If you’ve watched cartoons growing up then you might assume that cheese is the best bait for a mouse trap to catch mice at home. It turns out that cheese is not exactly the best food for catching mice. Mice have a different food palette that you can use to lure them into your trap.
If you have a mouse problem in your house, you’ll want the best ways to catch the mice fast. You can set all of the traps you want, but if you don’t use the best mouse trap baits you’ll have a real hard time getting a mouse to your traps.
The 3 Types of Bait for Mice Traps
The three best types of mouse trap baits for luring mice to traps are food, nesting materials, and poison bait/rodenticide. Technically rodenticide works as a food bait for mice since they are attracted to the smell as if it was a food, but I think it’s safe to say we can split it into its own category.
Food Baits
This is where that age-old cheese option comes from. Mice, like pretty much every other pest, is in your home because you have food to keep it alive. They come out, usually at night, looking for food. Mice are scavengers and seek out food laying around for easy pickings.
Nesting Bait
When the mice decide it’s time to set up camp in your home or even your car, they will start building out their nest to support a family of mice. Sometimes nesting materials are the best bait ideas since you can make it harder for the mice to steal.
Poison Baits / Rodenticide
If you aren’t looking for a humane way to catch and release mice in your home, rodenticides might be the best mouse trap bait for you. They are specially formulated with scents to draw in mice to the trap. If they get caught on the spot, you win. If they nibble at the block and sneak away, you win again since they won’t last long with that poison in their system.
What do mice like to eat?
Mice are technically herbivores but have adapted to urban areas where they will eat most food scraps and even smaller insects. Given the option, they’d prefer a more vegan diet. That means that while a hungry mouse will eat most things you put in front of it, your best bet at catching a mouse would be to use a food that they crave.
Urban areas where they will eat most food scraps and even smaller insects. Given the option, they’d prefer a more vegan diet. That means that while a hungry mouse will eat most things you put in front of it, your best bet at catching a mouse would be to use a food that they crave.
Think of it like this…you’d eat broccoli if it was the only thing available, but you’d drive across town for a good slice of pizza. What we want to do here is use the mice equivalent of pizza as the best food to catch mice. Sure they will eat a piece of cheese, but there are better foods to use for bait that a mouse will have a harder time passing up.
Now, what would be the pizza equivalent to use as mouse trap bait?
Mice tend to love high calorie and high carbohydrate foods. They give them the energy to scurry around your house as fast as you see them running and are easy to digest.
Mice are also serious hoarders. Even if they aren’t hungry at the moment, they plan ahead and carry food back to their nest in case they want a little snack later. This is why some smaller baits work well since a mouse might see it on their way back to their nest and pick it up to bring home.
11 Best Baits for Mouse Traps that Work Fast!
Best Foods to Bait Mice
Luckily mice don’t have expensive taste in food. Most of the ideas below are natural mouse baits that you’ll have around your house already. There is likely no need to go to the store to pick up anything expensive or hard to find.
1. Peanut Butter / Nut Butters
Peanut butter is usually the best bait for a mousetrap. Mice love eating nuts, so any variety works really. Just make sure you don’t load it on. You only need a bit and if you have too much, you risk a mouse stealing from the edges and not getting caught in the trap. The main downside to using peanut butter is it can leave an additional mess you have to wipe up.
*No research has been done on the efficiency of chunky versus creamy peanut butter.
Best for: snap traps, glue traps, catch and release traps
2. Chocolate
Mice also love chocolate. If you have a mouse infestation in your home and have any chocolate bars laying out, there is a good chance they have or will soon have gnaw marks through the wrapper. Tiny piece of strong smelling chocolate is a great bait for mice.
Pro tip – place a piece of chocolate on top of a peanut butter bait. The combination is almost irresistible to mice.
Best for: snap traps, electric traps, glue traps, catch and release traps
3. Seeds and Nuts
Seeds and nuts are high energy and highly nutritious foods that mice cannot get enough of. Mice will eat almost any kind of seat you put out for them which makes bird seed a cheap and easy bait for mice. Beyond that you can use sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds as a great bait.
Best for: glue traps, electric traps, catch and release traps
4. Pet Food
If you already have a pet dog in the house, then one of the first things you should do is put their food in an enclosed container. Mice often chew threw cat and dog food bags to feast on the kibbles and bits inside.
