Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best trap so far, May 11, 2009
The Victor trap with the plastic yellow cheese is by far the most effective trap I have used. Much to my surprise, the cheesy plastic yellow cheese seems irresistible to mice, and doesn't require messy peanut butter.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Victor... More Like Victory!, December 16, 2009
So it's December and the mice are back. They probably never left to begin with but with the cold I'm now seeing them in my garage and even occasionally one or two sneaking indoors. We normally place our garbage bags in our garage to avoid animals outside from ripping them open, but now instead have mice tearing into them inside the comforts of my two car garage.
Enter the traps. I had run to the store last winter because we thought we had one inside and bought a bunch of different traps. We never put them down because we managed to kill the thing (or so we think, we never saw it again). This time around with as many as I can see in the garage (8 or more), I set about getting some real traps.
I threw down the ones we had (2 black circle traps, and 2 white lever traps). The two white ones did the job but the black circle ones (D-Con brand) did nothing. I immediately ran to the store and bought a package of these (which came with 4) and placed them down with Skippy peanut butter on them (about the size of a pea or two).
I went about my business and checked them a couple hours later. Two of them had mice on them. A third had caught one that looked like a warzone (the mouse must have been alive and tried to struggle free). The body was laying next to the trap and not inside the bar itself. The fourth? I have no clue. I looked all over the place and entire trap was gone! My only guess is that a mouse must have run across it and caught its leg and carried the trap away. I saw no signs of it.
I rate these things 4 stars for a couple reasons. Obviously there's no mounting them (so if like above they get snagged and carry it away you might not see it again). Then there's the setting system. The way the inside of the yellow tab is shaped, the spring bar slips out if the trap isn't set at an extreme angle. The angle to me looks like it may not function all that well if the mouse taps it. But one snap to the finger later I learned to just do it. Also by the design and function these things can go off accidentally. I dropped a plate on the floor and the thing flung shut. So vibrations are definitely a no no (this plate was five feet or more away).
So after those traps worked as well as they did, I set out to get some more. I bought three more packages locally (which were a lot cheaper than listed here), and set them down. As I finished getting them all down in the garage I heard one snap. So I'll need to check on that one. But I'll report the results later on.
All in all... thus far I have to recommend these. I'm guessing there's probably a dozen of these little mice running around my garage and I have to go on the offensive to ensure they don't get in my house.
EDIT (12-16-09): So a few hours later (we ended up going out to the zoo to look at some animals) we come back to our very own zoo. I look over the traps and find that out of the 12, 9 have caught mice. That puts my previous estimate of how many we had way off. 6 of those traps were in the dreaded garage. One I had placed inside where a mouse I had seen (first time ever seeing one this year inside) and trapped him. Needless to say he took the bait (pun intended). The other two I had thrown down just as an extra measure and had gotten them where I had least expected. So there must be a hole somewhere that I'm going to need to find and plug up. I'm still not sure if those two were inside, or if they ventured in after the fact. I'm going to just have to put more traps down and see.
Now there were 3 traps that didn't catch anything. One of them was an absolute dud. I'm guessing my extreme angle was too much and it most certainly didn't snap but the bait was gone. I'll have to remedy that in the morning by lowering the angle. The other two had gone off with bait still on. I'm thinking there was something that nibbled and set it off then took off. One clearly had small nibbles on the peanut butter smudge. Call those two lucky.
So with the three faults (and I only assume that one of those that snapped was because of a mouse though there were no signs)... I still have to go with my previous rating of 4 stars. The ones that worked did so flawlessly and that accounts for a lot. I could buy 12 hard drives here on Amazon and probably get a lot more dead drives than I got dead traps here. This has convinced me to go buy some more tomorrow so I'll be doing that. I'll grab another dozen and just keep throwing them down until there are no more takers.
Having only one child here who doesn't venture into the garage, I also threw down some poison. I dropped some of those D-Con cubes and pouches and the pouches are gone (they either consumed them on the spot or carried them off) and most of the cubes were taken too. These are big cubes too, so I have to imagine they were broken up first or just eaten real quick. Either way, I'm hoping that the ones I don't trap will get it from those poisons.
I'll do another update when I get some more traps and put them down.
EDIT (12-17-09): World War M is dwindling down. Operation Garden Garage is a success. I've managed to break through the enemies front and am on my way to Furlin! Get it? Furlin?
Anyhow, I've gone and set a dozen more traps outside in the garage and two more inside. The one I placed inside (that had gone off in the garage) was not touched at all (P.B. still remained). But just to be sure I put two more inside one near where I think they may have access. I'm going to need to pull everything out and really try and find out where they came in to make sure we don't repeat this next year.
However, in doing a bit of recon through the garage I could only make out what sounded like two possibly three mice. This is a huge improvement over being able to see them leaping from storage boxes days prior. I have a feeling that whatever hasn't been trapped is now feeling the effects of the poison. I threw down another dozen of those packets to make sure they get the full effect.
All in all what I learned from this experience is:
1. Garbage needs to be secured (not just in a trash can but an actual enclosed structure). I'm going to build a wooden dumpster to put either at the end of the driveway or a good distance from the house.
2. At first sight of mice, ACT QUICKLY. I figured one wasn't a big deal until they multiplied and almost took over.
3. Putting down 4 traps is NEVER enough. I would say for every 1 mouse you see you need at LEAST 4 traps. Every one you see there's bound to be at least two or three more. As one trap gets used up, replace them as quickly as possible. Had I thrown down 20 at the start instead of slowly adding more, I may have ended their reign a lot sooner. I read on another website that people often don't put down enough traps right away and I'm definitely guilty of that. I should have come across that website sooner than last night.
So now with the garage a minefield again, we'll see if we get anything else. I no longer hear the babies in there so I'm not sure what that means (they could just be sleeping). I know there's at least a couple more but we should be seeing the end of them I hope. I'll be checking the traps here in a little bit (around dinner time) and I'll update here what I find. But these good old wooden traps... an absolute lifesaver.
EDIT (12-17-09): I came home from a couple hours out of the house to check on the traps I put down. I had put down 12 of the Victor traps (this product) and two of the white traps from another manufacturer. Checking on them I found that 4 of the Victor traps had prisoners again and one of the white traps had one too. There were two wooden traps that had been fooled (one the bait completely removed but didn't snap, the second the bait only partially removed and didn't snap). I have hopes for that second one but will need to re-bait the dud. Again this may be coming down to my extreme angles or it might just be a dud. I'm thinking we're just now down to the small mice and it's not enough pressure to set it off.
I re-checked the poison packets and the majority of them are gone. The cubes I had placed down yesterday are either gone or most definitely chewed up. I have been placing these near the traps in hopes of luring them to them with the scent. It seems to be working.
So right now I'm at a loss. I'm not sure how many are left. There can't be that much more. I'm going to replace the traps that are now used up and go for the next round. I'm confident they're not coming indoors, but then tonight will tell the tale if the three traps I put inside are still set up.
So with the couple faulty traps (or other unforeseen circumstances associated with them), I'm still going with my 4 star review.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Catching mice like crazy, November 6, 2009
The problem people seem to be describing is that the trap trigger cannot support much weight. You really shouldn't need that much bait. I just sprinkle a few shelled sunflower seeds around the trap, and sprinkle a few on the trigger, then set the trap. I've never had one snap while setting it, and every morning (when there are mice...tested by checking whether any of the other sprinkled food is still there) I'm having to toss these out.
My only wish is that I could get them in greater quantities for more of a discount, because mice keep invading my garage.
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