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people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #77,488 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★★★★
How to keep your traps working past one use
Another review : First off these are great little traps. easy to set and use. Catch and kill quickly. Easy to release the mouse from trap without having to handle the rodent.
I think most people have an expectation that these are multi-use traps. The Tomcat video even shows the easy release, inferring that you will be keeping the trap vs just tossing the entire mouse / trap ensemble.
My experience is that these will work a couple of times then they get hard to set and eventually either fail to release or the little white trigger bar will break at the back.
Being a take-apart / fix-it type guy I took one of my failed traps apart to see why they fail. What I found was everything looked fine. My experiment was to reassemble and basically lubricate the trap's "hinged" areas. Well that fixed the trap. What I found was a small drop of vegetable oil, mineral or baby oil placed on the back of the traps trigger is a good way to keep them working. Use something that is not going to damage plastic. Probably a good silicon oil or gel would be perfect. You do not need to dis-assemble the trap. just put a drop through the open back on the hinge and latch bar.
I now lube that back trigger area before any use and I keep catching mice.
As an FYI, contacting "Tomcat" they will tell you these are one use but will refund your costs for this trap but you need a real receipt and or the actual cardboard UPC code before they will refund.
enjoy
October 2019 · Patio Lawn and Garden · verified purchase