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Homemade Rat and Mouse Trap – The Easy Way to Get Rid of Rodents

As you know, rats live in groups and prefer to live next to people to find food and a safe home, especially in highly populated areas. Rats can eat your food, and transmit diseases. Let’s talk about how you can make a rat trap.

How to make a homemade rat and mouse trap that will definitely work

A lot of people are suspicious of whether home rat traps will really work or not. The reality of the situation is that if you make them correctly, they will work. Also put them in the right areas of your home where there is high population of rodents. It is sometimes unclear why store bought rodent traps may not work to rid your home of rats while homemade ones will work successfully, but it happens. It may be due to shyness or aversion. We know that these creatures are clever, so let’s outsmart them!

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There are various methods available for people who want to know how to get rid of rats, but if you decide to make an ideal home rat trap with the help of materials at hand, use any of the following methods:

• Sticky traps: how to catch a rat or a mouse with glue

This type of trap is made using a special adhesive applied to the board, cardboard or plastic tray. Glue is applied to the center of the trap: it often has a flavor pleasant to the rats. It’s not recommended to put traps outside because of natural conditions (humidity, dust), which quickly degrade the glue. Catching rats on such sticky tape is very convenient.

Do you know the best way to catch rats using a sticky trap? Try to put some bait (peanut butter or bacon) on the floor inside a circle of sticky tape. That way they have to cross the sticky tape to get to the food – it works!

glue traps for rodents: photo

You’d better know that sticky rodent traps are inhumane, because trapped animals usually suffer for many hours before death from dehydration or stress. So we suggest you check your glue traps very often or use other traps.

In fact, good electronic traps are more humane because rats and mice die fast without extra torments (learn more in our “TOP-6 The Best electronic rat traps”).

The snap traps are easy to use & recommended by customers. It’s one of the best of them – very simple and cheap. But you should know that rats are very inventive.

Our friend has told us about his trying to catch rats with the help of an ordinary snap trap. Once he saw how two rats were stealing the bait from the trap. One rat raised the trap’s cross-bar with the help of its teeth and returned it back after its rat-friend pulled out the bait. Rats are so cunning and adaptable that it is very hard to get rid of them. By their ability to survive, they can be compared only with cockroaches. That is why electronic traps, which kill rats by electric shock immediately, have become the best solution for many people.

• Bucket rat trap

1. Make a bucket & spoon rodent trap.

This is a domestic rat trap made from a bucket and a spoon. It is known as one of the best homemade traps. For a good result, you only require a large bucket, a spoon and some bait such as peanut butter. By the way, you can make a peanut butter for rat bait yourself in less than 15 minutes. Just take peeled peanuts, roast them, add a tablespoon of vegetable oil and put this mix in a blender – done!

Spread the peanut butter on the handle of a spoon and put it across the bucket. When the mouse climbs to get peanut butter, it will fall into the bucket with a spoon. If you do not like the idea that the mice would ruin cutlery, you can make a similar trap with any other materials, such as paper plate, tissue paper roll, etc or make bucket & spoon trap with water in the bucket.

homemade bucket rat trap: photo

2. Make a bucket & dog food rat trap.

Put dog food in a bucket with a lid. Cut a hole in the lid. The mouse/rat will be able to get on the lid and go into the bucket, but will have a hard time trying to hop out.

If you don’t have enough time to make your own homemade traps, you can buy a ready-to-use one as some decent options are available on the market. Walk the Plank Mouse Trap for is very reputable among the customers as it is effective and easy to use.

Walk the Plank Mouse Trap: photo

To install the trap, fix it on a five-gallon bucket and made a “staircase” out of, say, a stick, so that the mice can climb the trap easily. Place the bait (such as peanut butter which we mentioned above) on the other end of the plank.

The trap is capable of catching several rodents per night. Its action is straightforward: a mouse steps on the platform and slips down the bucket where it drowns. Meanwhile, the trap is fully set for the next pest. Check out the video to see how simple it is!

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You can use this trap in places where there are many mice. You will no longer need to install 10-20 traps to catch them all. With only one trap you will be able to quickly catch all of the unwanted guests. For more efficiency, the manufacturer recommends fixing several traps over a single bucket.

No mouse has been able to escape during our experiments. The supplier notes that the trap is effective not only against mice, but also against other small pests. Just make sure you don’t try to catch rats with it as they are too large and heavy.

Walk the Plank Mouse Trap is convenient and reusable. All you will have to do is empty the bucket with the dead mice regularly. Moreover, its price of (BUCKET NOT INCLUDED) is quite reasonable.

