OWLTRA In-/Outdoor Electric Rodent Trap

I've used Victor electronic mouse & rat traps for over 10 yrs. They're VERY expensive, but definitely more humane & that's important. I've been frustrated w/ them because they stop working before even going thru 2 sets of batteries. Many of those traps never make past 1 set of batteries. All the cleaning & treating them as good as can be doesn't work! So I decided to try the 2-piece electronic Victor mouse traps since maybe if the part that holds the bait fails, it can be replaced cheaper than the entire trap & it would make cleaning easier too. But my orders have not been successful. I was sent the same old 1-piece traps instead, & when I tried to re-order the 2-piece traps, they just never came & I've been waiting since early Nov & over a month later still waiting for them to be shipped from Victor. So tried these Owltra mouse zappers in the meantime. Not only did they make it here in decent time, but they work so much better! So good in fact that I'm getting tired of seeing the green light flashing AGAIN & AGAIN. While waiting on the Victor's to come, the mice have been nesting & I have lots of baby mice getting caught now. Thanks a lot Victor for all the additional killing of little critters I now have to do because of your slow/non order fulfillment. The Owltra's just go & go & go! Even the bigger, fatter (pregnant) mice easily fit & go into Owltra traps, unlike the Victor mouse ones. In the past I had to use the Victor RAT size ones to allow for the pregnant & bigger mice to get in it (even more expensive & more dangerous for a pet paw to reach in & get shocked too). The owltra traps r made just right to put in a snack or cereal box to keep paws away from trap openings as well as easily slide into narrow places mice travel thru that the Victor is too wide to fit in. Another thing, the Owltra's are also 2-piece w/ the batteries/electronics in the top piece that removes so the bottom piece can be soaked in water to clean. The entire bottom part is open for easy cleaning & baiting. As for baiting, I've used 1/4" pieces of beef jerky for the strongest smell attractant w/o being wet & messy, I found that some goldfish flakes, dry dog or cat food nuggets, or bird food work best. Mice will come to these things w/o a hitch. Peanut butter, cheese, & crackers just don't work well to attract mice to traps & tend to mess up the electronics w/ moisture & smearing. But now I'm sold on the beef jerky bits! Best bait of all. Trust me, I've had over 10 yrs experience w/ Victor's electronic traps; bait matters! These Owltra's don't even need bait after the beef jerky has been used & that scent is in the trap along w/ the scent of previous mice being in the traps. The scents remain after the jerky is gone & keeps drawing more mice in to sniff around & u got 'em, no re-baiting even required! The scent of previous mice in a trap makes other mice consider it to be a safe mouse-friendly place to enter. So that matters too, & after the 1st catch, u have that scent in there which attracts more to enter. As for baby mice, it's not unusual to catch 2 @ a time because the Owltra trap design is much different from the more size restrictive Victor trap. The Owltra's cost less than the Victor alternative too. I'm an Owltra fan now! Good-bye Victor. I do have to say that the newer Victor mouse traps have much improved over the older ones tho! I'll give 'em that! But the Owltra's have outperformed Victor in real life usage for me in an old house in winter & in an area w/ large outdoor summer mice presence that come looking for a warm place to winter over in. Hope all this info helps someone. Please be humane tho!

After trying to use humane catch and release traps, I tried some other options as unfortunately the mice kept returning. I then tried the old-school wood traps, which can be difficult to set up, didn’t catch many mice, and when they did it unfortunately didn’t kill them the quickest — a bit traumatic to be honest. That all said, someone recommended these to me, and I’m so glad they did. These are incredibly easy to set up, clean up after use, and dispose of the mouse. As soon as they were set up, I caught two mice within hours. However, one thing I would say to be warned about it does a pretty loud buzzing when it catches a mouse — a little shocking when you first hear it. Overall, I highly recommend this product and they are well worth the price, especially if you care about getting rid of your mice in one of the more “humane” ways — glue traps are awful, and mice suffer for days and other forms aren’t as effective as this.

