The wasp trap is perhaps the most effective and simple means to get rid of insects on the site, if their nest itself is located outside it. Moreover, such traps help not only in the country house, in the garden or garden, but especially in the apiary, where wasps often actively hunt bees. Just a few correctly made traps in a relatively short period of time can significantly reduce the number of wasps in the area.
Next, we will look at how you can make a wasp trap with your own hands, and it will work in such a way that you yourself will be surprised at how simple and at the same time very effective a design it is. To make it, just have an empty plastic bottle on hand. mineral water, scissors, and wire or tape. The actual production of one product will only take a few minutes, and such a wasp trap from a bottle often works even more effectively than expensive store-bought counterparts.
By the way, we note that many standard insect traps have virtually no effect on wasps. For example, lamp devices, which are very effective against mosquitoes, flies and moths, do not attract wasps at all, and even when located directly near the vineyard, they only catch insects that accidentally fly into them. A trap made with your own hands, about which we'll talk further, it first effectively attracts wasps (more effectively than, for example, grapes or blackberries on a bush), and then destroys them.
Even before making a trap for wasps, it will be useful to make sure that insects have not settled on the site or in outbuildings by organizing their nest here. To do this, you need to observe where the insects fly after feeding on berry fields or grapes, and to be on the safe side, carefully check rarely visited attics, sheds and sheds. If there is a nest on the site, it is enough to simply destroy it so that the wasps no longer disturb it - this will solve the problem in just a couple of hours. However, if you are afraid to get too close to the nest, then traps will come in handy in this case...
DIY wasp traps: principles of operation and materials used
So, let's now take a closer look at how to make a wasp trap with your own hands using an empty two-liter plastic bottle.
The manufacturing procedure is as follows:
- The top third of the bottle with the neck is cut off with scissors or a knife.
- IN bottom part bottles are filled with bait.
- The lid is twisted off the cut part.
- Next, the cut off upper part of the bottle is turned upside down and inserted into the lower part (if the bottle has different diameters at different heights, it should be cut so that when turned over, the upper part fits into the lower one quite tightly).
- You can additionally make small holes in the trap just above the level of the bottom of the neck (however, this is not necessary). They are needed so that the smell of the bait comes out of the bottle better and spreads around, but the insects themselves should not be able to crawl through these holes.
- If you plan to hang the trap on tree branches, two holes are made in the upper part of the resulting structure on different sides, into which a wire loop is inserted - you get a handle.
A bottle volume of 2 or 5 liters will be optimal if a universal one is required. The fact is that with a large number of them, several tens or even hundreds of insects can get into the bottle in one day, so smaller traps simply cannot accommodate such a number of “guests”. If you only need a trap for paper wasps, you can take a smaller bottle, for example, 1.5 liters.
The principle of operation of a homemade trap is simple: a wasp, attracted by a pleasant aroma, crawls through a funnel into the inside of the bottle, feasts on the bait, and then tries to fly out, either instinctively flying up or crawling to the top of the trap along the inner wall. In any case, the insect rests against the junction of two parts of the bottle and the “biological algorithms” simply do not allow the wasp to make a life-saving path along the neck of the funnel to the exit from the trap.
Very often, such traps are placed by experienced summer residents under tables on verandas or in summer kitchens, since wasps are strongly attracted to tables by the smells of cooking foods, especially fish. Here the traps are simply taped to the table legs.
“We had to hang about ten traps at our dacha in the summer, there were so many wasps. They are caught regularly, I had to shake out the bottles every day. True, there were fewer of them only after a week or two, because there were too many of them. But without any chemicals and bites, like others.”
Valentina Petrovna, Kolomyia
You need to keep in mind that one wasp trap in an apiary or in a large area (more than 5 acres) will not help. Here you need to use at least 5-6 of them, distributed evenly throughout the territory.
However, if you read carefully, making the structure described above with your own hands is only part of the task. The modified bottle turns into a trap only after the correctly selected effective bait is placed in it, capable of attracting wasps.
Properly preparing bait for a trap
As bait for wasps and hornets in traps, they usually use mash, kvass, beer (possibly with sugar), fermented jam, honey diluted with water, watermelon juice or compote. They are poured into the trap so much that there is some distance left to the bottom of the neck.
The choice of bait must be taken very responsibly. It should not attract bees, which are very important for pollinating plants in the garden. Therefore, it is not advisable to pour sugar syrups or fresh jams, especially in the apiary, into the trap. Bees do not flock to mash or beer.
