Why a Cat is not the Best Mouse Trap

If you love cats, you may believe they are the best mouse trap you could possibly have, but the fact is, they are not really the best.  They do hinder mice from locating your home as the preferred habitat, but most house cats are well fed, and not too interested in pest management.  The best mouse trap is always your plan, and making the game a challenge for your mouse population.  The best mouse trap is understanding your pest, and why they are motivated to stay in your home.

The Best Mouse Trap is Variation

Like any population, there will always be the smarter mice, and the middle run of the mill problem solvers, and the rest are simple followers.  The genetics of any species works to weed out these mentally challenged pests, by simple everyday living and predation.  Cats are great predators, and are natural rodent control.  Our modern day cats however, with their tasty kibble and soft foods, do not need to hunt, locate, and capture their dinner.  If you think your kitty crew will be the best mouse trap for your home, you are going to be missing that smarter mouse of the population.  The cats are just not that hungry to locate the entire habitation.

Cats are Not the Best Mouse Trap

Cats are always on the prowl, and find the hunt elusive and fun, but often they catch and release. And, as is the case with my two cats, they often capture mice, but let them go.  When we moved into our home, we had a large mouse population, and every home in our cul-de-sac was vulnerable to the many rodents around. The best natural predators are not cats, but owls, and if you are interested in adding them to your natural setting, be sure to visit how to build the best mouse trap.

Cats are often too well fed to be the best mouse trap

The mice are caught and released, and before you know it, you have a very experienced set of mice who are aware of the predator in their habitat.  The nervous and willing healthy population will vacate with the addition of a cat, but there will always be a couple who will be willing to live with the constant threat, as the benefits of warmth, food, and water are available.  These survivors, will adapt to capture and play dead, learning to make themselves less appealing when captured by kitty.

Cats often walk away from a non-responsive rodent, and will find the next activity to appease their predator instincts.  We experienced this first hand with our mice, and eventually moved on to a systematic program of trapping, sound, light and temperature changes.  Even the simple bucket with food was a great way to capture the mice in our garage.  They learned that the bucket was ok, as it was easy to get into, and out of, and then we removed the exit.  The first night we used it with entrance and exit, we had no food removed. The second, all food was consumed, and the third night we captured 5 mice.  This was a great success, as they were the very last of our population, and so far, this year, we have not had any return this year.

Best Mouse Trap by Far is a Plan

Most mice who are smart, nervous or unsure of the variety of pest management tools used, will not be captured at first.  They could be the mice that are lucky and got away from a cat, a snap mouse trap, watched their buddies run down a bucket and get stuck, or ran into an owl.  They have survived the many different varieties that you have used as a best mouse trap plan ensures, and maybe they will be smart enough to evacuate the noisy lit home you create for them.  For whatever reason, their are always mice that will be happy to leave on their own, and that my friends is the best mouse trap of all.