Robo's World » The Farm

How-To: Build a better mouse trap

Robo — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:14:00 +0000

Tired of catching mice one at a time? Tired of all the hassles trying to set the traps? How about building a better mouse trap? One that is self resetting, has no poisons, and best of all can be built from stuff that you already have. Even better, you can build it in a matter of minutes.

The principle is actually quite simple. It consists of a 5 gallon bucket of water with a tin can “log roll”. A simple ramp allows the mouse to climb up to the top of the bucket and get onto the peanut butter baited tin cans. Once on the cans, it is just a matter of time before the cans roll and the mouse falls into the bucket and drowns. Since the cans just roll, there is no need to reset, so it is always ready for the next mouse.

Here are a set of simple step by step instructions to make it happen.
Click any image to see a larger version


*Step 1:* Gather the parts and tools you will need. An old 5 gallon bucket. A metal coat hanger. Two vegetable or soup cans. Duct tape. Small piece of wood. A drill with a drill bit that is slightly larger than the diameter of the coat hanger wire. Wire cutters. A tape measure. A marking pen.

*Step 2:* Mark the center of the un-opened ends of the two cans with the marking pen. The closer you are to the center, the better the trap will work.

*Step 3:* Drill a hole at the marks made on the cans.

*Step 4:* Drill two holes in the bucket, just above the handle bosses. Depending on the size of the cans used, you may need to adjust the height of the holes in the bucket. You want the top of the cans to be close to the top of the bucket, but not higher.

*Step 5:* Lay the coat hanger across the bucket. Using the wire cutters, cut the bottom out of the coat hanger leaving at least an inch overhang on each side.

*Step 6:* Make a 90 degree bend, about 1/2 inch in length, at one end of the wire.

*Step 7:* Thead the straight end of the wire through one of the holes in the bucket. Thread the wire through the hole in the bottom of one of the cans and out through the open end of the can.

*Step 8:* Feed the wire through the open end of the second can and then thread it out through the hole in the bottom.

*Step 9:* Thread the wire out through the second hole in the bucket.

*Step 10:* With the bent end of the wire pushed against the bucket, trim the straight end so that 1 inch extends out of the bucket.

*Step 11:* Bend the straight end of the wire as close to the bucket as possible.

*Step 12:* Align the open ends of the two cans and duct tape them together.

*Step 13:* Drill a hole centered in the wood about 1/2 inch from the end.

*Step 14:* Cut one of the bent ends off the left over coat hanger.

*Step 15:* Bend it into the shape shown in the photo.

*Step 16:* Insert the straight end of the wire into the hole in the wood.

*Step 17:* Bend the wire over to hold it into the wood.

*Step 18:* Place the hook end over the edge of the bucket in line with the cans.

*Step 19:* Smear a little peanut butter around the duct tape as bait.

*Step 20:* Fill the bucket with 6 inches of water and you’re ready to catch some mice.

Tips:

If using the trap in freezing weather, use windshield washer fluid instead of water.
If you have to leave the trap for an extend period, like a weekend home, pour enough vegetable oil into the water to make a layer of oil above the water. The oil will act as a barrier and reduce the smell of the decaying mice.

If you have any other tips, let me know and I will add them.

Thanks to Blake for his assistance documenting this How-To:

Here is a similar design in action.

Chic-Keet-A

Robo — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:09:16 +0000

Our rooster got beat up badly by a fox in the Spring and it was questionable if he would make it. Fortunately he has recovered quite well. During his recovery, he wasn’t fertilizing the eggs, so when one of our hens went broody, we weren’t too optimistic of how many chicks we would get. Turned out for the worst, no eggs hatched. But the poor hen was so determined, she continued to sit on the eggs even after some of them started to exploded. We were not aware of this until we smelled the stench of the rotten eggs. I immediately cleaned out the nest and disposed of the mess. The poor hen, Henny Penny (as our son named her), didn’t seem to understand and was all discombobulated. So for the heck of it, I made a new nest in the same nesting box and placed some Guinea eggs in it. She knew it and refused to lay on them and returned to perch with the others for the night. To my surprise, the next morning I found her nesting on the eggs. I figured it was a long shot that she would continue to lay on the eggs for 28 more days after already spending almost a month on the batch of bad eggs. Well she did, and now we have a proud mom with guinea keets. I’m hoping they will be calmer than the normal guineas, and so far, they seem to be. They are going on 6 weeks old, and at night, some of them roost on mom’s back.

Our buddy the garden spider

Robo — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:15:00 +0000

We have a black & yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia) living in the burning bushes by the south side of our house. My son and I enjoy feeding it Japanese beetles and watching the spider mummify them. It is even more enjoyable than feeding them to the Guinea keets. Unfortunately, there are more than enough Japanese beetles to go around. Here is a short video clip of the spider in action.

Some unsuspected visitors

Robo — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 01:47:08 +0000

I was out in the yard working tonight when our black lab Cinder started barking. The guinea hens where in the yard wandering around and squawking, but not the serious trouble type of squawk. I immediately thought a bear. I had gotten a call on Friday from my parents neighbor that a bear had knocked a hive off my parents’ garage roof, so I knew it was that time of the year. I quickly ran around the chicken coop to see what she was barking at and realized that there was something in the live trap.

I built the trap this Spring when we had a fox coming in broad daylight and killing chickens and guinea hens. By the time I had it working properly, someone else either got the fox or it just moved on. So the trap has been sitting there over a month without bait as the flies and beetles had pretty much consumed the chicken necks and gizzards that where used.

That “something” was a mother raccoon with two babies. It is actually quite ironic because I had just told my wife about how I saw about 6 raccoons on Friday night when I went to repair the downed hive. About 10 years ago, the raccoon population was pretty much wiped out around this area with rabies. It has only been the last few years that I have been spotting them on a regular basis and it seems that they have finally recovered.

I know some find them a nuisance, but it brings back memories from my childhood when we had a couple “pet” raccoons. It sort of came about as a mutual agreement type of arrangement. Instead of putting our dinner scraps in the garbage and having the raccoons get into the garbage, we had a platform on a tree where the dinner scraps would go. The raccoons would come and dine at the platform and leave our garbage alone. IT didn’t take long before they where just like all our other pets….