Mouse Trap. Humane and Friendly. Easy Print. Easy Assembly. Fully Printable.

thingiverse

UPDATE 27/07/2020 Following some very useful and appreciated comments, as well as our own experiences, we've added an optional longer main box and different cheese holder. We discovered a rather large mouse that was long enough to stand on the front ramp but reach far into the trap to take the cheese. At first, we were very confused finding the door still up and nothing chewed but the cheese gone!!. I suspected the cause had to be a long-reach mouse and made a longer back section to the body so the mouse had to reach further in. Sure enough, the next night we caught a long-reach mouse. The night after that, we caught his friend. We may be responsible for selectively breeding a species of long-reach mice? My neighbor also experienced the same problem reported by manunle (many thanks for the comment) that they chewed the cheese holder tabs and then had room to chew the hole wider. I made the new holder a thread so it screws in, and also made the back much thicker. If they do chew the cheese holder, it should not drop out. The new longer main box can be used with the original door, catch, and ramp. To print the thread nicely, it could do with 0.2mm layer height on the threaded section. So far, the little critters (and new long-reach not-so-little critters) have not found a way around the longer box. ------------------- We discovered there had been a little visitor under our bath. It seemed to have gone and so we left it. Bad idea!! A few weeks later, we were overrun with critters of a mousy nature. I printed a few varieties of the traps already available and quickly caught a very cute little dude. However, we also had some false triggers and cases of missing cheese but no captive critter. One of the little fellows had the audacity to take the cheese and leave poop in the trap. Another one ate the cheese and then made his own exit hole in the top. I concluded that we had some next-level critters and we needed to up the game. The conventional "cage with trap door type" seemed to work the best, so I designed my own version. We seemed to have a lot of critters, so it needed to be easy and quick to make, easy to use, reliable with no missed critters or false triggers, robust, and capable of holding captives for a few hours. The main box is one piece and quite robust, and the trap door is not easy to set off. This means we can pack things back in the cupboard and around or on the trap without any problem. I made six the first day (using two printers) and that night we firmly re-established who was head of our household (turns out it's not me!!). All we need now is to find a suitable new home for our growing family of very cute little critters. Our neighbors should probably start to worry at this point. With 0.3mm layer and relatively slow print speeds of 30mm/s, a full trap takes 4h3m and can be printed all together on one 200mm bed. Standard 0.3mm layer settings are fine. A part cooling fan is not necessary but will help with quality. The main body is printed in one piece, so assembly is quite simple (see gif): Print the trap and clean off the boogers. Fit the tilting floor inside the body by angling it slightly. It will drop into the pivot hole and pivot slot when it's far enough in the body. Fit the trap door. There is a brace and extra weight lump at the bottom which faces inside. Snap the door latch in place. The cheese holder is a simple insert and twist to lock. You're ready to go get critters. *** Warning *** The problem with humanely trapping mice is that they are so darn cute you don't know what to do with them afterwards!! If you're like us and have grandkids, you may end up buying a cage... and wheel....and little house.....and some tunnels...........