Best Electric Mouse Traps & How They Work

Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Well, a better mouse trap was invented. It is the electric mouse trap that you can use today instead of those traditional snap traps or glue-based traps. While there are pros and cons for different types of mouse traps, we’ll just focus on the electronic mouse traps in this post.

How Does an Electric Mouse Trap Work?

Electronic mousetraps are a modern way to catch mice fast, and depending on how you look at it, humanely.

While there are many different kinds of electric mouse traps available to buy, they all have the same components. Some have added features like Wi-Fi for notifications or larger sizes for rodents like rats. Below are the standard features in the best electric mouse traps.

Bait Cup

All of these kinds of traps have a compartment or a “bait cup” at the end of the trap to lure in the mice. You’ll want to use a good mouse trap bait with an enticing smell, like peanut butter, that will attract the mice.

Safety Pillars / Maze

The majority of these kinds of electric mouse zappers have angled columns inside the trap leading up to the bait room. They are there to both block the mice from turning back to run away and also to prevent pets and children from reaching inside which would be very dangerous.

Shock Factor

This would be the part of this trap that is equivalent to the lever on an old fashioned mouse trap, but much more effective.

Just before reaching the mouse trap bait, the mouse will step on a metal plate positioned inside the bait room. Contact with the plate then triggers a lethal high-voltage shock that will immediately kill the mouse.

Benefits of an Electric Mouse Trap

The way I see it, there are way more pros than cons when it comes to using an electric mouse trap. Here are a just few of those benefits.

Highly Efficient

Unlike snap and glue traps where mice can sneak up and steal the peanut butter or other bait, these have a much higher kill rate. Almost all electronic mouse trap manufacturers boast about a 100% kill rate for their products.

A More Humane Option

Compared to the other types of mouse traps that kill mice, the electronic versions are the quickest and most painless way to kill a mouse. Snap traps often snag a mouse and injure it leaving it to die a long painful death. Glue traps are a long torturous death caused by either starvation or suffocation.

Some people might consider the only humane mouse traps to be the catch and release variety that keeps the mouse alive. Some consider a quick death a humane option if going that route. It’s up for debate, but that’s what the comments section is for.

Reusable

You’d hope that once you catch all of the mice in your house you’d be able to throw this in the garbage and never have to use it again. But, if you ever happen to get a mouse in your house again, you can dust off your old electronic mouse trap and it’ll continue to work like new.

Safe for Homes

If you have pets or small children, almost any other kind of trap can be dangerous in one way or another. Snap traps can injure a curious child. Poison and toxic bait traps can be fatal to a pet. Glue traps, handled improperly, can spread diseases from a mouse to a human.

Most electric mouse traps have built-in safety measures that make it impossible for anything larger than a mouse to reach in far enough to get a shock. They also usually have a safety automatic shut off for when opening the trap.

No Mess / Easy Cleanup

The other lethal traps usually end up with some kind of mess that you have to carefully clean up whether it be blood and gore from a snap trap or virus infected areas around a glue trap. Electric traps almost always have an easy way to discard of a dead mouse without having to touch, or even look at it.

Easy to Use

These are very easy to set up around your home or wherever a mouse has decided to infiltrate. All you need to do is make sure the batteries are charged, bait it, and set it up in a proper location.

Great for Professional Exterminators

Since these are so effective and reusable, it is perfect for exterminators that don’t want to have to keep buying disposable mouse traps. They can be an investment in the business that is a great selling point to potential clients who want the best pest control options.

Cons of Electric Mouse Traps

After rattling off all of the benefits of these traps, you might be thinking they are the best mouse traps possible! Well, they are great, but with a few drawbacks.

Price

You can get 10 glue traps for under $10. A single electric mouse trap is going to set you back at least $20 if you want a decent one. This isn’t always the best financial option if there is only a single mouse in your house that you want to get rid of.

Size

Electric mouse traps are much bigger than other types of traps. That is a major disadvantage for trying to set them up in highly trafficked areas that are easiest to catch mice. You won’t be able to fit this under your oven or behind your refrigerator like other types of traps.

Can’t Set a Lot

One of the best ways to catch mice fast is to set as many traps as you can as early as you can. This is easy to do when you have small and inexpensive glue or snap traps but can be difficult with these expensive and large traps. You might be better off paying a local exterminator to handle the mice rather than investing in an army of electric mice traps.

Indoor Use Only

I have yet to find a good electric mouse trap that works outdoors. Currently you’re only able to use these traps indoors as none have been made to protect themselves from outdoor elements like rain and snow.

The Best Electric Mouse Traps Reviews

Best Electronic Mouse Trap – Overall

Victor M250S No Touch, No See Mouse Trap

You’re going to find Victor as a top pest control company for DIY mouse removal and most other pests. They have been making mouse traps since 1898, so they know a thing or two about catching mice.

With that being said, their base model electric mouse trap is one of the best on the market and affordable. It is also coming from a reliable company that stands behind their product, unlike a lot of fly by night Amazon brands.

