This trap cost me 50 cents. One of the first things you need to try to do is to find out where the mice are coming into your house. My house is over 100 years old, so I'm still trying to find areas they can sneak in. I watched some YouTube videos to figure out the right way to use this trap and what to use for bait, a very small amount of peanut butter, just enough to fit on the end of a tooth pick to the bait peddle is recommended by VICTOR. They say if a mouse is able to take the bait without springing the trap, it is more a result of over baiting, which adversely effects the sensitivity of the trap. They recommend when setting the trap to hold the kill bar down, lift the peddle at 180ﾟ angle and place the rod under the little groove on the bait plate. They also recommend placing the snap-trap perpendicular to a wall or baseboard with the trigger pedal being closest to the wall. The Victor website gives detailed instructions and they offer a one year warranty from the date of purchase. It would probably cost more to mail them back than the price of the traps. You can contact them directly at 1-855- 5-VICTOR. You've got to be careful, I've smacked the kill bar against my knuckles a few times and it hurts. I practiced setting the trap without the peanut butter first until I knew what I was doing. When you read the one star reviews, VICTOR sometimes comments with this helpful information, which I've added to my review. This same model trap has been used for over a 115 years. My grandather used these same traps, and reused them over and over again. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. You don't need anything expensive and fancy, this does the job. The mice die with in 30 seconds, which is much more humane than using glue traps. It took a little bit of practice to set it, you don't want to smack your fingers with the kill bar, so be careful. Once you know what you're doing, it's very simple to set. Since I personally don't want to deal with removing the dead mouse from the trap, this is cheap enough to throw in the trash with the mouse. But it is certainly reusable. I use a long grabber reacher tool to pick up the dead mouse and trap and drop it in the trash can. The metal pedal that you add the bait to stays very close to the wooden base, which makes it much easier for the mouse to set off. You don't want the mouse to get away with the bait, that hasn't happened with this trap. I set up a BLINK camera in my attic to try to figure out where the mice were coming from. They have been messing with mouse poop and pee in my attic for too many years, ruining many of my items. I am fed up with that, it's time to fight. Once I saw them running around in a particular area, I set the traps. They mark their areas with mouse poop and pee. Then I set my Blink camera about 7 feet away. What I've been seeing on my cam is very strange. I've had many dead mice in the traps that are cannibalized, eaten by other mice. I wish I didn't have to kill the mice, I see how the other mice react when they see a dead mouse, part of their family probably. Right now I have too many mice to deal with and the live traps wouldn't work. I'd be a mice taxi service driving 3 miles away from my house daily. Within 24 hours the mice ate most of the dead mice in the traps. They're not finding anymore food to eat in my house. They grabbed the dead mouse including the traps in their mouth and dragged them about 2 feet away under a chair, they're really strong. Certain mice they left alone. They ate almost everything there was nothing at all was left in the trap, except some fur and a tail. If I didn't have my blink camera, I certainly would have thought that the mice were eating the bait and the traps were not working. So if the mice have nothing to eat, they might eat the dead. With my blink camera, I feel like I'm watching a National Geographic special on mice. I know exactly what time of the day, usually nighttime when they're running around and their behavior which is interesting. My Blink takes video clips and has night vision. I move my blinks around the house. Of course you don't need a blink to catch mice, but it certainly makes it more helpful. And I know when I need to reset my traps without having to go up in the cold attic or down to my basement. It is a bit morbid, but you get used to it. And it helps me kill the mice, which is the most important. I think my grown sons and their wives are getting tired of mom sending them text video clips from my blink camera of strange mice behavior and dead mice. But this year being 2020 is a very strange time in all our lives. Now I can start cleaning up my attic without having to deal with more mouse poop and pee, which is disgusting. Mice contaminate food, spread diseases and viruses... The CDC (CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL) lists: HANTAVIRUS, PLAGUE, SALMONELLOSIS, LEPTOSPIROSIS...add they chew on wood and wiring in the walls.
