Kill & Contain Mouse Trap, Never See a Dead Rodent Again, 2 Traps

I am sure other people will have the same issue I did with this trap. I assumed it was basically a covered snap trap, and that when it caught the mouse, I'd be able to see some tail or something sticking out the door. So when I saw that the lever had moved to "mouse caught" but I didn't see any mouse parts, I thought the trap had been tripped without catching anything. I picked it up and it didn't feel noticeably heavier. I opened the bait door, still didn't see anything, and applied fresh bait (I used Tomcat's attractant gel). I reset the trap and put it back where I'd had it. But when I walked by just a couple of hours later from the other direction, I saw a tail. I looked more closely and saw the feet and hind end of our mouse--it had definitely been caught. But the trap lever still said "set." I concluded that the trap does not in fact work the way I had first thought. It is really designed to completely contain the mouse so that you don't even see it after it's caught, so there's something inside that flips up to prevent any mouse parts from sticking out. Personally, I need to be able to verify for peace of mind that the mouse is actually in there. If you also feel that way, resetting the trap lever will let you see the dead mouse. If not, you can just chuck the whole thing without ever seeing your dead rodent. Bottom line: the trap worked, and quickly.

Unfortunately I've had change my rating of these traps because of the new design. You can read my previous 4 star review below for the old design. The new style no longer has a clear path to the bait and I feel as though this has significantly reduced it's effectiveness. The mice are forced to climb a ramp inside the trap and cannot see the bait from the opening. I have not caught a single mouse with the new traps. (3 weeks of testing) There has been droppings in the entrance so the trap has at least been investigated by the mice, but no kills. There are older traps set in the same area which are still catching mice. Although I don't know for sure since it's never been set off, but I have a feeling that reusing the traps with the new design would be significantly more difficult as well. Outdated review of previous design: These work surprisingly well. I ordered them to be able to place traps where my pets might come into contact with them. I was able to catch 5 mice in less that 24 hours (obviously I had a serious mouse problem). Recently I found that I hadn't caught any mice in a few days so I checked the bait door only to find that all of the peanut butter had been cleaned out. I do feel like these traps are fairly sensitive and I can only imagine that it must have been a very tiny mouse to not set off the trap and successfully consume the bait. I do like how simple and safe these traps are to set. You can re-set these traps, and I personally think that it is worth the effort. It may not be as easy as just pushing the lever down and shaking out the expired mouse..... I've had the pull them out by the tail, but as I said, worth the effort.

These traps are awesome! My cat is amazing at catching mice. The problem is she just wants to play with them, fling them around, chase them over to where I am, carry them around in her mouth, basically everything but kill them. I absolutely hate even the sight of mice, so if she catches one, I am not excited. I live in the country, so there are mice everywhere. I decided to try this trap because I could put it out around my cat and not worry about her getting snapped. If you do have a cat, it is still possible for them to get snapped if they stick their paw in the tunnel. I would just watch them for a while after putting the trap out to make sure they aren't too curious about it. I had two mice terrorizing me for almost three weeks. I set snap traps in a back room where I know they were hiding out, but they were not interested in the peanut butter on the snap traps at all. I put this trap out and caught a mouse within a couple of days! I saw reviews where you could discard the mouse and reset the trap, but I didn't want to deal with the dead mouse so I just threw the whole thing away. I will gladly pay $4 for a dead mouse that I don't have to see or touch. I set the other trap that came in this pack in the exact same spot and caught the other mouse two days later. So two traps and two dead mice within a week. Yeah! I just came on to buy two more. If you have a mouse that you have tried different traps with, try this one. It is effective, easy to set, ok to have around pets and you don't have to see the mouse once you catch it. Update: In just another two days, I caught another two mice. That's four mice down! I thought I only had two mice, so I'm kind of horrified, but I'm glad the traps are working so well. Also, a little bit of a Reese's peanut butter cup has been the most effective bait. Update 2: I've now caught 6 mice with these traps in 6 days! After I started using peanut butter cups instead of peanut butter, I caught one about every 6 hours. I haven't caught one in over 24 hours now, so I'm praying that my mouse problem has been eradicated! My cat actually slept last night instead of lurking all night so she must not have heard any mouse activity. I wish these traps weren't so expensive, but they most definitely work. Also, I've seen some reviews saying these traps don't kill the mice. All of the mice I have caught were instantly killed. I checked the trap within minutes of hearing the trap deploy and there was no movement. Update 3: I have now caught 8 mice with these traps over the last 4 months. The mouse situation is out of hand this year! Every single trap has worked perfectly. One thing I have to note, though. There is another identical looking product by Ortho. The mouse traps literally look identical except for the fact that Ortho has a red handle and Tomcat has a black handle. DO NOT BUY THE ORTHO BRAND!! I saw them on clearance at Walmart and figured I would just buy them since they were cheaper. I set the trap and all the bait was just eaten out of it. I have never had that problem with the Tomcat trap. I had one Tomcat trap left and put it in the same place I had the Ortho trap set and caught the mouse in less than an hour. It was the same mouse that had been able to go in to the Ortho trap and stand in there eating all the bait out of the door without springing the trap.

