I've used the snap traps and find that how they're set is important. They are not manufactured well so I always check to see how much tab is bent out to hold the lever in place. Not enough and they snap too quick, too much and they don't snap.

I don't use sticky traps for mice but I did use one to see what was stealing my bait (placed next to snap trap) and found that a spider was scarfing up the bait without setting it off. The spider was caught on the sticky trap. There have been no mice here for years but I still set the snap traps every fall for when they are expected to take shelter inside. Rather than peanut butter or cheese I use this snap trap bait which mice cannot resist, and apparently spiders can't either...

Amazon.com : COSCOV Mouse Traps, Small Mice Traps That Work, Mice Snap Trap with Detachable Bait Cup - 12 Pack : Patio, Lawn & Garden

This is what I used last time. They work and still have some, just in case. I found a couple mouse holes in the garage and put pieces of a copper scrub pad in them and so far haven't seen any new mice. That was a few years ago. Unfortunately I see that the above traps aren't available anymore.

Try my Mother in Laws trick. Place a sheet of toilet paper over the bait in the snap trap.

We stuff...very tightly...a single sunflower seed into the yellow part of the trap, near the spring....they would have to pry it out....

Please try this one. No need to do anything.

I use dog food pellets. Two at the entrance then a few inside.

The top slides open and closed. Easy.

The metal ones stopped working. The mice are the food.

Then take the trap about 2 miles away. I usually do one mile in a wooded part of a park.

I now cleared out my basement of anything they can get into. It was my pantry but I'm okay with it.

I got a Simple Human dog food container as instill need storage down there for that.

I have shelvingballmaround so no way to figure out where they are coming in.

Unless ai had a major infestation, I am not killing these creatures.

When I see evidence, I put out the trap. Sometimes it takes a day or two. Then after I've been lucky, I'll leave it for few more days. If nothing, I put it away.

Since it is plastic, you can wash I think metal ones get damaged after you wash it.

I was a baby when my parents moved into a new house one autumn. Mice came in too.

My father left on a sales trip. His partner, who was quite proud of his engineering degree, offered to tackle the mouse problem. He set traps inside of piping that he ran along walls, out from the fireplace, and in other likely 'mouse paths'. He said the mice would prefer the shelter of the piping to running across the floor.

My mother got tired of stepping over all these pipes as days went by with no results, just raided traps.

My father came home, looked into the pipes, and saw that there wasn't enough room for a trap to spring inside a pipe.

We had good luck with Fig Newton pieces smushed around the trigger.

I have tried the newer versions of the Victor traps with the plastic trigger plate, and I agree they're lousy (and have less pressure). I went back to buying the old-school Victor traps with the small metal trigger foot (and a very high-pressure snap).

A friend of mine watches YouTube videos from some super mouse-catcher guy about how and where to set the best traps, but that's not my idea of a good time.

There are foam gap sealers that contain vermin repellent (Dap and Great Stuff are 2 brands). A can cost me about $9.50. If you can reach the spots where pipes, cable/electric, and ducts enter or exit the basement, and possibly the windows, use the foam to seal around the entry points and window frames.

Mine were coming in at the spot where a former basement window had been used for the furnace ducts for the addition built over a crawl space - or possibly the entry point of the gas line adjacent to that. I eliminated them with Mouse-X bait (I understand is some would not use that) and sealed every possible entry point.

So far no evidence of new mice - but oh my goodness, when I was clearing out the basement earlier this last fall, to prepare for the ceiling and wall repairs I needed, there were mice droppings **everywhere** - on every shelf, in every box that wasn't a plastic with a tight lid, in every drawer, in every corner - the furnace guy even found one (dead) trapped inside the furnace. Clearly I had had more than just a couple for longer than I expected. One can get a nasty disease from inhaling dust mixed with mouse feces - I wore my N-95 masks while cleaning all of that up.

Hire a professional service and let them worry about the hardware.

Mice can easily lick peanut butter off of traps - you have to use a bait that will force them to take it off the trap, such as a whole piece of peanut. Or you can use a very hard chocolate - anything that is not too soft. Sunflower seeds would work also (as Nicole suggested) if you have them. I've used tiny bits of Snickers that contain a piece of peanut and make sure that the peanut piece is firmly in the trap.

Old style Victor traps are the best that I've used.

If you are not allergic, you could get a cat.

I have two cats. The 25-pounder watches as the ginger girl walks around with a live mouse in her mouth and then sets it down. I try to catch it but usually can't. She never kills them. Takes after me.

Unless they’ve changed in the past year, Victor traps still work fine for me. They’ve always been finicky to set just right. My mom had a mouse problem and I caught a bunch. I’ve read that you should set a lot at once, as they learn to avoid them, and this advice has worked for me. I found the entrance point: The dryer outlet flap was stuck open, they crawled i there and chewed through the old style thin flex tubing which I don't think is even legal anymore. I replaced all of that, problem solved.

I tried the humane trap shown above in my old house which had yearly visitors, but never caught a single one. I don’t enjoy it the killing, but it is what it is.

Thanks for all your responses!

lgmd_gaz, what does the toilet paper do?

Nicole, I think my traps must be different from yours, and I wasn't sure if the sunflower seed had a shell or not, but I gave it a try both ways. I thought at very least I'd find a set trap with sunflower seed intact in the morning, but no . . . all three traps were still set, but all the sunflower seeds were gone.

