For reasons unknown, we have had an abundance of mice in our garage this year. It could be because there was recently a house built next door. Or it could be because it’s starting to get cold. Or it could be because our garage is more cluttered and disorganized than normal. But whatever the reason, we have been invaded!

Luckily we hadn’t seen any mice in the house with the exception of some “evidence” aka mouse poop under my husband’s sink in our bathroom. (there’s an access panel to our tub so we’re pretty sure they were coming in through the garage to there) But you could spend 5 minutes in the garage and hear or sometimes see a mouse.

After a few weeks of my husband and I forgetting to set the mouse traps I came up with a brilliant idea! Why not get the kids involved?!? Learning how to set a mouse trap is a life skill they should know well.

The Motivation

In order to make it fun and keep the kids motivated to help us get rid of the mice we turned it into a game.

We gave each kid their own mouse trap that we wrote their name on. My husband and I supplied the snickers bars & reese’s peanut butter cups for bait (and let the kids eat the extras). We taught them how to set the trap, but had to help the 2 youngest girls with theirs.

We didn’t want to use poison because we have dogs & chickens, and the traps are the most humane in my opinion. At least it’s over quickly.

The Contest

The contest was whoever caught the most mice in 1 week won $5. They were responsible for checking and emptying (if necessary) and resetting their traps. They could put them wherever they wanted.

We had a tally board in our bedroom (pictured above)

The results

In the first 2 hours the kids caught 6 mice! By the end of the first day they had caught 12 mice.

For the first day and a half our poor little 8 year old had what we call “Ninja mice” meaning her trap would either loose the bait and not go off, or it would go off and the bait would be gone but no mouse caught. That’s when we switched from using Reese’s peanut butter cups to snickers bars where we could stick them to the trap better. Then she started catching mice too.

One of our teenage boys caught 6 live baby mice on the last day right outside our front door! Catching them live gave the next problem- what to do with them? Unbeknownst to me, my husband told our son to take them to the vacant lot down the street and let them go.

After the 3rd mouse was caught I asked where he had put them and learned the drop off point. (face palm) After that the rest of the live ones were put into our big trash can outside (where they couldn’t get out). I really wish we had a cat so I wouldn’t have to deal or know about any mice!

By the end of the week the kids had caught 29 mice! TWENTY-NINE MICE!!!

Now

Since this challenge we’ve had 4-5 traps set and only caught 1 or 2 here and there. Let’s hope our mouse issues are over!

During the week my husband bought these traps hoping they would resolve the “ninja mouse” issues……… They are DUMB!!! None of us could even get these traps to set! Don’t buy them!

These are the traps we used. Tried and tested. Used them for years. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it! You can get a pack of about 4 of them at Walmart for around $2.