I often get calls from friends and family that go something like this:
"Hey Steve! We've seen this mouse running around the house and we were wondering what would be the best bait to trap it".
I actually love to receive this call, because I've had the privilege of doing a little study on the matter.
A few years ago, I was part of a team that performed a mass trapping in a retail warehouse. For those that don't know, a mass trapping is when an extremely high number of traps are set to quickly gain control of an mice infestation. Typically, the traps are set during the evening hours, then checked and reset each morning the trapping takes place.
On one particular trapping, one of our team members got the idea to do an informal study on which bait works best for catching mice. The plan was fairly simple, we set 75 traps with each our top 3 baits, giving us a grand total of 225 traps set.
To ensure our findings had less to do with trap placement than bait preference, we set all three baits at each trap location (meaning mice that stumbled upon the traps would have a selection- provided other mice didn't beat them to the location). Each morning, we would notate the amount of mice caught by the individual baits.
The three baits we chose were peanut butter, bird seed, and Nutella (a hazelnut and cocoa spread). Based on our several years of "trail and error" experience, we saw these items as the best bait for mouse traps.
Our findings:
The first night of trapping showed fairly close results for all three baits (In retrospect, that probably had more to do with the mouse to trap ratio).
As the study continued, however, the mouse population decreased and a clear favorite emerged.
After three days of study, we found Nutella to be the most effective bait for mouse traps. Nutella caught approximately 45% of the catch total. It was followed by bird seed with approximately 30% and peanut butter with 25% of the catch total.
No Cheddar?
I'm not sure why cheese is universally excepted as the food/bait preference for mice, as I've only experienced marginal results when using it.
Some pest professionals suggest that the reason cheese provides substandard results is because it lacks a strong scent found peanut butter or Nutella. Others dismiss this claim by pointing out that bird seed provides less scent than cheese, yet it performs well in mouse trappings.
Regardless of your bait choice, it's important to note that bait placement is by far the most important factor in trapping mice.
Nearly blind, mice prefer to keep their foraging distances to a minimum and like to travel along baseboards and artificial perimeters. For these reasons, it's always a good idea to keep your traps away from open areas.
Good Luck!
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Steven is Co-founder of Titus Pest Control. For more of his writings, visit his Pest Control Articles Page.
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