Household pests can be bothersome and harmful. While some are capable of spreading germs and diseases, others destroy and cause a nuisance in the home.
It is to this effect that most homeowners seek to do away with them in the best way possible.
One such effective way is putting bait on a glue trap. This article outlines if peanut butter is good bait for a glue trap and how effective it is.
Peanut butter is the most effective method of controlling rodents in the house since it is toxic to their system. However, when using this method, ensure the peanut butter is not rubbed all over the glue trap because rodents and insects may detect the smell and render the trap ineffective. There is also an option of getting a peanut butter-scented glue trap.
Does Peanut Butter On a Glue Trap Attract Mice?
Of course, peanut butter is rich in fat and oil, one of the primary ingredients that attract mice to the trap, making them the most effective method of attracting mice.
In addition, mice and generally rodents become drawn to foods with high protein levels.
Therefore, peanut butter is more likely to stay fresher for a long time and is also more susceptible to balance well on every side of an angle of the glue trap.
Is Peanut Butter Poisonous To Mice?
Peanut butter is not only effective for traps but is also helpful for feeding mice pets.
However, it would help if you did not give peanut butter to your pet mouse because it can block the nasal passage and airway of your mouse, thereby suffocating them to death.
When mice eat peanut butter, they vomit to clear their air passages. In addition, any food rich in fat and oil is a sour treat to your mice.
On the contrary, peanut butter is good bait if you are looking forward to trapping mice. When mice eat peanut butter, their airways get clogged, and they begin to suffocate.
Peanut butter is also a sticky food and is extremely dangerous for mice because it can clog their jaws.
Generally, food rich in calories like fat and oil is dangerous for mice. They are, however, other types of peanut butter that are not harmful to mice.
If you intend peanut butter for your mice trap, you may want to look up the best type of peanut butter for your mice trap which you usually detect after trial and error.
Eight Best Bait to Put on a Mouse Glue Trap
When it comes to baiting, household kitchen foods are often the place. Several homes and food baits are handy because mice easily attract them.
Hence, the confusion comes with choosing the most effective food bait for mice traps. Most homeowners assume that cheese is the most effective food bait and have stuck with that.
However, there is cheese on the list and several others.
#1. Peanut Butter
Mice and rodents generally are particularly lovers of seeds and nuts. Aside from these, peanut butter has an impeachable flavor and is also rich in fats and oil.
Calories are a nutritional need for household mice, so peanut butter is effective for mice baiting.
Nevertheless, when putting it on the bait, peanut butter is needed in a tiny minute quantity, like a pea size. Hazelnut is usually a good alternative when peanut butter is unavailable.
#2. Seeds And Nuts
All seeds and nuts attract mice. Therefore, a nut or seed is always helpful when making good bait for your glue trap. The three most effective seeds are the bird, sunflower, and pumpkin.
#3. Marshmallows And Gumdrops
Mice love sugar and would go for foods with good taste. Even though marshmallows and gumdrops seem like a cheap method of food bait, they have speedy results because mice are attracted to the sugar contents of the foods.
You may require just a few pieces of marshmallows on the mice trap to do the bait.
#4. Pet Food
Mice are also attracted to pet foods. For instance, cat food left over attracts mice to the house.
Therefore, cats with leftover foods should be disposed of and cleaned out properly. Even though mice prefer dry foods, they may go for wet foods littered all over the house.
Interestingly, you can always use this opportunity to set a trap since there is already bait for the mice.
#5. Fruit Jam
Just like peanut butter and marshmallows, fruit jams are sweet and sticky. Unfortunately, when using fruit jams as bait, it is likely to attract other pests and insects such as cockroaches, ants, and flies.
Fruit jams are to be in very minute quantities for the traps. If used in big chunks, mice may have a bite, but the trap would not relax since there is still enough weight to hold it up.
#6. Deli Meat
Mice love beacons and sausages. They may either eat them raw or cooked. Sometimes, you may notice your deli meat go missing.
When this happens, it is entirely the operations of the mice in your home. Luckily, since mice love meat so much, you can use it as bait to always lure them out of their hiding places.
However, deli meat is decomposable, and you may need to keep tabs on the meat regularly when you use it for bait.
#7. Chocolate
Milk and regular milk are the most effective types of chocolate for milk and baiting.
Unfortunately, it is not always guaranteed, and you may only find the appropriate chocolate to use for mice traps after trial and error. The primary reason why mice are attracted to chocolate is its high-calorie level.
#8. Cheese
Not all cheese is helpful for mice baiting, even though many assume it is. However, soft cheese is needed to attract mice due to its intense smell.
How Do Glue Trap Attract Mice?
Glue traps on their own cannot attract mice. However, mice traps are attracted to glue traps when they smell a source of food on them, such as cheese, marshmallows, peanut butter, and deli meat.
In addition, mice become attracted to glue traps under certain conditions. They include the location and strength of the glue trap.
Glue traps are pretty practical and have several advantages over other trapping methods.
Here are some pro tips and cons when using glue traps for mice baiting.
Peanut Butter Mouse Trap Not Working
Mice can invade a peanut butter trap and steal them, or at least a chunk of it; this mostly happens when the peanut butter gets smeared on the mouse trap in large quantities.
Several mistakes homeowners make could result in a peanut butter mouse trap not working.
Some of these mistakes include:
#1. A Smelly Bait
A mouse can detect a human smell from peanut butter. For example, if you use your hands to rub peanut butter on a trap, then mice are likely not to eat the butter but altogether avoid it.
You can prevent this by using only safety gloves when you want to smear peanut butter on the mice trap and even after removing dead mice from the traps.
#2. Globby Bait
Mice traps should get smeared with a small quantity of peanut butter because putting so much butter may be ineffective as the mice won’t eat the bait in a quantity that could reduce the weight of the trap, thereby triggering it.
#3. Keeping Traps In Open Spaces
Mice are sneaky household pests and would not necessarily fall for traps kept in an open space.
They prefer to linger only around dark corners, and so should the traps. You should also keep your traps at least just 2-3 feet apart from each other.
#4. Not Changing the Traps Occasionally
Mice traps may not be as effective as you want them to be if you forget to change them frequently. The ideal time to change your traps is every month or once in 6 weeks.
However, as expected, you should change the traps occasionally because mice may die and remain in their traps, thereby preventing other rodents from falling into the traps.
#5. Mice Activity
Mice may avoid your traps for a few days when setting them up. The best thing to do is to get them used to unset traps so they can get comfortable feeding on the bait. After this, you can go on and start setting the traps.
Final Thoughts
Peanut butter on glue traps is an effective way of mice baiting. Home food baits such as cheese, marshmallows, sugar, and chocolates are all used as bait for mice.
When smearing peanut butter on traps, ensure not to use your bare hands because that could lead to the mice avoiding the traps.
In addition, a mice trap may not work if the bait is smelly, globby, or kept in an open space.