If you have a cat, you should really have a pep talk with him. Cats should not be allowing mice to live in the same home as them!
Best for: glue traps, catch and release traps, electric traps
5. Breakfast Cereal
One of the ways a lot of people first realize they have a rodent problem is when the start their morning with a bowl of Lucky Charms and find out the bottom of the box has been chewed through. Mice will eat most any cereal, but the best kinds of cereal for mouse bait would be the sugary kinds.
Best for: glue traps, catch and release traps, electric traps
6. Candy
Most sugary candy can be used for a good mouse bait in a pinch. You can use Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups as a double whammy to satisfy the mouse’s craving for chocolate and peanut butter. Other effective candies for mouse bait would be jelly beans or soft candies like gummy bears. They even like candy corn, so that gives you an actual use for that Halloween candy.
Best for: glue traps, catch and release traps, electric traps
7. Cookies, Brownies, or Cake
Would you leave a plate full of cookies out on your kitchen counter if you knew you had mice in your house? Of course not! Mice will go crazy for an opportunity to bite into a cookie.
It doesn’t really matter the type of cookie, just make sure if you are using it on a smaller trap you make the pieces small and in the center of the trap.
Would you leave a plate full of cookies out on your kitchen counter if you knew you had mice in your house? Of course not! Mice will go crazy for an opportunity to bite into a cookie.
It doesn’t really matter the type of cookie, just make sure if you are using it on a smaller trap you make the pieces small and in the center of the trap.
Best for: snap traps, glue traps, catch and release traps, electric traps
8. Cheese
Well obviously this is going on the list. Cheese isn’t just used on cartoon mouse traps for the comedy of it. Cheese is not exactly the best bait for a mouse trap, but it is one of the better options. Strong smelling cheeses are best for catching a mouse’s attention. Cheese can lure in a mouse from far away. It is worth putting some cheese on some of your mouse traps.
Best for: glue traps, catch and release traps, electric traps
Nesting Baits for Mice Traps
As mentioned earlier in this article, mice are scavengers on the hunt for more than just food. They also seek out objects and materials around your home to make a nest for their little infestation family. Here are some of the best non-food bait ideas for catching mice in your traps.
9. Strings
String cheese right? No, actual strings and stringy products are some of the best baits for mouse traps. No, they aren’t looking for food when they find these. Mice are always on the hunt to find items around your house to use to build up their nest. Stringy items like yarn and dental floss are obvious choices for a mouse nest.
Pro Tip – wrap these nesting materials around snap traps so they are difficult to pull away. A mouse is more likely to get caught in the trap if they struggle with removing the bait.
Best for: snap traps, glue traps
10. Cotton Balls
Cotton balls are another mouse trap bait that is something mice look for when nesting. The soft malleable cotton balls make great additions to their nests, so a mouse won’t balk at the chance to take one of these.
Pro Tip – add a food scent to the cotton ball with peanut butter or honey
Best for: snap traps, glue traps
Mouse Killer Baits
This is probably the best mouse trap bait you can use to get rid of mice fast. They will either get caught in the trap trying to steal the poison bait, or they’ll nibble at it and ingest poison that will kill them even if they got away. That being said, this isn’t the best idea for the squeamish type that worry about making the mouse suffer.
11. Rat / Mouse Pellets
These aren’t those mouse pellets you are thinking about. Mouse pellets of rodenticide (aka poison) that have a smell and taste that draw in mice. After they nibble on the cake they’ll ingest the poisons.
Pro tip – this is not the best option if you have pets or small children as they can easily find these pellets which can poison them.
Best for: glue traps, catch and release traps, electric traps
Tips for Setting Mouse Traps to Catch Mice Fast
Now that you know the best mouse trap baits, you should know how to use a mouse trap effectively. There are many things you can do right and wrong when setting traps. Below are a few tips to help make sure you get rid of the mice in your house ASAP.
Don’t Ruin the Bait!
Mice have a keen sense of smell. They are also careful little creatures. If you put some bait in one corner of the room and a mouse on the other, you won’t likely see the mouse dart to the bait. They’ll inch closer to it sniffing the air. Part of this is to check for predators. If the mouse smells a human’s scent is strong on something, they’ll easily back away.
