I just realized that the second variation of my funnel/one-way-door mousetrap doesn’t really trap mice at all!
Since it is specifically designed to provide an avenue of escape to the mouse, there’s no trapping being done, and I may have just miserably failed the design challenge. The challenge specifically states that the winning design is the one that first catches his mouse.
Plus, this particular design would require you to drill a 4cm hole and 4x 3mm holes in a door. I’m guessing this is one of those “cure is worse than the disease” solutions.
I must admit, I wasn’t planning to print the door-hole variant because our house is draughty enough without a hole in the door! That said, if it worked it’d be a practical way to clear a really infested house with minimal effort. You could then print a cylinder to fill in the door afterwards, and paint over it!
I wouldn’t blame you for not printing it. It really does require a pretty large commitment (drilling a hole in an exterior door) to an untested design. That said, I can’t wait to hear about how the peanut butter jar version works!
You might want to look at this design – I saw it in Wired in 1996; but the Wired archive no longer had an image – the other link does:
From Wired:
4.12: Pong “Enter a better mousetrap, and a ping-pong ball will beat a path to block your door.” Good evening and welcome to the Mouse Motel. Please note the steep incline up the kitchen floor. There you go. Whoops! Lunging for that tasty morsel has swung you down into the end of the tube. No worries: you’ve got all the peanuttier spread you could want – but wait, the exit has been blocked by a little white ball. Pleasant stay. TeeterPong Mousetrap: US$14.99. The Teeter Pong!
http://crazymousetraps.blogspot.com/2006/12/teeter-pong.html
It may be out of production, and it certainly was made mostly, if not entirely, of plastic.
JS