I assume it's related to excess and then insufficient food sources over the past couple of years driving mice from desolate fields into buildings where they can find food, kind of like the rivers of rats that follow bamboo blooms, but that's another story.

As for the mice in your house now, you're using the wrong OG traps. You need an old fashioned bucket trap.



Rather than attach the PVC to an axle, we just set it on top of the bucket where it can roll. You can make the whole thing in about 30 seconds. I put a ring of peanut butter on the middle of the pipe to give them a reason to venture out. After the first two bucket traps my son made another with an old rectangular planter with a few inches of water in the bottom. The PVC can roll further without falling down. It's caught six this week. You can make traps of various sizes as long as they have several inches of water in them. Even an ice cream bucket could work for a smaller option.

We have multiple glue traps around but the mice run around them. Glue traps also require an execution, so if you don't have an 11-year-old with a bb gun you might have to take care of that yourself.

Bucket traps have been around much longer than the spring trap, and they work better. You can also catch many at a time. We've caught dozens this fall.

However, the best defense is prevention, so clean up around the house, eliminating easy approach points, and seal/caulk every opening you can. Mice can squeeze through smaller holes than you realize. I can't wait to get out of our current porous rental into a house we are building that will be extremely well-sealed to prevent not only mice but also most bugs from getting in around the base of the house. We are also pouring a sidewalk around the entire perimeter of the house to create a no-man's-land for mice to cross to even get close (the 360 degree scooter path will be nice as well!). It's war. We're going full-on Captain Moroni on pests. Don't let them get close. Don't let them enter. Catch them all inside when they do. Prepare for battle. Win the war.