Mice do not visit, they move in, and a pair becomes twenty before autumn is out. Poison kills the mouse inside a wall you cannot reach, then kills the owl or the cat that eats it. A snap trap catches one, and then you have to deal with the snap trap. This is a bucket mouse trap lid — a tipping platform over a tunnel of bait that drops the mouse into the bucket and resets itself in a second. It runs all night without you, and there is no poison near the house.

Why It Stands Out

• It resets itself — a snap trap is finished after one mouse. This tips, drops and swings level again, so a bad night ends with six or eight in the bucket instead of one.
• No poison — rodent bait also poisons the owls, kookaburras and cats that eat the body afterwards. This is the only sensible option near a veggie patch, a chook run or a dog.
• No handling a mouse — the bucket does the holding and the lid clips down over the top.
• Reusable, so it costs you once — moulded ABS, rinse and re-bait. No batteries either, so unlike an electronic trap it keeps working in a damp shed.
• Peanut butter is all you need — a smear inside the covered tunnel beats packaged mouse bait, and mice walk into a tight dark run rather than onto an open platform.
• No snap mechanism, no poison bait — it catches by balance alone, so there is nothing to set and no toxic bait involved.

Where to Use

• The shed and garage, from about March — autumn is when field mice leave the paddock. Set it before you see droppings.
• By the chook shed and feed bins — a bag of layer pellets is the biggest mouse magnet on most properties.
• In the pantry, against the wall — pantry mice follow the skirting and ignore anything in the open.
• Roof space and under the house — mice in the roof are what most people are hearing at 2am.
• Farm sheds in a plague year — when numbers go from a nuisance to a mouse plague, a multi catch trap is worth ten snap traps.

How It Works

1. The platform is balanced, not triggered — no spring and nothing to set. It sits level on a pivot with a counterweight behind it.
2. The mouse walks out to the bait — reaching the far end of the tunnel puts its weight past the pivot.
3. Its own weight tips it — 15 to 25 grams is enough. No snap, no noise to warn the next one.
4. The counterweight returns it level — in a second, which is what makes it a multi catch trap, and the bucket's smooth walls give a mouse nothing to climb.

How to Use

1. Measure your bucket rim first — the lid is 30 cm and clips to a 19 to 20 litre bucket. Most 20 L buckets sold here fit; a 15 L is too small.
2. Smear peanut butter in the tunnel — a teaspoon at the far end, past the pivot, not on the platform.
3. Clip the lid on and test the swing — the plate should fall and return freely.
4. Press the ramps into the side slots — two lets the mice come up from either side.
5. Put it hard against a wall — mice travel touching something and will not cross an open floor to reach it.
6. Leave the bucket dry, and check it every morning — no water, and there is a live animal in there.
Tip: leave it unbaited for two or three nights first. Mice avoid new objects, so a trap that has become part of the furniture gets walked the night you bait it.

Care and Maintenance

• Rinse the tunnel before re-baiting — stale peanut butter smells wrong to a mouse.
• Test the swing every time — one seed husk in the pivot stops it returning, and the trap still looks fine.
• Check the lid clips — a sprung clip lets the lid lift and your catch walks out.
• Wash the bucket separately — gloves, hot water, outside. Droppings carry bacteria.
• Move it if it stops catching — three quiet nights means they are running somewhere else.

Specifications

What's Included

• 1 × Tipping trap lid, 2 × ramps, 1 × instructions
• Bucket not included — you supply a standard 20 litre bucket

Before you order: pair the lid with a standard 20 litre bucket with a rim of about 29 to 30 cm and you are ready to set it the same day.