The media could not be loaded.
Victor M260 Works as Advertised and as Expected. Good Brand, Good Product.
This review is mostly for the Victor Multi-Kill Electronic Mouse Trap M260, but also for the Victor Easy Set Mouse Trap (4 Pack). Victor Easy Set Mouse Trap 4 Pack M033
I recently had a problem with mice in my truck. The M260 solved the problem during the first night I used it properly. If you are reading this, I assume you want to kill a mouse or two. Please take my advice and get on this as soon as possible. Mice are cute, yes. They are also filthy, disgusting, expensive, and to say the least, darn annoying. If you don't take care of a mouse problem in your house, the mice will destroy your house. If you leave a mouse problem in your vehicle go for just a few days, they will soon destroy your vehicle. Mice have easily caused more than $1,000 worth of damage in my truck. Awhile back they made their home in my air intake, and I didn't realize it until my truck broke down because of it, and had to be towed to the dealership. Now my CD changer under the seat has stopped working, as well as several other things. In addition to urinating and defecating literally everywhere they go, mice destroy things during their quest for nesting material, they eat through wires, plastic, wood, and metal, apparently sometimes just for the fun of it, and they spread fleas, tapeworms, disease and illness (really, I'm not kidding). Our job is to kill them as quickly and as often as possible, and this Victor trap is an awesome weapon to aid in that endeavor. I've not previously been disappointed with any Victor product, and this trap seems to be continuing that tradition.
Please keep in mind that I just started using this trap, and I can't evaluate some things yet, such as the "battery low", or "mouse tray full" indicator lights. Regardless, I will give this product 5 stars at this time, and adjust later if necessary. I think I read somewhere that when this product first came out it didn't get very good reviews. I'm glad to see improvement in that area, and I'd venture to guess that it was mostly due to user ignorance regarding how to bait and set the trap properly. This trap works well, but only if you do a couple things to enable it to do so. For one, make sure you set the trap with the stairs facing a wall (or in my case, the back of the seat), and position the trap right up against the wall, or as close as possible. Mice tend to not run around randomly in the open, but are more likely to stick to cover whenever possible. When they encounter the trap they could just go around, but if you bait the stairs a little with some tasty morsel like peanut butter, they will quickly forget about their original destination and follow the trail of food instead. Follow it right into their grave, that is. The first night I put the trap in my truck I had no luck. This is because I didn't really try. The second night I had the truck cleaned out some, and the trap positioned and baited in a more logical manner. That's when I caught the two mice that were reeking havoc. Oh what a good feeling.
As with all that exists, this trap has pros and cons. First the bad news, the price. Yes $100 is a little pricey for a mouse trap. Of course if you have the need or want for multiple traps, the price starts to drop significantly. On the other hand, if you just have a couple of mice to kill, you might want to consider the Victor Easy Set Mouse Traps ( Victor Easy Set Mouse Trap 4 Pack M033 ). I like the ones with the yellow fake cheese "pedal" as opposed to the ones with the "metal petal". They seem easier for me to set, they have variable sensitivity, they actually catch mice without using bait, and at the time of writing this, if you buy the 8-pack they're about a dollar each including shipping. That pretty much makes them disposable if they get too bloody, and that will definitely happen from time to time. I've had great success with these (including catching two mice with one baiting), but they can be messy and inconvenient. If you want to use these you might also want to consider some cheap latex/exam gloves, and some newspapers to set the traps on. The splatter is not limited to the area of the trap. Another bad thing about this expensive electronic trap is that it needs batteries in order to function (4 C's), and that additional expense might be something for some to consider. As far as the pros for this trap, I'll let you use your imagination. I will say however, that it was unexpectedly nice to dispose of mice today, without having to pry a squished mouse out of a disgusting, bloody trap.
