Electrocuting mice traps any DIY tips?

So... my church has a mouse problem.  I've been trapping them the usual way.  There are some electric traps out there that work off DD batteries electrocuting mice.

I was thinking... this can't be too hard to rig up without killing myself.  I have reasonable 48 volt power supply around.  I can bait them between two wires?

Any simple circuits for the mildly inhumane mind you think would work?

Thanks.

CC

I bought one of those mouse electrocuters a few years ago, A friend of mine swears by them but I never got one mouse...  A few times the light was blinking, and I found a spider or bug inside...

I find that the old school spring traps more than effective. Apparently mice haven't evolved fast enough to not be easily killed by old technology. 

JR

I don't kill animals that I don't plan on eating.  I'm not one of those PETA types but I just don't like killing animals that are just trying to find a cozy place to live.  I had squirrels in my attic and I figured out how they were getting in, and used live traps with "squirrel chow"(yes they do make it..) and caught both of them.  I sealed up the hole and drove them down to the park.

No more squirrels in the attic and I didn't kill anything in the process.

Yeah, you know... I'm not a let's kill it person either - but really feel as though these mice with all their evil disease ridden mouse droppings is really quite disgusting.

I've ventured down a couple of things in this extermination - including a live trap.  I actually thought the mouse was dead until it jumped!  4 feet.  I screamed like a school girl as it ran off.

Well... that's where it's at.

CC

A buddy of mine who was in the Navy said that they used to take big capacitors (coffee can sized) and weld plates onto the terminals - one higher than the other, like a step. Then they'd put a little bait on the top step and charge 'em up.

He said you could hear the rats hitting the bulkheads when you were in your rack at night, and a charge would be good for a half dozen or so...

Just get them all baptized, they probably won't show up again ;D ;D.

you need a couple "church cats."

I fought mouse problems off and on for years in St. Louis. For me there is nothing worse than finding a mouse mortally wounded but still alive and struggling for its life in an old style spring mouse trap that has failed to end his pathetic little life in an instant. I had this happen a few times, I'm not a hunter, just a big softie.

Walmart sells these little plastic "live" traps. Its a rectangular box with a little plastic door. The mouse walks in thru the door to get some bait and then can't get back out. I bought a couple and they worked fantastic. I went back and bought a dozen traps and cured my mouse problem in one night.

On one occasion I heard the door of the trap in my basement, I quietly walked over and could see a mouse inside the trap eating his food and another mouse was at the door. A minute later the second mouse went into the trap, two for one and I got to watch it happen. I thought for sure the second mouse would let the first one out but nope.

For bait I use a piece of saltine cracker with a little peanut butter on it. The little mousies love peanut butter.

I took the traps a few miles from my house and let the mice go in a field. Perhaps they just become food for some larger animal but it was not on my hands.

Perhaps not as exciting as building an electrocution device but it was really effective and clean. I think the plastic live traps at Walmart are about a dollar each so 14 of them did not cost me much.

Using these traps left me more time for building studio gadgets and playing guitar too.

Best of luck and good music to all

good on you!

I have no compunction about killing rodents, who try to share my shelter and food...

I do not go out in the woods to find animals to kill... but if they come to me, I will deal with them expeditiously.

I had a serious rodent problem at my old job, when my engineering group moved into an area where the previous group always left cookies and food laying around. I really disliked, unlocking my office in the morning and finding mouse droppings all over the top of my desk.

Since the company provided exterminator just used poison, i decided to pass on that... Poisoned rodents crawl behind the walls to die, and stink for a long time. So I took a few weeks to get rid of them the old fashioned way (Stop feeding them, and kill those who don't go away with spring traps).

Rodents can spread disease, but I might be inclined to violence against anyone or anything that shits on my desk.

Unless you've ever had a squirrel inside your living space, you don't appreciate that pest either (rats with tails). I dislike squirrels more for their outdoor habits like chewing on telephone wires (killed my DSP one time)  and occasional brief snack on power lines popped my transformer fuse a couple times) . 

