Rats used to chew up the wiring on my trailers and RV, drove me nuts. I was told one time that rats don't like rosemary so I planted a hedge of rosemary around my RV and haven't had a problem in years. Now the rosemary is out of control but I can trim that and give some away to friends to cook with. I also live in the high desert outside of Kingman, AZ.
@@amck72 It is unbelievable how well rosemary grows in the desert of Arizona. I planted one plant that had one stem about 2' tall with some small branches coming off of it. Now it is a bush about 6' tall, 8' around. Once it is established it doesn't need anything. I haven't watered it in 9 years and it rains about 6" per year.
Kids get a bad rap. They actually follow the poor examples that we set. "Hmmm..what's that leftover in those cups and glasses after mom and dad's Saturday night poker games?"
What a refreshing video of somebody actually showing you how to be resourceful and make something that really does work. No link for the wire no link for the empty soda can no link for the rancid peanut butter or the bucket below just good old-fashioned advice that works. My hat's off to you sir
I love it, smarter kids!! I told a store clerk I was looking for a pocket knife for my grandson a few days ago. Everyone looked at me like I was giving him dynamite and a match. Can't have smart kids if you don't teach them and trust them....
Yep. I gave my 8 yr old son his first bb gjun on 4th of July. told him, I need your help hunting rats if you see them. they are getting into basement, chicken coop, house. ENOUGH is ENOUGH. Got to teach youngsters at some point, otherwise they never learn how dangerous rats are, and other things.
Sadly mice & esp rats are smart & wary of such traps.U may get young dumb ones, but many uploaded vids show breeding rats /mice leaders never go near any trap, esp when hear distress cries or sense dead young dumb ones trapped.
Thank you for this genius idea. Mice actually caused my house to burn because my regular mouse traps couldn't keep up. I'm buying buckets today! Oh and I love the comment " have smarter kids" and "watch your kids " Well said sir !
Thank you for the comment and good luck. As for the kids comment, that didn’t just pop up, it seems to be an issue with part of the population in the U.S. who thinks that warnings on labels and videos will protect their stupid kids. I have a hundred or so comments where irresonsible parents think that chastizing me will protect their unsupervised and untrained children, but you know the type already… they are from the crowd of it’s always someone elses fault and never their own.
That’s a ridiculous thing to applaud - especially after a video which ended, asking for positive comments. Anyway, there was value in the overall video idea. Passing on the rest.
for rodents in the house i use poison bait under the house and in the attic. It was a real stench originally but after that rarely especially the ones that die in the attic because it is like an oven up there so the smell is gone fast ...much rather deal with smell every so often than an infestation like the previous occupants allowed to occur YUUCK! (they were renters we now own)
👍 Another good thing is, if you’ve got rodents specially, mice or rats stuff, silver or copper Brillo pads into any holes or areas where mice might come in. Those thick scouring pads that cut their tongue so they won’t try to chew through them.
Cite your source. This is not supported by science. Where have you seen or found reports of mass die-offs of eagles, owls, and hawks anywhere due to rodenticides? The only way for that to be established is for wildlife biologists to collect the dead birds they find, do toxicology analysis on all of them to determine if they had any rodenticide toxins in them and how much. That takes funding. Is anyone funding that? Sounds like you’ve swallowed up some commonly repeated “urban legend”. Also, keep in mind that not all animals body systems are same. I’ve seen cockroaches eat rodenticide with no ill effects at all. Do we know that birds suffer from the same mechanism of action as the rodents?
Good method. My method is a little different but works good. I fill the 5 gallon bucket 3/4 full of water. I spread a 1 inch thick coat of black sunflower seeds on top of the water.. They float and stay dry overnight. Then I put 2 in the shell peanuts on top of the seeds. I have them crossed over each other. No need to make a ramp and a pop can assembly. I just put the bucket o 'death next to the front stairs so the chipmunks are looking down into the bucket. They are VERY curious and don't miss a thing. I can tell when I look at the top of the bucket if the peanuts have been disturbed. This means I have one or more 'munks in the bucket. If the peanuts are not disturbed there is no way there could be a 'munk in there because when they swim the peanuts drift apart. .They sink below the seeds so you would not know they if they are in there otherwise. The peanuts are also irresistible to the 'munks or the mice. They see, they jump. They drown. I have bagged over 80 of them over the last 3 years. I saw FIVE 'munks jump in one right after the other... Fools rush in.
I watched 100's of videos. And probably 20 different homesteading folks. You are the first one I have seen offer help and guidance and not try to sell something. Or have some other hidden motive. I'm subscribed. I'm super grateful to meet you.
I’m very selective on what I endorse. I’m more about education vs sales. I’m thinking about a few items but I require the manufacturer to provide a few for me to give away to my viewers and so far no one has stepped up!! Thanks
Thanks you so much for this information. I just moved up to the mountains and have started to deal with mice in my trailer. I hate the idea of using chemicals to kill them. I really appreciate the reminder that the local scavengers will eat the dead ones.
Rub any type of oil inside the walls of the bucket before adding water doubles the escape-proof! So glad I found your video. You helped a lot of homeowners
Some years ago I bought a walk-the-plank trap that sets up in the same manner and works fine but your method is much better as you can have multiples at very low cost. Thanks!
I worked in a place that had a huge mice problem. A few years ago, Shawn Woods reviewed a product with peppermint oil and showed that mice won't even eat food placed out in front of them when peppermint oil is sprayed. I bought a spray called Mighty Mint at Lowes and tried it out and sprayed it around the outside in spots where mice get in once a week for a few weeks and we have not even had one mouse after that. Two years in a row mouse-free after years and years of mice infestation.
Thank you for sharing this important information on the dangers of rats and the diseases they carry in the description section. I just paid $1,000 for a guy to get into my attic to set traps and inspect it over the next few months.
This method is well over 100 years old. Back then they used a gallon wide mouth jar half full of water instead of a bucket. I use a bucket with four inches of RV antifreeze in my camping trailer in the winter time. I use a string across the top tied to the wire on the handle on each side with an empty toilet paper tube suspended in the middle with peanut butter on it. I use an old scrap board for the ramp. The RV antifreeze keeps it from freezing in the cold weather and also keeps down the odor of dead mice since it doesn't get emptied often when the trailer is in storage. It works when regular traps don't.
If you want to be a little less toxic so thr birds can eat the mice, adding a little alcohol I believe would also prevent freezing - need to google see how much to add. I was told to add alcohol to my interior car cleaner spray that I leave in my car (diluted no rinse solution)
I did this on accident last year. I set out by setting out 5 gallon buckets with about 5 inches of water in them and a mosquito dunk in each. We had a bad year of mosquitoes. The mosquito dunks worked great. One morning I came out and there was a rodent in one of the buckets. Apparently it wanted a drink and fell in and couldn't get out. Bonus! Got rid of mosquitoes and at least one rodent!
I used this method once but with a coffee can, as I live in a suburban area that has a forest preserve and a lot of woodsy areas. Nothing works better IMO. And I love how he said "you got to have smarter kids, and watch your kids"... Cracked me up, but man, Brad you are right. Liked and subscribed.
Tried this last night as I’m trying to keep mice from entering my camper that’s parked in the North woods of WI. I got 7 takers overnight!! I’m gonna make 3 more buckets up for tonight. Thank you
Hey, did you have to set it up and sleep close to the trap where you could hear the lil buggers splashing around? I'm having same issue, it's in my bedroom, trying to figure out how long approx it takes for them to....drown?? Or if I can hurry and dump it out in field right away. It's one rodent stuck in heating duct..😢
Skip the wire, soda can, and peanut butter. Put black oil sunflower seeds directly on 6 in. Of water. Sit back and watch em jump right in. Reckless abandon.
Now days, the village is supposed to watch the children , well, the village didn't lay down in the bed and make them. And common sense just aint that common.
Our Da taught us how to do this when we were very young! We have 2800 acres with a Farm house as a vacation spot. I married my husband and he was setting traps one day, I just shook my head and told him to get out of my way. The house we moved into had a horrible infestation. I set out 7 of these within 20 minutes and walked away. My husband just looked at me. I said ‘trust me, check your traps then mine in the morning’. He was in awe! I said (with a cheeky grin) ‘for a carpenter, you aren’t too bright are you?’ We laughed. These are the only way to do it right! Great job on explaining how easy it is, Sir.
@@CaptainWingnut Well, thank you Sir. I was born in the States, spent years in Ireland, then returned to the States. I split my time between both now. Been in the States for over a year now due to travel issues. It was here that our Dad taught us that trick and it works everywhere! Even when I was in the military!
I'll definitely try this. I've lived in this house for over 27 years. This is the first time I've ever seen a mouse in my house. My grandchildren live here so snap traps and poisons are out. Thank you!!!
Same here! Bern here 5 years and haven't seen any mice, but this morning to my surprise a mouse was in the kitchen...I have a 2 year old and a 8 year old!
Excellent, Captain Wingnut. I like this kind of simple, and highly effective trap, because its variations have worked for THOUSANDS of years. Bring us more! Liked and subscribed.
so glad i found this, seen 2 rats and a baby at the bottom of my garden coming out from under a large bush and been mortified at the thought of how many there could actually be. This is a perfect solution and costs nothing which in these times is a gidsend as money is so tight. Can't thank you enough, brilliant!
True. And FYI buckets use to cost only $2.00 but now they are $5 to $12 for 1 bucket. INSANE inflation but compared to poison and an exterminator this is the cheapest option.