I was over run with mice, and I think I saw a couple rats as well. I couldn't be sure, because I read that rats and mice don't mix. But, I do think that a couple of rats got in there. This caused me to order the rat sized trap, because, what if Mama Rat showed up? It was like a horror show. In the past, I have tried snap traps. These will get you one or two, until the rest learn how to steal bait without getting caught. This time, I didn't start with snaps. I just jumped to glue traps. Glue traps work for the most part, if you buy ones with the strongest glue. But if any part of the mouse can catch a solid edge, then they can pull out of it. In addition to this draw back, they don't die right away, but linger for a couple of days. You have to bash them inside of a bag to avoid this grisly detail. And that is just as bad as having them sitting there suffering for days. I moved on to electric mouse traps. Yes, this is a successful solution. The trap I bought is only meant for indoors. I was very careful with it, not wanting to get zapped myself. The directions are well written and easy to understand, except it is not clear which way to push the slide button to turn it on. Slide the toggle toward the back door to turn it off, and towards the opening to turn it on. The green light signaling it is on only flashes once for about 5 seconds. If you don't see it, just repeat the steps. Turn it off, then back on. The back door is vented. I once saw a mouse attempt to open this door, but he couldn't. Don't waste your time thinking that you add the bait here. I think that's what it's for, because the bait tray is right there. But, I didn't use peanut butter, and my bait wouldn't fit through the opening. It was much easier to add bait through the top. I do not think human scent ever deterred those guys from going for the bait. Let's say you're all set up. This trap takes 4 C batteries. 1. You turn off the trap. 2. You take the battery door off. 3. You take out one or two of the batteries (I always took out two.) 4. You take the trap top off. It comes apart using two hands, but so easy! 5. You put the bait in the bin. 6. You put the top back on. This can be done with one hand. This trap is well made and the plastic parts are thick and sturdy. 7. You put the two batteries back in. Put the battery compartment door back on. 8. Turn on the trap and watch for the green light to flash. Bingo, you're ready to go. You can do all these steps very quickly. I use a green pellet poison bait, the kind you buy in a bag. They love this stuff. I have one pellet in the trap. For some reason, this trap worked better when the pellet was not in the middle but on the left of the bin. I don't know why. Maybe they could smell it better. I always put another pellet right in front of the open entry way. The height of my trap kept me from seeing the alert flashing light, so whenever I saw this green pellet was gone, then I looked for the flashing light, which meant that one of them had entered the trap and tripped the circuit. I caught 12 of them in a row, one by one. The first one I ever caught scared me really bad. The trap set off with a sizzling sound, and the terrible smell of burning fur. It scared me so bad that I brought a fire blanket out to keep near the trap. I didn't need it except for peace of mind. I don't always hear the sizzle, but you can. The mice don't make any noise, because they are dead. When you go to dispose of them, all you have to do is go through the steps above and take the top off. The body can be dumped into a bag without any mess. If you smelled burning fur, you might see that left over, but no body mess at all. I had one incident of the trap being tripped without a mouse in there. Then again I saw this once: A mouse came flying out of the entrance, hit the side of the phone sitting there, and fell off the bookcase all the way to the floor. He disappeared somewhere, not dead. He did learn to fly. So, I think there's something about the mechanism that scared them so bad that they jumped out, avoiding getting fried. That only happened twice. I dunno. I'm not sticking my fingers in there! The bodies are always near the bait bin. The bodies are bloated immediately, like kernals of corn popping. But, they are intact. The difference, I think, between the mouse-sized trap and the rat-sized trap, except for size, is the length of time the circuit remains on. Mice get one-half the amount that rats get. I can't remember how long the rats get zapped for, except I remember that it's twice as long as for mice, which is 90 seconds?. This could account for the burning fur. There were no flames or char marks or anything like that. Nor was the mouse stuck to the floor. So, although it is disconcerting, I think it is safe. It also could be that the batteries were new, and now they are worn down a bit, although still working well. Less sizzling, but effective. I was surprised this trap worked so well. I think I got them all, but I'm keeping the trap ready to work just in case. Always wash your hands well, although you never have to touch the rodent. I'd buy this again. It's us against them, and I am not living with mice in my kitchen and walls. This is my home, and I'm protecting it.

