We’re not sure what’s worse: seeing an actual mouse in your home, or just finding their poop in your cupboards. Either way, if there’s a mouse in your walls, you want to get rid of it asap. After more than 25 hours of research and interviews with industry experts, and a combined 15 hours of baiting, setting, and detonating mousetraps, we are confident that the Tomcat Press ’N Set Mouse Trap is the proverbial “better” mousetrap. It’s easier to set than the competition without hurting your fingers and easier to empty without touching a dead mouse—and it traps mice just as well as anything else we tested.
Our pick
Effective, inexpensive, and easier to bait, set, and discharge than most competitors, the Tomcat stands out as the proverbial “better” mousetrap.
With a powerful snap, a sensitive trigger, and mouse-grabbing teeth that remind us of the Monster Book of Monsters in Harry Potter, this simple, inexpensive trap did its mouse-killing job just as well as more traditionally designed traps. It’s small, discreet, and inexpensive, yet it’s just as effective as bulkier gadgets that cost far more money.
Runner-up
The Power-Kill has a strong snap and sets easily. It’s very similar to the Tomcat except that the dead mouse (and the accompanying gore) is a little more visible.
If the Tomcat Press ’N Set is not available, we also like the Victor M393 Power-Kill Mouse Trap. In many ways, the two traps are alike. They both have a sensitive trigger, a very simple setting mechanism, and an easy cleanup. We like that the Victor has a very strong snap, but it’s not as discreet as the Tomcat, meaning that after a kill, the brutal results are on full display. With the Tomcat, the snapping portion of the trap is large enough to block some of that nastiness from view. But there is no question that this is an effective trap and for effectiveness we put it on the same footing as the Tomcat.
Also great
This iconic trap isn’t as easy to set up or clean out as our pick, but it’s effective and inexpensive enough to buy in bulk and toss after a catch.
The Victor Easy Set does a fine job killing mice but is trickier to set up than our top pick and doesn’t make it as easy to discharge a dead mouse without touching the body. That means it isn’t as easily reusable, but it’s also cheap enough to throw away along with a dead rodent—and that adds up to some savings when you need to buy a lot of them.
Also great
The Victor M1 kills with an electrical shock, then sends your phone an alert, so you know to empty and reset the trap. It’s expensive, but it’s a nice option for those who might not be mobile enough to constantly check their traps.
If you’re someone who has trouble getting to the areas where you set your traps, you should consider the Victor M1 Smart-Kill Wi-Fi Electronic Mouse Trap. This trap kills mice with an electrical shock and then sends a notification to your phone, letting you know it’s time to clean out and reset the trap. This means you’re not wasting your time constantly checking the traps, which often requires multiple trips up and down either basement or attic stairs. Because of the way the mouse is killed, cleanup is easy and has little to no gore. Multiple traps can be connected to the app, and it keeps a running tally of kills for each trap. We had success with the Victor M1 and its app, but we strongly recommend making sure you have Wi-Fi in the area where you’re planning to use it. Attics and basements may be beyond the range of your Wi-Fi and will render the notification system useless. Usually priced between $35 and $45, this is an expensive item, and we only recommend it for those who really have trouble monitoring their traps.
Also great
The Rinne self-resets after each capture, so it can trap mice alive all night long. But it’s bulky, and we only recommend it for large infestations or outbuildings.
If you want a low-maintenance way to catch a lot of mice at once (and we mean a lot of mice), it’s hard to beat the RinneTraps Flip N Slide Bucket Lid Mouse Trap. The Rinne trap attaches to a 5-gallon bucket and lures mice onto a trap door that is weighted to reset itself. Once a mouse falls through and into the bucket, the trap is immediately ready again and will continually catch mice with no human intervention. With an empty bucket, the mice are trapped alive, so they can be released. The other option is to fill the bucket with a few inches of water, which drowns them. In our testing, the Rinne was so successful and trapped so many mice that we needed to remove it from the test area (an old barn) in order to catch mice with the other traps we were looking at. With four different styles of traps set up, the RinneTrap caught 10 mice over a two-night period, while the other traps caught zero. The Rinne is a bulky trap, and if you don’t want to deal with either a bucket of live mice or a bucket of drowned mice, it’s not a fit for you. Some people will call a pro before getting to the point of needing the RinneTrap, but for those willing to take on a large mouse infestation themselves, this trap will assist quite a bit.
