Building A Better Mousetrap

**rgsparber** · Jul 17, 2019, 04:17 PM

What kind of a mousetrap stops mice from drowning in my pool? Nothing is 100% but this one works rather well. It is all about asking the right questions.

If you are interested, please see

https://rick.sparber.org/BetterMousetrap.pdf

Your comments are welcome. All of us are smarter than any one of us.

I noticed as I was about to post this entry that someone else was offering a rat trap. Funny how random events play together.

Thanks,

Rick

**DIYer** · Jul 17, 2019, 04:38 PM

Thanks rgsparber! We've added your Rodent Water Dispenser to our Farm and Garden category,
as well as to your builder page: rgsparber's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Rodent Water Dispenser by rgsparber

tags: garden

**mklotz** · Jul 17, 2019, 05:11 PM

Clicking on the PDF URL doesn't show anything??

**rgsparber** · Jul 17, 2019, 06:59 PM

Originally Posted by mklotz

Clicking on the PDF URL doesn't show anything??

Does anyone else have this problem? It works for me.

Rick

**Cascao** · Jul 18, 2019, 05:42 PM

Worked for me.
Would sudgest you provide white cement too. It's not dangerous to family and pets and will control mice population

**rebuilder1954** · Jul 18, 2019, 05:46 PM

So Rick, i really like the novel approach.

However, i suspect this will tend to drive the mouse population up, so what to do then?

perhaps dissolving a contraceptive in the jug of water? after a while, the population dwindles, and hopefully the old age expirees are elsewhere.

Don't recall if you have pets, but i avoid poison for that reason.

Bob

**Baddog** · Jul 18, 2019, 06:49 PM

Again, worked for me in Chrome

I prefer a simpler solution that doesn't involve supporting population growth, but rather the opposite...

Between shielded traps, a group of Harris Hawks that hunt the property daily, and a not infrequent Owl visiter, I almost never come across mice or rats in the pool or otherwise. I also have 2 energetic young GSDs that would delight in playing with the impromptu squeaky toys, but they (like the hawks) generally content themselves with thinning the cottontail population.

**Jon** · Jul 18, 2019, 10:49 PM

Try clicking it again, probably just a temporary snafu somewhere along the line.

rgsparber's fix is a better solution than this mess:

**IAMSatisfied** · Jul 19, 2019, 07:44 AM

Originally Posted by rgsparber

What kind of a mousetrap stops mice from drowning in my pool? Nothing is 100% but this one works rather well...

Thanks,

Rick

Ducks would instantly consume 100% of the mice that made into the pool, but they wouldn't stay in their duck bellies very long... and you'd be *behind* square one, and into the negatives. Cats would work... I have about half a dozen or more neighbor-cats that hunt the lot that my shop is on so well that rodents are practically kept extinct. In the four years I've owned my shop, I've caught one, maybe two, mice in my traps, and have had no signs of dung or damage caused by them. Hungry, focused cats are a force to be reckoned with. But then, you don't want stupid cats floating in your pool, either!

**IAMSatisfied** · Jul 19, 2019, 08:05 AM

Originally Posted by Cascao

Worked for me.
Would sudgest you provide white cement too. It's not dangerous to family and pets and will control mice population

I had to look up "white cement", I believe it's the same thing called "plaster of Paris" in the U.S. Yes, that, mixed with peanut butter, will clog up rodent plumbing in a hurry.