A friend of mine made a similar water trap for his camp and had great success. His didn't use the wire and can, but he put a ring of peanut butter about 1/3 of the way down from the top. Rodents would walk up the ramp and fall in trying to reach the peanut butter that was just out of their grasp. I made that trap as well for my shed a few years back and it worked well. You always provide ingenious, inexpensive and simple solutions to common problems. I already got rid of my yellow jackets with your apple juice and borax trap. When I made them my wife didn't believe it would work but after a week with no more flying menaces on the deck and back porch she is a convert to your methods.
I gotta say this is one of the best ideas I've seen for dealing with rodents, without poison. I live SoCal near the coast, and we've got roof rats as well as mice. I'm impressed and definitely going to try this, thanks!
This is perfect for my chicken coop--I am limited with traps for fear of catching a chicken and I don't want to use poison. Good old fashion ingenuity!! ----I love this idea!!! Thank you so much!!!!
Just an FYI if you were to setup a camera and record activity at the trap you will find that the method in the video will usually have a few rats or mice defeat it by hanging on to the wire the entire time and will hang upsidedown and shimmy across the wire to the can and stretch out the legs and neck to lick as much PB off the can that they can before shimmying back towards the bucket edge and putting on an impressive display of gymnastics maneuvering itself off the wire and back to safety on the buckets edge and it seems like once one defeats it a whole bunch more are soon to follow. There is an alternative method of setting up this trap that as long as its setup correctly, has no ways of being defeated for rodents under a certain size of course. The diameter and depth of the bucket determines the size of rodent it can catch so the larger the rodent the bigger the bucket needs to be. I will quickly describe the alternative method of setting it up, and include some of the nuanced details you won't likely find anyone discussing online. You will want to find something like PVC w/ 1"+ diameter or any light weight material that can be made into something similar in width and length to a 12in ruler. which will then be suspended above the water from a single focal point so that it will tieter when weight is put onto the ends of it. You will have to add enough weight to one end of the tieter so that it has a way of resetting itself every time it drops down into the bucket but not so much weight that that it no longer drops under the weight of the rodent.Too much weight added is the #1 mistake I see and hear most people making. An easy solution that works more often then not is finding a nut and bolt that is the size and weight needed to counter balance the weight of your tieter and then bolting it straight into one end of the platform or taping/glueing if bolting through material can't be done. You will use the bucket edge to stop it from over rotating back too far the other way. If the platform youre using as a tieter is greater than an inch thick (or diameter thats 1"+ for PVC), you will want to notch the end that will rest on the bucket edge so that it remains somewhat parallel to the ground in its rested state. If you are having trouble visualizing this concept id suggest trying to search something like "bucket trap" in google images or videos to help understand what im describing as well as get ideas for materials and/or items being used to make these traps. Both methods are fairly common and you shouldn't have an issue finding examples of either one. A couple things to look out for and consider that are vitally important for this method to work are making sure there is nothing hanging into the bucket for them to grab onto or nothing sticking into the center of the bucket that they could grab onto as soon as they feel the platform starting to give way. When they sense danger or something unexpected happens they can have lightning quick reflexes. If you set it up as a kill trap with water make sure the water level isn't too high and if you want it to be a live trap put a tiny amount of hay or some kind of soft bedding like material on the bottom so there jumps get absorbed by the ground and they don't become springs like they do when the ground is solid. Make sure the end of the platform that falls into the bucket only goes about half way across the top of the bucket so they cant stand on the opposite edge of the bucket and keep most of their weight on that edge and reach across a small gap to get the food. Again, make sure you only have enough weight to bring the platform back up and nothing more. If the platform slams back on the edge then that is too much weight. You want it to return fairly slow and gently rest on the edge otherwise when a rodent walks the platform the extra weight will cause it to fall at such a slow rate that they are able to feel it coming and run back the other way to stop it rather than having the platform suddenly drop from beneath them leaving no possibility of reversing it once it starts falling.
Yep, I’ve used this for chipmunks that we’re behind & destroying a retaining wall. Fill a bucket 1/4 full of water, empty a bag of sunflower seeds on top of the water and layer a stick on the bucket. They crawl up the stick & think it’s a bucket of seeds. Jump down in & drown.
@Captain Lou sunflower seeds in a bucket of water with a stick to get rats and mice - thats the best idea yet! simple and quick to set up, thanks for sharing
Sir, You just made my day !!! I laughed my butt off when I saw how many critters you caught over night. So Simple...... So Smart.......So Cheap......You, Sir, are a genius !!!! Thank You Soooooo Much !!!!!
This works I did this but not to long after putting the traps out the skunks discovered them and knocked it over to get the rats and mice so then I put a heavy rock in the bottom to find out the raccoons got the dead mice so now I got a wire cage over the contraption. And I just take the dead mice and rats over to the edge of the trees and dump them out to keep them fed out away from the house. This works the skunks are now staying away from the house.
I have had problems with mice invading my home for over a year now. I have went through dozens of traps in that one year. must have killed at least a dozen per day. making a mess every time as these "Humane" traps have either made the mice explode, mostly the pregnant ones, but also I have ended up having to pick up bits & pieces of mice more often than not with each time I caught one. This homemade trap is perfect & it works even easier than setting traps. You are a genius
@@janetormerod3020 2 main things stop them, the physical distance of the sides of the bucket walls are way farther than a small sewer pipe. Also the water suspends them and they have no footing because they’re busy swimming
Glad you posted this, I've used mousers for many years. But instead of the popcan, I use an empty water bottle . I find it is easier to apply the peanut butter to and no sharp edges either.
Thanks Brad. Sometimes we just need to know what tools to use. You have provided so much information to solve some exasperating problems. You’ve given me hope. 😊
Awesome trap at no cost, made with materials most people have at home. After watching this, my husband and I immediately made 2 traps. Our neighbors have farm animals and the giant rats have been feeding there but also scouting in our gardens. Thank you much for this.
Yes, that has to be the cause. We never had an issue with mice or rats. We've had chickens two years and no issue until we got goats then we got rats. Why? I clean the stalls daily. There's no food in there. I have a manure pile in front of it filled with poop and hay but they seem to love hanging out in the goat stalls. Any reason why?
learned that trick when i was a kid from my dad's friend. he worked for the forest service and that is what they do to keep the mice down in forest service cabins in the woods. we used it in our cabin at it worked so much better than traps or bait. easy and quick. the only downside is if you are sleeping in the cabin when you bait the trap you are kept up all night listening to the little suckers splash around.
If you are worried about secondary poisoning of pets and friendly predators asnakkkin on your nasty widdle wat use the following . Empty biscuit tin. Slice of bread.Leave it in the tin to dry out COMPLETELY. mix concrete powder sugar bicarb of soda spread this into the bread leave this tin where ONLY the vermin can access it. The concrete will set inside the intestine of your target....which will dehydrate and seek out water before it dies. (make sure to have water outside but accessible only to vermin and add bicarb to it) Death occurs within 24 hours,if done correctly the body is outside by then and is rapidly consumed by predators. Not actually toxic,the body has one extra "bone" to eat around. Fyi.His bucket might kill a 'few' mice. a.its too small to kill rats. b.once 'bob' is dead all the others will be able to scramble onto bob and jump out cos he bobs up.
This is absolutely ingenious! I live near abandoned factories, perfect breeding grounds for rodents. They chew holes in my trash cans and tear open bags of garbage every week. Not any more! Thank you!
We have the same problems around our gardens, in our greenhouses and barn. I have used live traps to remove a lot of squirrels and large chipmunks, rat traps for smaller chipmunks rats and mice. But they are all thirsty here so whenever we leave a bucket of water out the chipmunks fall in and drown. I use everything available. Really appreciate your method and will try that.
I like this idea. It's targeted to a specific pest threat without risk of harming other animals (as poison might), it's simple, and seems to be quite effective.
@@tommyboi76 HAH HAH HA...I guess from now on I should copy/quote the comment I'm replying to or my reply makes no sense if the previous comment gets removed. Now I don't even remember what tommyboi76's comment was.
Okay, admittedly I couldn't bring myself to look in the bucket, but I truly appreciate the low cost ingenuity you've been so kind to share. Thank you, sir! Now if I can just find someone to empty the bucket for me.
wear gloves, dump it in (final) trash can or trash bag, don’t look. you can do it. that or share your space with the rodents! which is worse? if environmental concerns and money are not issues for you, then you could potentially throw the whole bucket away each time you catch a load (say, 8-10? idk)
@@Yiriyahas he mentioned in his video, he has learned that the rodents happily jump up in the bucket even without a ramp. So you have a choice - use the ramp or not.
I know how frustrating it can be, fighting mice and rats. I had my time with them in the past . They can be smart too.. If I ever get back to the country, I'll certainly make traps like that. Thank you.
Thanks Brad for your cheap and easy solution! It’s 4:45am and I’m up looking at UA-cam for solutions as I can no longer stand the smell of mouse piss in my bedroom! Waiting up to 7 days for the professional baits to work is too long! My nose can’t stand it any more! Great work my friend!!!
@@Edward-b3r hi there, the mice where living in the (plasterboard) walls and peeing there. (No pee on carpets). In summer, pee smell would disappear after 3 days provided no new pee was sprayed! Rat baits have been working overtime!