Wasp traps in the country can also be filled with baits containing toxic substances. Firstly, even single wasps that escape from the trap will die after feeding with such bait. And secondly, even if they were caught, already in the trap, living wasps would not allow them to be calmly shaken out (imagine - shaking out two hundred still living wasps). When using an insecticidal additive in the bait, the insects die very quickly, they can be removed, and the trap can be hung again for work.
You can also make your own poisoned bait for a trap. To do this, add standard kvass, beer or compote and mix thoroughly boric acid, or you can buy effective insecticidal preparations that are odorless - they work even better. Such tools include, for example, Get, Lambda Zone, Delta Zone. These are not very expensive products and last a long time.
You can also use the special drug Otos as bait. It is sold in 10-gram bags, and the contents of each bag are enough for one trap. The powder is simply poured into a bottle and poured with half a glass of warm water, then mixed. After 2-3 hours, the mixture will begin to smell and attract wasps, and the bees will not flock to such bait.
Purchased products: types, prices and reviews
If you don’t want to bother making a wasp trap yourself, then you can easily buy one. For example, the following models are actively sold in agricultural stores or online today:
All of these traps are quite effective, and the price does not reflect their quality. You can buy either the one that is cheaper and easier to deliver, or the one that is in stock (we recommend giving preference to the Swissinno trap).
“We suffered from wasps this summer. They made a nest in the fence at the dacha, and my daughter and I arrived a day before my husband. Well, on the very first day we were bitten once. I called my husband, he arrived with a purchased trap. This is a bucket with holes on the sides. They hung it right next to the nest and poured sweet compote into it. The wasps were caught for several days until the entire trap was filled, but this was not much use. The rest were flying anyway. It ended with my husband dousing their nest with gasoline at night and burning it.”
Yana, Kirov
Sticky wasp traps
Another way to catch wasps in the countryside is to do it with adhesive tapes designed for flies. Such tapes are hung in places where wasps are most concentrated, and sooner or later the insects sit down on them to rest, stick and die.
Tapes have their advantages and disadvantages. Their main advantages are low cost, availability and ease of use. They don't even require bait! But the disadvantages of sticky traps include the fact that not only wasps can stick to them, but also bees, butterflies, riders, beetles and a bunch of other, sometimes beneficial insects. Another drawback is that sticky tapes are not particularly attractive to wasps.
In addition, adhesive tapes should be hung in places that are visible and free from other objects. By themselves, they have an unsightly appearance, and being covered with wasps, flies and mosquitoes, still moving, they represent a frankly repulsive sight. Therefore, in most cases, bottle traps, which can be camouflaged or placed under a table or in thick foliage, are preferable to tape.
Practice has shown that sticky tapes do not effectively catch hornets: these insects can come off the Velcro, which is essentially intended only to hold flies.
In the apiary, to protect the hives, you can use special glues, which are used to catch cockroaches in houses or caterpillars in gardens. The glue is applied in a thin layer to cardboard or a sheet of plywood, and the entire trap is placed on the hive or other visible place. To be safe, you can place a piece of watermelon or peach inside it. Even a hornet will get stuck in such a mass of glue.
For wasps, you can use, for example, the following glues:
- RaTrap, a 135 ml tube of which costs about 80 rubles.
- Clean House at a price of 60 rubles per 60 grams;
- ALT, approximately 200 rubles for 135 grams.
To make one sticky trap, 100-120 grams of glue is enough.
In the apiary, you need to carefully monitor that bees do not fall into sticky traps.
Below is a video from Southeast Asia, where giant hornets are caught in an apiary using a trap with this operating principle:
Huge hornets in an apiary are caught in a glue trap
What to do if wasp traps don't help?
In exceptional cases, even with the constant capture of a large number of wasps, their number in the area may not seem to decrease. In such situations, you either just have to wait until the grapes or raspberries go away, or find their nest in the vicinity and destroy it.
IN gardening associations with high-density housing, wasps are almost certain to take up residence on someone's property. By going around your neighbors, you can eventually find the “lucky one” who has their nest, or often several at once, hanging in his attic or closet. In addition, in apiaries or in the vicinity of abandoned areas, you can catch a couple of wasps with leather gloves, tie scarlet ribbons around their abdomen, release them and watch where they fly. In just half an hour you can find their nest.
Read about how to properly destroy nests of wasps and hornets in other articles on our website (section “Hornets and Wasps”). We also recommend that you watch the useful video below.
