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A mousetrap is a specialized type of animal trap designed primarily to catch and, usually, kill mice. Mousetraps are usually set in an indoor location where there is a suspected infestation of rodents. Larger traps are designed to catch other species of animals, such as rats, squirrels, and other small rodents. Trap types differ significantly in effectiveness, potential harm to wildlife and pets, and the level of suffering caused, with some raising serious welfare and environmental concerns.

Note that they come from one and only one civilization. Can you guess which one?

An early reference to mousetraps is found in the Ancient Greek parody The Battle of Frogs and Mice: "... by unheard-of arts they had contrived a wooden snare, a destroyer of Mice, which they call a trap.".[43]

In English, reference to a mousetrap is made as early as the 14th century in The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer. The reference is located in the prelude section, written in the late 1300s. While introducing the Nun, Chaucer writes in lines 144-145, "She wolde wepe, if that she saugh a mous/Kaught in a trappe, if it were deed or bledde." Mousetraps are also referenced in Shakespeare's Hamlet (Act III, scene 2)
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A mousetrap (Spanish: ratonera) figures prominently in the second chapter of the 1554 Spanish novel Lazarillo de Tormes, in which the hero Lazarillo steals cheese from a mousetrap to alleviate his hunger.

A historical reference is found in Alciatis Emblemata[40] from 1534. Several trap designs were described by Leonard Mascall in 1590.[41]

The trap that is credited as the first patented lethal mousetrap was a set of spring-loaded, cast-iron jaws dubbed "Royal No. 1".[1][2] It was patented on 4 November 1879 by James M. Keep of New York, US patent 221,320.[3]
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The spring-loaded mousetrap was first patented by William C. Hooker of Abingdon, Illinois, who received US patent 528671 for his design in 1894.[4][5] A British inventor, James Henry Atkinson, patented a similar trap called the "Little Nipper" in 1898, including variations that had a weight-activated treadle as the trip.[6][7]
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It is a simple device with a heavily spring-loaded bar and a trip to release it. Cheese may be placed on the trip as bait, but other food such as oats, chocolate, bread, meat, butter and peanut butter are also used. The spring-loaded bar swings down rapidly and with great force when anything, usually a mouse, touches the trip. The design is such that the mouse's neck or spinal cord will be broken, or its ribs or skull crushed, by the force of the bar. The trap can be held over a bin and the dead mouse released into it by pulling the bar.
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In 1899, John Mast of Lititz, Pennsylvania, filed a U.S. patent for a modification of Hooker's design that can be "readily set or adjusted with absolute safety to the person attending thereto, avoiding the liability of having his fingers caught or injured by the striker when it is prematurely or accidentally freed or released."[9]
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An electric mousetrap delivers a lethal dose of electricity when the rodent completes the circuit by contacting two electrodes located either at the entrance or between the entrance and the bait. The electrodes are housed in an insulated or plastic box to prevent accidental injury to humans and pets. They can be designed for single-catch domestic use or large multiple-catch commercial use. See U.S. patent 4,250,655 and U.S. patent 4,780,985.

Inventor Rupert H. Munns

Inventor Claude G. Coots

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A style of trap that has been used extensively by researchers in the biological sciences for capturing animals such as mice is the Sherman trap.
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Glue traps are made using natural or synthetic adhesive applied to cardboard, plastic trays or similar material. Bait can be placed in the center or a scent may be added to the adhesive by the manufacturer.
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Trapped mice eventually die from exposure, dehydration, starvation, suffocation, or predation, or are killed by people when the trap is checked.
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Bucket traps may be lethal or non-lethal.[24] Both types have a ramp which leads to the rim of a deep-walled container, such as a bucket. The variations are many with some being single-catch and some multi-catch.[25]

The bucket may contain a liquid to drown the trapped mouse. The mouse is baited to the top of the container where it falls into the bucket and drowns. Sometimes soap or caustic or poison chemicals are used in the bucket as killing agents.
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There are several types of one-time use, disposable mousetraps,[26][27] generally made of inexpensive materials which are designed to be disposed of after catching a mouse. These mousetraps have similar trapping mechanisms as other traps, however, they generally conceal the dead mouse so it can be disposed of without being sighted.
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Traps using motion and heat sensors are used in places like sewers.[28] Sensors detect the prey and trigger a chisel-like spear-mechanism that kills the target.[28] Sewage flow removes target from the trap which is ready to kill again.[28]
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Strong concerns have been raised about the environmental harm and the level of suffering caused by some types of traps, relative to their effectiveness.

Finally:

A 2003 study ranked different rodent control methods according to their level of humaneness.[34] The researchers noted that preventive steps, such as sealing entry points, are effective but underused.

Since when have Westerners preferred prevention? 

Related:

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/human-evolution/misinformation-about-racial-origins/msg3083/#msg3083

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/17093/17093-h/17093-h.htm

See also: