I caught a few mice. Are there more?

01

What catching two, three, or five proves

A catch confirms that an animal reached that trap. Two, three, or five catches confirm that many capture events. The count still does not reveal how many animals remain elsewhere on the property.

It also does not show which route was used or whether the same opening remains available. The useful follow-up question is not “Did the trap work?” It is “What happened around the property after it worked?”

02

Separate an empty trap from a quiet night

An empty trap tells you that trap caught nothing during the period you checked. A quiet monitoring night tells you that the positioned sensors recorded no detections during a defined window. Neither observation is a permanent all-clear.

Place sensors at deliberate checkpoints and label those positions on the floorplan. The next morning, review when detections occurred and whether activity stayed near one sensor, appeared across several positions, or was not recorded at all.

• No detections: a quiet monitoring night, not proof that the property is clear.
• One concentrated area: a reason to inspect that area more closely.
• Repeated sequences: a reason to compare timing and sensor order across another night.

03

How do you know when they are gone?

You cannot prove a permanent absence from one catch, one empty trap, or one quiet night. Confidence grows when comparable monitoring nights stay quiet and a physical inspection finds no current condition that contradicts the record.

Keep sensor positions, active hours, and surrounding conditions reasonably consistent. If a sensor moves or the space changes, mark it before interpreting a higher, lower, or quiet result.

04

Let the record choose the next inspection

Use the most persistent position to focus the next physical inspection. Look for openings, rub marks, droppings, disturbed materials, or building conditions that can confirm or reject the direction suggested by the detections.