We heard noises in a partition wall of our kitchen the weekend after Thanksgiving. I ignored it for a couple of days until I actually saw the mouse. I called our pest control company - no results (quite frustrating). I bought about 3 different kinds of glue traps - no results. There is actually one kind of glue trap sold on Amazon that I placed to only watch the mouse crawl over it like a bridge. I bought 3 different kinds of snap traps - no results. I bought the spin traps - no result. I tried the old ¨bucket trick¨ - no results. At this point I am about 3 weeks into the frustrating situation of having a mouse in my house with a concerned wife, a 3 year-old, and a newborn. I finally got my son to leave the traps alone, but explaining why they were there just concerned him. I finally came across the Owltra electric traps. Humane, reusable, effective - at this point I've filtered through many products and I've heard it all. I am about $200 into a never-ending battle - why not try Owltra? The product is well made but is low profile. I was able to fit it behind a couch that seemed to be the mouses favorite tunnel (even through no glue trap or snap trap in that location had produced results). A week goes by and I am still frustrated. I happened to glance over behind the couch and I finally saw the green light! No mess, no agonizing mouse, no problem. These traps might be reusable, but I just took the batteries out and tossed the whole thing into the garbage can outside. These traps aren't exactly cheap, but I was not willing to clean up after a dead mouse and reuse the trap. The mouse was actually larger than expected and this trap still got the job done. A week went by and my wife wakes me up last night. She heard scratching in the wall when she went to the kitchen for a mid-night drink of water. Great! Here we go again. I had left the second of the two Owltra traps in place behind the couch. I figured it could just live behind the couch. I went and walked the kitchen after my wife woke up and heard nothing. Went to lay back down with the thought of having to deal with another rodent in my house with small children. I woke up about an hour ago to do my morning computer work before my children wake up. I came out to my living room and saw the green light of success flashing nice and bright before I could turn the lights on. Now I'm not excited that I have had 2 mice in my house in the last month when I had only had a mouse in my house one other time in the last 8 years, but I am quite excited about this product. I do not typically write reviews, but this product has worked great. It is not the cheapest solution, but I believe it is money well spent.

These work fast. Assembled both at 5pm with peanut butter and within an hour there were two terminated mice in the units. Easy to use, highly recommend. I put these up on a kitchen counter so my crazy partially disabled cat couldn't fry herself messing with it. These work great, will continue to use so all the mice in the house can go to Heaven.

(This review is for the mouse version not the larger rodent or rat versions.) You can buy a bunch of cheap snap traps for the price of just one of these electronic traps. I bought those cheap ones first but there were so many drawbacks to them I switched to these and I'm happy I did. The first reason I didn't like the snap traps is that when they work you've got a (hopefully) dead mouse in plain view. I don't like walking into my kitchen and seeing a mouse carcass. With these traps everything is covered and out of sight until you're ready to deal with it. Yes the dead mouse is still there with these but I don't have to look at it until I'm ready. Another reason I don't like the cheap snap traps is that you have to arrange barriers so that the mouse can get to them but pets can't. I have two cats and quickly found out the barriers need to be pretty big and heavy to keep the cats away from the trap and the caught mouse. Kind of a hassle when I needed to place the traps around my kitchen. But But the biggest reason I switched from the cheap traps is that they don't always kill the mouse. Unfortunately, they sometimes just crush part of the mouse without killing it leaving it alive but suffering in pain in the trap until you notice it (which could be hours if you're away or asleep). I don't want mice in my house or garage but I also don't want fellow mammals to suffer needlessly. These traps worked great for me and eliminated the mice that had infiltrated my house within 3 days. They are easy to empty—just lift off the lid and dump into a trash can. You don't need to touch the carcass, pry it out of the trap or even look at it. Quick and convenient and the trap is ready to go for the next mouse as soon as you put the lid back on and flip the switch. I happened to be nearby when one of the traps caught a mouse. The trap emits a low whine or buzzing sound when it's activated. It's pretty quiet but I was able to notice it in a silent room. It stays activated for a while (I'd guess about a minute) to make sure the job is done. When it stops making noise after a short wait the light starts to flash to let you know it's caught a mouse. A previous reviewer mentioned a smell but fortunately there was no smell at all that I could detect. I had no issues with non-kills; when the light was flashing on my traps there was always a dead mouse inside. I'd guess an issue some other reviewer may have had is if the contacts that connect the top to the bottom get dirty or corroded. The trap likely won't work properly if it can't make a solid electrical connection. I have two cats and I wanted to make sure these traps would be safe around them. Fortunately, the way these traps are designed with the location of the opening and the internal barriers there is absolutely no way even the most inquisitive cat is going to be able to get a paw in there let alone have two different paws touch the two metal plates. (Without going into the details on how this type of trap works a mouse would need to contact one of the metal plates with a front foot and the other with a back foot in order to be dispatched.) There is no way even a small cat or dog could do that and the voltage and current likely wouldn't be enough even if they could. You don't need to worry about your cats with this trap. Obviously, though, if you have rodent-sized pets such as hamsters you'll want to make sure they can't get near these. One thing I would change about this trap is to make the bait cup removable for easier cleaning and changing of the bait. What I did is put my bait peanut butter on a small scrap of paper and then put that down in the bait cup so that the peanut butter didn't stick to the trap itself. Another thing I would change is to have the trap self-test the connection to the bottom part when turned on. It should flash or something to let you know if the contacts are not making an adequate connection. I'm very happy with these traps and definitely recommend them despite the high price.

