Do It Yourself Bucket Trap

So you're out camping, or at the cottage for the long week-end and don't have your trusty Rat Zapper packed with your rod and tackle. You soon discover mice are afoot so, to ensure a better camping experience you need to improvise. Just remember, or print this technique, and you'll soon be able to enjoy a restful night's sleep – free of rodent intrusions into your food supplies.

This mouse trap is constructed from a bucket half-filled with water. It works by baiting the mouse over the bucket’s opening and then causing it to fall into the water and drown.

Materials: 5-gallon bucket, wire clothes hanger, paper towel tube (or several toilet paper tubes taped together), something to use for a ramp, and bait.

Assembly is as follows:

1. Remove the metal handle from the bucket.

2. Thread the wire hanger through one of the bucket’s handle holes, the cardboard tubes and then back out through the second handle hole. Bend the ends down securely. The tubes should almost reach from one end of the bucket to the other (leave a small gap near the edges so the mouse has to jump onto it).

3. Mix the bait with peanut butter or glue to make it sticky and generously smear it around the center of the tube.

4. Fill the 5-gallon bucket half way with water and place it in the area of infestation. Set up some ramps to help the mice up and you’re done.

Experiences and studies have shown that different population of mice has varied affinity towards particular food stuff. So, this is going to be ‘trial and error’ method. So if your bait is not working then switch over to another.

Check your bucket every day or two and if the water starts getting stinky, a little cooking oil to coat the surface can keep the smell contained. Never touch a dead mouse and change the water after every kill.