The physics of mouse traps

[Scribbler]

I am contemplating making one of those live traps with a deep bucket, a dowel and a toilet paper tube. You put the bait on the tube, it turns when the mouse walks onto it, and the mouse falls into the bucket.

But will that tube actually turn? I’m sitting here with a tube on a broomstick thinking a well balanced mouse might not make it shift at all.

Is there some ideal ratio of tube to dowel size?

These are little deer mice most likely.

And the reason I need a live trap, is they seem to be able to eat the peanut butter off the snap traps without triggering snap.

[Bluey]

We use a deep five gallon, straight sided bucket, like the orange ones Home Depot sells.
We make two opposite little holes right under the top edge that we run a stiff wire thru from one to the other, wire that we have pushed thru a soda pop can or plastic bottle, so it rolls on that wire about the middle over the bucket.
We smear peanut butter on the object in the middle, add two sticks in opposite sides of the bucket up to the edge.
We add about 5"-6" of water on the bottom of the bucket, it doesn’t take much.
Mice climb on the sticks, reach over to the peanut butter and fall into the bucket and drown quickly.
Is infallible, we have used those for decades, when mice and rats become abundant, we may catch a dozen or two a night, terrible to know how many of them roam around the fields and end up in our barns.
Picture from the internet, we put wire in the middle and two sticks, opposite each other, so critters can climb from both sides:

[SuzieQNutter]

If you are worried about it turning just smear peanut butter a few inches down the inside around the bucket.

[Scribbler]

Oh a can! Perfect. That is much more tippy than a toilet paper roll! Oh, and it took a minute but I see what you are doing making the mouse jump onto the side of the can, not run along the wire or dowel to the can lengthwise.

[Texarkana]

Let us know how it works for you!

Tis the season when the snakes vacate the barn and the mice come back to play. I have the same problem with them outsmarting most snap traps.

[Leather]

@SuzieQNutter

If you are worried about it turning just smear peanut butter a few inches down the inside around the bucket.

We just smear some peanut butter on the side too instead of rigging up a spinner thing and it works just fine.

Another option to snap traps are the electronic (zapper) type traps - we’ve had good luck with these in places where a bucket trap isn’t feasible. Victor Electronic Traps