This is a basic mouse trap without any extra bells and whistles.

One of the best features of the Victor Electric Mouse Trap is the removable kill chamber. When dealing with mice, you want to be as careful as possible when handling anything they come in contact with because of possible diseases like Hantavirus. Cleaning these devices can be tricky with the electronic components, but this trap has an easy to remove chamber so you can clean and disinfect the trap after each successful catch.

Despite the powerful shocks given by this device, you won’t be burning through batteries. It uses 4 AA batteries that have enough juice to kill up to 100 mice.

Key Features and Specs:

Removable kill chamber for easy cleaning and disinfecting Built-in bait cup
Beveled columns hold the mouse in place for no escapes
Reusable trap
Indoor use only
Alert Method: Green LED light after a kill is made
Power:
- 4 AA Batteries
- Up to 100 kills per battery set
Dimensions: 3.52 x 1.98 x 7 in

Best Electric Mouse Trap for Exterminators & Large Infestations

Victor Multi-Kill Electronic Mouse Trap

This is the mouse trap you’re going to want if you have a lot of mice to catch. It is going to be a perfect trap for catching a lot of mice fast.

Other electric mouse traps are only able to catch one mouse at a time. This trap is designed to catch up to 10 mice per setting.

When a mouse enters the trap they are given the fatal shock like the other traps. After the mouse has been killed, the inside of the trap spins, dropping the dead mouse into a collection drawer until you are ready to dispose of it. The trap is then automatically set up to catch more mice.

Blinking green light means that at least one mouse has been caught. A yellow light will turn on once the trap is full and needs to empty.

Key Features and Specs:

Removable kill chamber for easy cleaning and disinfecting
Kills per setting: 10 mice
The dual-entry design encourages interaction
Reusable trap
Indoor use only
Alert Method:
- Green LED light – Kills has been made
- Yellow LED light – collection drawer is full
Power:
- 4 C-cell Batteries
- Up to 150 kills per battery set
Dimensions: 8.5 x 4 x 5 inches

Available on Amazon

Best Electric Mouse Trap for Attics & Basements

Victor M1 Smart-Kill Wi-Fi Electronic Mouse Trap

Surprise! Another Victor Pest Control product. Honestly, they just don’t have that much competition when it comes to catching mice.

This trap or the previously mentioned multi-kill trap is both great for use in attics, basements, garages, or anywhere you want to catch a lot of mice.

The reason that this particular electronic mouse trap is best for attics and basements is the WiFi capability. Yes, we have entered the age of “smart” mouse traps.

When you start setting mouse traps, you’re almost immediately going to want to keep checking to see if you caught a mouse. This is going to be difficult when you have your trap somewhere that is hard to access, like your attic.

The beauty of this electronic mouse trap is that instead of having to constantly look at the trap to see if anything was caught, you’ll get a notification on your phone once a mouse is caught.

This trap also helps avoid leaving a mouse in a trap so long that it starts to decompose which can lead to an awful smell in your house in addition to new pests, like maggots, feeding on it.

Key Features and Specs:

Removable kill chamber for easy cleaning and disinfecting
Built-in bait cup
Beveled columns hold the mouse in place for no escapes
Reusable trap
Indoor use only
Alert Method: Wi-Fi enabled mobile alerts
- Only compatible with 2.4Ghz routers
Power:
- 4 AA Batteries
- Up to 100 kills per battery set
Dimensions: 3.5″ by 8″ by 1.75″

More tips on getting mice out of your attic.

Most Affordable Electric Mouse Trap

Hoont Electric Mouse Trap

This effective trap is one of the cheapest available for purchase that actually works.

The base model of the electronic traps from Victor is usually about $20 while this trap from Hoont hovers around $15. The lower price makes this one a lot more practical to buy several to maximize the possibility and speed of catching mice.

Remember earlier when I mentioned that safety is a key feature with these traps, or did you skip over that part? Well, this trap is one that I would not recommend if you have pets or children in your home. It is way too easy for a child or a pet to reach into this particular trap and make contact with a shock-inducing metal plate.

No, I haven’t done any personal test of sticking my finger in the hole. Looking at the design compared to the Victor brands, it just looks less safe despite the small wall they put up to protect you.

Key Features and Specs:

Removable kill chamber for easy cleaning and disinfecting
Lowest price
Reusable trap
Indoor use only
Alert Method:
- LED kill light
- Extended LED kill light – attaches to an extension line with an indicator light when a mouse has been trapped
Power:
- 4 AA Batteries
- Optional AC Wall adapter
- Up to 30 kills per battery set
Dimensions: 6.5” x 3.8” x 2.5”

Available on Amazon

See The Best Electric Mousetraps Working

If you don’t want to take my word for the power and efficiencies of these traps, why not watch some videos of them in action?

There is a Youtuber, Shawn Woods, who puts up some great content about catching mice on his “Mousetrap Monday” reports. He does in depth reviews with product features, how to set up electric mouse traps, and video evidence of mice being caught.

Here are our top picks reviewed by Shawn.