November 2008. A novel design for a rat/mouse catcher sent by a member from New Zealand.

Take a 5 or 10 litre bucket. Push a piece of strong metal wire (No 8 fencing wire), slightly longer than the width of the top of the bucket, through the base of a round plastic bottle (about 4 cm diam.) and out the cap to make a roller. Make certain that the bottle turns freely on the wire. Place this wire and roller across the top of the bucket (make a hole each side if necessary). Place a piece of wood from the ground up to the top edge of the bucket to act as a ramp for the rodent. (Hook a nail into the wooden ramp onto the side of the bucket so that it does not slip off). Place a very small quantity of peanut butter at the top of the ramp and around the middle of the plastic bottle. Do not put too much. Place water in the bucket up to a depth that the rodent cannot stand up on the bottom of the bucket. The rodents smell the peanut butter, run up the ramp, try to jump onto the plastic bottle to get more peanut butter and slip off into the water. They either drown or in the morning they can be disposed of.