A great money saving, effective video blog. Thank you for sharing it with us. We've lived in the Mojave Desert of Southern California for the past 45 years, and rodents and ants are the pests we've fought for years. Scorpions, spiders, sidewinders, coyotes, summer heat, and Monsoon rains, are down on the list from the rodents and ants.
ants will leave you alone if you are outside doing a job with this trick: sprinkle baby powder on the trail they are using! gives you maybe 24 hours respite, til the next rain or wind blows it off. I don't use it often, as it is not particularly nice stuff - use small amounts.
We didn't have rats till we had chickens. Now we're dealing with tons of them. I've caught about 20 in the laundry room this winter and now spring, with regular wooden traps. We needed this video! Thanks!
Easy solution. Best part is its reusable. I am doing this tomorrow morning. Its already very late where I am. Thank you very much. I lost a lot of chickens after they are poisoned rats!
Dana I agree. If we poison them the birds and other animals get poisoned too. I liked watching the birds, owl, crows, et al enjoying eating the fresh meat. The cycle of life.
A common “urban myth”. Can you cite a scientific source to any study that’s been done showing that bird carcasses contain toxic levels of rodenticides? People love to repeat this idea of the birds dying from the toxins. Among other things, that assumes the toxins have not been broken down and metabolized by the rodent. It assumes the toxins can remain stable after being ingested by a mammal. It assumes a lot of things.
I HAVE USED A WATER PAIL TRAP/BAIT SETUP WHERE THE RODENTS HAVE TO JUMP IN AFTER THE PILE OF FLOATING SEEDS. IT HAS WORKED OK FOR CHIPMUNKS BUT THIS IDEA LOOKS MUCH BETTER ANS MUCH EASIER TO KEEP SETUP....THANKS
I've done this myself a long time ago and it did work. Your video inspired me to do it again now that the house next door has an abandoned junk vehicle in the back yard and rats live in it and come over to our bird feeder. Your video showed that you don't need to be neat and fancy when making this. Just rig it up and set it out. Thanks.
Super great idea! We've been having a great deal of construction going on in the area,and suddenly I've noticed some unwelcome little guest. I will get right on this. Thanks much!
Recently my washer overflowed into the laundry room. What a mess! After my son took it apart, we discovered mice had chewed through the tube that goes to the water level switch. I've tried poison and had mice decomposing in my heating ducts and OMG, what a smell in the house!! So, Thanks, I'll try your way of dealing with them.
Never use poison! They will die in your walls and the smell is horrible! I recommend cats! Cats will keep they away, the more cats the better the protection
@@ms.rubyj.4259 years ago while living in the country I saw a cat throw a mouse 10 feet in the air over and over! The cat was playing with the mouse and practicing it's hunting skills! That was the winter we didn't have any mice in the house!
This is a great approach to the water trap! And I have everything ready to go. I *just* had some rodent tear up the wiring under my truck's hood. I've had it parked outside for years and years. This is the first time, and it's gonna cost me several hundred dollars to fix. And I'm lucky. Some unfortunate souls get to replace entire harnesses to the tune of $4,000.
put mothballs or mint oil under the hood, they HATE that... I have a video on mothballs for under the hood... the drawback is, when the vehicle is HOT, it smells like mothballs... but on the positive side, no chewed wires... Thanks for watching and commenting.
A similar method is to fill the bucket about half full of water and pour bird seed in the bucket. The bird seed floats and just looks like a bucket of bird seed. Works like a charm,
@@sandyrodriguez6361 I used this on chipmunks, so going half full in a five gallon bucket worked because they would have thought that they could hop back out of the bucket. For mice, maybe use a smaller bucket and fill closer to the top. They wont jump in if it looks like they wont be able to get back out.
Thanks for the video! Most of these type of videos only talk about their great trap even showing you how to make it. The problem is they never show how well they work. Thanks for taking the time to show just how good yours works. I am thinking about scaling it up to a 15 gallon drum. I live in Fla and have problems with fruit rats.
Your video really helped us out. We live in the desert/mountains of Texas. We cleared more land surrounding our cabins but we had stopped putting out poisons when we got our dogs. No major issues yet but lots of rain the last few years so I figure we better up our game. About to make our first bucket trap right now. Thank you very much. God Bless
Thanks for sharing! Makes sense. And I'm so glad you said something about smarter kids. More kids need to spend time outside, climbing trees and scraping knees, and the watching clouds take different shapes. It's good for the imagination, and it's good for kids to experience appropriate risk when young.
We don't have them as bad as you do , but if you are storeing grain dog food or any kind of dry feed they can get bad quick . Thanks for the tip. It is also environmental safe .
Amazingly simple, thanks. What I want to know is how Google/UA-cam knows I started having trouble with mice yesterday and put this in my suggestions. I too am but a mouse, nabbed in the algorithm trap.
That's Funny! My sister lives in the country and she has a rodent situation. I was just thinking about her yesterday! Can't wait to share this info and give it a try! Thank you.
Go one step further with your conceptualization. DATA is now worth more than gold. Currently we provide the data, and we also ARE the data. But soon we will be more than just data. Research the plan called IOB (Internet Of Bodies). The IOB will connect up to the IOT (Internet Of Things/ Internet of Everything). Just an fyi.
Thank you for the video, I have mice in my chicken coop tearing up my ladies feathers, affecting their laying, and drawing in snakes. I can't wait to see how many I get rid of tonight!
I am going to prepare my bucket today. Ground squirrels are our problem. Car engine - chewing wires. Shredding fire bib under hood. Sharpening teeth on red battery cap. This time they aren't nesting as I've been moving my car a lot to prevent that but the destruction continued even with all the efforts of peppermint oil, spray, dryer sheets, chili powder - finally used a 1" paint brush and and gathered together all the unused Del Taco del Scorcho hot sauce packets that have been collecting in the kitchen and painted them under the hood and then laid a big blue plastic tarp over the engine and lowered the hood without the final closing. 3 days now success! Yay Del Taco!
Hello Brad , a few years ago I had a 5 gallon bucket in my shop Id fill when I was welding , a few days later I found 2 dead squirrels in the bucket that were running around in the attic . Didn't have a pop can thought . Thanks for the video , its a great idea !
@@carlmoore730 I have the same issue. After he's finished all the peanut butter, he says, "Thank kind sir". I've lowered the pop can to see if that helps. Will update this.
Very effective. If you are gonna be away for a while, a vacation cabin for example, put 1.5 gallons of RV antifreeze in the bucket. Helps pickle the catch so they don’t start smelling so much. Especially important if this trap is set up in a shop or inside your.cabin.
Antifreeze is deadly to cats and dogs! And to make matters worse, they LOVE the taste of it! Please be very careful to keep the traps away from your pets if you decide to replace the water with antifreeze...
@@BamaJoe2023 Well, that's good to know. I didn't know that RV antifreeze was different from your regular, run-of-the-mill, antifreeze. From now on, I'm going to have to think of the two kinds of antifreeze as 'leaded' & 'unleaded'...
Great video and thanks. For the bleeding hearts that might respond, ask them come up and put the pests in their house. It will get real quiet very fast. Thanks again.
I agree. Just think about all the disease rodents spread. And in my case I am having to deal with them in the house (including the kitchen oven area) and they leave waste all over the place. I am really struggling (I cannot afford a pest control AND construction company to seal all the holes, plus they will probably still find their way back in the house).
Brad - I've had good luck using cotton balls with a few drops of peppermint oil on them under the hood to keep rats & mice from chewing on my wiring. Thanks for the bucket trick!
I think we've tried every different smelly oil ever suggested to try to keep pack rats from chewing our cars wires! They just keep coming in and chewing with a great smelling engine compartment! I think they're to dumb to know they don't like the smells - or smart enough to ignore it!
@@davidtaylor4053 Actually, its a very natural death David, you’re just projecting your fears of drowning on the rodents… when you’re in a rodent bloom or have obnoxious nibblers everywhere we don’t call it drowning… we all it SURVIVAL.
Love your comment about the kids… people should watch your children and teach them to stay out of stuff their not supposed to be in period. Great video. Thanks for sharing
I saw this technic on a farm in Oregon, The guy had a 5 foot cow watering tub. His ramp tilted so when the rat got close to the end, it dumped him in. another thing he had was a big rock stickin out of the water. Of course after the first one in, the next would fight for the spot out of the water. LOL .. I like your idea better, you carry it where ever ya need it and a sweet idea!!!
I’m going to try this, Sir. Thank you for your advice, Where I live in London there are supposed to be 7 million people (more like 11 million but they won’t admit that) and at least the same number of gray squirrels. I will enjoy cutting their numbers down to size!
For big squirrels and rats I marry (glue or wire or ??) two 5 gal buckets together, top to top. I cut the bottom out of the top one, no roller and put 5” of water in and float sunflower seeds on the water… they let go because they can’t reach and think they can just jump out… a little cooking oil on the inside of the bucket walls helps to keep them from climbing out and keeps the seeds floating longer. Some say 6 gallon buckets work but I think they’re hard to find.
Been using this style trap for decades at the cabin. Always leave one in the middle of the room - just make sure you use anti-freeze in the winter or the water will freeze and the little buggers will just jump out. Engine coolant, not windshield wiper fluid.
I got over run with chipmunks this year and made two traps similar to this one. Within a couple of days I eliminated 5 of the pest. They work really well.
Had a mouse problem last fall and winter here in urban Wisconsin, ate the wiring under the hood of my car (saw the mouse house with my own eyes under the motor shroud). No garage, car sat in driveway, used every day. Eventually had to get rid of the car, after many costly repairs that never got to the root of all the electrical problems those pesky critters caused. I hate poison baits, as I also have squirrels around. Thanks for this solution, I will give this a try this year!
