Review of the Catchmaster "Mouse Inn" humane mousetrap (#fail)
Channel: andycivil
Date: 2015-05-09

This is a review of the Catchmaster "Mouse Inn" humane mousetrap.

The first thing you notice when you open the box is that you don't get much for your money. It's a plastic box with a flap that only goes inwards, there are also four bait tablets; one is gone because I've been trying to use it according to the instructions. In theory, the mice are subdued by the natural product in the pill, and are content to wait for you to come and release them.

It wouldn't matter that the product seemed poor value if it worked, but in practice, I found that the mice were not attracted by the pill, and if I put a more attractive bait in the box, they just ate that and ignored the pill. I also found that the bait was disappearing without any sign of a mouse, so I set up a night vision camera to see what went on. The half-oval shape you see there on the left is sweet-smelling marshmallow chocolate right at the back of the trap.

The mouse does indeed come to take the bait and find itself trapped. However, mice have claws, and this one didn't take long to work out that it had to lift the door inwards. The company would probably argue at this point that I should have used the bait, but for this to work, the mouse has to want the pill (not happening) and wait around to eat the pill (not happening) and the drowsy effect has to be strong enough to make the mouse forget how to open the flap. That's a lot of hope and not much result, so "Sorry" to the cute design, but this one is a fail.

At first he's so happy to be out that he leaves the chocolate behind. I guess it's pretty hard to open that door with a chocolate in your mouth. He comes back, perhaps chickening out because he remembers being trapped before. But later, his hunger gets the better of him and he has another go. Mouse Inn? Nope. Mouse Outt.