There are Mice living in my basement

My girlfriend doesn’t want me to kill them or hurt them in any way. So my project became the live capture and release of these mice.

There are a variety of ways to capture a mouse.

Toilet Paper Tube

The easiest method is to use a cardboard toilet paper tube. Balance the tube on the edge of a countertop with some bait in it. When the mouse enters the tube to get the bait, his weight upsets the balance of the tube. The tube, mouse, and bait all fall into a waiting container that’s too tall for a mouse to climb or jump out.

Good instructions can be found here.

I used this successfully to capture several mice.

It isn’t perfect though. You have to get the mouse out of the wastebasket, and they can escape while you’re trying to transfer them to another container. One mouse climbed up my arm and jumped from my shoulder to the counter top and then ran behind the oven. Mice are fast, so once they’re out of the container you’ve lost them.

Also, you need a deep container because mice can jump. I used a kitchen garbage can because it’s over two feet deep. I put an old dish towel at the bottom to cushion the landing so the trapped mouse wouldn’t get hurt. Despite the depth of the trash can, some mice escaped after eating the bait. I’m not exactly sure how. I like to think they might have evolved into bats overnight and flown out. My other favorite image is a team of mice on the countertop with some string pulling the fallen mouse out of the trap.

One limitation of this trap is that you have to have the tube on the edge of a countertop or other surface high enough for the mouse to fall into the container. You can’t trap mice on the floor with this one.

Plastic Bottle

I haven’t tried this one myself, but it has the advantage of not depending on a fall so you can catch mice on the floor. This one looks cool. One advantage of the clear plastic bottle is that it’s easy to see when you’ve captured a mouse.

Here’s a demonstration of a trap using a plastic bottle.

I wouldn’t be surprised if a mouse could escape from this one within a few hours by chewing through the plastic bottle. I’ve seen mice chew through all kinds of containers to get the food in my pantry. I typically set the traps before I go to bed. If the mice can chew through the plastic bottle fast enough, then they can escape before I wake up and check the trap.

Off the shelf solution

As my homemade traps were not as effective as I’d like, I ordered a trap online. This one is a pretty clever mechanism using a see-saw like metal flap. The mouse crawls over the metal flap to get in, but after the mouse is inside, the flap swings the other way and the mouse can’t climb over it to get out.

Here’s a link to the place where I ordered it. Shipping turned out to cost more than the trap itself. Maybe I could have found it for less, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of time shopping around for a better deal.

This trap can be set on the floor, and it’s small enough I don’t have to transfer the mouse to another container when transporting them to release outdoors. Additionally, this trap may be able to capture multiple mice in one session.

I got it in the mail yesterday, and caught a mouse with it last night. I used a handful of dog food as bait.

Release into the wild

I release the mice in a nearby park. They get a few handfuls of dog food or whatever as a parting gift, and they’re on their own in the wild.

I know the outside world is a dangerous place for a house mouse, but they at least have a shot at making a life out there instead of just being killed by the trap.