I had to replace all the ductwork in my barn kept truck. I now liberally spray a water/mint oil solution around the cabin air intakes and motor compartment and keep the hood up when not in use. I think that is working. They hate mint.
Deborah, I’m sorry about that! A friend had the same experience with her new Cadillac! I’d sure try this, it’s the best suggestion, and like the idea someone else suggested of putting crushed peppermints under the mats too. Makes the car smell good.
Lord, that bus left the station way back in the B.O. days with Common Core in the schools. Dumbed down doesn't even nearly explain how bad it is. So sad to me. In our family we continue to pass down same chores, cooking, learning, playing, faith and everything else we've always done. Sigh. It's not the same. Gloryland looks sweeter as it gets nearer. Lord bless and keep you all.
Dude ! It works great. Might be a little high-maintenance for some folks but I’m in the country too where “you do what you need to do!” Well worth the effort. Thanks !
Smart way to catch critters, and keep your free range chickens safe. It looks like you have a nice setup for garden year round. Everything has gone up two to three times of the cost that it was two years ago.
Love your easy style and candor - too cold in Wyoming for the “rodent bloom “you described- wow ! ( Dropping out of trees ?!! ) We’ve used the 5 gal. soda can trick here for years - real effective - thanks - well done !
Glad to hear others say this works too! Gives me high hopes! No I don't have any falling out of trees either eeeegads I can't imagine hopefully that was exaggerated .... I hope 😢 but if not gotta hand it to these folks they are much stronger than I!! I think I would just lose it!
Plastic soda or water bottles work well also. Heat the end of the wire and push it through the plastic cap and again for the bottom. Most bottles are clear so you can see what you are doing easier. You can push the wire into the bottom first and remove the cap if necessary. Then put the wire through the cap and screw it back onto the bottle,
Tip: put the end of your wire in a vise then chuck the other end in your drill. Spin while pulling on it till the wire breaks. You will straighten and anneal the wire hard at the same time.
Well done, Brad. I'm going to try this. Another tip for those using traps where the mice steal the bait. Gorilla glue a small piece of dry dog food with a dab of peanutbutter.
I am not understanding this one. Why does nailing it do? Do you mean sticky glue traps? What do you do with a live mouse caught in a sticky trap? (I dont like using these but sometimes when i dont know here they are coming from) @@captainamericaamerica8090
We use anti-freeze here in the Adirondack Mountains instead of water. Works through winter. The mice go after the soy-based plastics in the wiring in our machinery. We fish the mice out of the pail with an old spatula and discard them in the trash. Our baited mouse traps are rarely attacked. Works good.
Rats used to chew up the wiring on my trailers and RV, drove me nuts. I was told one time that rats don't like rosemary so I planted a hedge of rosemary around my RV and haven't had a problem in years. Now the rosemary is out of control but I can trim that and give some away to friends to cook with. I also live in the high desert outside of Kingman, AZ.
Will it work for mice to ?
@@dalefontaine IDK
Rosemary is so valuable int he kitchen. The home grown ones taste even better.
@@amck72 It is unbelievable how well rosemary grows in the desert of Arizona. I planted one plant that had one stem about 2' tall with some small branches coming off of it. Now it is a bush about 6' tall, 8' around. Once it is established it doesn't need anything. I haven't watered it in 9 years and it rains about 6" per year.
Rosemary tea is good for hair and anti parasites
"Gotta have smarter kids, gotta watch your kids"
Truer words have never been spoken.
Take the time to teach your kids. Everything is an opportunity.
If your kids drown in this trap, it's their own damn fault.
Naaah, people want the state to take care of their kids. It's baby's raisin' baby's.
@@woodrowmagnus2535 😂😂
Kids get a bad rap. They actually follow the poor examples that we set. "Hmmm..what's that leftover in those cups and glasses after mom and dad's Saturday night poker games?"
What a refreshing video of somebody actually showing you how to be resourceful and make something that really does work. No link for the wire no link for the empty soda can no link for the rancid peanut butter or the bucket below just good old-fashioned advice that works. My hat's off to you sir
I love it, smarter kids!! I told a store clerk I was looking for a pocket knife for my grandson a few days ago. Everyone looked at me like I was giving him dynamite and a match. Can't have smart kids if you don't teach them and trust them....
Yep. I gave my 8 yr old son his first bb gjun on 4th of July. told him, I need your help hunting rats if you see them. they are getting into basement, chicken coop, house. ENOUGH is ENOUGH. Got to teach youngsters at some point, otherwise they never learn how dangerous rats are, and other things.
BtW... he was stoked! sees how much harm they do!!
The people in that store are probably of a certain political group unfortunately...But it just shows how damaging that ideology has on anyone.
That is crazy to give them dynamite and a match. Kids should learn to carry their own matches. 😀
@@lukehitchcock4745 He'll put his eye out!! [Stolen from "A Christmas Story"] :-)
I just love regular sensible people sharing useful things. No fake dumb ass tricks for views or doing extra stuff for no reason. Thank you sir.
No fake eh? Setting up the trap 6:14 where the ramp for the to climb on? 6:40 then morning checking on the trap I see no ramp.
@@randomizer3775 o
@@randomizer3775 u gotta watch the full video he didn't use the ramp after putting it in the garden 🤦
Sadly mice & esp rats are smart & wary of such traps.U may get young dumb ones, but many uploaded vids show breeding rats /mice leaders never go near any trap, esp when hear distress cries or sense dead young dumb ones trapped.
@@bradhart3787 that’s my point, he didn’t used the ramp! Haha
Thank you for this genius idea. Mice actually caused my house to burn because my regular mouse traps couldn't keep up. I'm buying buckets today! Oh and I love the comment " have smarter kids" and "watch your kids " Well said sir !
Thank you for the comment and good luck.
As for the kids comment, that didn’t just pop up, it seems to be an issue with part of the population in the U.S. who thinks that warnings on labels and videos will protect their stupid kids.
I have a hundred or so comments where irresonsible parents think that chastizing me will protect their unsupervised and untrained children, but you know the type already… they are from the crowd of it’s always someone elses fault and never their own.
Talon g is incredible for getting rid of mice, if u don’t get them all with the bucket. I use talon g in my garage.
That’s a ridiculous thing to applaud - especially after a video which ended, asking for positive comments.
Anyway, there was value in the overall video idea. Passing on the rest.
for rodents in the house i use poison bait under the house and in the attic. It was a real stench originally but after that rarely especially the ones that die in the attic because it is like an oven up there so the smell is gone fast ...much rather deal with smell every so often than an infestation like the previous occupants allowed to occur YUUCK! (they were renters we now own)
@@dougiequick1 Do you have a brand of poison bait that you can recommend?
👍
Another good thing is, if you’ve got rodents specially, mice or rats stuff, silver or copper Brillo pads into any holes or areas where mice might come in. Those thick scouring pads that cut their tongue so they won’t try to chew through them.
Good tip!
Make sure those brass Brillo pads aren't the cheap Dollar store "copper coated" over plastic.
You can use just regular steel wool or there's a special kind for rodents called Xcluder.
Poisons are killing our Eagles, Owls, and Hawks, etc, as they eat poisoned rodents.
This trap is cheap, effective, safe and works well. Bravo
for urban places also cats and crows.
Baits are out there without secondary kill
Yea, at least this seems to not affect other parts of the ecosystem
Cite your source. This is not supported by science. Where have you seen or found reports of mass die-offs of eagles, owls, and hawks anywhere due to rodenticides? The only way for that to be established is for wildlife biologists to collect the dead birds they find, do toxicology analysis on all of them to determine if they had any rodenticide toxins in them and how much. That takes funding. Is anyone funding that? Sounds like you’ve swallowed up some commonly repeated “urban legend”.
Also, keep in mind that not all animals body systems are same. I’ve seen cockroaches eat rodenticide with no ill effects at all. Do we know that birds suffer from the same mechanism of action as the rodents?
The only bad part is that it also kill chipmunks and squirrels. I only want the rats and the mice to die!
Good method. My method is a little different but works good. I fill the 5 gallon bucket 3/4 full of water. I spread a 1 inch thick coat of black sunflower seeds on top of the water.. They float and stay dry overnight. Then I put 2 in the shell peanuts on top of the seeds. I have them crossed over each other. No need to make a ramp and a pop can assembly. I just put the bucket o 'death next to the front stairs so the chipmunks are looking down into the bucket. They are VERY curious and don't miss a thing. I can tell when I look at the top of the bucket if the peanuts have been disturbed. This means I have one or more 'munks in the bucket. If the peanuts are not disturbed there is no way there could be a 'munk in there because when they swim the peanuts drift apart. .They sink below the seeds so you would not know they if they are in there otherwise. The peanuts are also irresistible to the 'munks or the mice. They see, they jump. They drown. I have bagged over 80 of them over the last 3 years. I saw FIVE 'munks jump in one right after the other... Fools rush in.
This works for the big ones. Thanks.
I watched 100's of videos. And probably 20 different homesteading folks. You are the first one I have seen offer help and guidance and not try to sell something. Or have some other hidden motive. I'm subscribed. I'm super grateful to meet you.
I’m very selective on what I endorse. I’m more about education vs sales.
