DIY Electric Shocking Mouse/Rat Trap

[mrbouncyballs]

So we live on a farm and have a problem with rats and mice in our barn. they need to go. we have tried several trap and no luck. I stumbled across some designs for electric shocking mouse traps. they look very simple.

They used a pack to hold 4 "AA" batteries and a Voltage generator. I have attached a picture of the mouse trap I made. It works.

However the battery pack get really hot. so I'm assuming I need something else here.

here is the information on the voltage generator, got it from ebay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-3V-6V-t...-Step-up-Power-Module-High-voltage-Generator/

- Input voltage: DC 3V to 6V

- Input current: 2 A - 5 A
- High pressure pulse current

- Output voltage: 400000 v

- High pressure discharge distance between: 10 mm - 20 mm

- The output high voltage wire length: 100 mm
-Input power cord length: 100 mm (the red line is positive)

I think the concept here is pretty simple and does not need to be explained. and it does put off a serious zap.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. My electronics level is very very basic.

 

[73's de Edd]

Sir mrbouncyballs . . . . .

I can see your problem with that continual fierce current draw of 2-3 amps . . .plus the manufacturers mention of only intermittent use.
To thereby keep it intermittent use . . .you probably just need to provide them with a . . . .
" RING BELL FOR SERVICE " pushbutton

Or rig up a weight / pressure switch on the base / floor of the unit, that they will HAVE to step upon.
Then you just have to worry about the "DEAD" ones weight upon that surface / floor , until you service . . . .or make a timed activation afterwards , rat sweeper arm to clear the "floor" . . . or involve a trap door dump...

73's de Edd
.....

 

[mrbouncyballs]

I understand. do they make a voltage Booster that will work with a continuous charge? or is there one that can charge, and hold the charge, when the charge is released recharge? Does that make sense?

 

[kellys_eye]

Ever considered getting a cat?

 

[duke37]

The local rado club held a construction contest and one entry was a metal plate with a smaller plate mounted on insulating pillars. The two plates were connected to the mains (240V) via a bulb limiter and food was placed on the top plate. It was said to work as a rodent killer but I have repaired several pieces of equipment which has had the wire insulation chewed off with no culprit killed.

My cousin used to shoot rats with an air gun. He could not afford lead pellets so used wheat instead. You seem to prefer assault rifles in the States.

400kV seems to be absurd, look at the size of insulators on overhead power lines.

 

[hevans1944]

Ever considered getting a cat?

What voltages are available in cats? We had a cat that would catch the mouse, play with it for awhile, then bite the head off and present it to us as some form of cat tribute. We never found the body of mice dispatched in this manner, so I suspect the cat ate that part. Must have been like a squishy cat treat, maybe tastier (to the cat).

As @duke37 noted, 400 kV is absurd. Maybe 40 kV peak on a good dry day with good insulation on the wires. The longest arc is only 20mm, less than an inch! Still, for the price, a nice little zapper. With the proper interface electronics, it could be adapted to killing lots of pests, such as flies, mosquitoes, roaches, as well as rats and mice. It needs to be energized intermittently, just before execution of the pest.

Seriously, if you are gonna use high-voltage electricity to kill rats and mice, you need some way to turn it on and off, if for no other reason but to save batteries. The cheap Asian import is not designed for continuous operation, and the sellers warn that operating it without an arc causes the output voltage to rise to levels that will damage the internal parts. That, plus the fact that it is not designed to operate continuously, makes @mrbouncyballs' implementation unsatisfactory.

I have to assume from a close examination of the photo that the three deck screws are charged and baited. Rat or mouse must stand up on rear legs on copper foil, and rise up far enough to grab the bait in their mouth, at which point they get zapped and die. Sounds reasonable, but a current-limited neon sign transformer would be a better choice of electrical zapper. These are available in single-ended (7.5 kV) as well as double-ended (15 kV) versions and cost an obscene amount of moola if purchased new. Best to troll neon sign shops or demolition contractors to negotiate a reasonable price for a used one, but make sure it makes fat, hissing, arcs before purchasing.

While "researching" electric mouse traps on the Web, I ran across several DIY implementations of a low-tech (non-electric, non-electronic) "solution" to the mouse and rat problem. See picture below. More here.

Apparently the can, bottle, or cylinder is scent-baited (usually with peanut butter) and will rotate freely on an axle mounted above a large bucket, typically filled with water to drown the rodents, or empty if you want to collect cat toys or pet-snake fodder. A ramp provides easy access to the can, but the rodent must jump from the ramp (or edge of the bucket) to the cylinder to retrieve the bait. In landing on the cylinder, rodent finds it is not a stable surface and therefore rolls over and falls into the bucket. Empty bucket daily, or more often if necessary.

 

[mrbouncyballs]

We have several stray cats no help.
We have tried the rolling log/ rolling soda bottle trap. No luck.

I saw another idea of. Using an electric fence charger to kill mice and rats. We have one. And this would be safe to use around our animals. So I may re access this and use the fencer. I read that the person uses his fencer to power multiple traps.

 

[hevans1944]

Why didn't the "rolling log/ rolling soda bottle trap" work? Do you have a close-up photo of the device you tried to use? Was there enough water in the bottom of the bucket to ensure drowning? Are your rodents (rats) so large that the are able to jump out of a five-gallon bucket? If so, have you tried using a 55-gallon oil drum?

 

[WHONOES]

Get a Jack Russell dog. They were bred for just that purpose.

