If you do want to use, say, peanut butter, you could apply them to the bait end of the tube before applying the cap.
If you’re in a single story home, obtain a cardboard box approximately one foot high and craft a cardboard ramp up to the top of the box. Place one end of the tube at the end of the box.
Do not use a trash can which is too wide. If you do, it’s possible the tube will come to rest on an angle, rather than straight up and down. If that happens, the mouse will be able to climb out of the tube easily.
This type of trap is extremely effective, and ideal for mice living on or with access to a second story. If you don’t think it’s appropriate to drop the tube into a garbage pail several feet below the upper-story landing, you could affix the whole tube with a piece of string to the landing itself. That way, instead of dropping down into the garbage pail when the mouse triggered the trap, the tube would drop away and dangle harmlessly off the ledge until you recovered it.
When finished, the bottle should be flexible at the “hinge” (the 10% of the top and body of the bottle you did not cut).
If you’re using a round bottle rather than a bottle with roughly rectangular sides, it is more difficult to gauge where to place the marks. Try to place the marks about 90 degrees apart from each other around the circumference of the bottle, two on one side of the cut and two on the other.
The skewers should pass through it in two parallel lines which run perpendicular to the normal orientation of the bottle if it were to stand on its base. Insert a third skewer, half as long as the first two, into the end of the bottle (the base the bottle would stand on in a standard vertical orientation). Stick a piece of cheese on the end of the skewer which is inside the bottle.
When you pull up on the cap of the bottle while it’s laying on its side with the hinge oriented above the skewers, the bands should pull back with slight resistance. Tie the other end of the string in a loop around the skewer sticking out the far end.
If you have a skittish mouse, you may need to modify the closing mechanism so that rather than pulling the looped string up from the skewer in the bottle’s end by hand, you pull from a distance away with another length of string. Doing so could increase the trap’s effectiveness, but will require more patience on your part.
This type of trap is perfect for a brave or arrogant mouse who thinks he has the run of the house. If mice have become accustomed to human activity and brazenly scurry about even in the presence of many people, you’ll be able to snap this trap closed on them with little trouble.
You can use plastic or metal coffee cans. If using metal, though, ensure they aren’t ribbed with concentric rings which the mouse might use like a ladder to escape.
Tissue paper might also work in place of construction paper. It is important to maintain the appearance that the papered-over coffee can is capable of supporting the mouse when it walks across it. Instead of cutting a solid “X”, you could try poking small, closely-spaced holes in an “X” shape across the surface of the paper.
Mice come in different sizes. If you find that your mice are unable to scamper up the thin ruler, consider placing two next to each other and taping them together to ensure easy access to the trap.
Do not select a bait food which is too heavy or gives lie to the illusion that the papered-over surface of the coffee can is stable. Do not place the coffee can near a countertop or step stool from which the bait could be eaten from the far side of the ramp without passing over the construction paper.
Remove the ruler or makeshift ramp from the can and take the can to a location about five to ten miles from human habitation. [6] X Research source Place the can on the ground and turn it sideways, allowing the mouse to exit.