I’m thinking about a few items but I require the manufacturer to provide a few for me to give away to my viewers and so far no one has stepped up!! Thanks
Thanks you so much for this information. I just moved up to the mountains and have started to deal with mice in my trailer. I hate the idea of using chemicals to kill them. I really appreciate the reminder that the local scavengers will eat the dead ones.
Glad to help
Can you clarify how you feed the ravens? Do you dump the bucket out in open sight? @@CaptainWingnut
Rub any type of oil inside the walls of the bucket before adding water doubles the escape-proof! So glad I found your video. You helped a lot of homeowners
I thought the same thing and I going to oil it any way can hurt. TY
That is a really good idea. Thx for the suggestion.
rodents cant climb up that pail with wet feet no need to oil it :)
@@jojojojo5353 How about grey squirrels big thighs jumps any suggestions ?
@@whoameye8356 lol nope just hope their tail gets too soggy so they cant jump out lol
Some years ago I bought a walk-the-plank trap that sets up in the same manner and works fine but your method is much better as you can have multiples at very low cost. Thanks!
You paid for one of those lol I seen them online n laughed but after looking at them n reviews people like them and they work
I worked in a place that had a huge mice problem. A few years ago, Shawn Woods reviewed a product with peppermint oil and showed that mice won't even eat food placed out in front of them when peppermint oil is sprayed. I bought a spray called Mighty Mint at Lowes and tried it out and sprayed it around the outside in spots where mice get in once a week for a few weeks and we have not even had one mouse after that. Two years in a row mouse-free after years and years of mice infestation.
Great idea! Does it work on politicians?🤣
Does it work on Democrats
With some minor modifications and changes, yes, I believe it would work on them.
The big question, can we build enough traps to save us?
@@hkguitar1984 Bahahahaha, prolly not.
Only if you dangle kickbacks over the bucket.
@@hkguitar1984 Home depot sells the buckets,
Thank you for sharing this important information on the dangers of rats and the diseases they carry in the description section. I just paid $1,000 for a guy to get into my attic to set traps and inspect it over the next few months.
Thank you ,I will try it!
Got any more pest idea s,,,, what about deer flies, horse flies
This method is well over 100 years old. Back then they used a gallon wide mouth jar half full of water instead of a bucket. I use a bucket with four inches of RV antifreeze in my camping trailer in the winter time. I use a string across the top tied to the wire on the handle on each side with an empty toilet paper tube suspended in the middle with peanut butter on it. I use an old scrap board for the ramp. The RV antifreeze keeps it from freezing in the cold weather and also keeps down the odor of dead mice since it doesn't get emptied often when the trailer is in storage. It works when regular traps don't.
Also put bars of Irish Springs in the underneath of your camper they hate that as well!
What type of acid can be stored in a bucket I have a idea
What's Irish springs?@@Steve-vo6pr
If you want to be a little less toxic so thr birds can eat the mice, adding a little alcohol I believe would also prevent freezing - need to google see how much to add. I was told to add alcohol to my interior car cleaner spray that I leave in my car (diluted no rinse solution)
I did this on accident last year. I set out by setting out 5 gallon buckets with about 5 inches of water in them and a mosquito dunk in each. We had a bad year of mosquitoes. The mosquito dunks worked great. One morning I came out and there was a rodent in one of the buckets. Apparently it wanted a drink and fell in and couldn't get out. Bonus! Got rid of mosquitoes and at least one rodent!
Win win!
What’s a mosquito dunk? I’m in the uk and suffering with mosquitoes from march
I used this method once but with a coffee can, as I live in a suburban area that has a forest preserve and a lot of woodsy areas. Nothing works better IMO. And I love how he said "you got to have smarter kids, and watch your kids"... Cracked me up, but man, Brad you are right. Liked and subscribed.
Thanks for the sub and you're welcome. More laughs to come.
Gets rid of rodents AND feeds the ravens. Ravens are now getting pretty rare round me and need all the help they can get. Great video, so simple
Live in Rural Oregon and spent a fortune on professional pest control. I am so thankful for your video and sharing your knowledge.
I feel that...
I spent 75 bucks on some plastic Rinne trap covers for buckets.
Yes!!! I live in southern Oregon and my goodness these critters have 9 lives smh!!!
I am always relieved to find what I need and hear the detail so clear and practical as you deliver. Thanks.
Great traps. I put the peanut butter inside the can, they can still smell it but it can't fall off and is rainproof.
Tried this last night as I’m trying to keep mice from entering my camper that’s parked in the North woods of WI. I got 7 takers overnight!! I’m gonna make 3 more buckets up for tonight.
Thank you
That is awesome!
Hey, did you have to set it up and sleep close to the trap where you could hear the lil buggers splashing around? I'm having same issue, it's in my bedroom, trying to figure out how long approx it takes for them to....drown?? Or if I can hurry and dump it out in field right away. It's one rodent stuck in heating duct..😢
What a solution, smarter kids and watch your kids, it's common-sense advice for people who operate without much of it. I like it.
Skip the wire, soda can, and peanut butter. Put black oil sunflower seeds directly on 6 in. Of water. Sit back and watch em jump right in. Reckless abandon.
Nature's Way of thinning the herd
Best disclaimer ever
Now days, the village is supposed to watch the children , well, the village didn't lay down in the bed and make them. And common sense just aint that common.
Common sense is not common in this world..
Our Da taught us how to do this when we were very young! We have 2800 acres with a Farm house as a vacation spot. I married my husband and he was setting traps one day, I just shook my head and told him to get out of my way. The house we moved into had a horrible infestation. I set out 7 of these within 20 minutes and walked away. My husband just looked at me. I said ‘trust me, check your traps then mine in the morning’. He was in awe! I said (with a cheeky grin) ‘for a carpenter, you aren’t too bright are you?’ We laughed. These are the only way to do it right! Great job on explaining how easy it is, Sir.
Nice, made me chuckle… welcome from Ireland,,, now you’re an honorary Wingnut
@@CaptainWingnut Well, thank you Sir. I was born in the States, spent years in Ireland, then returned to the States. I split my time between both now. Been in the States for over a year now due to travel issues. It was here that our Dad taught us that trick and it works everywhere! Even when I was in the military!
I'll definitely try this. I've lived in this house for over 27 years. This is the first time I've ever seen a mouse in my house. My grandchildren live here so snap traps and poisons are out. Thank you!!!
Use sticky traps. But u need the LARGE ONES. I used the small ones for awhile, but
the rodents laughed at me as they jumped over them!
@@ggburg8118 Ha! Exactly what happened in my house! 🤣
09m
Same here! Bern here 5 years and haven't seen any mice, but this morning to my surprise a mouse was in the kitchen...I have a 2 year old and a 8 year old!
There are children safe snap traps
Excellent, Captain Wingnut. I like this kind of simple, and highly effective trap, because its variations have worked for THOUSANDS of years. Bring us more! Liked and subscribed.
Watch your kids 😊 Smarter kids! 😊 That’s when I hit the like button! 👍
So aka, they not sneaky enough..welp ..sld be no time now being west sharlotte grown
so glad i found this, seen 2 rats and a baby at the bottom of my garden coming out from under a large bush and been mortified at the thought of how many there could actually be. This is a perfect solution and costs nothing which in these times is a gidsend as money is so tight. Can't thank you enough, brilliant!
True. And FYI buckets use to cost only $2.00 but now they are $5 to $12 for 1 bucket. INSANE inflation but compared to poison and an exterminator this is the cheapest option.
A friend of mine made a similar water trap for his camp and had great success. His didn't use the wire and can, but he put a ring of peanut butter about 1/3 of the way down from the top. Rodents would walk up the ramp and fall in trying to reach the peanut butter that was just out of their grasp. I made that trap as well for my shed a few years back and it worked well. You always provide ingenious, inexpensive and simple solutions to common problems. I already got rid of my yellow jackets with your apple juice and borax trap. When I made them my wife didn't believe it would work but after a week with no more flying menaces on the deck and back porch she is a convert to your methods.
I gotta say this is one of the best ideas I've seen for dealing with rodents, without poison. I live SoCal near the coast, and we've got roof rats as well as mice. I'm impressed and definitely going to try this, thanks!
gotta?
@@Capecodham ...Milk?
@@alphathefirstone1222 So? Cal?
This is perfect for my chicken coop--I am limited with traps for fear of catching a chicken and I don't want to use poison. Good old fashion ingenuity!! ----I love this idea!!! Thank you so much!!!!
Did it work?
My cats are doing a great favor to my neighbor’s chicken coop
Just an FYI if you were to setup a camera and record activity at the trap you will find that the method in the video will usually have a few rats or mice defeat it by hanging on to the wire the entire time and will hang upsidedown and shimmy across the wire to the can and stretch out the legs and neck to lick as much PB off the can that they can before shimmying back towards the bucket edge and putting on an impressive display of gymnastics maneuvering itself off the wire and back to safety on the buckets edge and it seems like once one defeats it a whole bunch more are soon to follow. There is an alternative method of setting up this trap that as long as its setup correctly, has no ways of being defeated for rodents under a certain size of course. The diameter and depth of the bucket determines the size of rodent it can catch so the larger the rodent the bigger the bucket needs to be.
