So, here's the extension cord
that goes to my computerized mouse trap monitoring system.
And, I've got a light on here
and I've got my Raspberry PI
and there's a camera module right there
aimed at the mouse trap,
and here's the console for my mouse trap monitoring system,
so if I just reach in there,
as soon as there's my finger in there
you can see there's a motion detection log
and those images were saved. And, I took the
water out of this one, just because I don't want to show
mice getting killed on YouTube.
The idea with this kind of trap that the mouse eventually gets
on the can to get at the bait, and the can rotates,
and the mouse falls in the bucket and drowns.
But, as you can see, the mouse is very good
at avoiding getting onto that can and falling in,
and it's still getting at some of the bait.
We've used this sort of trap to catch mice many times before,
but it's clear that this trap is not working optimally.
It looks like that mouse is just too darn clever,
so I have to build a better mouse trap.
So, I put little stones in this one so this ones actually
fairly stable, and I'm hoping the mouse
will trust it enough to actually walk across it.
So, when it gets to this one, hopefully it'll just fall in
and it won't have anything to grab by.
So, if the can is stable enough to hold the mouse,
and let's see. Gotcha!
Aha!
So, the mouse then spent over an hour trying to
get out of that bucket, but it did manage to
jump out eventually.
And, what do you know? It just goes right back at it.
Come on, come on. Fall, fall, damn.
I gotta really admire the daring and agility of that mouse.
This is just amazing.
Strike two. Whoa.
That was much quicker getting out of the bucket this time.
There it goes again. Looks like the weighted can
actually is pretty good on it's own,
Better than the one that rotates freely.
And, here we go at it again,
and let's see, come on come on, come on, fall.
OK, so again, it fell off the weighted can
and not the freely spinning one.
I guess that trap works as long as the mice are hungry enough.
But, I'm gonna build something to catch them
while they're still cautious.
I was figuring some kind of counter-weighted tilting
ramp like this. Eventually, it loses
it balance. Except this ramp
is kind of heavy, it's made out of metal
and I figure as the ramp tilts the mouse could still
scurry back. So, what I've come up with
is this thing, which is a very light ramp,
it's just a piece of wood with some plastic on there so that
the mouse can't really claw into it,
and it tilts on here,
there's a bolt back here for a counter-weight.
And, I want this to actually dump, kind of, unexpectedly,
so there's a little magnet on the back,
and a piece of wire sticking out here so that
as the mouse gets on here eventually it just let's go
and dumps the mouse suddenly. Slowly taking the bait
and there's no warning, everything's very stable.
With the magnet weakening as it get's further away from it
once it starts to tip, it'll really tip.
Yeah, there it goes.
And, this was followed with the better part of an hour
of the mouse trying to jump back out, you gotta admire
the stamina of these things.
And, here we go, right back at it.
Ta da!
It's out, oops, not out for very long this time.
Looks like that mouse is starting to wisen up to my trap.
Of course, if I put water in it it would have been dead
several times over.
It's funny how many times that mouse falls in the same bucket.
This is actually pretty cool cause if it was a different
mouse each time, I could really catch an awful lot of mice with
this trap, without significantly depleting the bait.
Looks like this mouse is able to hang onto the ramp as it
starts to tip so it doesn't fall into the bucket every time.
So, all these clips with the tipping ramp were actually
recorded over the course of a week.
And later in the week the mouse actually
no longer went onto the ramp, so it learned eventually
that it's just no good going on there.
So, this one works super well and it could be made
slightly more effective by making the edges of the ramp
harder to grab. But, realistically
the weighted can is very effective on it's own already,
and even a freely spinning can will work,
so this is much easier to make and I'd recommend you
go with that.
And, the weight I had in the can is about 40 grams.