Take any large water bottle, beer or lemonade. Wash thoroughly to avoid any odor. All bottles or even "bottles" (i.e. large containers) have a neck that needs to be cut off at one-third of the length of the bottle. You will get a fairly large funnel.For a vessel with a volume of more than 5 liters, the plastic is quite thick, the neck is more than 2 cm wide. If you get serious about making such a trap, you will need a fishing line and an awl. Using an awl, pierce holes along the edge of the funnel and the vessel and sew the funnel turned inward with its neck to the large part. The result will be an entrance that will lead the victim inside.
It's harder to find from the inside. What if he made a “tunnel” out of thin plastic?, does not reach the bottom by 8-10 cm (insert the plastic rolled into a tube into the neck and secure with a couple of stitches of fishing line), the fish will never find a way out.
Several holes need to be made in the housing for free flow of water and thread a nylon cord, using which you can remove the trap from the water. You can put pebbles – weights and bait – inside.
The larger the trap, the more prey it will catch. Nimble minnows, roach and perches are especially likely to fall into such traps.
The first ones will be lured by delicious porridge, and perches will rush inside for bloodworms, finely chopped worms or meat. And small change can be used as “bait” – live bait.
Stationary
Larger fish traps require certain equipment. A very promising development is a box made of mesh. To build such a large structure, you will need a frame made of wooden or plastic slats. You can take two children's plastic hoops and use them to make a round “box”.
Straight water pipes made of metal-plastic or PVC will hold the walls (or the frame of the entire box). You need to think about the fastenings so that the box can be disassembled. For the walls you will need a fine plastic mesh. Garden nets made of green PVC with a mesh of 1 cm or cheap fine-mesh Chinese nylon nets are suitable.
The hardest thing to make is the entrances in the form of a funnel and attach to the opposite walls of the box, but for this you can use a durable plastic mesh that holds its shape well. The design will take up little space during transportation, and at the bottom it will attract not the smallest fish.
She will be especially attracted by the “aquarium” inside- a jar with fry, which will attract all the perches from the area with its knocking sound. These boxes make excellent winter fish traps.
Unusual traps
If you decide to catch a few small fish on your fish while on a hike, but there are no suitable bottles, but you have a saucepan and gauze (or thin cloth) - don’t despair. All it takes is the courage to enter the water with a new trap. Place gauze over the pan and secure it so that it does not come off with water.Make a hole in the center with a diameter of 4-5cm(cut crosswise with a knife) and place bread and small grasshoppers inside. Go to a shallow riffle and carefully bury the “structure” to the very top. In half an hour, a crowd of minnows will be scurrying around in the pan.
In the same way, small fish (necessary for baiting a large predator - pike or lenka) will be attracted by an ordinary glass jar with a window cut into the plastic lid.
Pour a handful of bread crumbs into it, put it in warm shallow water - and watch how curious and always hungry fish swim into the “trap” one after another.
You can also make a trap for catching fish directly on a pond made of wood sticks. Watch this video for more details.
Flat traps - screens
More than once I have seen these strange structures made of thick wire (rebar) and nets. Two reinforcements hold the network in the form of a “wall”. A thick fishing line capable of holding several kilograms is tied with a bridle at two corners.
There is a feeder tied in the center- a box through small holes in which complementary foods are slowly washed out. This structure descends to a depth of one to two meters. The sizes of network cells can be any.
There are even screens with several walls. Outer wall lets fish in, and the small “gill” net delays the movement, it tries to turn around and gets entangled in large cells.
This projectile cannot be called catchy, but it will catch fish.
Purchased
On sale you can find all the described fishing devices, except for the plastic bottle. "Tops", boxes and "muzzles" They are sold in specialized fishing tackle stores at very reasonable prices.
Made from stainless steel wire and a durable nylon net, traps can provide fish and crayfish, which also “come in and don’t come out” even on not the best days for fishing.
If you are tired of the presence of mice in your home or workshop, but you cannot get rid of them, then I advise you to try making a simple but effective trap. It works without failure, all materials are available and it is suitable for those people who treat rodents humanely, since after the mousetrap is triggered, the mouse remains unharmed.
What you need to make a mousetrap
- Plastic bottle 1.5 liters
- Long anchor bolt
- Large and small wooden block
- Auxiliary tool
Making a mousetrap
First you need to clamp a large block in a vice and drill a hole closer to the edge; it should be slightly smaller than the diameter of the bolt.
Then you need to take the bottle and find its center; to do this, place the bottle on your finger and find the center by moving it.
Now, using a drill and a screwdriver, we make two holes in the center of the bottle as in the photo below. The hole can be burned with a soldering iron or a heated bolt, which is more convenient. The hole in the bottle must match the diameter of the bolt.