I will quickly describe the alternative method of setting it up, and include some of the nuanced details you won't likely find anyone discussing online. You will want to find something like PVC w/ 1"+ diameter or any light weight material that can be made into something similar in width and length to a 12in ruler. which will then be suspended above the water from a single focal point so that it will tieter when weight is put onto the ends of it. You will have to add enough weight to one end of the tieter so that it has a way of resetting itself every time it drops down into the bucket but not so much weight that that it no longer drops under the weight of the rodent.Too much weight added is the #1 mistake I see and hear most people making. An easy solution that works more often then not is finding a nut and bolt that is the size and weight needed to counter balance the weight of your tieter and then bolting it straight into one end of the platform or taping/glueing if bolting through material can't be done. You will use the bucket edge to stop it from over rotating back too far the other way. If the platform youre using as a tieter is greater than an inch thick (or diameter thats 1"+ for PVC), you will want to notch the end that will rest on the bucket edge so that it remains somewhat parallel to the ground in its rested state. If you are having trouble visualizing this concept id suggest trying to search something like "bucket trap" in google images or videos to help understand what im describing as well as get ideas for materials and/or items being used to make these traps. Both methods are fairly common and you shouldn't have an issue finding examples of either one.
A couple things to look out for and consider that are vitally important for this method to work are making sure there is nothing hanging into the bucket for them to grab onto or nothing sticking into the center of the bucket that they could grab onto as soon as they feel the platform starting to give way. When they sense danger or something unexpected happens they can have lightning quick reflexes.
If you set it up as a kill trap with water make sure the water level isn't too high and if you want it to be a live trap put a tiny amount of hay or some kind of soft bedding like material on the bottom so there jumps get absorbed by the ground and they don't become springs like they do when the ground is solid. Make sure the end of the platform that falls into the bucket only goes about half way across the top of the bucket so they cant stand on the opposite edge of the bucket and keep most of their weight on that edge and reach across a small gap to get the food.
Again, make sure you only have enough weight to bring the platform back up and nothing more. If the platform slams back on the edge then that is too much weight. You want it to return fairly slow and gently rest on the edge otherwise when a rodent walks the platform the extra weight will cause it to fall at such a slow rate that they are able to feel it coming and run back the other way to stop it rather than having the platform suddenly drop from beneath them leaving no possibility of reversing it once it starts falling.
Agreed!
How do you keep the raccoons and possums from tipping it over?
Sunflower seeds floating on water work too.
Excellent non poisonous pest control.
Great video!
In shell sunflower seeds, or without a shell. Guess you're meaning sunflower seeds IN the Shell , or else, guess they wouldn't float. TIA :)
Yep, I’ve used this for chipmunks that we’re behind & destroying a retaining wall. Fill a bucket 1/4 full of water, empty a bag of sunflower seeds on top of the water and layer a stick on the bucket. They crawl up the stick & think it’s a bucket of seeds. Jump down in & drown.
@Captain Lou sunflower seeds in a bucket of water with a stick to get rats and mice - thats the best idea yet! simple and quick to set up, thanks for sharing
I caught 22 chipmunks in less than a week
But caught grief from my wife and daughters
"Out of sight out of mind" be forwarned😙
Sir, You just made my day !!! I laughed my butt off when I saw how many critters you caught over night. So Simple...... So Smart.......So Cheap......You, Sir, are a genius !!!! Thank You Soooooo Much !!!!!
This works I did this but not to long after putting the traps out the skunks discovered them and knocked it over to get the rats and mice so then I put a heavy rock in the bottom to find out the raccoons got the dead mice so now I got a wire cage over the contraption. And I just take the dead mice and rats over to the edge of the trees and dump them out to keep them fed out away from the house. This works the skunks are now staying away from the house.
Man o'l man did you have to work, love your tenacity.
I LOVE IT... common sense at work!
Thanks for sharing.
I found a dead skunk in my 45 gallon water barrel. Lol
@@bufford5483 Was he in his striped swimming suit?
@@CaptainWingnut he drowned so fast he didn't have time to squirt
I have had problems with mice invading my home for over a year now. I have went through dozens of traps in that one year. must have killed at least a dozen per day. making a mess every time as these "Humane" traps have either made the mice explode, mostly the pregnant ones, but also I have ended up having to pick up bits & pieces of mice more often than not with each time I caught one. This homemade trap is perfect & it works even easier than setting traps. You are a genius
Thanks
@@CaptainWingnut what stops them being able to climb out ? as they can climb up toilet pipes etc and get thru sewers .
@@janetormerod3020 2 main things stop them, the physical distance of the sides of the bucket walls are way farther than a small sewer pipe. Also the water suspends them and they have no footing because they’re busy swimming
Glad you posted this, I've used mousers for many years. But instead of the popcan, I use an empty water bottle . I find it is easier to apply the peanut butter to and no sharp edges either.
PVC pipe works well too but the pop can is an easy to grasp concept for ppl. Most of my buckets are roller-less
Thanks Brad. Sometimes we just need to know what tools to use. You have provided so much information to solve some exasperating problems. You’ve given me hope. 😊
I am so glad somebody finally said that! Have smarter kids... Teach your kids! Heck yes!
Awesome trap at no cost, made with materials most people have at home. After watching this, my husband and I immediately made 2 traps. Our neighbors have farm animals and the giant rats have been feeding there but also scouting in our gardens. Thank you much for this.
Yes, that has to be the cause. We never had an issue with mice or rats. We've had chickens two years and no issue until we got goats then we got rats. Why? I clean the stalls daily. There's no food in there. I have a manure pile in front of it filled with poop and hay but they seem to love hanging out in the goat stalls. Any reason why?
Thank you so much it works really good. ☺️
does 5 inches of water in 5 gallon bucket work with giant rats too?
Great idea but where’s the the ramp there’s no board around the the bucket?
I think for rats use a bigger bucket
learned that trick when i was a kid from my dad's friend. he worked for the forest service and that is what they do to keep the mice down in forest service cabins in the woods. we used it in our cabin at it worked so much better than traps or bait. easy and quick. the only downside is if you are sleeping in the cabin when you bait the trap you are kept up all night listening to the little suckers splash around.
My uncle and my granddaddy had a farm in South Alabama that is the funniest contraption I have ever seen I like it you are awesome
Thanks.
Very good way of dealing with the rodents and protecting the other wildlife from poison. Thank you
If you are worried about secondary poisoning of pets and friendly predators asnakkkin on your nasty widdle wat use the following .
Empty biscuit tin.
Slice of bread.Leave it in the tin to dry out COMPLETELY.
mix concrete powder sugar bicarb of soda
spread this into the bread
leave this tin where ONLY the vermin can access it.
The concrete will set inside the intestine of your target....which will dehydrate and seek out water before it dies.
(make sure to have water outside but accessible only to vermin and add bicarb to it)
Death occurs within 24 hours,if done correctly the body is outside by then and is rapidly consumed by predators.
Not actually toxic,the body has one extra "bone" to eat around.
Fyi.His bucket might kill a 'few' mice.
a.its too small to kill rats.
b.once 'bob' is dead all the others will be able to scramble onto bob and jump out cos he bobs up.
Baking soda and flour help too, this is probably more humane.
@@learnjcbskidsterchickensga7594what's the recipe for the flour and baking soda fix?
@@monicaclark9581 equal parts. Flour. Baking soda. Some add sugar
I’m using it. I have a buddy from work that did pest control on residential and military base. Excellent- low cost. Thank you for the great video
This is absolutely ingenious! I live near abandoned factories, perfect breeding grounds for rodents. They chew holes in my trash cans and tear open bags of garbage every week. Not any more! Thank you!
We have the same problems around our gardens, in our greenhouses and barn. I have used live traps to remove a lot of squirrels and large chipmunks, rat traps for smaller chipmunks rats and mice. But they are all thirsty here so whenever we leave a bucket of water out the chipmunks fall in and drown. I use everything available. Really appreciate your method and will try that.
I like this idea. It's targeted to a specific pest threat without risk of harming other animals (as poison might), it's simple, and seems to be quite effective.
@@tommyboi76 HAH HAH HA...I guess from now on I should copy/quote the comment I'm replying to or my reply makes no sense if the previous comment gets removed.
Now I don't even remember what tommyboi76's comment was.
*@My Name is still JAFO* Whoa! I didn't notice your username until AFTER I posted my reply - crazy! 😲
@@JAFO. Clearly, you have excellent taste. :-)
Sup JAFO’s
I agree! I am so grateful for this video!
Okay, admittedly I couldn't bring myself to look in the bucket, but I truly appreciate the low cost ingenuity you've been so kind to share. Thank you, sir! Now if I can just find someone to empty the bucket for me.
Right. Where is the ramp they supposedly climbed to get inside? Nowhere on the ground nor near...🧐
wear gloves, dump it in (final) trash can or trash bag, don’t look. you can do it. that or share your space with the rodents! which is worse? if environmental concerns and money are not issues for you, then you could potentially throw the whole bucket away each time you catch a load (say, 8-10? idk)
To me, if I’m gonna kill ‘em, I gotta look at what I’ve done. I apologize and tell them “sorry , hey, but i cant have this going on!”
@@marioluigi5848should cook them too
@@Yiriyahas he mentioned in his video, he has learned that the rodents happily jump up in the bucket even without a ramp. So you have a choice - use the ramp or not.
I know how frustrating it can be, fighting mice and rats. I had my time with them in the past . They can be smart too.. If I ever get back to the country, I'll certainly make traps like that. Thank you.
Thanks Brad for your cheap and easy solution! It’s 4:45am and I’m up looking at UA-cam for solutions as I can no longer stand the smell of mouse piss in my bedroom! Waiting up to 7 days for the professional baits to work is too long! My nose can’t stand it any more!
Great work my friend!!!
You can smell it??? Stupid question, but what it smell like? Like human?
