A mouse keeps outsmarting me!

[JH27N0B]

I am really getting really frustrated by a crafty mouse!  Now that I am stuck at home most of the time I am not driving my daily driver more than 2 or 3 times a week.  I could tell a mouse was hanging out under my hood of my seldom moved car, on my battery.
First I bought a bait station which I placed in front of my garage near where I park the car.  I have only seen ants feeding on the bait so far!
Next I decided I'd try a mouse trap.  I put a trap on my battery with peanut butter on the trigger.  Next day peanut butter was gone but the trap wasn't triggered!
So I put more peanut butter on the trigger, and trimmed some poison off the DCon cube from the bait station I put in the peanut butter. 
Next day the peanut butter, and poison was gone! Trap still not triggered though.
Ok, try again, next day peanut butter and poison gone,and trap snapped, but no dead mouse in the trap!
Alright, new plan.  I put a sticky pest control sheet on my battery with a little stack of barley malt seeds on it.  So today I check, and the sheet has been chewed on, most of the seeds are chewed up, and there is even some mouse hair stuck to the sheet, but no mouse!  How does this little bugger manage to continue to outsmart me!!!!!!  Should I just hand him the keys to my car??

[floorit426]

I'm starting to get the mental image of the coyote and the road runner!

[Chryco Psycho]

I had a mouse like that , I used a 5 gallon bucket & a T bar across it , glued bait at the end of the T bar & when the mouse wnet for it the T bar flipped dropping it into the water drowning it

[usraptor]

Had a similar issue with a mouse that kept licking the peanut butter off the trigger but wouldn't spring the trap.  Go a raisin and super glued it to the trigger.  That way he'd have to tug on the raisin to try and remove it and would trigger the trap.  Put a small amount of peanut butter on the raisin to entice him.  Worked like a charm.  Next morning dead mouse in trap.   Good luck.

[JH27N0B]

I did something similar the time I mixed Dcon in with the peanut butter.  I took a tack and put it through a hole in the plastic trigger, impaled a couple seeds on it, then smeared peanut butter on it along with chunks of Dcon. I figured the mouse would tug on the seeds and that would trigger the mouse trap.
I must have looked like "Carl" in Caddyshack when he was making little animals out of plastic explosives to get the gopher, while I crafted my trap! 
The next day, the peanut butter, seeds, Dcon, even the tack, gone, and trap wasn't snapped.    Was the mouse watching me from afar, dancing to the song "I'm all right" while I stood there looking under the hood at the clean trap scratching my head? 
I've heard of the bucket trick, not sure if that would work here as my car is outside and there's so many critters here in my suburban "forest". Lots of squirrels, who get into everything, birds, possums, even a chipmunk who lives under my stoop.  Would they explore my boobytrap bucket or just mice?

[Chryco Psycho]

Worth a try 

[Burdar]

You don't have your trap adjusted sensitive enough.  Bend the tab that the arm sits on to make it more sensitive.

[Rich G.]

Get a cat. He'll catch it and bring it to you dead or alive, probably alive and then drop it. 😡

[JH27N0B]

My mousetrap has a plastic trigger so isn't adjustable to give it more of a "hair trigger".  However I was just looking at mousetraps online and saw the one I have, looking at the info on it, I saw there are 2 settings for the trigger, vertical tab and horizontal tab.  I've been setting it vertical.  Maybe the other setting would work better.  I'll get that mouse if it's the last thing I do! 

[BIGSHCLUNK]

One thing I've learned with mice.. there's never just one.

[blown motor]

Put peanut butter on the trigger, not just the bait plate. It worked for me.

[oldmoparbuff]

My wife swears Peanut Butter and chocolate.
The peanut butter glues the chocolate to the trigger.

Works like a charm.

[mopartaz]

Peanut butter is good, but i use sticky glue paper. worlks great for everythig that crawls.Back when i used to live in rural Florida that was a required pest application. That along with cheap wal- mart brand carb cleaner for the bugs. Works like a charm.

[Flatdad]

Put up a tiny sign that says "No Mice", duh!

or...

Stuff hay & straw into a burlap sack & fashion it into the shape of a cat, sew buttons on for eyes & mount it on a stick. Then put it in you engine bay. Viola! A scaremouse.

or...

Turn the tables on him! Find where he lives, eat some of HIS belongings, and then poop on HIS house. That'll teach 'im!

[RzeroB]

I'm starting to get the mental image of the coyote and the road runner!

I think what you need Brad is a smarter "mouse trap" ... I'll lend you my Doberman ... she is a relentless mouse hunting machine ... WAY better than any cat I have ever had.