And screw it together with the bottle into the previously made hole on the block. You need to tighten it until the bolt head touches the bottle. The bolt should tighten firmly and not dangle, and the bottle should tilt and rise freely.
Now we take a small block, coat one of its surfaces with hot glue and glue it as shown in the photo below. You need to glue it at a slight angle so that the neck does not go down to the end, but to the middle, thereby closing the passage, and it should rise to the top freely.
The mousetrap is ready. All that remains is to put a piece of bread in it..
Install in the right place and wait!
After the mouse gets into the bottle, it lowers the neck under its own weight, thereby closing the exit. If it crawls to the bottom of the bottle, the trap will open, but as soon as it crawls back, the force of attraction will work again and the passage will close!
- How to make a simple and effective mole trap from plastic bottles with your own hands, as well as the principle of operation of the design;
- How to properly install such a trap on the site in order to reliably catch the pest;
- How can you easily increase the effectiveness of a homemade mole catcher from a plastic bottle by about 2 times;
- Additional ways to catch a mole alive;
- What to do with a mole after it is caught and where it is better to release it so that it definitely does not return back to your site;
- And what other anti-mole products can you make yourself from ordinary plastic bottles...
Even if you have already been thoroughly tortured by moles “running amok” on your property, then do not rush to poison them with poisons or set traps on them - this is simply not humane. You can fight animals very effectively with the help of special traps - it’s not difficult to make such a mole trap with your own hands from plastic bottles, and given the availability and low cost of materials for it, you can make and install several traps on the site at once, which will significantly increase the chances of catching all the pests.
A mole trap made from a plastic bottle allows you to catch animals alive, and then take them out and release them at such a distance from the site that they can no longer return. This approach is considered the most civilized and humane, because after all to a normal person without sadistic tendencies, it will be much calmer to save the life of an animal that simply by chance ended up on his property, instead of necessarily killing the mole with poison, a trap or a shovel, as people who are not burdened with love for animals sometimes do.
It should be borne in mind that mole traps made from plastic bottles are effectively complemented by other types of traps that work on different principles. For example, a mole can be caught in a simple plastic bottle placed on its side in its passage, or you can do this with the help of a wide jar, bucket or pan buried under the passage. The best option is to use such traps together (we'll talk about this a little later).
But first, let's take a closer look at how to make a reliable mole trap from a standard plastic bottle, obtaining a truly effective catching tool. In addition, we will see how to properly install such traps on the site so that they work well.
Mole trap made from a plastic bottle
So, the first type of trap is a kind of analogue of the commercially available pipe mole trap, but the “locking” element in it works on a slightly different principle.
The photo below shows a mole trap-pipe for comparison:
The mole easily climbs into such a trap, but cannot get out of it. It is implemented as follows:
- Take a plastic bottle with a capacity of 1.5 liters - it will be the basis of the design. Bottles of smaller or bigger size It’s not worth taking, because the liter one turns out to be too narrow, and it’s difficult for the animal to climb into it, and the two-liter one, on the contrary, is too wide, and often does not fit into the animal’s movement;
- Either the bottom or the neck of the bottle is cut off - it doesn’t matter. The main thing is to make a free entrance on one side, and on the other there should be a dead end;
- Then take a second bottle of the same size, which, in fact, will clog the mole. The dense part of the neck is cut off (on which the cap is screwed), but a “funnel” is left, and the bottom is also cut off (you can even cut off the bottom half of the bottle);
- In the second bottle, 10-12 longitudinal cuts are made on the tapering part until it becomes a flat part. The result is a kind of long “petals”;
- After this, the second plastic bottle is inserted with its narrowed part into the open passage of the first, and the junction of the two bottles is secured with tape.
That's all, the mole trap is ready. If you place it in a mole passage, the animal will make its way into it along the second (entrance) bottle: under its pressure, the petals will easily bend and do not prevent it from crawling along the joint line, thereby ensuring unhindered access to the main bottle.
After the animal passes, the petals close again. Here he reaches a dead end, turns around, tries to move back, but runs into narrowed petals that he can no longer move apart. The mole is caught.
This mole trap made from plastic bottles is easy to make with your own hands in about 10-15 minutes.
On a note
The locking principle described above is called “against the grain.” While the petals “stroke” the animal, it calmly moves forward “along the fur.” But the animal can no longer get back out, because it moves “against the grain” of the valve - the petals rest against its face and do not move apart at all.
