Customer Reviews

Victor M007 Live Catch Mouse Trap

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

Why Opt for Non-lethal Methods of Rodent Control?

Traditional methods of rodent control, including rodenticides and traps, are lethal to mice and largely unsafe for humans. Rodenticides are pesticides that are designed to kill rodents. However, when ingested, they can also prove deadly to companion animals, as well as other wildlife and even children. Nor are they good for the environment; Americans are so fond of pesticides that they can now be found in our surface and ground water and soil. In fact, pesticides even find their way into the food chain! Moreover, the cumulative toxicity of pesticides is such a concern that the Environmental Protection Agency discourages homeowners from using pesticides before trying preventative strategies.

Lethal traps, while not harmful to humans, prove to be a torturous, barbaric death for those mice unlucky enough to find themselves caught in one. Mice trapped on "glue boards" usually starve to death - or may actually gnaw off a limb in order to escape. Likewise, those mice caught in "box" or "multiple" traps will suffer a slow death due to starvation - assuming that the trap isn't baited with poisons, of course. "Snap" or "spring" traps don't necessarily provide for a quick death and may merely injure Mickey.

Three cheers for you!...

Instead of relying on lethal, inhumane methods to control your rodent infestation, you've decided instead to try out a live catch mouse trap. You rock!

...but one star for the Victor Live Catch Mouse Trap.

The Victor Live Catch Mouse Traps are one of the least expensive models out there - and it shows. Simply put, they're more trouble than they're worth: they are hard to set, go off without warning, and (duh!), as they're constructed of solid plastic, it's impossible to see whether you caught a critter without opening the trap up.

I bought a dozen of these a few years ago, when I moved into a farm house that had sat vacant for about six months. My first winter spent in the country - in a home surrounded on three sides by alfalfa fields, nonetheless - I lost hundreds of dollars worth of food to the resident mouse family. After a few frustrating weeks using the Victor Live Catch Mouse Traps, I quickly caved in and replaced them with a dozen of the Smart Mouse Traps. This version works like a dream: they're easy to set, don't slam shut at random, and are made of semi-transparent green plastic, so you can easily glance inside in order to gauge your success. That first year, I caught dozens of little guys, all of which I released back into the fields (I've always wondered whether I trapped the same mouse twice!). Although I still get out the trusty Smart Traps every winter, the guests all seem to have departed.

Do yourself - and your furry houseguests - a favor: have a heart, spare the snap-trap, and buy a few Smart Mouse Traps. You'll be a better person for it!

(Note: The "Smart Mouse Traps" are also referred to as "Humane Mouse Traps"; though the name differs, they all have a distinct "house" shape and are constructed of semi-transparent green plastic.)

I've had mixed luck with these traps. In a previous house, they worked every time and I was able to get rid of 3 or 4 mice over the course of a year. My latest attempts have been less successful (maybe I have smarter mice?)

It seems to be down to inconsistent manufacturing quality. A number of the traps need a little bending of the plastic in order for the doors to snap all the way closed - the friction created by the locking mechanism is enough to prevent the door from dropping completely. Others close fine, but also open rather easily. I found them tripped, closed and cleaned out of food. I'd say about 1 out of 6 that I owned worked well and the rest just worked as dinner trays for the mice.

We live in what most people would consider the wilderness, on a mountain top in the giant redwood forests of the California coastal range. So we are surrounded by thousands of animals including many rodents - mice, voles, rats, gophers, moles, squirrels, chipmunks, ... For some reason, mice decided to take up residence in one of our vehicles.

I tried setting up these traps on the floor of the backseat every night for a week. This is where we've found an entire box of Kleenex shredded and scattered across the floor plus the typical mouse droppings. For bait I used what I know is a sure thing in terms of luring rodents - a tasty ball of sunflower seeds and peanut butter. Almost anything will set these traps off - they are very sensitive. But every night, not only did the mice not trigger the traps, they managed to get the sunflower seed/peanut butter ball out of the traps and almost mockingly left all the sunflower seed husks on the floor around the mousetraps.

