Mouse snap trap recommendations? + Connovation crocodile traps for rats?

[jocerotops]

I work on a small market garden, and am trying to stay on top of rat + mouse trapping. I’ve had issues getting good traps that last outdoors.

I built some new trap tunnels yesterday, as we don’t have enough across the property, so now I need some more traps.

I have never had useful advice from people in farmlands, mitre 10 etc, so a forum on traps.nz seems like the best place to ask!

Rat Traps
I’ve tried a few. The T-Rex traps I got last winter have been the first reliable traps I’ve found! While I was looking around for good prices on them, I came across a very similar style trap from Connovation - The Crocodile Rat Trap – Serrated Strike Bar – Connovation Pest Control Solutions | New Zealand
I can’t see much discussion at all online about these, but they are about 1/3 of the price which is appealing if they work well.

I see they also have a more expensive rat trap - Snap It Rat Trap – Connovation Pest Control Solutions | New Zealand (still a few bucks cheaper than the t-rex multipacks0

1. Does anyone here have experience with the connovation traps? Are they reliable and do they last?
2. If not, are the T-Rex traps the best simple snap trap style? They’ve been good for me, but I’ve only been using them less than a year.

I do like the ease of use with the T-Rex traps compared to wooden traps, but I’d be open to going back to the old school style wooden victor traps if they get better longevity.

Mouse Traps
I feel like I’ve tried every mouse trap at the hardware store and farmlands. They’ve all been various grades of terrible. Either the springs are too sensitive for outdoor use and get set off by a gentle breeze (I use them inside the trap tunnels), the springs lose tension very quickly, or other parts fail very quickly.

Does anyone have a reliable recommendation for mouse traps?

[jocerotops]

Some mouse trap options I haven’t tried, as I don’t think I’ve seen them at the main shops:

1. T-Rex mini mouse traps & “Mouse Snap Traps” from here: Traps - Products
2. Connovation basic snap trap

Or once again, if basic old school wooden snap traps are tried, true and still reliable, I’m open to that!

Thanks for any advice from those more experienced!

[willowflat_warrior]

I’ve used several models of mouse traps over the years, and the best model that I’ve used is the Times Up One Touch Mouse Trap, purchased at Mitre 10 Mega (they’re white and red plastic). It’s a very easy trap to use, mice are rarely able to eat a lure without being trapped, and it’s more humane than the other traps that I’ve used. I’m sitting at 124 kills so far this year with my fleet of Times Up mouse traps, which speaks to how effective they are at the job, I’d say.

Note: I mount all of my snap traps onto wooden bases inside tunnels, which only allows mice to approach a trap head-on, and the tunnels are narrow, so mice have limited movement (5mm between the edge of a trap and the wall). Because the traps are stable, the number of injuries and misfires that occurs has dropped exponentially compared to standard use around the house, sheds, etc.

Tip 1
If mice are managing to eat the lures out of your set traps, try pressing a raw chickpea on top of a sticky base lure. 1) Raw chickpeas are very hard, so a mouse is bound to fire a trap if it nibbles on one. 2) If a mouse attempts to remove a chickpea from the cup with its mouth and/or paws, either to take the chickpea to its nest or to get at the lure beneath it, the activity is very likely to fire the trap. So far, I’ve only had 1 chickpea go missing after using at least 20 of them.

Tip 2
Peanut butter and Nutella are the standard lures to use in snap traps, but they have the potential to go moldy in wet/humid weather quite quickly. Dripping/tallow is an excellent lure to use in autumn and winter, because it’s waterproof. Dripping can go moldy, but it takes a long time to, and because fat is so highly sought after by rodents and mustelids, they’re more likely to take the risk of eating their way through the moldy layer than they would some moldy PB or Nutella.

In the small trial that I ran last year, mice changed their preference to fat once the surface of the other lures started to go moldy. I was forced to clean the traps, because the mice ignored them completely (as did the cockroaches).

DO NOT buy the grey traps made by The Better Mousetrap. They are ineffective and inhumane. If I wanted to injure rodents, that’s the brand that I’d choose.

The No.8 store-brand traps sold my Mitre 10 Mega look like rubbish and the rat trap has 1.4 stars out of 5 rating by customers.

As far as rat snap traps go, I mainly use the T-Rex/Tom Cat, but I also use Kness traps. The T-Rex has a design flaw that affects trappers that allow predators to sample the lure being used (pre-feeding), because the trap is closed when it’s unarmed (but mice can enter from the rear to eat a lure inside the bait cup). The workaround to this flaw, is to smear the lure onto the front of the trap and in the immediate area. Once it’s been eaten by rats, I lure the bait cup and put more lure samples around the trap. This technique has negated the flaw.

Cheers.

[jocerotops]

Wow, thank you for the thorough reply! Great tip on the lard and chickpeas.

Thank you for the mouse trap recommendation!

Is the T-Rex trap the best rat trap you’ve used then?

Any chance you’ve used any of the other traps I mentioned? E.g. the t-rex mouse traps, the connovation traps?

[willowflat_warrior]

Yes, the T-Rex is the best rat snap trap that I’ve used. I just removed a ship rat from one about 5 minutes ago. If you buy some, get them from Predator Free NZ. It’s the best price and your money’s going to a good cause. Also, you should only purchase the T-Rex and Tom Cat brands of trap. The T-Rex knockoffs that I’ve bought haven’t functioned as well as the real deal and they don’t last as long, either, because the plastic isn’t as strong.

