The larger vole trap boxes didn’t survive the early spring rainfall, so we decided to upgrade the fleet with more durable boxes:
I obviously need a larger light box.
The trap boxes come in 7 quart and 3.5 quart sizes, although we expect either will comfortably accommodate a single vole.
They’re made of polypropylene plastic eminently suited for laser cuttery, so I borrowed the holes from the cardboard box setup:
The clamps on the knife bars held the angle block and boxes in pretty much the same position, so I didn’t realign anything after figuring out a pair of magnets would hold the lid to the angle:
The box side is slightly sloped, so I probably should have angled the block to tilt the lid, but this isn’t a precision job:
The white smudges on the lid come from vaporized polypropylene:
The body count thus far is just one field mouse, but the season is yet young.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Comments
2 responses to “Vole Trap Boxes: Deluxe Edition”
After field mice took over the ceiling insulation in the barn (14′ up–ambitious critters), I’ve been using bait/poison stations. So far, I’ve found a couple of ex-mice, one on the other end of the barn from the stations, and one outside. I have the makings and peanut butter for a bucket trap, and just need the round tuit.
FWIW, “Good Cook” does a nice safety type can opener. It needs a bit less hand strength than the currently hard (impossible?)-to-find OXO version.
Poison gives you dead mice somewhere, so the place will smell like dead mouse until they finish desiccating. Phew!
Thanks for the can opener tip: it’ll arrive next week and might work better than the sharp-cutter OXO Mary picked up a while ago. Apparently the gears are the weak spot, because they always fail first.