These are great for families, pet owners (of which we are both) or those who are squeamish. I was really torn about using snap traps because I'd prefer a humane exit for the mice. However, everything I read about the leading traps said there weren't enough air holes, etc. for longer "stays" in the traps and I didn't plan on checking the traps every hour or so. I also don't have the opportunity to release the animals far enough from our home, so I decided to look for a trap that was quick at least...and enclosed. I really didn't want to clean up a mess or honestly be faced with the aftermath of the trap. (Nor did I want my kids to see any gore either.) Also, it would take a really determined and curious smallish cat to get its paw all the way back to the snap part of this trap. I'm not even sure it would be hurt if the trap snapped anyway because of the design. These suited our needs really well. That being said, as with other reviews, there were some issues getting the trap to open up, but we didn't have any that wouldn't set after some struggling. We bought a few of these in store as well and they were 3/6 as far as not setting easily. Sometimes I had to reach into the trap to pull it down while pushing the lever to get it to stay open versus just the lever on the side of the trap. One trap took several attempts. We did have one that the bait was taken and the trap didn't snap. I then decided to put peanut butter into the tiny bait door instead of spreading it on a bit of bread and loading it. That did the trick. The next time I set the trap it snapped successfully in a matter of minutes. Anyway, once they were set, these traps were awesome. No mess, no poison and no question as to whether the trap had caught an animal thanks to the marking by the lever. Sometimes it was sad and their little tails were hanging out, but that was all that I saw. The mice were taken care of in a few hours of setting a trap, if it even took an hour. Twice we set one, walked away and it had snapped within five minutes.

I got these traps in yesterday, within 12 hours had a mouse caught and killed. It was a sneaky thing, it had been living in our floor vents for at least a few weeks. We had tried other traps and it never fell for them. I'm going to reuse the trap after cleaning it, we have barn cats so I took it outside, called the cats, moved the lever back to set and held it there and then just turned it upside down until it came out enough that the cat could get ahold of it (It was quite fat so it got stuck). I never had to touch anything. This is a great trap and I wasn't nervous at all to dispose of the contents. Especially with our situation, the trap design is perfect. I was able to shine a light down thru the vent and see easily if the trap had been tripped. Rather than a glue or open snap trap that might only catch one foot and the animal could drag away from the vent opening and then die and stink up the house. I might even run a string thru the top handle and tie it to the vent to prevent it being dragged or falling over. **update** It appears these traps are only good for about 3 kills (I still empty them because the outdoor cats love them and the traps are expensive). After 3 on each one neither snaps closed easily anymore so the mice just take the bait. However, now that I've gotten the ones that are left used to going in the trap, I've ordered another set and will switch them out. Mwahahaha 😈