Not everyone takes into account that this mole trap can be easily improved, increasing its efficiency by approximately 2 times, if both the bottom and the top of the main bottle are cut off, and then “valves” are installed on both sides, allowing the animal to only pass inside. In this case, you won’t have to guess from which side the mole will approach the mole trap in its underground passage. Moreover, as practice shows, if there are several animals on the site, a “double” trap can catch two moles at once.
The video at the end of the article shows the process of making a mole trap with your own hands. However, it is important not only to make the mole trap correctly, but also to install it correctly on the site, since the final result of its work also largely depends on this.
How to catch a mole with such a trap?
A mole trap made of plastic bottles should be installed inside the mole passage, located between fresh earth emissions. Such passages are sometimes (but not always) clearly visible on the surface of the site, since their arch is slightly raised by the animal when moving, as a result of which a long earthen ridge is formed above the passage.
It is this roller that needs to be carefully excavated (the passage itself is located at a depth of about 10-15 cm). Then the passage needs to be slightly cleared of the ground and slightly deepened in the place where the trap will be installed.
It is better to dig out the mole's underground passage with a garden trowel. It is undesirable to use a shovel, since it severely damages the passage itself, and the mole may not “want” to move along it and climb into the trap in the future.
You should not install a mole trap made from a plastic bottle at the entrance to a tunnel or in a pile of soil spilled out by a mole. The animal may no longer use such a molehill, but the underground passage itself will be inspected regularly. Therefore, the mole trap is placed precisely in the passage between the animal’s exits to the surface.
Before installation, it is advisable to pour a little soil into the mole trap so that the animal does not notice the sudden transition of normal soil into slippery plastic.
It can also be useful to put several earthworms in the main bottle - the mole smells them well and can ignore suspicions when touching the plastic if it smells food.
The trap itself is placed in motion, its valve is directed in the direction from which the animal is supposed to approach it. If the trap is double-sided, then its orientation does not matter.
The top of the mole trap should be sprinkled with earth (but so as not to cover the entrances to it!) and covered with a wooden shield or a very thick opaque cloth. The main task in this case is to eliminate the light in the trap so that it is as dark in it as in the rest of the passage (although it is believed that moles are blind, this is not entirely true - they are able to distinguish between light and darkness, and also see outlines items).
After this, the trap should be checked two to three times a day. Most often, a mole is caught at night or evening time days.
On a note
Please be aware that due to accelerated exchange substances, a mole cannot starve for a long time. It may not survive even 24 hours in a mole trap, and therefore the trap should be checked at least twice a day, and immediately after finding the animal, take it out of the area as quickly as possible and release it into the wild.
Of course, the more traps are installed on the site, the faster it will be possible to catch all the moles (often only one mole lives in a small area, since these animals are very jealous of protecting their territory). If the mole trap is made in a single copy, then with a certain probability it will have to be moved from one move to another if it remains empty for more than 4-5 days.
How to catch a mole in a jar?
There is another method that has been tested many times in practice to catch a mole: in a jar, pan, bucket or plastic bottle with the top cut off. This kind of mole trap can also be easily done with your own hands - for this you will need to make a kind of trap pit.
Let's look at the manufacturing procedure for this mole trap:
- You can take a large five-liter plastic drinking water bottle; you need to cut off the tapered top. Some gardeners successfully use three-liter glass jars - their width is quite sufficient for a mole to be caught in them (the animal is comparable in size to a rat). You can also use a suitable size pan or bucket; it is only important that the height of the trap is at least 25-30 cm, otherwise there is a chance that the mole will get out of it;
- Then the mole's passage is excavated and a hole is dug, identical in diameter and height to the trap;
- A prepared mole trap (container) is inserted into the hole;
- After this, the cracks along the edges of the trap are filled with earth, the earth here is compacted a little. As a result, the edges of the container should be hidden with a compacted earthen roller so that the mole does not feel them;
- The top of the trap is covered with a wooden shield or thick fabric so that light does not penetrate into the passage and does not scare away the animal.
Such a mole trap, installed in a gap in the underground passage of the mole, works even simpler than the one described above from two plastic bottles. The animal simply falls into the jar (or other deep container), moving along its course.
You also need to check the trap at least twice a day so as not to starve the caught animal.
About the effectiveness of traps made from plastic bottles
As practice shows, hand-made mole traps made from plastic bottles work no less effectively than various flayer crushes, traps and crossbows. Moles get caught in bottles just as often, and the overall reliability of the design is determined not so much by its performance as correct installation traps in the garden plot.
