I don’t think my Goodnature Mouse Trap is working!
If you think your Goodnature Mouse Trap (GMT) isn’t working or catching, then here are some easy things you can do to try diagnose the problem.
1) Is your GMT switched on?
Always the first thing to check, if your trap isn’t on, it won’t be catching! You can check if your trap is on by pressing the orange button on the top. If the trap is on, the light next to the button should show green. If the light is solid red, it indicates the trap needs charging so you just need to plug the trap in with the USB-C cable provided.
2) Does your GMT test fire correctly?
Also important to catching is ensuring your trap is firing! To test fire the GMT, go to the Goodnature App and tap your trap on the My Traps page. In the top right you should see a button labelled ‘Test Fire’. Tapping this button will do what it says on the tin! Warning: this is a bit loud! The initial fire will be a bang and then you will hear a winding up noise as the GMT resets.
3) Is your trap connected to the app?
The app will let you know when you have had a kill so it is possible that you may be getting kills but are unaware because the app isn’t notifying you. This could be due to a few different reasons but a few key things to check are: Your GMT is visible on the My Traps page, the GMT is connected to your phone when it is nearby which is shown by the ‘Connected’ status on the My Traps page.
If you follow these and find that your trap is working correctly, then the reason the trap isn’t catching is likely something to do with encouraging the mice into the trap. Here are a few tips to help!
4) Try a different location
Mice can be a bit picky about where they enter traps, they like to feel safe and know that they won’t be open to predators coming after them. So if you are finding that you aren’t catching in one spot it can be worth moving the trap somewhere else to see if you get more success there! Good places are along a wall, in a corner, under furniture, next to an appliance or under the kitchen sink.
5) Try a different lure
The GMT needs a lure to ensure it is enticing to mice. We provide a peanut butter flavoured Donut to act as a lure but you can use any solid lure in your trap, such as peanut butter or hazelnut spread, nuts, seeds, pet food biscuits or dried meat. If there is something else in their environment that you know they are eating, it can also be worth using that as a lure in the GMT which can help skip the next step! Just ensure not to use wet or liquid lure as this may damage the trap over time.
6) Prefeed around the trap
Prefeeding is a really important step to ensuring the success of your GMT as this helps get the mice used to the lure and seek out more of it. If you are using the Donut provided with the trap, you can prefeed by rubbing the Donut along the front entrance of the trap. This will leave some residual flakes along with the smell of the lure at the entrance of the trap where the mice will be able to investigate it and find it tasty enough to find the rest deeper into the trap! If you are using your own lure you can do something similar or just leave pieces of it near the entrance of the trap. You can read more about prefeeding here.
7) Remove competing food sources
Just like prefeeding is important for ensuring mice are attracted to the lure in the trap, removing competing food sources is important for ensuring mice don’t find something else to eat that isn’t in the trap. You probably know the things mice are eating in your home, pet food, foodstuffs in the pantry or perhaps something in the garage. Removing these or otherwise stopping their access to them will force the mice to find another food source, which they should find in and around the trap if you have followed the above steps! Removing competing food sources isn’t always possible so if that is the case in your situation, using the competing food source as a lure in the GMT, as mentioned above, can be a way to entice the mice into the trap with a lure that they are already used to!
If you have tried all of these and still haven’t gotten any success then we recommend getting in touch with our customer service team at hello@goodnature.co.nz and we would be more than happy to talk your situation through!