Hey Jerry, would you like a piece of cheese?

October 24, 2007 7:04 AM

To build a better mousetrap.
posted by caddis (26 comments total)

via boinboing
posted by caddis at 7:05 AM on October 24, 2007

Neat ideas, but not entirely convincing as working traps.
posted by DU at 7:10 AM on October 24, 2007

Cool, but isn't that a gerbil?
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 7:12 AM on October 24, 2007

Yeah, I thought the same thing - too easy for the little buggers to escape.

When we were plagued with roof-rats at our last house, my trapping strategy was two-fold: humane box trap outside for relocation to the vacant lot down the road, and Acme-style snap-traps for when they actually got into the house. Dura lex, sed lex.

Don't waste your time with poison. They will most certainly croak somewhere under your insulation or within a wall someplace.

Little bastards.
posted by jquinby at 7:22 AM on October 24, 2007

Actually, the poison's used these days make the little buggers dehydrate, so out they go in search of water, and die. Well, so says my ex's dad who know this. I didn't like the idea of this, seems really cruel to me, so when I had a problem, I just used the standard trap. Its a snap. Better mousetrap? Not needed.
posted by sfts2 at 7:27 AM on October 24, 2007

Attendant: Well?
Doug: Elsinores.
Bob: Twelve!
Doug: Twenty-four, yeah, twenty-four Elsinore beers.
Attendant: Twenty-four Elsinore! That will be $14.70.
Doug: I believe there will be no charge on this two-four of beer, thank you.
Attendant: Excuse me?
Doug: Ok, uh, we found this mouse in a bottle of Elsinore beer that we bought at your beer store, eh? And we heard that when that happens you get your beer free.
Bob: It's in the Canadian Criminal Code, eh. Like there's legal precedence set in cases in law, eh?
Doug: So, like give us our free beer.
Attendant: You want free beer? Go to the brewery. Now get out of here before I
put the two of you in a bottle.
Doug: You sure you don't want to think this over?
posted by koeselitz at 7:31 AM on October 24, 2007 [3 favorites]

Had a mouse expire on me due to poison a few months back... wouldn't use it again. Took a long time. Snap trap, across the back of the neck, only takes a few seconds by comparison.

These traps... well, the little bastards can jump to waist height. I don't think they're going to have many problems with a pint glass.
posted by Leon at 7:32 AM on October 24, 2007

If you have not heard it already, you should listen to This American Life's A Better Mousetrap episode, particularly the opening interview.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:44 AM on October 24, 2007

The breadstick in a pint glass is pretty neat, but I have to say snap trap. And don't worry, they'll make more mice.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 7:53 AM on October 24, 2007

I once lived in a place with a mouse. It would leave some very rude signs of it's existence near the toaster. So I set up a dozen spring loaded snap traps with plenty of peanut butter throughout the kitchen. Next morning, I woke up to find the spring loaded bars licked clean, the metal had been polished so thoroughly it twinkled. Bastard had the best night of his life.

So, after many Tom & Jerry type exploits, including the classi,c but never effective Chasing a mouse stupidly through with baseball bat (Fast bugger). I decided to adopt it. We watch TV together and sometimes we'd even play chess.
posted by Skygazer at 8:10 AM on October 24, 2007 [2 favorites]

Roger Arquer who designed these admittedly more eye pleasing than functional traps has other interesting projects at his site (flash). The Birdland bird house project (4th selection under products) seems particularly interesting, as is the bicycle (under transportation).
posted by caddis at 8:27 AM on October 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

These traps won't work. Glue traps are the only things that work for me. Inhumane, sure, but effective. Plus I get to look the mouse in the eye when I take him outside and tell him that he should have stayed outside.

Per Leon, I have seen mice do some surprising things when I found them unawares. They can get out of smooth bowls. I had one jump into my toaster once, right as I watched him. I tossed the toaster into the yard, not giving into the temptation of making the house smell like burnt mouse.
posted by GuyZero at 8:35 AM on October 24, 2007

Yes but how do you trap the entire nest?
posted by iamck at 8:39 AM on October 24, 2007

Cat.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:00 AM on October 24, 2007

Cats can be completely useless for mice. Mine caught them all the time but never hurt a single one. I saw them inside her mouth with their tails sticking out but she'd drop them and they'd run away all wet.
posted by agregoli at 9:13 AM on October 24, 2007

Nuke them from space. . . its the only way to be sure.

(shudder inducing youtube mouseplague)
posted by isopraxis at 9:13 AM on October 24, 2007

(shudder inducing youtube mouseplague)

Holy. Moses. 'shudder-inducing' is an understatement.
posted by jquinby at 9:28 AM on October 24, 2007

I thought this was going to be an article about this.
posted by dirtdirt at 9:33 AM on October 24, 2007

First they came for the mice, and I did not speak out - because I was not a mouse.
posted by thanatogenous at 9:35 AM on October 24, 2007

And if you were a mouse, you wouldn't speak either - because mice don't speak.
posted by LordSludge at 9:54 AM on October 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

First they canme for the mice, and I did not speak squeak out
(fixed that for you)
posted by rmless at 10:11 AM on October 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

came
posted by rmless at 10:12 AM on October 24, 2007

Cats need training on what to do with mice. I had this giant black manx that would eat the little things whole, crunch crunch, spitting out only the tails. As long as he was around I never had a problem, tails everywhere and my cats were never hungry. Once he was gone, mice everywhere and my three cats watch them run around with looks of dumbfounded amazement.

I miss that cat.

I was mowing my lawn once, in laps around the edge, and saw a mouse run into the not yet cut grass. I thought that was rather suicidal, however, on my subsequent pass I saw the little guy go running back out from the longer grass to safety under the house with three smaller mice in tow.

ch-ch-ch-chip'n dale's rescue rangers
posted by M Edward at 12:12 PM on October 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

I like this blogger's low tech method.
posted by wannalol at 12:30 PM on October 24, 2007

Based on the ease of escape, I'm going to guess that this is an art project from someone with a pet mouse, and a nice camera.

Not that there is anything wrong with that. I kinda liked the light-bulb trap.
posted by quin at 4:07 PM on October 24, 2007

Yup, that is exactly what it is, although I think these guys call it a design project. Good design is surely art, especially in the hands of the best designers. This is his most fun design project on his site, but really, check out his other stuff in my link upthread. The deezen site has lots more good stuff as well.
posted by caddis at 7:16 PM on October 24, 2007