Obviously our mice are far too smart for these mouse traps, which means they must be smarter than me, because I was dumb enough to buy them <lol>. Best thing about this trap is how cheap it is - I bought mine at the local hardware store for $3 for the pair of traps. It appears one of the most critical factors to these traps working is having a perfectly flat, hard surface to lay them on. But even when I put them on a tray on the carpeted car floor, they still didn't work. So on to another live trap that others have had better luck with.

I recommend spending a bit more money for something that is more likely to work.

I also need to find something to deal with the squirrels who have decided that the top of the car battery under my hood is a good picnic spot to munch on some tasty acorns. I am constantly finding acorn shells on top of my battery. I wish I could find a single live trap that would work for both size of critter. The joys of mountain living :)

I was somewhat surprised to see this trap rated so poorly because I had very good luck with it. It was the third kind I tried and I the first my mice weren't able to outsmart. Caught the whole family living in my garage over the course of a couple of months (one at a time of course). I agree with the reviewer who said you do need a hard, level, flat surface (like my concrete garage floor) for them to work properly. Also, Re: the person who said that they don't always lock shut, a tiny squirt of WD-40 on the yellow plastic tab completely eliminated that problem. They get a 4/5 only because they are a pain to clean out after each use (bait + frightened mouse = lots of pooping & peeing). Also need to get that mouse out quickly because they will overheat in such a small space and die, missing the point of a humane trap.

I bought a pack of two of these and baited them. The mouse was able to get all the bait out of one of the traps without getting caught. The other trap had its door shut with no mouse inside. I understand the principle at work here, and how the trap ought to work- but either our mice are too smart for these things, or it's just a lousy design. The live-catch mouse traps we've had great success with are the simple rectangular ones, which are see-through amber plastic and have a little door which only opens one way. Only trouble is, my husband kept stepping on them so we have to buy more. Argh!

Be careful to check live traps daily, as the mice can eat through the plastic! Otherwise a great product.

I bought these traps several years ago and since I'd had no luck with them went back to the nasty wooden snap traps. The other day I caught a mouse in one of those old fashioned traps and found the dead mouse and trap in the utility sink with plenty of blood splattered about. I found the whole scene so unpleasant I decided to resurrect the live catch traps figuring I had nothing to lose.

I used the handle of a spoon to put peanut butter far back into the trap cavity. Then when setting the trap I leaned it forward so that a mouse reaching the back of the trap would tilt it the other way and close the door.
In short order I caught three mice, and as far as I could tell they weren't blind. Taking short walks across the street to a cove in the woods, I opened the trap and uneventfully released the mice. Each scurried away quickly as soon as I opened the trap; none had any interest in biting me.

All in all using the live catch trap was a much more positive experience than using the brutal wooden trap. As long as they keep catching the mice in our basement, I'll stick with the live mouse traps. It's not a problem for me to check the traps every few hours. Depending on schedules, for some this frequent checking may be a problem.

I wouldn't even consider one of those sticky mouse traps entailing a long, slow torturous death.

I've used a couple of these over the past several days, one baited with some peanut butter, the other with some cheese. There are new mouse droppings right in front of them, but no capture.

Once I found one with the door shut, but no mouse inside.

I had also tried these same traps over a year ago and they didn't work then either, but there are now mice droppings all over my kitchen counter, so I brought them out to try again.

They've never captured a mouse. I'm doing research now on other traps.

They don't work. I've had 14 for weeks and haven't caught a single mouse. The traps shut on their own, so the mice can't even get inside. Seriously, this was a big waste of money.

I didn't want to poison or snap the necks of the family of mice that moved in with us this fall. We have small dogs so I was worried about them getting hurt by the kill type traps and I've seen mice stuck to the sticky traps before (it isn't pretty). I bought these at a local hardware store along with a few other no-kill type traps. These traps the mice were able to get the bait out of every time without getting caught. 1 out of every box of two didn't seem to work correctly (the trap door wouldn't lock when it snapped shut). In short don't waist your money on this. I'm now trying the longer tip type traps that they sell (as I've heard from friends that they do in fact work).