This is a good idea in practice, as a more humane way to eliminate a rodent, however it did not work for me. I had a rat in my attic. I have no idea how it got up there tonthis day, but I could hear it scratching at night and/or when it was quiet. He could not get into the actual house/living area. I purchased this device and I honestly thought he was going to be done for the day I set it up, but boy was I wrong. I also bought an indoor Eufy camera to watch/monitor it. I set this trap up there and set the camera up in the attic facing the trap. It is 100% complete darkness up there when the light is off, but the cam was a PTZ cam with excellent night vision. I added american cheese and peanut butter with some fresh grated parmesan on a piece of tortilla in the bait trough (figured his last meal might as well be a good one). I also added a very small piece just inside the entry of the trap and a small piece just outside in front of the trap. Within no time I saw him eat the piece outside of the trap, as well as sniff all around the trap, focussing heavily on the vents right near the bait trough. Every so often he would return and sniff around the trap and look at the entry, but not enter. Finally maybe 5-7 days in (already too long for me) he reached in and grabbed the small piece inside the door. So I started thinking today is the day. Then over the next week he was beginning to go in further and further each day, reaching about 3/4 of his body in the entry at the peak point. However, I had to put a firm deadline that if he doesn't go all the way in TODAY and get zapped, I am going snap trap on his azz. Well, the deadline came and he never went all the way in, so I went up there and set a snap trap, turned off the light and closed the entry to the attic. I went outside to check the mail or something real quick, came back in and sat on my couch and then heard a noise and got a notification from the camera. Checked it and saw him get snapped. Within 10 minutes of placing the snap trap, he was done for. So, my point is, while this trap might work, in like a month to who knows, maybe 3 months, in the end a good ole fashioned $5 snap trap worked swiftly and immediately. One after thought of mine, is that they are in some ways much smarter than they are given credit for. I realized that I had not set the trap against any sort of wall, so he was always able to walk around all 4 sides of the trap and the top too. So I think he realized this was a box that went nowhere. A dead end. Perhaps if it was against a wall where at least one side of it he could not investigate, see or access, he might then think this is an opening into further exploration, like an opening into a wall or something, and not just a dead end box. Regardless, it ended up being the snap trap FTW in literally 10 minutes time of being set up. I gave this unit 3 stars because I'm sure it probably does work, and maybe more likely if set up against a wall. However, I think what would probably be the best idea for this is to have an opening/entry on both ends that they can see right through and out the other side, with the bait trough in the center/middle. I think a mouse or rat would be more inclined to go in if they can see that it's just a tube/hall with an exit ahead of them, and then when they get inside to the middle point, bzzzzzz. Oh, and let me tell you, I read about them and everything says they have good low light vision. I have to say they have excellent NO light vision. I watched this thing easily run along a rafter, and turn exactly when the rafter turned, and also hop from one thing to another. So either they have echo location or sonar, or maybe they emit infrared from their eyes, because they can SEE in complete darkness.

I'm not sure if I should be thrilled or disgusted, but so far I have caught 8 mice with these in the last 5 weeks. Years ago I had one from a competing brand which offered mediocre results, so I was skeptical when I tried this one, but so far I have zero complaints. I ended up buying three of these, and each one has registered a couple kills. For those saying they don't work, or you're not catching anything with these, I might suggest placing them in another area. I originally placed one where there was confirmed activity, and it took 5 days before I caught one. I was starting to think maybe my mouse problem wasn't as bad as I thought. However, knowing where they're coming in (I suspect a hole near the AC compressor) I checked above my drop ceiling tiles in the basement where I've heard them running around. Sure enough, there was a board laying along the heating vent where I found droppings. I cleaned that up, and placed a trap. I've caught one there almost every night since. Sometimes we have to be smarter than the mouse. The flashing light is great, as I can see it flashing up in the drop-ceiling area making it easy to check. I might also mention that I have seen the bait (Extra Crunchy Jif) completely eaten with a dead mouse inside. As a few others have mentioned, this is MOST LIKELY NOT the dead mouse that cleaned out the bait. A 2nd mouse probably followed it in and ate the bait...these deactivate after a kill, allowing safe entry to any following mice. Lastly as far as opening the trap to dispose of the intruder: I find it easiest to hold the bottom half of the trap down by wedging my thumb into the vents in the front (near the entry) and lifting up from that same area, rather than trying to pry it open from the middle or wherever. We'll see how long these last, but so far three of these have served me quite well. Even if I do have to replace them after 5+ uses, I would still buy more, as I've had "reusable" snap traps or covered traps that would fail after 1 or two uses, and they didn't cost much less. Good luck with your mouse issue! For me, these are working quite well, and I don't see ever going back to snap traps.