Also … the simple snap traps are sometimes badly calibrated.
As a poster further upthread alluded to, you can fix them. I bend the vertical plate a tiny bit so that there is a bit less “shelf” for the tension wire to rest on.
Be careful - you can take this too far and make it a hair trigger…
ALSO: I always mix a pinch of quinoa or tiny seeds into the peanut butter so it can’t be licked clean - they must bump and move it to get the peanut butter.
Also be sure to work the peanut butter into the inside of the curl of the plate. That'll set the trap off when they try to get that last bit out.
I didn't realize it at first, but the snap traps are diabolical in that if they go off when the mouse is licking there, the wire will catch them on the back of the neck, crushing it, which will kill the mice quickly and humanely.
I don't want to kill them. Once, there was one running across the counter. Quick action with an inverted glass caught the little bugger. I slide a card under the glass so I could pick it up, took it outside, and let him go a hundred yards away.
As a poster further upthread alluded to, you can fix them. I bend the vertical plate a tiny bit so that there is a bit less “shelf” for the tension wire to rest on.
Be careful - you can take this too far and make it a hair trigger…
ALSO: I always mix a pinch of quinoa or tiny seeds into the peanut butter so it can’t be licked clean - they must bump and move it to get the peanut butter.