What is a Mouse Bait Station In Nutshell:
A mouse bait station is a mouse trap that houses poisoned bait safely. It’s a lockable box which prevents pets or children gaining access to mouse poison.
A mouse bait station is a device, usually made of plastic, which is sealed except for, usually, a single entry point, though some have two entry points. The mouse can enter through the hole, attracted to the device by the smell of what it thinks to be a food source. What it finds inside is actually poison bait block. However, the mouse considers it to be a tasty meal and eats heartily. This, unfortunately for the mouse, ensures its death by poison.
A mouse bait station is often triangular in shape, which lends itself to being placed unobtrusively in the corner of a room. This makes it a type of mouse trap that doesn’t obviously look like one, which may be more acceptable to many homeowners who want to get rid of their mouse problem, but don’t want the house littered with what is unmistakably a mouse trap.
How does it work?
The mouse bait station requires a key to open it and gain access to the inside. The construction is a simple one, making it easy to service and clean. Bait blocks can be threaded on to a bar supplied for the purpose and suspended on points designed to hold the bar. In this way the mouse can easily eat from the poison bait blocks inside the mouse bait station.
Some designs simply have an area where poison pellets can be scattered for the mouse to eat. Either way the mouse will eat an amount of poison that will kill it.
Pros & Cons
One big pro for this type of mouse trap is the fact that you can use poison to eliminate mice, but have it in a container that requires a key to open the device. The mouse bait station locks automatically on closing. The station design is such that it can be used around children and pets, who will not be able to gain access to the poison, and thereby cause accidental poisoning to themselves. It is tamper resistant and can be reused for years.
The main con with a mouse bait station is that it still uses poison, which is still potentially dangerous, even if pets and children cannot get access to it. In order to use this type of mouse trap, you will need to store the poison bait blocks somewhere, and that could prove to be a weak link in the procedure.
What do we say at Pest Control Products?
While mouse bait stations are undoubtedly efficient at killing mice, and they are as safe as it gets with using poison in the home, rodent poison will still cause the rodent to suffer prior to its death. Unlike an electronic mouse trap, for example, the animal is not killed instantly. Poison takes a certain time to work, even fast poison, and there will be suffering during that time.
At Pest Control Products we believe that while a mouse bait station is a very effective and safe method of getting rid of mice in the home, there are better, less cruel, methods of achieving the same results, and they will take no more effort on your part either. Here is a detailed set of instructions on how to get rid of mice.
Pest. Control placed black boxes and we have a cat that is spraying all heaters and doors and along walls but the rats are not going in and eating the poison so they are saying we have no mice or rats and we have nests in oven and poop and pee along heaters walls and in oven also a hole a mouse chewed threw ars door do these boxes really work
They will work if applied correctly and are in the right place. They are best used in conjunction with a strategy for permanently getting rid of a rat or mouse infestation. Have you read the other articles here on how to get rid of rats?
There is a neighborhood rat problem since they started development of a sump near by. My neighbor has bait stations in his yard i won’t use them because I have a dog. Is it possible for the rat to remove the bait from the station and bring it over to my yard? I’m very concerned for my pet.
I think it is unlikely a rat will bring poison into your yard. You just want to make sure your dog doesn’t eat any rats that have eaten the poison.
Hi. Abt how long does it take for mouse to die after poisoning in bait station? Do they die of internal bleeding? I prefer quick trap death but not working and wife’s beside herself. thx.
Poison may take a couple of days. I’m with you preferring a quick trap death. If you are not having any luck, use more traps and different types of traps. Think like a mouse and position them on mouse runways.
Do the mice take the poison out of the black box ? If so does the mouse spread the poison ? I’m so scared and worried as I have a 2 year old child
Hi Natasha
You want to use a mouse poison that has a hole through the middle and bait station with a bar which you hang the bait on so the mouse can’t walk off with it. If you are worried about your two-year-old, then don’t use a poison, use a mechanical mouse trap. However, never let your two-year-old in the same room you are using a bait station or mouse trap, keep the door closed until you have got rid of the mice.
Best
Simon
I have seen a mouse in my home, I have a young child, I put down sticky traps and 2 snap traps until pest control came. They put down a few black boxes. When he left I noticed mouse droppings in the couch which weren’t there earlier in the day. I’m so terrified to sit there now. How to you no if there is a mouse in the black box? And how fast do the die once they eat the poison? I feel like this mouse is taunting me
Hi Nicole,
The black box either has a mouse trap in it and if so the mouse will die very quickly or the black box will have poison in it. If it has poison, the mouse won’t die in the box it will die a couple of days later, and it could die anywhere. The only way to know if a mouse is in the black box is to open it.
Simon
Does mice poison attract mice outside inside or does it only attract mice that are already in the home?
Hi Darron,
That’s a good question. You should plug all holes which mice can use to get into your home so hopefully you are only attracting mice already in residence.
Simon
If pets eat mice who have been in bait stations, will they die too?
Hi Emma,
There is certainly a high risk they will die too, which is one of the reasons why I prefer mouse traps.
Simon
i live in an apartment with four floors. i am on floor one..i spotted a mouse had several panic attacks, told the manager she set up black boxes over the apt..i also cut up a sponge and put peppermint oil to keep the suckers away..i live alone and scared to death..they have been there one week — do they enter a hole and die..?? I have young children visiting and scared when they place their sleeping bags on the carpet for them…help????????thanks
Hi Carol,
I guess the black box is a trap which should kill them or poison them. They need to be checked daily.
I wouldn’t have anybody sleeping on the floor until it is confirmed there are no more mice. Have a chat with your neighbours and see if they have got a problem?
Simon