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   I thought I should update my readers on the happenings with my trap line. Last week, a mouse was living in the insulation surrounding my beehive. I was fairly certain that he could not get in the hive but did not want to take any chances. A mouse inside a beehive can make a mess. If the bees do not decide to drive him out, he can live comfortably with them, leaving his markings on the frames of honey. Even if the bees do not care, I do. I am sure it would leave an “off” flavor to the honey.

   I rounded up two spring traps and baited them with peanut butter. My wife got a five-gallon bucket and spread copious amounts of peanut butter a few inches below the top. We added a couple of inches of water to the bucket grabbed a long strip of scrap wood that would serve as a ramp. We headed out for the hive ready to catch our mouse. We placed the traps in places sure to catch our mouse. The two spring traps were placed near the opening where we saw the mouse peeking out from behind the insulation on the hive. The bucket was put in position where he would see it if he was going for a drink or could smell the peanut butter from nearby. If he crawled up the ramp to investigate, going after the peanut butter or a drink would cause him to fall in the bucket and drown in the water. I have used this bucket trap arrangement for years with great success on mice.

   We did not think about our trap line for several days and did not check it until one warm afternoon this week. When we drove up to the hive, the first thing we noticed was the bucket was tipped over and several feet away from where we placed it. On closer inspection, we saw both of the spring traps were also gone. It was then it dawned on me, I have never seen any animal that did not like peanut butter. If you think watching a dog eat peanut butter and work at getting it off the roof of its mouth is funny, you should see a horse doing the same. I am sure wild animals are as fond of peanut butter as domesticated ones. The inside of the bucket had been licked clean, and I found one of the spring traps several yards away, also shiny clean. It is hard to say what spoiled our trap line. It could have been a raccoon, opossum, coyote or even a deer. I can just imagine a coyote with his head in the bucket licking every last drop of peanut butter off the inside. I can also visualize a coyote with a spring trap on his tongue. If I got lucky, perhaps there was already a mouse caught in the trap so he got a tasty mouse along with his peanut butter making us both happy. The other spring trap was just plain gone. Perhaps it caught a mouse, and an owl or vulture took the mouse and trap away. Or perhaps some animal made a hasty retreat over the hill with the trap still on its tongue.

   From this trapping experience, I have learned this is not a sure-fire way of getting a mouse. I may or may not have been successful in our task as something stole our bait and if we caught the mouse, they stole it also.

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