@@mikeike7114 no, worse! Those little buggers have potency! Update report: no more mouse, found hole behind kitchen oven and plugged up.
Did you get rid of the smell in the carpet? If so, may i ask how you did it, please?
@@Edward-b3r hi there, the mice where living in the (plasterboard) walls and peeing there. (No pee on carpets). In summer, pee smell would disappear after 3 days provided no new pee was sprayed! Rat baits have been working overtime!
A great money saving, effective video blog. Thank you for sharing it with us. We've lived in the Mojave Desert of Southern California for the past 45 years, and rodents and ants are the pests we've fought for years. Scorpions, spiders, sidewinders, coyotes, summer heat, and Monsoon rains, are down on the list from the rodents and ants.
We have all of the same and they all have their day in the spotlight.
ants will leave you alone if you are outside doing a job with this trick: sprinkle baby powder on the trail they are using! gives you maybe 24 hours respite, til the next rain or wind blows it off. I don't use it often, as it is not particularly nice stuff - use small amounts.
@@CaptainWingnut what state do you live in
@@charlescarter2072 Eastern Utah 7,000’ elevation in the Uintah Mountains.
@@CaptainWingnut nice
I love how you say go to have smarter kids and you got to watch. I 100% agree. Thanks for sharing this video
We didn't have rats till we had chickens. Now we're dealing with tons of them. I've caught about 20 in the laundry room this winter and now spring, with regular wooden traps. We needed this video! Thanks!
I never had them until i got birds. They discovered bird food.
IF you let them free range, you wouldn't have that problem...
Diatomaceous Earth-edible brand
Ya if you have chickens then you get fox, coyotes, raccoon, possum, bobcat, stray dogs and cats, mice, rats, snakes. My brother had them.
@@Yiriyah. How to use??
Great advice. I made one a while ago with a flip lid. Works a charm.
Really like your “smarter kids” comment. Cheers Captain!
I'm glad you like the video. I've got lots more for you.
Easy solution. Best part is its reusable. I am doing this tomorrow morning. Its already very late where I am. Thank you very much. I lost a lot of chickens after they are poisoned rats!
I like the idea of no poisons because i like having the hawks and owls around to also help keep the mice down.
Dana I agree. If we poison them the birds and other animals get poisoned too. I liked watching the birds, owl, crows, et al enjoying eating the fresh meat. The cycle of life.
I love the hawks and owls, nice to be able to give them meals. Appreciate your suggestion and easy directions for construction. Good day, Sir.
A common “urban myth”. Can you cite a scientific source to any study that’s been done showing that bird carcasses contain toxic levels of rodenticides?
People love to repeat this idea of the birds dying from the toxins. Among other things, that assumes the toxins have not been broken down and metabolized by the rodent. It assumes the toxins can remain stable after being ingested by a mammal. It assumes a lot of things.
@Rob Mintz As the cat drags the mice into the house, hahahaha
Thanks Brad, great video. To the point, no b.s. and it works. We need more sensible content like this. Keep sharing your wisdom.
I appreciate that! More to come.
I HAVE USED A WATER PAIL TRAP/BAIT SETUP WHERE THE RODENTS HAVE TO JUMP IN AFTER THE PILE OF FLOATING SEEDS. IT HAS WORKED OK FOR CHIPMUNKS BUT THIS IDEA LOOKS MUCH BETTER ANS MUCH EASIER TO KEEP SETUP....THANKS
It was back in the 70's when MY dad put together his beer can mouse trap it worked great then and still works great on your property
I've done this myself a long time ago and it did work. Your video inspired me to do it again now that the house next door has an abandoned junk vehicle in the back yard and rats live in it and come over to our bird feeder. Your video showed that you don't need to be neat and fancy when making this. Just rig it up and set it out. Thanks.
Does a 5 gallon bucket with peanut butter work with catching the rats?
@@ShaneKuhnOfficialI seen these on sale Amazon online and a lot of reviews the people said it works
Works great exactly as described, completely eradicated an really bad infestation in less than a week!
thx
Does it work for rats too? Or only smaller things like mice?
@@JessPenner rats aswell you’d just have to raise water level maybe use bigger bucket
How do you get them out of the bucket and what is the best way to dispose of them so they don’t invite maggots? Thanks!
@@TJ-ii1tpuse your imagination 😂it’s up to you
just love regular sensible people sharing useful things. No fake dumb ass tricks for views or doing extra stuff for no reason. Thank you sir.
Super great idea! We've been having a great deal of construction going on in the area,and suddenly I've noticed some unwelcome little guest. I will get right on this. Thanks much!
Recently my washer overflowed into the laundry room. What a mess! After my son took it apart, we discovered mice had chewed through the tube that goes to the water level switch. I've tried poison and had mice decomposing in my heating ducts and OMG, what a smell in the house!! So, Thanks, I'll try your way of dealing with them.
I'm guessing you never saw shawn woods mousetrap monday yt channel.......
Never use poison! They will die in your walls and the smell is horrible! I recommend cats! Cats will keep they away, the more cats the better the protection
@@toshawalker1910 I wish I liked cats. I sure could use a few around here.
@@ms.rubyj.4259 years ago while living in the country I saw a cat throw a mouse 10 feet in the air over and over! The cat was playing with the mouse and practicing it's hunting skills! That was the winter we didn't have any mice in the house!
Adding the spinning can is a great addition. I've done water traps with a ramp, but not as effective as your trap.
This is a great approach to the water trap! And I have everything ready to go. I *just* had some rodent tear up the wiring under my truck's hood. I've had it parked outside for years and years. This is the first time, and it's gonna cost me several hundred dollars to fix. And I'm lucky. Some unfortunate souls get to replace entire harnesses to the tune of $4,000.
put mothballs or mint oil under the hood, they HATE that... I have a video on mothballs for under the hood... the drawback is, when the vehicle is HOT, it smells like mothballs... but on the positive side, no chewed wires...
Thanks for watching and commenting.
A similar method is to fill the bucket about half full of water and pour bird seed in the bucket. The bird seed floats and just looks like a bucket of bird seed. Works like a charm,
Do I have to use the wire with the soda can or just place a bucket with a piece of wood??
@@dennisgolden1337 Thank you!!! I keep getting mice in my garage 😩 I will try this!!! Thanks again! 😊
@@sandyrodriguez6361 I used this on chipmunks, so going half full in a five gallon bucket worked because they would have thought that they could hop back out of the bucket. For mice, maybe use a smaller bucket and fill closer to the top. They wont jump in if it looks like they wont be able to get back out.
@@sandyrodriguez6361 As I understood, his answer was no.
@@haliaeetus8221 Thank you 😊
Thanks for the video! Most of these type of videos only talk about their great trap even showing you how to make it. The problem is they never show how well they work. Thanks for taking the time to show just how good yours works. I am thinking about scaling it up to a 15 gallon drum. I live in Fla and have problems with fruit rats.
Your video really helped us out. We live in the desert/mountains of Texas. We cleared more land surrounding our cabins but we had stopped putting out poisons when we got our dogs. No major issues yet but lots of rain the last few years so I figure we better up our game. About to make our first bucket trap right now. Thank you very much. God Bless
Thanks for sharing! Makes sense. And I'm so glad you said something about smarter kids. More kids need to spend time outside, climbing trees and scraping knees, and the watching clouds take different shapes. It's good for the imagination, and it's good for kids to experience appropriate risk when young.
Absolutely!!
We don't have them as bad as you do , but if you are storeing grain dog food or any kind of dry feed they can get bad quick . Thanks for the tip. It is also environmental safe .
Amazingly simple, thanks. What I want to know is how Google/UA-cam knows I started having trouble with mice yesterday and put this in my suggestions. I too am but a mouse, nabbed in the algorithm trap.
Funny... Glad to be of assistance... more coming.
Thanks for watching
Should we be flattered, someone is finally listening to us? LOL
Google feeds are disturbing. I understand the marketing, but it seems wrong. I agree with you.
That's Funny! My sister lives in the country and she has a rodent situation. I was just thinking about her yesterday! Can't wait to share this info and give it a try! Thank you.
Go one step further with your conceptualization. DATA is now worth more than gold. Currently we provide the data, and we also ARE the data. But soon we will be more than just data. Research the plan called IOB (Internet Of Bodies). The IOB will connect up to the IOT (Internet Of Things/ Internet of Everything). Just an fyi.
Thank you for the video, I have mice in my chicken coop tearing up my ladies feathers, affecting their laying, and drawing in snakes. I can't wait to see how many I get rid of tonight!
I am going to prepare my bucket today. Ground squirrels are our problem. Car engine - chewing wires. Shredding fire bib under hood. Sharpening teeth on red battery cap. This time they aren't nesting as I've been moving my car a lot to prevent that but the destruction continued even with all the efforts of peppermint oil, spray, dryer sheets, chili powder - finally used a 1" paint brush and and gathered together all the unused Del Taco del Scorcho hot sauce packets that have been collecting in the kitchen and painted them under the hood and then laid a big blue plastic tarp over the engine and lowered the hood without the final closing. 3 days now success! Yay Del Taco!
Hello Brad , a few years ago I had a 5 gallon bucket in my shop Id fill when I was welding , a few days later I found 2 dead squirrels in the bucket that were running around in the attic . Didn't have a pop can thought . Thanks for the video , its a great idea !
