacked by other animals, particularly bigger predators. If it isn't that, it'll be starvation, hyperthermia, or dehydration because it was unable to find a source of food, water or shelter.

Live traps can also be dangerous for other animals and young children too. The animal which, in this case, is likely to be a mouse or a rat, will attack small fingers, paws and noses that get too close. This can result in injury, and also the spread of disease.

Glue Traps

Another of the more modern types of mouse trap on the market, glue traps are incredibly inhumane. They don't solve the problem at all, instead creating more problems. You are advised to place these glue traps on the floor, close to walls, in the same places that you would place regular snap traps for mice. They are marketed as safe, easy to use, easy to monitor, and easy to dispose of. That is true, in some senses, but you must remember that you are going to have a mouse or rat attached to that glue trap when you throw it in the trash, and sometimes that rodent will not be dead. It is likely to have some awful injuries, as these rodents are well known to chew through their own limbs in a bid to break free. And if they do manage to break free, they are then at the mercy of predators or they could die somewhere in your home.

Not quite as humane as you first thought, huh?

Electronic Mouse Traps

These are designed to kill the mouse or rat with a quick electric shock that hits them as soon as they trigger the trap's switch. It's a new innovation and has only recently hit the market, but is believed to be the kindest and cleanest way to deal with rodents. They do work, but they are rarely as efficient as they claim to be, and you will find yourself replacing the batteries much more quickly than you'd expect. The cost of these batteries will soon mount. In some cases, the traps have also not killed the mouse or rat, resulting in a maimed animal that you will then need to kill humanely before you can dispose of it.

There are many types of mouse trap on the market, but we would always recommend going with the good, old-fashioned rat and mouse snap traps. They work well, they are relatively cheap to buy, and they don't come with half the negatives that many of the other mouse traps do.

For more information, you may want to click on one of these guides that I wrote:
How to get rid of mice - my main mouse removal info guide.
how to get rid of mice in the attic
how to kill mice
What does mouse poop look like
mice in the walls