Mousetrap
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- For other uses, see Mousetrap (disambiguation).
Image:Mousetrap with mouse.jpg
Image:2005 mousetrap cage 1.jpg
Image:Glue trap with hair.JPG
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A mousetrap is a device used for trapping or killing small rodents, especially mice.
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[edit] Mouse trap designs
[edit] Springloaded-bar mousetrap
The traditional type (illustrated) was invented, by Hiram Maxim (who also invented the Maxim gun). It is a simple device with a heavily springloaded bar and a trip to release it. Stereotypically, cheese is placed on the trip as bait, but this does not work well as, in reality, most mice do not like cheese; they will however take other food such as oats, chocolate, bread or meat. Butter or Peanut butter is also quite effective. Some people set out traps unset but baited for a few days so the mice lose their caution around them. This also helps you see which bait your mice like. The spring-loaded bar swings down rapidly and with great force when anything, usually a mouse or a rat, touches the trip. The design is such that the mouse's neck or spinal cord will be broken, or its ribs or skull crushed, by the force of the bar. Rats can easily escape from a mousetrap, so a larger version is used for them.
[edit] Live-catching mousetraps
Other trap designs catch mice alive so that it can be released into the wild. It is important to release the mouse promptly - as they can die from stress - and at some distance, as mice have a strong homing instinct.
[edit] Glue traps
Glue strip or glue tray devices trap the mouse in a sticky glue from which the mouse is powerless to escape (users can free the mice from the glue by applying vegetable oil). These types of traps are effective and non-toxic to humans. However, death is much slower than with the traditional type trap<ref> Article in About Home & Garden about glue traps </ref>, which has prompted animal activists such as PETA to oppose its use. Another disadvantage to using glue traps is that if the mouse wants to get away bad enough, it will actually chew through its legs to escape, usually dying from blood loss and/or shock, leaving a bloody mess behind it and a terrible odor from a dead mouse that one cannot find.
[edit] Bucket trap
The bucket trap is also an economical and effective means of eradicating mice. It entails a container holding some amount of water or other liquid such as antifreeze using a ramp of some sort to get the rodent to the top of the container and by various means and baits, the mice enter the water and, being unable to get out, drown. The variations are many with some being single catch and some multi-catch. Some can also be used for live catch.
[edit] Alternatives
Strychnine-soaked grain pellets were a common substitute for mousetraps for some time; however they are rarely used nowadays because of the toxicity of the chemical.
[edit] Trivia
Ralph Waldo Emerson made the oft-quoted remark in favour of innovation: "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door". This statement has inspired many more cynical derivatives, such as "If you build a better mousetrap, someone will build a better mouse," which means that no matter how good one is at stopping events such as robberies, cracking or other such conduct (or catching those who engage in it), someone is bound to find a way around it.
Mousetraps are also common in physical hurt comedy, and in this case are used when people sit on them or get fingers caught in them.
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
- PETA factsheet on why it opposes glue traps
- PETA recognizes inventor of non-lethal mousetrap as man of the year.
- Guide to catch a mouse give you the tips of catching a house mouse.ar:مصيدة فئران
de:Mausefalle eo:Muskaptilo it:Trappola per topi hu:Egérfogó nl:Muizenval (apparaat) ja:ねずみ捕り fi:Hiirenloukku