In particular, important role plays the choice of the mole's move in which the trap will be set. If the passage is old and rarely visited by the animal, then the mole trap may stand in vain for several days, and the disappointed gardener will eventually reject the product, deeming it ineffective.
In addition, a horizontal trap with one trap entrance may not work simply because the mole will each time approach it from the other side - from the side of the dead end. Thus, the animal will not fall into the trap itself, and if it finds an obstacle, it may also try to make a detour.
Practice shows that trapping pits made from cans and pots dug under passages generally work more effectively than “against the grain” traps. The mole does not have time to notice them, and cannot avoid falling into such a mole trap.
What to do with a caught animal?
A mole caught in a mole trap must be taken out of the area, carried away to a distance of about 1 km and released.
When freeing a captive, you need to be careful: moles have very sharp, albeit small, teeth, with which they can bite quite painfully (after all, moles are, first of all, predators). The epidemiological danger of moles has been poorly studied, and it is never possible to guarantee for sure that when an animal bites it it will not give a person some kind of bacterial “joy”.
The smartest thing to do is to take the mole out of the area directly in the mole trap, and at the place of release, simply open it and carefully shake the animal onto the ground. It is better to release the mole among thick grass or in the forest, where he has a better chance of remaining undetected by predators.
The release operation itself should be carried out immediately after discovery of the capture. As noted above, an extra few hours of hunger can be fatal for a mole.
Do moles return to their areas and how to prevent their reappearance?
The mole is an animal, although it is mobile, but long distances he cannot move. Young animals, leaving the maternal area in search of unoccupied land, can move 1.5-2 km away from the place of birth, but adult moles, who have already settled somewhere, are constantly in their territory of about a hectare.
This means that if a caught mole is released a kilometer from the place of capture, then it will not return to its original area. If you release it right behind the fence, and the fence itself does not have a foundation, then with a high probability the same mole will have to be caught again.
In general, it is useful to keep in mind that preventing moles from entering an area is easier than fighting these animals later. Even if the animals are already in the garden and causing harm, they can and should be caught and taken away, but at the same time measures should be taken to reliable protection plot: enclose it, albeit not with a powerful, but impassable foundation, or simply dig a strong fine-mesh plastic mesh (with a cell size of no more than 1 cm) around the perimeter to a depth of 70-80 cm.
Such measures will guarantee that after catching and removing all moles from the area, other animals will not enter it again. Otherwise, you will have to constantly catch moles.
As for various mole repellers, they also sometimes give good results, although they do not provide absolute protection of the area. By the way, you can also make them yourself from plastic bottles...
Repellers made from plastic bottles: do they help?
There are two ways to scare off moles with plastic bottles:
- Make pinwheels out of bottles that spin in the wind, make noise and scare the animals (moles hear well);
- Or you can simply lay out large quantities of closed plastic bottles throughout the area. With constant changes in temperature in the morning, afternoon, evening and night, they make cracking noises, which presumably also scare away animals.
Many gardeners and gardeners note that such homemade repellers are really effective and help get rid of moles on the site. However, at the same time, many reviews indicate the lack of effect from the use of these funds.
Apparently, the truth is somewhere in the middle: moles can actually be frightened by the noise created by these devices and leave the area in search of more comfortable territory. But repellers can also be ignored, especially if there is a problem of survival due to lack of food. Therefore, the use of such repellers is a kind of lottery: it may help, or it may not give any visible result.
Other types of traps, humane and inhumane
A pipe trap works on the same principle as homemade traps made from plastic bottles. Only in it the animal pushes the door that easily opens inward and slams behind it, penetrates the pipe, but cannot open the same door from the inside.
There are also inhumane traps for moles that simply kill the animals:
- Spring traps;
- Loop traps;
- Scissor traps;
- Harpoon-type traps (crossbows).
Some people make them with their own hands, or buy them ready-made. However, before using them, think: why mercilessly kill warm-blooded animals just because for some reason they bother you. And even more so, you shouldn’t kill animals just because you’re too lazy to catch them alive and take them out of the area.
The effectiveness of all these lethal traps is approximately the same and does not differ from the effectiveness of homemade live traps. You shouldn’t expect that if you didn’t catch a mole with a properly made structure from a plastic bottle, then the trap will certainly kill it. It makes more sense to figure out why the trap turned out to be ineffective (wrong choice of move, errors in placement or manufacturing), correct the flaws and catch the pest alive.