My squirrels are too big they just stand on the side and lick the peanut butter
Thanks for your comment. I came here because I have squirrels in my attic and I’m getting desperate. Thanks for confirming this works
@@carlmoore730 I have the same issue. After he's finished all the peanut butter, he says, "Thank kind sir". I've lowered the pop can to see if that helps. Will update this.
@@MrAbeebaby I tried that too. They just leaned down further and had more peanut butter
Very effective. If you are gonna be away for a while, a vacation cabin for example, put 1.5 gallons of RV antifreeze in the bucket. Helps pickle the catch so they don’t start smelling so much. Especially important if this trap is set up in a shop or inside your.cabin.
GOOD idea ! Never thought about that ........ since we used it in a building on the farm!
Dogs love it, good one DS
Antifreeze is deadly to cats and dogs! And to make matters worse, they LOVE the taste of it! Please be very careful to keep the traps away from your pets if you decide to replace the water with antifreeze...
@@reneewiemann RV Anti Freeze is Non-Toxic.
@@BamaJoe2023 Well, that's good to know. I didn't know that RV antifreeze was different from your regular, run-of-the-mill, antifreeze. From now on, I'm going to have to think of the two kinds of antifreeze as 'leaded' & 'unleaded'...
Great video and thanks. For the bleeding hearts that might respond, ask them come up and put the pests in their house. It will get real quiet very fast. Thanks again.
I agree. Just think about all the disease rodents spread. And in my case I am having to deal with them in the house (including the kitchen oven area) and they leave waste all over the place. I am really struggling (I cannot afford a pest control AND construction company to seal all the holes, plus they will probably still find their way back in the house).
I know right? After eating my garden down to stubs, they all deserve to DIE! The rabbits that is.
Brad - I've had good luck using cotton balls with a few drops of peppermint oil on them under the hood to keep rats & mice from chewing on my wiring. Thanks for the bucket trick!
That's a great idea!
I think we've tried every different smelly oil ever suggested to try to keep pack rats from chewing our cars wires! They just keep coming in and chewing with a great smelling engine compartment! I think they're to dumb to know they don't like the smells - or smart enough to ignore it!
Thank you. Such a good way to go. No poisons or chemicals of any kind, completely natural. God Bless you.
This is just an example of how water can be a poison!! 😂
Drowning animals is especially cruel and certainly not natural.
@@davidtaylor4053 Actually, its a very natural death David, you’re just projecting your fears of drowning on the rodents… when you’re in a rodent bloom or have obnoxious nibblers everywhere we don’t call it drowning… we all it SURVIVAL.
He spoke the truth when he said “watch your kids” some folks need to heed those words 😂
That's right gotta train those little tikes to be smart!
And pets!
👏👏👏👏 have smarter kids, watch your kids!!!
He's in the mountains!
I love when he said maybe you need smarter kids ! Haha !
Love your comment about the kids… people should watch your children and teach them to stay out of stuff their not supposed to be in period. Great video. Thanks for sharing
*their
Thank you! I don’t care for the sticky traps or snap traps. This is perfect!
I’ve done this many times. It’s a great way to save your animals feed and save your money . Take care and have a wonderful year ahead .
I have used this same one for many years. Works every time
Yes it does
I saw this technic on a farm in Oregon, The guy had a 5 foot cow watering tub. His ramp tilted so when the rat got close to the end, it dumped him in. another thing he had was a big rock stickin out of the water. Of course after the first one in, the next would fight for the spot out of the water. LOL .. I like your idea better, you carry it where ever ya need it and a sweet idea!!!
This is perfect, plus a lot easier and cleaner to empty dead rodents than prying their bodies out of spring traps! Thanks!!
I’m going to try this, Sir. Thank you for your advice, Where I live in London there are supposed to be 7 million people (more like 11 million but they won’t admit that) and at least the same number of gray squirrels. I will enjoy cutting their numbers down to size!
For big squirrels and rats I marry (glue or wire or ??) two 5 gal buckets together, top to top. I cut the bottom out of the top one, no roller and put 5” of water in and float sunflower seeds on the water… they let go because they can’t reach and think they can just jump out… a little cooking oil on the inside of the bucket walls helps to keep them from climbing out and keeps the seeds floating longer.
Some say 6 gallon buckets work but I think they’re hard to find.
Been using this style trap for decades at the cabin. Always leave one in the middle of the room - just make sure you use anti-freeze in the winter or the water will freeze and the little buggers will just jump out. Engine coolant, not windshield wiper fluid.
Use rv antifreeze, cheaper and safer
I heard antifreeze is sweet and tasty to rats. I'm gonna try to find a way to serve it up!
If you use antifreeze, please bury the dead rats, or you'll kill the hawks, ravens and eagles that eat them.
@@colbullsigh6823 Good point.
I've never had that problem. You may be putting too much water in or not have a big enough bucket.
Agreed. I love that there's no pesticides involved. Simple and very effective. Ty.
I got over run with chipmunks this year and made two traps similar to this one. Within a couple of days I eliminated 5 of the pest. They work really well.
I was over run with munks two years ago.
Over 50 succumbed to a similar demise.
@@twobeards6714 Those things got holes all over my front and back yards. Even under my storage sheds!!
This really works. I used this years ago in the spring and I couldn’t believe how successful it was.
Its always amazing to see how many people have used this over the years with great success... now a new generation of people know the secret!
Had a mouse problem last fall and winter here in urban Wisconsin, ate the wiring under the hood of my car (saw the mouse house with my own eyes under the motor shroud). No garage, car sat in driveway, used every day. Eventually had to get rid of the car, after many costly repairs that never got to the root of all the electrical problems those pesky critters caused. I hate poison baits, as I also have squirrels around. Thanks for this solution, I will give this a try this year!
I had to replace all the ductwork in my barn kept truck. I now liberally spray a water/mint oil solution around the cabin air intakes and motor compartment and keep the hood up when not in use. I think that is working. They hate mint.
@@nelsonfoster4476 Yes, mint oil is a very good repellant for rodents...
Deborah, I’m sorry about that! A friend had the same experience with her new Cadillac! I’d sure try this, it’s the best suggestion, and like the idea someone else suggested of putting crushed peppermints under the mats too. Makes the car smell good.
I love it. "Captian Wingnut" and "you gotta have smarter kids." Ain't that the truth .
I know, right; LMAO... THAT WAS PRICELESS..AND I SUBSCRIBED IMMED AFTER HE SAID THAT!
HOME~SchooL,...!!
NeAResT TinG to oLd~schooL.....NoT "coMMoN-CoRe"....NoT "IT TaKes a coMMuNiTy" BuLL-sheiTe'.! "..The KLinToN's.." CRAP!
Lord, that bus left the station way back in the B.O. days with Common Core in the schools. Dumbed down doesn't even nearly explain how bad it is. So sad to me. In our family we continue to pass down same chores, cooking, learning, playing, faith and everything else we've always done. Sigh. It's not the same. Gloryland looks sweeter as it gets nearer.
Lord bless and keep you all.
@@sweettina2 ChRisT~bLess U KeeP on -a eDuCATiN' DeaRs...BLessinGs foLloW!!
maTT v 8
@@c.l.vanhorne117 Lord bless and keep you! Followed! 💝🙏
Dude ! It works great. Might be a little high-maintenance for some folks but I’m in the country too where “you do what you need to do!” Well worth the effort. Thanks !
Smart way to catch critters, and keep your free range chickens safe. It looks like you have a nice setup for garden year round. Everything has gone up two to three times of the cost that it was two years ago.
Love your easy style and candor - too cold in Wyoming for the “rodent bloom “you described- wow ! ( Dropping out of trees ?!! ) We’ve used the 5 gal. soda can trick here for years - real effective - thanks - well done !
Paratrooper rodents
Glad to hear others say this works too! Gives me high hopes! No I don't have any falling out of trees either eeeegads I can't imagine hopefully that was exaggerated .... I hope 😢 but if not gotta hand it to these folks they are much stronger than I!! I think I would just lose it!
I think that is the niftiest trap I've ever seen.
Plastic soda or water bottles work well also. Heat the end of the wire and push it through the plastic cap and again for the bottom. Most bottles are clear so you can see what you are doing easier. You can push the wire into the bottom first and remove the cap if necessary. Then put the wire through the cap and screw it back onto the bottle,
Great addition. Thanks for the tip. Someone will definitely use this.
YW, and thanks for watching.
Even an empty paper towel or toilet paper roll work on the string/wire as well.
@@Emberxxx2002 Good idea. It would be easier for the peanut butter to stick to it. I also have some scrap pieces of PVC pipe that would work.
@@Emberxxx2002 There you go,,, use what you have available.
Thanks for watching.
Tip: put the end of your wire in a vise then chuck the other end in your drill. Spin while pulling on it till the wire breaks. You will straighten and anneal the wire hard at the same time.
Well done, Brad. I'm going to try this. Another tip for those using traps where the mice steal the bait. Gorilla glue a small piece of dry dog food with a dab of peanutbutter.
Who would use glue...a really cruel way of doing things....idiots
Nail the x large glue rat traps to a large flat board
I am not understanding this one. Why does nailing it do? Do you mean sticky glue traps?
What do you do with a live mouse caught in a sticky trap? (I dont like using these but sometimes when i dont know here they are coming from) @@captainamericaamerica8090
We use anti-freeze here in the Adirondack Mountains instead of water. Works through winter. The mice go after the soy-based plastics in the wiring in our machinery. We fish the mice out of the pail with an old spatula and discard them in the trash. Our baited mouse traps are rarely attacked. Works good.