Havahart 1020 Two Door Cage Trap for Mice and Rats 10 x 3 x 3

Havahart 1020 Two Door Cage Trap for Mice and Rats 10 x 3 x 3 | Chipmunks

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Havahart 1020 Two ...

	Havahart 1020 Two Door Cage Trap for Mice and Rats 10 x 3 x 3 Havahart Havahart average customer review:based on 34 reviews view larger image
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Efficient, Long Lasting, Humane

About 15 years ago, our apartment building began having occassional mouse problems, with my own apartment receiving 2 or 3 visits from a stray little fellow each year. I was truly appalled to see some of the more modern solutions in the stores -- I'd always had a problem with the idea of the traditional spring traps and poisons, but the houses containing sticky-bottomed floors seemed unduly cruel. I don't want to kill the little SOBs, let alone torture them; I just don't want them as roommates.

The Havahart live trap is a good, humane, cost effective solution to it all. The mechanism is a simple bait-table connected to a set of two thick and sturdy exterior wires which -- on a new trap -- trips very easily (a bit of delicate, deft handling of the exterior wires is needed to get the trap to not spring closed during setup -- those with large fingers will have a difficult time with it I would think). Following capture and release, a good cleaning in a bucket of bleach, well rinsed, and the trap is ready to go again.

For the more romatically inclined, there's a good feeling to be had in preparing a Wine & Cheese Platter (actually, I use toilet tissue and peanut butter) in my attempts to be a good host to the occasional visit from Mr. Mouse. The trap works well enough that normally I see no evidence of a mouse in my kitchen prior to him appearing in the trap -- over the years, I've come to regard the visitors less as disease-ridden destructive vermin, and more as a cute if unkempt old friend who gives me a good excuse to swab the kitchen in bleach.

I normally replace traps every five or six years, and not because they break or become non-functional-- Over time, the trap tends to get a funky dark tarnished patina which is simply too unattractive to my eye. With reasonable care, these traps can be a one-time purchase which need no replacement.

Aesthetic loss aside, after a year or so of use, it helps to oil the moving parts of the trap -- without this, it's possible for the mouse to enter the trap, steal the bait, and leave without tripping the mechanism. Be careful also of too heavy-handed handling of the trap when cleaning -- although sturdy enough, the walls of the cage can be bent with a bit of pressure, which will prevent easy movement of the doors and bait-table.

This is, to my mind, one of those superior products which one always returns to. Whoever crafted the phrase "build a better mousetrap" never saw one of these. It's cheap, it's permanent, it works.

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Chipmunks

I left the Havahart cage outside in my garden, and in a matter of 2 weeks it caught 3 chipmunks. They were destroying my garden. Finally it is chipmunk free. I placed a piece of apple in the trap and that did it.

Quick delivery, quick results

The Havahart mouse trap came arrived a couple of days early and I was able to catch the first mouse that night using peanut butter! I had borrowed a co-workers trap previously so knew how the trigger mechanism worked - otherwise it would have been rather confusing. The Havahart is great for someone (like me) who doesn't want to deal with the aftermath of the old spring traps in which the mouse is either dead or crippled. Thanks to Ace Hardware Outlet and Havahart for an excellent product.

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Great Trap, but needs assembling.

When it says "No assembling", don't believe it!! It took me two hours to get the first one together and I ended up with a whole new vocabulary!! The bait platform was not assembled and all the pieces were loose in the box. The instructions are vague, at best. Same thing with the second one I bought...but I did manage to get that one together in just under an hour. Sure catches mice, though.

Steep learning curve for a possible anthropomorphic deception.

[I've just had a most unsettling conversation with an ecologist in the science department. Having felt reasonably content with my transplantaion of colonies of house mice to country living, I'm told by my colleague that it's more merciful to put them out of their misery in short order with a snap trap. House mice and country mice are two separate species, he claims, and once released to the raw elements of nature, the poor house mouse has nary a chance. It'll soon die but painfully and at a slower pace. He's probably right, but do I choose to believe him? Is belief even a "choice"? For the present, I'm going to maintain my Gandhi/Albert Schweitzer self-image intact. (More or less, since I can't abide any more mouse trackings in the pantry. So co-habitation is out of the question--but so is mouse-icide). But I'm no longer watching them perform for me in their temporary glass holding tank. And I've stopped tagging them with proper names suiting their individual (really!) dispositions. Best to be as impersonal as possible.]

I've had success corralling the little buggers with the two-dollar Tip Trap and the pricier Smart Mouse House, but they only catch one mouse at a time (probably the same with this more institutional, industrial-grade trap as well), and they break in a couple of weeks (at least this one isn't made of cheap plastic). On the other hand, the device frankly befuddles me (maybe the mouse as well). If I had a couple of hours to devote to it, I might be able to figure out how to set the matrix of wires "just so" for both ends of the trap to spring shut (why 2 ends?). I've got enough patience not to commit muricide with these little creatures (deer mice) and am willing to displace them to a country habitat, but getting the hang of this gadget is beyond this Ph. D., who's already had enough of fighting computer programs all day. If you consider yourself a "pro" with a heart, maybe this'll pan out. I'm returning mine and going with another fragile, plastic green "crack house."

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7

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