Electronic Mouse Traps
We wouldn’t be in the 21st century if there wasn’t a company that tried to use technology to solve a common household problem. The problem is mice in your house. The technological solution is electronic mouse traps. These devices are actually pretty cool. They work by luring mice into a tiny compartment with some type of bait (if you’ve read any other articles on this site, you’d know that I’m a big proponent of using peanut butter to bait mice mouse traps). Once the mice are in the compartment they don’t have to push a paddle to release a spring loaded trap. All they do is walk in and touch some electrodes that complete a circuit and administer a lethal shock which kills the mice instantaneously. If this sounds cruel, it’s actually not. You should look for devices that comply with the international humane standards for killing mice. Yes, there are actually regulations that dictate a lethal trap must actually kill the mouse within a certain time period so as not to inflict unnecessary pain and suffering on the creature. Unless you’re some sort of deranged psychopath, the purpose isn’t to torture the little guy… it’s just to get him and his friends out of your house, so it doesn’t cause YOU unnecessary pain and suffering.
So now that we have humane kill standards out of the way, there are a lot of other nice features of this type of trap. Most of them have a compartment where the dead mouse resides. You don’t have to see or handle the dead mouse. You simply have to dump it out into the trash to dispose of it (preferable not the one under your kitchen sink – you should walk this one straight outside). This is a great benefit for the squeamish or faint of heart.
The other benefit of this type of mouse trap is that they can typically catch more than one mouse at a time. If you set a snap trap or other type of trap, you have one shot at catching the mouse. If the mouse snaps the trap and gets away, you’re out of luck. You have to wait until the next day or whenever you get around to resetting it. With an electronic mouse trap, you can typically catch multiple mice in one deployment. Depending on what size trap you get, you may actually be able to catch several mice in one night without emptying the trap each time. Check the label to see what your mouse capacity is. Some traps even have a little indicator light that lets you know a mouse is in the compartment. That way you don’t have to open it up frequently to check. Just look at the indicator light… Also, if you’re not going to be around to check your traps several times a day, look for one that has a chamber than can hold several mice. That way you won’t be missing any opportunities to catch mice if the chamber is full.
So if an electronic shock kill mechanism sounds dangerous, don’t worry. It’s not. Every electronic mouse trap that I’ve seen has a safety feature that deactivates the electrodes when the door is open to the kill chamber. That way when you are emptying it or baiting it, you don’t have to be worried about getting any electrical shock. Similarly if a small child or pet starts playing with the trap, they won’t get electrocuted. Compare that with a snap trap, where if they start playing with it, there’s the risk of snapping a finger off. So if you have small children or curious pets, an electronic trap for catching mice may be your best bet depending on whether or not the traps will be easily accessible.
So I’ve told you all of the good things, and you’re pretty much convinced that this is the type of trap for you, right? Well, I would be negligent in my duties if I didn’t tell you the tradeoffs you’re making by going with a trap of this type. So what’s wrong with them?
The biggest thing working against electronic mouse traps is that they tend to be much more expensive than your typical low tech trap. You probably figured that out on your own though. More feature, more technology, more expensive… this becomes an issue when you’re formulating a strategy for ridding your home of mice. Recall in the article about snap traps, I suggested that you should deploy SIX (6) snap traps per room. With electronic mouse traps, it would be prohibitively expensive to deploy that many traps per room which decreases your coverage.
Don’t let that dissuade you though. This type of trap has its place in your arsenal. If you have identified the trails frequented by mice, you have a big advantage. Mice tend to hug the walls when going from place to place, which means you can place one of these heavy duty multi-kill traps along that mice super highway, and pick them off one at a time – possibly several per deployment. If you have several mice, I recommend using a combination of multiple snap traps and an electronic mouse trap (or two for more widespread problems).
That’s about all I have, so hopefully you’ve learned a thing or two about electronic mouse traps and have determined whether or not it’s the type of trap for you. If you have any questions or tips, please feel free to leave a message in the comment section. That way everyone can benefit from the information exchange.
Pros:
- Capable of catching multiple mice in one deployment
- Excellent for use around small children and pets due to safety mechanism that prevents accidental shock
- Storage compartment hides dead mice and minimizes handling for the faint of heart
- Kills mice in accordance with international humane kill standards
Cons:
- More expensive than low tech mouse traps
- Typically larger than regular traps, so it’s difficult to deploy in small spaces
Tags: electronic mouse traps, get rid of mice, kill mice, mouse traps, pets, reusable, small children
