Review of the Nooski Mouse Trap

Mice have been a big problem for us in our new (old) home.  It's a ranch style, with no basement -- or attic.  Every mouse that comes in, therefore, must enter into our living space. *gross*  We have had them chew through the carpet to get into our living room from under our baseboard heaters.  We have had them come up through the wall behind our stove and chew the wires of our stove (thus ruining the stove.)  We have had them come in under the crawl space behind our bathtub wall and get into our pantry.  They are a pain!

We have tried all kinds of traps.  Snap traps work, but they leave behind a maimed mouse that doesn't always die.  The mice have also learned to eat the peanut butter without setting off the trap.

We have tried glue traps.  Those are messy and gross and the mice die slowly.  They are also expensive, because they can be used just one time.

We have tried electric traps.  These leave a mess inside that have to be cleaned. (Who wants to do THAT!)

Poison isn't an option, because our dog may eat the mouse and get sick.  Live traps that let you release the mouse aren't just dumb.  (We live next to a field.  They will just come back and bring their friends!)

You can imagine how intrigued I was when I recently heard of the Nooski on an episode of Ask This Old House.  They explained how it worked and it just seemed to good to be true.  I ordered 2 traps and the refill rings on Amazon thinking it was worth a shot.  We set them up the next day, and they really, really worked!

These traps are little tubes that you put peanut butter in the end of.  By sliding a little o-ring over the tubes into the trap mechanism, you are essentially setting up a noose for the mouse to put his head through when he goes for the peanut butter.  When they enter the tube, the ring springs back to its original (tiny) size.  The mouse backs out of the tube, ring around its neck and dies next to the trap.  There is no dragging the trap around.  There is no hours of slow death.  There is no real mess.

You can then put a new ring on the trap and use it over and over and over!

Here is the trap...

And the rings... (Notice that they look like little castration bands used for sheep or hogs?  Those who have livestock know what I'm talking about.  They work the same way.)

I decided to use it after I was cleaning the bathroom floor and found a strange piece of string under our baseboard heater.  I pulled on it, and it just kept coming and coming.  The string was super long -- apparently had been pulled into a mouse hole and just didn't make it all the way in.  Now that I knew where the mouse was holing up, I could set the trap nearby.

Putting the rings on is a bit difficult.  Not complicated, but you need strong fingers to do it. (I wouldn't recommend it for someone with arthritis, for example.)  I set the trap right in front of the hole and came back 2 hours later with a dead mouse lying by it!

The sight of a fat, fat mouse with a little ring around its neck was not for the faint-hearted; it was nice, however, to see that it was one less germy, diseased animal that could make my kids sick or ruin my new stove.

You can get the Nooski and replacement rings on Amazon, like I did, for around $12 a trap and $6 for the rings.  I will be setting 2 each day until our mouse problem is gone (and even after to make sure it stays gone!)