Humane Rat trap | How to Make a Humane Trap Yourself at Home

How to Make a Humane Trap Yourself at Home

When you find out that you have rodents running rampant around your house at night, a sense of urgency usually kicks in.  If you are like most people, your main objective is to get these rats or mice (or both) out of your kitchen and other living areas ASAP!  While there are definitely a lot of choices for buying a no kill rat trap or mouse trap, many people don’t realize that they can actually make their own traps out of materials that they have lying around the house.  Keep in mind that most of the professionally produced models will last longer and are a lot less visible in your kitchen and other rooms, so it is usually a good idea to have them out as well eventually.

One problem people face is that the moment they find out their house has mice or rats, they want to start evicting them right away.  Nobody sleeps well at night when they know that rodents are helping themselves to whatever they can find in your kitchen pantry.  For this reason, here are a couple of different ones that you can easily build on your own humane rat trap while you wait for you purchased traps to arrive in the mail.

The Simple Humane Trap

This trap is so simple that many people kick themselves for not thinking of it themselves.

Here is your materials list, which you most likely have already:

  • 1 Large plastic or metal bucket
  • 1 Paper towel tube
  • A Chair
  • Some Peanut Butter and crackers or bread

That’s all you need to start making your quick and easy humane trap.  Here are the instructions:

Step 1:  The first thing that you want to do is get your paper towel roll ready.  Remember, you don’t need any of the towels, only the long, hollow cardboard tube.  Lay it flat on the counter and press it down a little to flatten one side out.  This will prevent it from rolling around.  Lay the tube on the edge of the counter-top so that about ¼ of it sticks out over the edge.

Step 2:  The next thing you want to do is bring your chair over to the counter.  Place it right up against the counter, directly under the tube that is sticking out. Make sure it is turned the right way, so the back of the chair is not against the cabinets.

Step 3:  Place the empty bucket on top of the chair, directly under the tube.

Step 4:  Take some peanut butter and put a small dab of it onto a little piece of cracker or bread.  Put this tasty morsel just inside the part of the tube that is sticking out over the bucket.  In addition, rub just a tiny bit of the peanut butter into the part of the tube that is on the counter.  This will help attract the mice when they walk by.  You can put a little more in the bucket itself if you want to be nice.

Step 5:  Turn the lights down low or off, and either go into another room or go to sleep. If you  have rodents in your kitchen, it doesn’t take very long for them to come out in the evening looking for food.

As anyone who has ever raised a hamster knows, rodents love to crawl through tunnels.  They will smell the food in the tube and crawl through it to get at it.  Since they will be inside the tube, they won’t be able to see when they have gone over the edge of the counter, and they will fall into the bucket.  All you need to do at this point is pick up the bucket, take it somewhere far away from your house, and tip it over for the critter inside to run away.  If you are in a pinch and don’t have a bucket, you can use an empty plastic garbage can from one of the rooms in the house as well.  Just make sure it is tall enough that the mice or rats can’t jump out.  You would be surprised to see how high they can jump!  You can try using an empty large box, but a mouse or rat can easily chew a hole through cardboard, so this isn’t usually a good idea unless you can check on it frequently.  Once you catch your mouse or rat, it is a good idea to take it somewhere it naturally lives, such as on the side of a stream.

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