So, these used to work so great that i purchased 4 packages of these for a total assault on the mice sliding under my garage door. I also had two from a prior purchase at the local hardware store. These arrived and they were "improved". I can tell you that have improved them to dis-function. The trigger is so difficult to set off that these mice would have to be super heavy and ambitious for these traps to actually work. I had four out - 2 of the old model, 2 of the these newer ones. Caught 2 in the old the first night. Didn't think much of it. Threw out the mouse coffins, and set out two more of the newer ones. They have all been siting in my garage to no avail. These traps are still baited and in the garage. I left for a week and came back to a mouse poop party where they drug in food/berries from the outside. There is no food in my garage. There was a blanket over my bike that is now in the trash. i even found mouse poop in one of the traps- but there was no mouse caught. I since put out four old school snap traps that cost 2.50 for two, and bam, two mice the next day. Why oh Why did tomcat have to "improve" their traps. These really deserve no stars, but if you can get your hands on the old ones, you are very very lucky. So disappointing, they really did use to work very well. update 12.5.2017....my dog can't even set the stupid thing off. Based on the the mixed recent reviews...1 of 2 things....they either fixed the problem, or there are some old non-improved traps out there. i won't buy them again. have killed about 12 with the old school traps....NONE WITH THE TOMCAT TRAPS. Until they come up with an entirely new logo with some sort of guarantee - i wouldn't buy it.

We purchased a 2-pack of this trap to place in our garage attic and mechanical closet where we found evidence of mice after the weather cooled down this winter. Baited the trap with peanut butter, set it and placed one in each location. The first trap had a successful catch the first day, even though the setting tab had returned to the “unset” position instead of the “caught” position after it sprung. The second trap never sprung and after 2 weeks had evidence that mice had been inside it (the peanut butter was still there). We bought additional packs based on the success of the first trap. Baited with peanut butter again and placed in the first location. A week later the trap had not been sprung, but we began to find evidence of mice around it. Upon further examination, a mouse had entered the trap and chewed through the inner workings to get all of the peanut butter, without ever setting it off. There were black plastic shavings literally falling out of the trap which were also completely packed in the bait flap, and the peanut butter was completely gone. I’m not sure what to make of these. The quick catch at first was reassuring, but at least 2 failures (1 being a major failure) had me reconsidering. We didn’t want to use a chemical trap due to pets in the house, but I think we may have to go that direction.

There is a creep factor for me with mice. My husband's "comfort" is, "They are more afraid of you than you are of them." NOT TRUE. Now let's talk about spiders and he has a different opinion of little pests in the house. Anyway, when we were first married, we lived in a third floor attic apartment and I was simply horrified to discover that they could climb up walls and terrorize me in the pantry. I told the landlord and she said, "I know. The last people caught 21." I needed something I could use effectively use here, down on ground level, for when he is not around to do the disposal work. I do NOT want to see the mouse and so these traps are just the ticket. When I saw something scurrying, I screamed, thought it through, and set one of these, which I purchased for just such an occasion, knowing that they are after me and can find me wherever I live. We learned from our first mouse house that the sure-fire way to bait them is with peanut butter with a chocolate chip buried in the middle. (Yes, we learned this when I went to make something using a Hershey baking square and found the parchment paper square in tact with the chocolate completed eaten out.) So the idea of the Reese's peanut butter cup is a good one, but I like the "sticky" factor of peanut butter to cement in the chocolate chip. When others have complained that this containment trap did not spring but the bait was completely eaten, I think light-weight mice are forced to pull at the chocolate to trigger the spring. I personally do not use just the peanut butter. For whatever reason during this drought season, others have complained that mice are in the house in August. Sure enough, I had one ( and only one, I hope!) too. I purchased more of these traps and baited them and put them along the perimeter of the rooms where I suspected it was hanging out. The next day, I saw the "caught mouse" indicator on the trap. My dog kept sniffing at the trap every time she went into that room. It was not about the bait because she is not interested in the other traps that are set. I found a long grabber, put the whole trap in a paper bag and dispatched it all in the trash can. I set another one in the exact same place and have decided to keep them set until spring. Some have complained that it is expensive to throw the whole thing out and I am usually very big on not dumping anything unnecessarily in landfills. I would want to recycle this, but I do not want to given my aversion to even seeing a mouse in the house. I conserve and recycle in so many other areas, I reason that this is my one little compromise. As for expense, call an exterminator and then see how expensive this trap is. But a $4 Starbucks coffee is not expensive, right? It comes down to what is worth it to you. And this is worth it for me because it works and solves a huge problem.

There was no bait with this item.