JR

Try this:
An Episcopal minister had a mouse infestation in church that could not be solved.  He finally asked his friends; a Rabbi and a Catholic priest.  The Rabbi had his exterminator come and he could not eliminate the mice.  The priest went to the church, and an hour later the mice were running out of the church.
"What did you do" asked the Episcopalian?
"I converted the mice to Catholicism and never saw them again" answered the priest.
This is one of our priest's (Orthodox) favorite jokes.  The many times I have heard it he changes the religions of the characters so it is a religious joke only in that most people do not go to church or synagogue, even the converts.

I swear by the small plastic no-kill traps.  I find it ironic to be electrocuting mice in a church!  Or have a church cat- that is very effective.
Mike

sodderboy said:

I find it ironic to be electrocuting mice in a church!

Click to expand...

Not half as ironic as the mice do!

I recommend the cat method, but you'd better survey the congregation first to make sure nobody is violently allergic. If my dad, in earlier years, had walked into a church with a cat, he would have had an asthmatic attack.

It's possible to find hypoallergenic cats; look for one with VERY short hair. If possible, get one that was raised on a farm; they usually know how to catch mice.

Otherwise, I'm afraid spring traps are most effective. I've not had any luck with live traps; the mice avoided them (despite massive amounts of peanut butter) and when I did catch one and dropped it off a block away, it was back in the house within hours.

And yes, they do carry diseases. The worst is hantavirus, which is in the same category as ebola; you don't want to mess with it at all.

Peace,
Paul

IIRC the hantavirus cases were mostly in the southwest, but yes in general, they have been associated with bad stuff over the course of history (black plague anybody?).

JR

Well I have come back from my nightly mouse ridding adventures. 

After seeing the disease post I had to wash my hands twice (I wear gloves throughout the mice ridding adventures).

I think I'm off electrocuting.  I was reminded how terrible it would be if someone got their hand melted off or something.

I'm back to the bucket trap only refining it.

I have a bucket of antifreeze with a nice ramp up to it.  The top of the bucket has Vaseline for a nice slip into the antifreeze.  Suspended across it is a can with peanut butter that will roll nicely if it is attempted to be mounted.  I have also put Vaseline on the sides with cotton balls underneath (dipped in peanut butter).  I figure if they don't fall off into the antifreeze from the lube they'll at least get their teeth stuck on the cotton and fall in.

Hopefully some success tomorrow!

CC

conleycd said:

So... my church has a mouse problem.  I've been trapping them the usual way.  There are some electric traps out there that work off DD batteries electrocuting mice.

I was thinking... this can't be too hard to rig up without killing myself.  I have reasonable 48 volt power supply around.  I can bait them between two wires?

Any simple circuits for the mildly inhumane mind you think would work?

Thanks.

CC

Click to expand...

Umm...you might want to avoid all of that trouble and just get yourself a couple of cats from the animal shelter and that will solve your "mouse" problem.  Sometimes they'll only eat the head or torture the bugger to death ;D

Then how do you get rid of the cats...?

JR

conleycd said:

I have a bucket of antifreeze with a nice ramp up to it.  The top of the bucket has Vaseline for a nice slip into the antifreeze.  Suspended across it is a can with peanut butter that will roll nicely if it is attempted to be mounted.  I have also put Vaseline on the sides with cotton balls underneath (dipped in peanut butter).  I figure if they don't fall off into the antifreeze from the lube they'll at least get their teeth stuck on the cotton and fall in.

CC

Click to expand...

"If there's a hell below- low- low. . .
We're ALL!- all-all. . . gonna GO!- go- go"
Curtis Mayfield

"Made sure that Pilate
washed his hands
to seal his fate"
Mick Jagger

ENS Audio said:

conleycd said:

So... my church has a mouse problem.  I've been trapping them the usual way.  There are some electric traps out there that work off DD batteries electrocuting mice.

I was thinking... this can't be too hard to rig up without killing myself.  I have reasonable 48 volt power supply around.  I can bait them between two wires?

Any simple circuits for the mildly inhumane mind you think would work?

Thanks.

CC

Click to expand...

Umm...you might want to avoid all of that trouble and just get yourself a couple of cats from the animal shelter and that will solve your "mouse" problem.  Sometimes they'll only eat the head or torture the bugger to death ;D

Click to expand...

I can't do cats.  I'm allergic and I've used some poison too on the mice - so the cats will eat the poison.  I like cats - not these mice though.  I'll see what the bucket brings me today!

CC