Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Mouse trap / Mouse traps / mousetrap

Mouse traps are not something that most people think about often. I spent a lot of years (about 35) raising horses dealing with mice and never had my eureka moment. I covered grain bins, I hung my blankets from wires hanging down from the ceiling. When they got unbearable, I put out poison and was sorry for it every time as the stench was terrible and lasted for months. We had many barn cats, but they just never seemed able to get them all. If I had known about a better mouse trap, I would have used it.

To get to the point, we sold our horse arena and moved, but still were out where mice are abundant. We only have one cat now and my wife says, "we have mice." I said "What makes you think so? Patches (our cat) is a great hunter." She leaves us guts and vole heads on the welcome mat just about every morning. "Well", says my wife, "I watched a mouse come up on the deck to her bowl and take some cat food. We have mice". So I found a snap trap and set it along the wall, baited with peanut butter. The first night, no mouse, but the bait was gone. I re-baited it and put it and another trap out. Next morning one mouse and one trap no bait and not snapped. I reset both. To make a long story shorter, over a period of about ten days I had caught three mice and the cat food bowl started to have mice turds in it.

The morning of June 25, 2005, I woke up with an idea. I went out to my shop (even before coffee) and made my first trap (the ISS (it's So Simple) mouse trap was born). I didn't say a word to my wife because I knew she would laugh and try to talk me out of it. The name was almost automatic, but I had no idea if it would really work (since I have been marketing my trap, I have found that many variations of my idea have been used over the years). When I came back to the house with my invention, she did laugh. At any rate, I set the trap out and caught two mice the first night. For the next week, I caught from three to five mice a night and captured about thirty five mice. I made several more traps and put them at various places around our property and set up the neighbors with my mouse traps.

These traps are simple and most anyone could have come up with the idea. Most anyone can make them, but getting the stuff together and doing it, just doesn't get done for most people. I think the price is reasonable and most people will buy one or two. Several people have bought one trap and made others (for their own use only please as the patent is applied for) copying my idea and that is okay with me. I've tried several different foods as bait, and even the most stubborn mice have "fallen for the bait" in about three days. Peanut butter mixed with bacon bits appears to be irresistible.

With this mouse trap being so simple, I was afraid some would think they had been hood winked regardless how effective it is. That's the reason for my guarantee; If the buyer of one of my mouse traps is unhappy for any reason, just tell me why and send it back. All of your money (including return postage) will be refunded.

This is a better mouse trap.

4 comments:

mousebait said...

I have been reading about ISS(It's So SImple) blog and my questions have been answered. You are selling it. It's really that effective? Do you ship in Phil? By the way your blog is based on your experience right? And if I base the effectiveness of the trap will i think it's 100%

Fred Sowerwine said...

Yes, mousebait, I make and sell them; http://www.issmousetraps.com and yes,they are very effective (bait must be more enticing than other foods also in the area). We will ship most everywhere, but out of the USA costs more and might not be economical.

Yes, using the right bait will allow the ISS traps to be 100% (it might take three or so days to catch a really smart stubborn one and you might need to remove any other source of food). Also, to stay mouse free all the holes they enter from have to be plugged. Even then, they might sneak in a door as it is opened.

My guarantee is genuine.

Anonymous said...

Anytime rodents are relly plentiful or whrein unhealthy problems prevail with harborage, poisoned
baits are a powerful instrument to use alongside
mice traps. Generally there are literally 3 varieties of rodenticides; acute
toxins, calcium dischargers and anti-coagulatns.
The majority of acute toxins are no longer avilable because
of the threat oof accidental poisoning. Vitamin D or cholecalciferol
is a calcium discharger that creates excessively much
calcium to be produced into thee blood stream, leading in kidney, liver, or
heart failure.Thee perks of vitamkin d are such it
gets rid of anticoagulant-resistant rodents and generally there is littlle
trouble of indjrect poisoning. Mice afflicted with anticoagulants
perish via bleeding inside. Since the outcomes show up days after consuming
the mouse poison, they do not couple their poisoning to the
bait.

Anonymous said...

The coffee can trap is an additional easy homemade mouse trap you caan make in the house.
You could make it either no kill or a kill trap by including water to the coffee
can. Place an item of building and construction paper over
an empty coffee can. Keep the papeer in location by safeguarding a big elastic band around
the edge. Cut an X form in the top, quiting concering 1 inch
from the edges of the can. Area the can on the floor,
as well as put a big level stick (like a paint stirring stick) from the flooring
to tthe top of the could. Safeguard with ttape if needed.
Sprinkle food on the stick and on the top of thhe
paper. The idea below is that little mousey smells out the food, climbs uup the stick,
wanders ohto the relatively flat surface, which then paves the
way, and also he drops in.