In any case, no matter what mole traps are used, without effective measures to protect the site, the results of their use will be temporary, and you will have to constantly catch animals, worrying about a damaged harvest. Therefore, you should first take care of protecting the area from the penetration of moles, and only then catch the animals. Read about how to effectively protect your area from moles in other articles on our website.
if you have personal experience using homemade mole traps, be sure to leave your feedback in the comments field at the bottom of this page.
A clear example of repelling moles using ordinary plastic bottles
Interesting video: making a mole trap-pipe with your own hands
With the arrival of autumn cold weather, mice begin to actively move from summer areas to human houses and apartments. Every year we have to contain the rodent infestation and look for more and more effective ways struggle. There are only two ways to defeat the invasion of mice that have settled in your house or garage - get a cat or regularly install mousetraps. The bigger, the better. The easiest way is to make a mousetrap from a plastic bottle with your own hands. Costs are minimal, especially since there is plenty of material for traps. If you guess the design of a mousetrap made from a plastic bottle, then you can end the problem quickly enough.
Which trap to choose
At first glance, the easiest way is to buy a ready-made mousetrap or make a similar design with your own hands. But this is only at first glance. A mouse, like a rat, has considerable intelligence, learns quickly and remembers well how to bypass mousetraps. Therefore, it will be useful to periodically replace old plastic bottle mousetraps with new, more effective and efficient designs.
Most often, several of the most popular designs are used to combat domestic rodents:
- Petal mousetrap, it can be made in a couple of minutes, there is a considerable risk that the mouse may escape from the trap before it is reached;
- Falling mousetrap, if you make a structure from a plastic bottle exactly as described, then the effective operation of the device is guaranteed;
- A mousetrap is a rocking chair, the most difficult to make, but also the most effective. It can be done in several ways, the main thing is to follow the principle of operation. Such mousetraps can operate reliably for many years without any major complaints.
Advice! Don't underestimate the ability of mice to escape traps. You need to check traps as often as possible, since according to statistics, approximately half of the rodents successfully escape from the trap.
You can get an idea of the capabilities of mouse balancing act and understand how to make a mousetrap from a plastic bottle from the video
What you need to know before making a bottle mousetrap
First of all, you should not count on the absolute effectiveness of a mousetrap; even the most successful and effective, at first glance, trap can malfunction, so it will be useful to observe how the mouse falls into the trap and, most importantly, how it tries to get out of it. Such observations can be very useful when it comes time to make a new, more cunning mousetrap.
When planning the design of a mousetrap, there are three factors to consider:
- The plastic bottles from which the traps are made must be changed at least once a month;
- Poisons and toxic substances must not be used in mousetraps;
- The labor intensity of making a mousetrap from a plastic bottle should be minimal, otherwise this activity will quickly get boring.
The mouse has the ability to capture the most subtle odors. If a dozen mice are caught in a mousetrap, then odors with “signals” of panic will definitely remain on the plastic bottle. Such mousetraps should be thrown away without regret, and a new trap can be made to replace the old one.
The material of a plastic bottle does not pose a particular barrier for a rodent, so it is important not only to catch, but also to get the mouse out of the trap in time, before the animal simply gnaws a hole and runs away with the bait.
Options for the most successful mousetraps
All of the mousetrap designs below do not require special skills or tools and can be made, as they say, “on the knee” in a few minutes. To build a trap you use:
- Scotch tape and adhesive tape, nylon threads;
- Plastic bottles with a capacity of 2 and 3 liters;
- Scissors or stationery knife;
- Bait.
Advice! A piece of salted lard, fried seeds and a walnut kernel work reliably as bait.
Oddly enough, cheese or sausage are significantly inferior in effectiveness to lard; such bait quickly dries out and loses its attractiveness.
Make an effective bottle mousetrap in 60 seconds
A simple and quite effective mousetrap can be made from an ordinary three-liter plastic bottle. We use a nut kernel as bait. The full course on how to make a mousetrap from a plastic bottle is shown in the video
Initially, you will need to make a mount for the bait from two loops of nylon thread.
Using a utility knife, make a cut on the wall so that you get a petal covering a small window. The window size should be no more than 20 mm. Due to its rounded shape, the petal should easily bend inside the plastic bottle and not deviate outward, preventing the mouse from getting out of the trap.
We pierce the side walls of the bottle on both sides, stretch the thread with the bait and fix the suspension in a taut state using matches and tape.
The place for hanging the bait can be chosen at a height of at least 10-12 cm from the bottom, this is enough for an ordinary mouse, sometimes rodents demonstrate miracles of jumping ability, so the design of the trap can be supplemented with another bottle, which will catch everyone who covets the bait.