Eld, that's a lovely suggestion--and I mean that sincerely. I feel sorry for the mice, with their bright eyes and shiny coat . . . they're just doing their mouse thing, after all. But where I live (on a dirt road in old farm country), trapping and releasing would just postpone the inevitable. If I drove two miles in one direction I'd find myself with the Christian school parking lot on one side and the public school parking lot on the other. Between here and there (and for miles in the other direction) there are old houses like mine, populated by people wielding mouse traps.

Chisue, that was very funny! My late husband was a Ph.D. engineer. He was very solution oriented, and while he was always willing to help, some of his solutions were more complicated than they needed to be.

Sherry, if I ate Fig Newtons I'd give that a try. Fortunately, they like peanut butter. Maybe I should try smearing it around more.

Toronto Vet, I have the old style traps, not the ones with the plastic plate. I could be wrong, but I think the manufacturer changed something in recent years.

Elmer, I hired a pro to get rid of the ants, but I've always managed the mice pretty well by myself, and without poisons.

Lars, I have two cats--not sufficiently motivated apparently.

Laceyvail, I took a look at the Better Mouse Trap on Amazon. I was surprised to see the trap could snap on a person's finger without pain, and then I saw a video posted with a review that showed a mouse caught in the snap but very much alive. That worried me. The last thing I want is to make these mice suffer. (That may sound hypocritical to some, but I believe there's a difference between a quick kill and suffering.) The listing said the traps suffocate the mice.

FOAS, I agree: Sadly, it is what it is.

Don't be sad about having cats unmotivated by mice.....My cousin borrowed a mouser cat and she said it was incredibly messy because the cat liked to play with them - it wasn't a quick kill.

TVet, Over the years I've had many cats and I've rescued countless mice from being tossed in the air. Play time! Ugh. Mousers have other disadvantages too. See my post in the thread about what surprised us, for one thing. For another, my cat Peachy died last year when part of a mouse got stuck in her digestive tract. The vet thought it was lower, and treated her for that, but it was actually upper. The poor girl. So yeah, I'm just as glad that my present cats, Rocky and Scruffy, have a low mouse count.

There is an open area with a year-round creek that runs behind our property, so we will occasionally get a field mouse in our house. I have found these traps to work really well, and they are humane. Hubs then drives any mice we catch a few miles away before releasing them in another field (away from any other homes).

Here's a photo:

I also noticed the Victor traps don’t work as well as before, they are not as sensitive to movement.

Smearing the peanut butter won't work - you need bait that is firm so that the mouse will not be able to lick it off the trap. Forcing a small piece of peanut (or any hard nut) into the trap so that it is firmly attached to the trap should work, but a piece of hard chocolate will work as well. Anything soft can easily be removed by the mouse without triggering the trap. Perhaps the traps are harder to set off than they used to be, but this makes it easier to place them without tripping them yourself.

I believe that putting toilet paper over the trap is also meant to prevent the mouse from licking the bait off of the trap. If you feel compelled to use peanut butter, then covering it with toilet paper might help, providing the mouse cannot go under the TP.

I'm not feeling compelled to use peanut butter, Lars--it's just something I have in the house because I eat it (unlike cheese). But I also eat peanuts (unsalted) and dark European chocolate (hard!), so I'll be happy to give those a try--thanks!

Taking a hint from Nicole last winter, I superglued a sunflower seed (in the shell) to the metal bait tab of a Victor trap when the mice started being able to clean the peanut butter off the trap without springing it. That one seed caught multiple mice last winter. Same seed but only one this winter (because I finally found the place where they were getting into the basement.)

Much neater than peanut butter, too, since I could never bait a trap w/o getting peanut butter all over.

Superglue? When I first read it, I thought it didn't seem fair somehow. But what's fair about mouse traps? The mouse droppings have shown up again. I'll give it a try--thanks!

Omg, i found a dead mouse in my basement today. Who wants to come over and get rid of it? It must have died of old age because i cant deal with traps.

Dedtired I use a triple plastic bag, double gloves, a heavy duty apron, a mask and a shower cap when disposing of something I absolutely abhor, like mice. If I didn't live so far away and were sure I wouldn't scare you too much I would arrive in my garb and sweep that mouse away for you! Anyway maybe you can use my technique if you can't find a friend to get rid of it ;-). Good luck!

Thanks for the offer. I may consider paying your airfare to get here, if only to see you in that getup.

Update: I set two traps last night with dark chocolate jammed into the bait holder, and one with a piece of peanut baited the same way. The peanut caught a mouse, but the chocolate baits appear to be untouched. Maybe my 85% cocoa chocolate isn't sweet enough for them. I'll try setting a trap with 72% cocoa chocolate tonight. And two with peanuts. Thanks again, Lars!

Yeonassky, I'm still smiling. I was born and raised and beyond in NYC, but I've lived in this farmhouse for 48 years. In that time I must have become a certified country person because when I dispose of a mouse I don disposable gloves (just one pair), go outside, lift the bar to release the mouse from the trap, pick the mouse up from the ground by its tail, and toss it into the woods. I'm frugal, so this way I avoid the expense of the heavy-duty apron, shower cap, etc. Plus it's quick. :-)