I haven’t used the T-Rex mouse traps, but they’re not that different from the Times Up ones that I described. If I hadn’t tried the Times Up traps and had so much success with them, there’s a good chance that I would be using the T-Rex ones.

I haven’t used the Connovation trap, but I have used the same type of trap (the name of which I can’t recall). I don’t like this kind of trap for 3 reasons.

1. Mice can access the trap from the front and the rear. This isn’t an issue inside a tunnel, but it definitely is, if they’re in the open. Putting a pair of them back-to-back would limit the problem, somewhat.

2. The smooth kill bar makes it easier for injured mice to pull themselves free of the trap than a trap with teeth. If one of my traps injures a mouse, I want it to remain in the trap so that I can put it out of its misery, instead of it wandering off to suffer.

3. The treadle is stiffer than the one on the Times Up trap, so I found that mice had a pretty easy time stealing lures. A large mouse, or a rat of a similar size and weight, will probably trigger the trap, but it doesn’t seem to be effective at trapping anything smaller than that, even when I used chickpeas. I tossed the pair of Connovation-like mouse traps that I’d been using, because their success rate was pathetically low.

Bear in mind, however, that a number of companies are selling this style of mouse trap, so the quality will vary. The traps that Connovation sells might be the best of the lot, but I’d invest in the Times Up ones, instead, if I was you. If you have the funds and time at your disposal, it would be interesting to compare the performance of the models.

Cheers.

[mindie]

I have ben doing pest control work in a local reserve for the past 11 years or so – we have tried most snap traps that are available and the team prefer the Kness snap,e rat trap – I guess we have 150 in service – no one ever complains about them. Currently we catch around 20 rats each week – they seem to be out in large numbers at present. We have a fair number of trips with no victim still in the trap – a recent video of a stoat trying to drag a rat from the trap for 20 seconds – cats are more powerful and are feeding well on trapped rats at present. I upgraded a line of 30 traps in open coreflute covers about 18 months ago – sadly our support partner purchased Connovation sideways entry black plastic tunnels with a centre mounted Kness snap.e Chinese lookalike traps – rats get whacked across the shoulders and generally pull out – after 18 months, the traps are going rusty.
I operate three boxes down a track near the side of our rural street – since the start of PFBOP about six years ago, I can see I have logged 275 kills in those three traps, I always use Victor Pro traps – they get very old and rusty but keep on killing rats and mice – currently I have upgraded to new traps that have been soaked in boiled linseed oil – two mice today – almost always one mouse and plenty of big Norway rats.
If I was advising anyone to catch any pest – I would advise a Victor Pro so you will always get rats or pesky mice. Like all traps – you can set them on hair trigger and if you use sticky peanut butter – mice will always make a mistake - soon.

[faith]

I agree with the Victor Pro - With the T-Rex’s we found foul catching of rats, and mice were able to take the lure without setting if off. As we change the T-Rex’s to Victor pros we are getting mice catches and haven’t had a foul catch - We have even got a weasel in one. We still offer the Backyard trappers T-Rex’s especially for kids and those that struggle to set the Victors.

[faith]

Oh - and we use Prolan to keep the traps clean. It’s a lanolin product.

[jocerotops]

Thanks for the detailed replies everyone, all super useful insight!

@faith and @willowflat_warrior , it sounds like the victor pro traps work well for mice too?
If so that might be the winner, so we have less traps to purchase, set and maintain etc.
I like the T-Rex traps, mostly because they’re easy to set and have been working well for rats. But we haven’t had any mice caught in them, mostly just stealing lures without setting them off.

[rybill]

I personally have 2 Victor Pro Rat Traps & 1 Times Up “Snap E” Over the past week things have been busy, and have had a few missing baits on the victors & “Snap E”, but have caught 4 mice (3 in the victors & 1 in the “snap e”, from my experience the Victors are the most durable & versatile, especially when placed in a tunnel (only if they are outside), However a freind of mine has a number of Snap-E’s & Victors, both of which perform on-par, however he has had a rat escape from a Snap E, possibly due to a weaker spring, I’m not too sure about that though. Good Luck!

[syoung]

Hi
After several years using these traps
I believe the Victor professional (VP) is probably the best of the NAWAC approved snap traps, however the tunnel setup is just as important. You can see some comments I have made about that under another topic heading here. “D rat risk to birds”. I go on a bit - but we have run proper trials over some years.

The VP is not as nice to use as the other traps and do require gloves when you clear it after a week or two, and the risk of catching a human finger is higher too, but they do work well when installed correctly. They have the highest whack energy of the snap traps so if you have Norway rats or using them for weasels ( not NAWAC) then I would defiantly use the VP. Steve

[jocerotops]

Thanks all. Appreciate all the extra tips!

I’ve ordered a bunch of Victor Pro’s from PredatorFree. I’m hoping that the Victor’s will do a good-enough job of catching mice too. If they don’t, I’ll pick up some “Times Up” mouse traps to set in the tunnels with the rat traps.

[syoung]

Because the VP has a light trigger it will catch mice - but sometimes not very well as the trap is large for mice. However keep it well greased and keep the bait in good condition so the animals are not running through - but focussed on the bait - and then they work quite well for mice.

The s-snap and T rex have a trigger which extends close to the front and you will often get leg catches - some which pull out in the case of the e-snap.