Okay, now what about ethics, morality and in general, doing the right thing? You might be saying, "It's terrible that in our sophisticated society, people are doing such horrible things as electrocuting mice". To those people I would ask, how do you prefer that I kill these mice? And I am going to kill them. I'm certainly not going to waste time and money on mouse relocation efforts. So what does that leave? If traditional traps are your preference, please consider some of the things I've witnessed while using them; blood, guts, brain matter, a nose, mice escaping from the traps after a trapped appendage finally came off their body, and mice escaping into places I couldn't get to, while the trap remains attached to them in some way. (They will slowly die in that heater blower over the next few days.) Or maybe you think I should just toss some poison bait near their nest. Really? Are you kidding? Death by poison is one of the most painful ways to go. Try to imagine something eating you from the inside, out. And of course animals of all sorts, including pets often eat dead mice and die from the poison as well.
I plan on moving this trap to a new location every few days, or whenever I'm pretty sure I've eradicated all the mice from a particular area. There's two other vehicles, three sheds, under the deck, and on the deck near the dog food. They all need attention. I assume this trap will perform as equally well in those locations as it did in my truck, and I'll edit the review as is pertinent otherwise.
I hope that helps some.
UPDATE:
Captain's Log - Day 1:
I applied a small bit of peanut butter to the back wall only, and put the trap in my truck, on top of a bunch of tools and junk. I caught no mice.
Day 2:
I cleaned out my truck (mostly) and I positioned and baited the trap better. I caught 2 mice. See my video for more on this.
Day 3:
I moved the trap to a likely area on the deck, next to the firewood box. I touched up the bait a little at the entrance to the trap, but did nothing to the bait that remained inside. I caught 2 more mice.
Day 4:
I left the trap in the same spot near the wood-box again, and I left the 2 dead mice in the drawer. I touched up with just a tiny bit of peanut butter near the entrance again, but I did nothing to the bait that was still inside. I caught 7 more mice, for a total of 9 in the drawer at once, and a grand total of 11 so far.
I found a product that I really like, mostly because it works extremely well and it's darn convenient compared to the more traditional alternatives. This doesn't often happen with me, so it's rather pleasing when it does. However, I'm displeased when I see injustice in any form. I believe that whenever it's possible, we all have a duty to at least attempt to correct the things that we feel are wrong. It is wrong for a person to say that a product does not work, just because that individual was unable to get the product to perform satisfactorily. I'm fine with you saying that YOU couldn't get a product to perform, but when that happens I'm not fine with you saying the product simply doesn't work, especially when it's so obvious that it works quite well for many people. Even if you're basing your entire opinion on Amazon reviews alone, it's easy to conclude that the M260 in fact does work. Likewise it is not "junk", and it does not "suck" either.
At this time I can't be sure whether or not Victor's claim about the trap holding 10 mice is true, but I can verify that it holds 9 mice and has some room to spare. After all, so far I've only had the opportunity to test the trap for 4 days. However, it's extremely hard to stomach the fact that when I scroll down the Amazon page to see the reviews, the first things I see, standing out from the rest, are things like "total failure", and "caught no mice" I understand that we are all supposed to be able to speak freely, but for me, this somehow seems wrong.
I realize this review is lengthy, but I feel the need to say a couple things to those people who said they couldn't catch mice with the M260. First of all, you must be doing something wrong. You can live in denial all you want, but if everyone except you are successful in an endeavor, how could you do anything other than conclude that you are somehow, in some way, in error? Maybe, since you spent $100 on this project, you should consider doing a little research as to why others are successful where you are not. Maybe, you might even want to go so far as to do something as crazy as watching my video to find out what steps I took on my road to success. Secondly, the weird thing is that many of the unsuccessful people are comparing the M260 to traditional snap traps, by putting the snap traps around, or near the M260. What, really? Here's an idea: why not try putting even more snap traps around the M260, and see if that helps. After all, if you were on a quest for a thousand dollars, what would you do if for some reason, you had to choose between bending over and simply picking up the money, or carefully navigating a series of traps to get to another, different kind of trap that was more difficult to comprehend and navigate. I think most people, like most mice, prefer the path of least resistance. Saying that you can test the viability of a trap by surrounding it with other, lethal traps that are theoretically easier to get killed in, is about as ridiculous as saying you can make a chain stronger by adding links. I've witnessed people insisting on both.
Just my 2 cents. Again, I hope it helps.