 

[Hopup]

Pretty sure you are doing something wrong if normal traps wont catch them. Rats are not intelligent enough to justify using anything more complicated than normal traps. Just use good cheese in the traps.

 

[BobK]

Pretty sure you are doing something wrong if normal traps wont catch them. Rats are not intelligent enough to justify using anything more complicated than normal traps. Just use good cheese in the traps.

Peanut butter works better, at least for mice.

Bob

 

[ChosunOne]

While "researching" electric mouse traps on the Web, I ran across several DIY implementations of a low-tech (non-electric, non-electronic) "solution" to the mouse and rat problem. See picture below. More here.

Apparently the can, bottle, or cylinder is scent-baited (usually with peanut butter) and will rotate freely on an axle mounted above a large bucket, typically filled with water to drown the rodents, or empty if you want to collect cat toys or pet-snake fodder. A ramp provides easy access to the can, but the rodent must jump from the ramp (or edge of the bucket) to the cylinder to retrieve the bait. In landing on the cylinder, rodent finds it is not a stable surface and therefore rolls over and falls into the bucket. Empty bucket daily, or more often if necessary.

I recently had occasion to browse around the Web, looking for the same low-tech DIY solutions for catching mice. There are a number of funny YouTube vids demonstrating the use the kind of trap in your picture. I have to admit I didn't get as far as trying one myself, but the YT videos look pretty convincing.

The reason you need enough water in the bucket to drown a mouse/rat is that when they're desperate, they can make phenomenal jumps, way higher than you'd believe without seeing it. The water is to keep them off the floor so they can't jump.

 

[Bluejets]

Ratsak...??

 

[Anard]

Not sure but I'm perplex about your electrical trap.
Rats are warned of danger by human smell or rats' pee. When they die (if the agony is long enough), they let out a drop of piss to alert their friends of danger.
With electrical shock, I think that it's a physical reflex that will let it out.
But maybe, when it's volonteer, they let some special fragrant to precise the message, what they couldn't do with electrical shock.

 

[ChosunOne]

Not sure but I'm perplex about your electrical trap.
Rats are warned of danger by human smell or rats' pee. When they die (if the agony is long enough), they let out a drop of piss to alert their friends of danger.
With electrical shock, I think that it's a physical reflex that will let it out.
But maybe, when it's volonteer, they let some special fragrant to precise the message, what they couldn't do with electrical shock.

Citation? I.e., can you give us a link to some documentation about that? It has the odor of an urban myth.


In a quick search, I did find evidence that rat urine (or any strong rat smell) will tend to scare away mice, which makes sense because rats prey on mice. Which might make a good case to have the rat drop into a bath and not spread his smell around.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2010/05/scent-makes-mice-run-scared

 

[Anard]

It has the odor of an urban myth.

Maybe, but I feel it difficult to catch multiple rats in the same trap. It's as if the first one could prevent the others.

 

[hevans1944]

I have seen several videos of the rolling barrel trap, and some have shown lots of mice that have drowned overnight in perhaps ten inches or so of water. Deep enough so their little legs can't touch the bottom of the bucket in preparation for an upward leap outward. So, pee or no pee, a hungry rodent may decide the bait is worth the risk. Rats, OTOH, need a much larger bucket to drown in... like a "55 gallon oil drum" or something of similar size... maybe a discarded water heater tank. Or a large diameter drain pipe of appropriate length, plugged on one end and stood upright.

If I had a rodent problem, I would be tempted to go "high tech" on it with electronic rodent detectors that triggered some sort of fatal event. None of this "humane" catch-and-release stuff for me, although I might be tempted to collect some alive to sell in the neighborhood to those who keep "pet" snakes. We live in a protected bird sanctuary, and the local hawk and owl population does a pretty good job of keeping the local rodent population in check. Something also does a number on free-roaming cats and small dogs too... maybe alligators. Lots of alligators living nearby.

 

[ChosunOne]

Maybe, but I feel it difficult to catch multiple rats in the same trap. It's as if the first one could prevent the others.

If you want to watch demonstrations of multiple mice being caught, search "DIY Mouse Trap" or "Bucket mouse trap" on YouTube. Not all will show a demo at the end, so I skip ahead in the video. There are a plethora of videos of self-resetting traps catching multiple mice overnight, and you could spend all day watching.

Some of them are pretty entertaining.

 

[hevans1944]

Some of them are pretty entertaining.

Hmmm. Are there different YouTube entertainment categories for rodent death by (1) drowning, (2) electrocution, (3) evisceration, (4) impaling, (5) beheading, (6) poisoning, (7) incineration, (8) suffocation, (9) starvation, and (10) blunt force trauma? Which of these methods of rodent execution would be most entertaining, and what is your preference? The only experience I have is (11) stomping a rat to death with steel-toed boots, but there may be other (more entertaining) categories. Some might even involve Electronics Point topics.

 

[ChosunOne]

I decided to add one more caveat here about using electrocution devices. You mentioned this is for a barn, so there are other critters than mice and rats that can wander into/across/over whatever device you use. Given that you have an abundance of mice, there are unquestionably a number of snakes traveling your barn floor too, following fresh mouse scent. If you choose to use a floor-level electric zapper, keep in mind that you may well eliminate some of your allies in keeping the mouse population down. Aside from the electronic considerations of an electric zapper, it would be wise to put a lot of thought into how to limit access to the Zap Zone so that only mice or rats are zapped.

Passive traps like the bucket-dunkers won't trap snakes or cats or owls or most of the predators that are currently keeping your mouse population down (just not far enough down). They might catch an occasional shrew.