Quick update: went out to the garage today to get the bike out (a balmy 39 F and a very pleasant ride to meet some other concours folk for lunch) and found I had caught both a cat and a mouse. The cat was not in a trap of any kind, just in the garage; I think I caught it with the automatic garage door opener.... again. So I set the cat loose and went onto the mouse:
I believe this is the third mouse I have caught with the more traditional mouse trap. There is a pedal type of trigger with a bait pit in the center, and the top of the trap is lifted against the spring and waiting..... waiting..... waiting for that pesky mouse. So this puts the score at 3:0 in favor of the trap that kills mice dead vs. the trap that kills mice fast. Now to be honest, it could be that the 'kills 'em dead' trap is simply the first one in line on the old mouse highway in my garage. ?? But to be sure, none of those poor mice have yet been interested in the other, I think far more interesting, mouse trap to stroll on over and take a test- bite or two from its little, covered bait well. My own personal opinion is that the trap that is actually getting the mice is awfully ominous looking and I would not even approach it but I only have my own (human) and Kirby's (squirrel) points of view.
Oh yes, we are still working on the original bait samples; both traps are full of bait, it is getting old but the mice partaking of the first trap are getting deader more quickly then they are getting fed so that trap also remains full of bait.
Brian