Put that in your mousetrap: mice don't like cheese

AFP ^ | 09/06/06

[presidio9]

Mice, contrary to popular belief and cartoons like Tom and Jerry, don't actually like cheese, British researchers said after studying their diet and those of other animals.

Instead, the tiny rodents prefer foods with a high sugar content like grains and fruit and would turn their noses up at something as strong in smell and rich in taste as cheese, scientists in Manchester in northwest England said.

Animal behaviourist David Holmes, from Manchester Metropolitan University, said: "Clearly the supposition of mice liking cheese is a popular premise. Mice have evolved almost entirely without cheese or anything resembling it.

"Mice respond to the smell, texture and taste of food and cheese is something that would not be available to them in their natural environment" and therefore they would not respond to it.

[cripplecreek]

I just ordered a live trap yesterday so I can catch the woodchuck living under my garage. He comes out to eat pears and peches that fall off the trees so I've already figured out what to use for bait. I'm gonna turn him loose in the state land near by.

[batter]

I'm gonna turn him loose in the state land near by.

Is there a liberal nearby with a doggie door...

[cripplecreek]

He comes out to eat pears and peches

He likes peaches too if anybody wonders.

[B Knotts]

Yep. Peanut butter works very well.

[cripplecreek]

Is there a liberal nearby with a doggie door...

LOL HAPPY GROUNDHOGS DAY M'Fers. GIT SOME!!!!!

[freedomlover]

I have to chime in for peanut butter.

Works great for about any mammal - including rats with bushy tails.

[LIConFem]

Who needs traps/bait? Until her recent passing, Kat was quite the little mouser.

[Doomonyou]

Peanut Butter!

[CDHart]

Poor little critters -- they must have some use besides in a laboratory.

Carolyn

[AzNASCARfan]

I always use peanut butter too...

have not seen a friday silliness thread lately...
and this one sort of fits into this thread.

It's called "Latest Iraqi Booby trap"

  

[Tokra]

Poor little critters -- they must have some use besides in a laboratory.

They do - see post #27!

[Tokra]

The mice have artificial insemination?

I should have said, "Kill MOST of the males" - it only takes one male to keep the generations going. Catch the females and its the end.

[dennisw]

Forget peanut butter. What works even better is gummy bear type of stick candies. Get that in the trap and the mouse is sure to tug the trap shut

I used to use PB butter but too often the mouse would eat around it. Or eat gently

[dennisw]

sticky candies

[HungarianGypsy]

Hmmm. We had a mouse that got into our house one year when we bought a Christmas tree. The first time my dad put peanut butter on the trap. The mouse licked out the peanut butter and never sprung the trap. The second time he put cheese on the trap. The mouse was caught.

[scory]

I have used both cheese and peanut butter and both seem to work. The last infestation we had was the worst. I caught two with cheese but we still had the little critters rattling and rustling around and they wouldn't go for cheese any more so I switched to PB and nailed 4 more which put an end to the problem. In the two previous infestations I have dealt with cheese did the job by itself. I also tried the poison blocks which the mice happliy nibbled away on but which never killed even a single mouse.

BTW I am amazed at how destructive these little vermin are. They chew their way into everything and - like rust - never sleep (or so it seems).

[Oztrich Boy]

Not so fast! I've caught mice with cheese.

Me too.

I go with what works, and do not consider I am under obligation to provide a condemned mouse with a last meal it might prefer.

[dfwgator]

I like cheese.

[presidio9]

I like cheese.

[DManA]

The Ministry of Truth needs to go back and fix all those Tom & Jerry cartoons.