Mouse Against A Mousetrap

Perhaps the earliest patented mousetrap was a live capture device patented in 1870 by W K Bachman of South Carolina. These traps have the advantage of allowing the mice to be released into the wild, or the disadvantage of having to personally kill the captured animal if release is not desired. These traps need to be regularly checked (once a day at least) as captured mice can die slowly from stress or dehydration. Mice would need to be released some distance away, as mice have a strong homing instinct. Survival after release is not guaranteed, since house mice will tend to seek out human buildings, where they might encounter lethal mousetraps or may be eaten by predators. House mice do not survive away from human settlements in areas where other small mammals, such as wood mice, are present.
There appears to be endless variations of this type of trap : One of the simplest designs consists of nothing more than a drinking glass placed upside down above a piece of bait, its rim elevated by a coin stood on edge. If the mouse attempts to take the bait, the coin is displaced and the glass traps the mouse. Another is to make a half-oval shaped tunnel with a toilet paper roll, put bait on one end of the roll, place the roll on a counter or table with the baited end sticking out over the edge, and put a deep bin under the edge. When the mouse enters the toilet paper roll to take the bait, the roll (and the mouse) will tip over the edge and fall into the bin under; the bin needs to be deep enough to ensure that the mouse cannot jump out.
A style of trap that has been used extensively by researchers in the biological sciences for capturing animals such as mice is the Sherman trap. The Sherman trap folds flat for storage and distribution and when deployed in the field captures the animal, without injury, for examination.