The simplest mousetrap options
The simplest version of a mousetrap made from a plastic bottle is shown in the video
You can make a simple device with your own hands in a few seconds. You only need to cut off the neck and cut the edge of the remaining container with scissors in the form of triangular teeth, 30-35 mm long.
The jagged edges are folded into the bottle, and the bait is placed on the bottom of the trap. According to the creators' plan, the mouse gets inside the mousetrap, but will not be able to get out of it because of the teeth.
More effective option Mousetraps can be made from a plastic container according to the diagram below.
Needs trimming top part bottles, turn them over, remove the cap and put them back into the cut off part. The result is a design reminiscent of an old non-spill inkwell.
A good falling mousetrap can be made from an ordinary plastic bottle with a window cut out in the neck area. Bait is placed at the bottom of the bottle, and the trap itself is tied with a cord around the neck and placed on the table.
To trigger the mousetrap, it is placed on the edge so that the bottom part with the bait is behind the edge of the tabletop. The mouse, having climbed into the bottle, upsets the balance, which leads to the container tipping over and hanging on the cord.
Getting out of the mouse container is quite difficult. It will be necessary to remove it from the trap in time before the cat steals it along with the trap.
How to make a mousetrap - a rocking chair
The most perfect mouse trap can be made using the principle of a swing or a pendulum. The principle of operation of the mousetrap is in many ways similar to the previous version of the trap, the only difference being that the bottle does not tip over from the table, but tilts under the weight of the mouse, blocking the exit from the trap.
The typical design of the device is shown in the photo. The principle of operation can be seen in more detail in the video.
In order to make a trap, you will need a 1.5 liter bottle, preferably with a long and narrow neck. Since the mousetrap must swing freely under the weight of the animal, you will first need to determine the line on which the center of gravity is located. To do this, you can place an ordinary faceted pencil on the table and a container on it. Moving the bottle left and right, we find the equilibrium position and mark the line with a marker.
According to the plan, the bottle should swing on an axis of rotation, which can be used as a piece of flat steel wire or a bicycle spoke. On the balance line, mark the midpoint and use an awl to punch two holes through which we pass the axis of rotation.
A plastic container with a steel axis will need to be installed on a stand. To do this, you can use a small piece of board, 35-40 cm long. We nail two wooden blocks of the same size to the board, on which the axis of rotation will rest. When rocking, the neck of the bottle should lower and rise at least 20-30 mm.
All that remains is to manufacture and install the locking block. The height of the block is selected such that, in a raised position, the lower edge of the hole for the plug is at the same level as the upper edge of the wooden block. This way, the mouse can easily climb up the bar into the trap. Under the weight of the rodent, the bottle will turn and close the entrance to the container. It is clear that the weight of the bait should be half the weight of the rodent, optimally 3-5 g, no more.
Trap made from a plastic bottle and bucket
The oldest and most proven mousetrap can be made from a half-liter bottle, wire and a galvanized bucket. Initially, you will need to drill a hole equal to the diameter of the wire in the bottom and in the cap of the bottle. The latter plays the role of an axis of rotation, so the plastic container should rotate freely and effortlessly. The length of the wire is chosen 5-7 cm larger than the diameter of the bucket.
The bottle, dressed on a wire, is additionally fitted with a tin lid used for preservation. From the side of the bottle, a bait is tied to the lid and the entire structure is installed on the bucket. You can attach a wooden plank or plank to the bucket to make it easier for the animals to climb up. If there are a lot of mice in the garage or basement, then the inside of the bucket must be wiped with oil or filled with water to make the surface as slippery as possible. Up to ten animals can be caught in a trap during the night, so measures must be taken to prevent mice from escaping from the trap.
The mousetrap works quite simply. The mouse, trying to get to the bait, steps onto the rotating bottle and falls down. Due to the slippery surface of the plastic, it is almost impossible to catch on the bottle. Unlike previous designs, such a mousetrap can be freely left overnight without fear that rodents will damage the trap or be able to escape from it.
Instead of a bottle, you can use any object with a large diameter and a smooth surface. You can install a ruler, a piece of polypropylene water pipe, and even a piece of glass. Wood and untreated metal work the worst.
Conclusion
The above mousetrap designs are not an absolute panacea for mouse infestations. The devices help catch a fairly large number of rodents, but over time their effectiveness decreases. After a couple of weeks, the animals will learn to bypass the trap, therefore, the more often the locations of the traps, their design and shape change, the more successful the pest control will be.
