Do Mice Like Peanut Butter?

Mice are greedy rodents that like to eat a wide variety of foods. Although we like to picture mice with a big hunk of cheese, the truth is that might not be their favorite food. More importantly, cheese might not be the best food to lure mice to traps. Today, we’re going to look at what foods you should use to ensnare a mouse by asking a single question. Do mice like peanut butter?

Let’s take a closer look at how mice interact with peanut butter and show you what you need to know.

What Foods Do Mice Usually Eat?

As we’ve already said, mice are not very picky eaters. They are often spotted near human civilizations because of the wide variety of foods kept inside homes and left in the garbage. Mice in the wild and captivity will typically eat several foods that are sweet and packed with the right nutrition.

A mouse’s favorite foods to eat in the wild typically include:

• Various eggs
• Vegetables of all sorts
• Fruits
• Nuts
• Insects
• Carrion
• Pet food
• Grains
• Trash

These foods make up most of a mouse’s diet, and some of the foods are surprising. Meat and carrion do not comprise a majority of the mouse’s diet, but they are part of it. In particular, mice will eat other mice, a practice that is common in rodents.

Mice will usually eat one another when the supplies of food in a given area are low. With too many mouths to feed, mice will start picking off the competition to give them a better chance at survival. Most of the time, adult male mice kill baby mice to end a battle for resources.

As you can see from this list, mice eat a lot of different foods, including nuts. But do they like something as heavily processed as peanut butter? It’s time to answer our main question!

Do Mice Like Peanut Butter?

Yes, mice like peanut butter. In fact, it might be more accurate to say that mice love peanut butter. This food has the right balance of qualities that mice enjoy in food. It has a moderate amount of carbohydrates and a lot of sweetness to it.

When a mouse smells peanut butter and sees an opening to get it, it’ll go for it every time. The energy they get from this product is too tempting to pass up!

There are two benefits to knowing that mice love peanut butter. First, that means you need to tightly close your jars of peanut butter from now on to keep mice from your cabinets. Secondly, you can use peanut butter to help you catch mice. We’ll show you how it’s done!

Can You Use Peanut Butter to Bait Mouse Traps?

You may certainly use peanut butter to bait mouse traps. In fact, everything about peanut butter makes it a great potential bait for spring traps. For one thing, mice love the smell of the stuff. They can’t get enough of the sweetness of the butter and the chunks of nuts in it.

Another benefit is that peanut butter is very cheap. You don’t even have to buy name-brand peanut butter to get a mouse to visit your traps. Between peanut butter and a pack of traps, you can spend very little money on a powerful mouse control setup.

Also, peanut butter is sticky. You’re placing this bait on a small platform on a trap. You need something that will stay put and not roll off in order to make the trap effective. Moreover, you’ll want peanut butter because mice will have a hard time eating the peanut butter without getting close enough to spring the trap.

A fair amount of mouse traps never hit their target. Mice are careful and crafty, so they can get a fair amount of food off a trap before tripping one. The small amount of sticky peanut butter that you need to add to a trap makes it more likely that you’ll trap the animal. It’s far better than trying cheese!

Does the Type of Peanut Butter Make a Difference?

You can use any type of peanut butter to bait a mouse trap. Mice are not that picky. That means you can choose crunchy or smooth peanut butter to bait your traps.

Mice love all sorts of nut butter including hazelnut and cashew butter. Some people have even reported finding that mice enjoy the taste of chocolate hazelnut spread. No matter what sort you decide to use, it should help you make some headway against the presence of mice in your home.

Tips on Using Peanut Butter to Bait Mouse Traps

Mouse traps, especially the snapping variety, need to draw a mouse to a specific point to be effective in catching or killing them. If you follow some of the best practices for baiting mouse traps, you’ll increase your chances of successfully capturing mice. Use these tips to help you get the most out of your peanut butter trapping method.  

1. Don’t use too much bait. Add a teaspoon or less to the mouse trap. You want the peanut butter to be fragrant enough to catch the mouse but not too much to keep them well-fed without tripping the trap.
2. Place the baited traps behind kitchen appliances, in dark areas of your basement, and in other areas you know mice frequent.
3. Put mouse traps around the baseboards of your home. When these mostly nocturnal creatures sneak around, they stick close to the walls.
4. Make sure you place the baited portion against the baseboard to increase the chances of the mouse running into it from either side.
5. Put down more traps than you think you’ll need. The greatest number of mice are usually caught on the first night the traps go down, so go big!
6. Write down where your traps are located and check them.
7. Clean up any mice or bodily fluids while wearing gloves. Mice can be riddled with diseases.

These tips will help you catch mice using one of their favorite foods. That way, you can get rid of that pesky mouse you hear scurrying around or start putting a dent in your severe infestation.

We’ve answered a pretty important question here today. Do mice like peanut butter enough to follow it into a trap? Absolutely, and you can use that information to set up an incredibly effective and enticing series of traps for them.

The photo featured at the top of this post is © iStock.com/Flore Sakowski