To Build a Better Mousetrap...Or Just a Simple, Yet Effective, Mousetrap

With winter comes a deluge of critters trying to find a nice place to spend the night.  This winter, our garage proved to be irresistible to a small mouse (in part due to my clutter) - and here is the instructable on how to catch a mouse.

This is a very, very, very simple instructable.  And was discovered by accident.

Take a high walled bucket (tall enough so your unwelcome guest can't jump out once caught), put seed in the bottom and place it near stuff that is high off of the floor.

What happens is the hungry, little mouse (not to be pitied because his kin helped propogate the black plague) smells the vittles in the bucket.  Then it climbs up something (in my case, Christmas boxes) and leaps into the bucket (similar to the way a corpulent person flings themselves into the buffet at Ryans Steakhouse).  Once the mouse lands at the bottom of the bucket, it realizes it can't get out - you will be allerted to your prey by the fact that it will jump repeatedly trying to get out.

Once you catch your unwelcome guest, then dispose of him.  Since I caught the mouse accidentally, I didn't know quite what to do.  I have never heard of anyone relocating a mouse like they do a black bear or something, but that is what I did - I didn't feel like killing it (never look them in the face - they bat their big eyes and make you feel sorry for them....). 

Ever since the bucket trap, we have not had any visitors since.