To avoid covering mouse bait in your scent, make sure you wash your hands and wear gloves while handling the bait. Definitely do not touch any pets prior to handling bait since that smell will definitely scare the mice away from the bait.
Set Traps Near Nests
You’ll have better chances of catching all of the mice in your house if you set traps close to the nest. The nest can often be in walls, drawers, false ceilings, garbage, and refrigerator compartments. They’ll usually try to set up their nest somewhere that food is near so it’ll likely be near your kitchen or pantry. You will find the most mouse droppings on paths near the nest.
Mix Baits
It was mentioned earlier with the peanut butter and chocolate mix, but you can make the best mouse trap bait by mixing 2 or 3 different baits together. This will give the mouse more reasons to be curious about the trap and go for the bait. Try mixing two mouse food baits with a nesting bait.
Change the Bait Regularly
One of the main ways that food works as a bait for mice is the smells they put off. After a few days, the scents of any food bait will likely fade away. If the mouse hasn’t found the bait by now, they likely won’t if the smell has faded. Replace the bait every 3 or 4 days.
Proper Trap Placement
You will almost never catch a mouse in the middle of a room or anywhere out in the open. Traps should always be placed flush against the wall. Mice get nervous about venturing too far away from walls so they are much more likely to hang tight to the walls and floorboards.
Bonus tip – always place traps in twos. Sometimes a mouse will try to outsmart you by jumping over a trap, so you can have a backup trap right behind it for them to land on.
Use Less Bait
You would think that covering a trap in bait would be the best way to catch a mouse. In reality, if you have a large piece of bait on a trap the mouse is able to sneakily grab a small piece without triggering the trap. Go easy on the amount of bait you put on each trap to force the mouse to the middle of it.
Set Many Traps
Most of those glue traps and snap traps you can buy come in bulk packages. That’s a major benefit to you since you likely won’t catch anything by just putting out a couple of traps and hoping they work. You want to get as many traps as you can around your house to make sure you increase the odds that your traps are set up where they are walking and to get rid of mice fast.
Go Hard on Day 1
Statistically, the first night you have your mouse traps set will be the night you catch the most mice. The mice may become skeptical if they notice some of their nest going missing and will be more cautious around your traps. Layout all of the traps you have on the first night if you want to ensure you’re catching all of the mice.
Don’t Wait
Mice multiply fast! If you find any mouse droppings, signs of a nest, or any mouse chewed items in your house make that first day be the start of your mouse war. Mice breed extremely quickly. The gestation period for a mouse is only 19-21 days and a female can give birth to as many as 14 mice. If you wait too long, you can allow the mice to exponentially grow in numbers.
Don’t Quit too Soon
Keep using traps until they no longer catch mice. You might think that you have caught all of the mice in your house after a day or two of empty traps, but there could still be an infestation hidden somewhere in your home. Keep setting the traps for a couple of weeks until there is definitely no sign of mice anywhere.
Don’t Try Making Bait Trails
You might think it is a clever idea to leave a little breadcrumb trail for your mice to a trap. Mice can only eat so much though. After just a few crumbs they will be plenty full and ready to move on. Instead, place a teeny tiny crumb near a trap to coax a mouse near it. Then put the real bait on the trap.
About the Best Mouse Baits
If you have mice in your house and you want to handle the problem as fast as possible without hiring an exterminator, you need to start setting traps right away. There are many different kinds of mouse traps you can use. Without using the best baits for a mouse trap, you’re just going to be wasting time and money. Go get some chocolate, peanut butter, and yarn so you can rid your house of mice now.
Getting Rid of Mice – Further Reading
kathy drescher says
Thank you. I have had a serious mouse issue with my cars. I’ve gotten rid of both cars and now have an EV Nissan Leaf I’m just hoping they dont start in it. I’m going to plant traps heavy around the carport and car before I start charging at home. Wish me luck.
Kathy
mvg417 says
Is the Leaf fully electric or a hybrid? If it is fully electric then you at least have a lot less places for the mice to hide in the non-existent engine 🙂
TW says
Makes a lot of sense than most I have read. Thanks