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Another trap, PAWMATE Rolling Log Mouse Trap, will handle large rats. You will also keep the trapped rodents in a standard 5-gallon bucket. The rest of the action is different. The light cylinder of this Rolling Mouse Trap which leads a mouse’s way to the bait, rotates very fast, and so no mouse can get a grip and it inevitably falls into the bucket.

Rolling Log Mouse Trap: photo

The washer in the middle of the roller increases the trap’s effectiveness as the mice simply can’t jump over it; instead, they fall.

Setting it up is quite easy, as you need to attach the trap to a standard 5-gallon bucket. Put some bait in the middle of the roller and fill the bucket with water. If you leave it empty, mice or rats might be able to escape the trap. Also make a red carpet for the rodents reaching the bait. Any wooden plank can help you. This trap is even cheaper than the previous one as it costs only, Check current price.

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• Mouse trap from milk bottles

You can make a good homemade trap out of milk jug. To do this, take the jug and pour oil inside making the walls slippery. You should also put the bait inside the jug. Make sure the mouse has a way to climb up the outside of the container. Leave the trap all night. When a mouse finds food, it will climb up the jug and eventually fall into it. But slippery walls will prevent it from getting out. This method is also humane: you can release the mouse outside. But this milk jug homemade mouse trap is often too small for large fattened rats.

Those who don’t want to kill mice prefer to use electronic repellers. It’s a human and low cost way. For example, the set of 4 Ultrasonic Pest Repellers by Pest Venator costs only  Check the current price.

But if you want to get rid of mice fast – pay attention to electronic rat traps: “TOP-6 The best electronic rat traps” or chemical rodent baits: “Top-5 rat and mouse poison baits”.

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18 thoughts on “Homemade Rat and Mouse Trap – The Easy Way to Get Rid of Rodents”

    1. I have found a much better bait than peanut butter . . . Tootsie Rolls. Just moisten them in your mouth and place a portion on the trap. You will catch several mice/rats before you need to add more bait. Give this a try.

  1. About 1 year ago I also had problem with rats. And I looked for answers “How to get rid of house rats”. I really hate this animals. But I still think, that self made trap – isn’t good idea. Firstly, it’s not effective. Secondly, it’s too cruel. Rat can dying for a few days. I prefer electronic trap.

  2. Rosemarie Buchanan

    Be sure to thoroughly clean the snap traps between uses. Rats will smell “death” on a trap that’s recently killed another rat. I have the black plastic snap traps. After removing the dead rat (triple wrapped in plastic and put in the deep freeze until garbage day), I drop the trap into a bucket with about a litre of very hot water and some bleach; soak for a few hours, scrub with a brush and then, if you want, rewash it (I actually put mine in the dishwasher, after a thorough bleaching and scrubbing). It should just smell like clean plastic when it comes out of the dishwasher. Re-bait it, put it where the rats are active, let it do its thing, and repeat! 🙂 I am sorry that I have to kill these buggers, but if they’re in my house, they need to be killed. My house is 108 years old and has all kinds of secret places for rodents to come and go, but this year (2016), here on Vancouver Island, there is a huge rat problem so I’ve become very cutthroat about killing them.

  3. Farmer’s Rat soultion. 100% kill rate. Mix Granola or Meusli 50/50 with Plaster of Paris…Mix well, place out for Rats…works every time.

    1. Farmer John, should the Plaster of Paris stay dry or should it be wet? Thank you, they have taken over my home and I do need to get rid of them, pronto.

  4. These are very smart little beast. They do learn quickly so if they have set off a trap using one type of bait you might want to change it because I have noticed they will avoid it the next time.

  5. i don’t see how that bucket trap works, how many parts there are, which is which and why any rat would stay inside that bucket. many years ago a friend of mine made a home-made bucket trap that would drown mice. i caught a few rats in a Hav-A-Hart but they don’t fall for it anymore and are just eating sunflower seeds dropped from the birdfeeder.

  6. i didn’t realize that using the walk-the-plank trap with a container filled with water results in the poor things struggling in a panic trying not to drown for an extended period of time and i will never use this again.

  7. Depends on the depth of the water. 2” will prevent most escapes. Compare it to trying to jump the high jump in knee deep water. You have the option of turning well hydrated rodents loose far from your home, for the benefit of other critters in Mother Nature’s domain. A kill trap requires 6” to 10” of water (rats at the high end). Except for Norway rats, kill traps usually finish the job in less than 3 minutes.

    Norway rats are powerful swimmers, very bright, and quick learners. They are also known as “Black Rats”.

  8. ,great advice,what kind of glue is used to make your own sticky traps? I’ve bought some from the store and didn’t work.

  9. Make rats suffer and put glue traps around ur house and where they’re in the glue trap grab a metal pole and hit them on the head with it

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