Baiting mouse traps with chocolate or cocoa butter

[Mike Nolan]

Well, I thought we had gotten through the winter without our usual invasion of mice, but our cat found one last week--and left the body in our bed as a present. My wife was not amused. (I'm actually somewhat amazed she can still catch mice, she's got detached retinas and can't walk down the hall without bumping into things.)

Then the other day I discovered that they'd gotten into my chocolate supply, emptying one partial bag of milk chocolate callets after gnawing a hole in the bag and gnawing into my block of cocoa butter, which was in a plastic bag.

Fortunately, most of my chocolate is kept somewhere else, where it is a little cooler.

So I put some mouse traps out where the chocolate had been (putting the bags that were still OK in a large cooler in a different part of the house so they're better protected) and baited the traps with peanut butter, which is what I've been using the last few years. They managed to eat the peanut butter without setting off the traps.

So, last night I baited them with some of the cocoa butter that they'd been gnawing on. This morning I had two dead mice. So, I'm baiting my other traps with cocoa butter today. (I cut it into chunks, soften them a little in the microwave, and press it into the trap platform then let it harden again.)

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[RiversideLen]

Baiting them with what they have become accustomed to is a good idea. At least their final meal was a good one.

[Joan Simpson]

That's a new one for me ,glad you got them!

[Mike Nolan]

I've used chocolate in traps before, mice like it a lot.

[aaronatthedoublef]

At the HW store they had mint scented garbage bags to help keep them out. Has anyone tried mint as a repellent?

[Mike Nolan]

The number of mice I'm catching is slowing down, hopefully that means I'm making a significant dent in the population.

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