Digital technology has made its way into virtually every facet of modern living, and mouse traps are no exception. While traditional mouse traps remain the most simple and cost-effective way to eliminate intruding rodents, there are a few alternative solutions that seem incredibly futuristic.

Laser-Guided Mouse Traps

When you think of infrared laser defense systems, the first thing that comes to your mind is probably James Bond or science fiction stories. However, laser-activated mouse traps are now a thing of reality.

Traditional mouse traps are pressure-activated — the mouse has to trigger some sort of spring mechanism to be trapped or killed. Laser-activated traps are much more high tech. The mouse is lured into the trap with bait just like with a traditional trap. When it passes in front of the trap's invisible laser beam, an electronic door slams behind the mouse and entraps it. Unless the mouse has the skills of an international secret agent, there's no way it's going to avoid being detected by the laser system.

Infrared laser traps are a humane way to take care of your mouse problem because they can be designed to trap mice with no physical interference whatsoever. If you're technologically inclined, you can even build your own laser trap using a custom Raspberry Pi computer system.

Ultrasonic Mouse Repellant Systems

Another high-tech solution to your rodent problem is to use ultrasonic mouse repellent systems. These systems periodically emit high-pitched sounds that are out of the range of human hearing. However, the mice trying to get into your home can definitely hear the ultrasonic waves. Essentially, it's like an electronic dog whistle designed to scare off rodents. They find the noise uncomfortable or threatening, so they'll avoid ever entering your home in the first place.

Electric Mouse Traps

If you're not keen on saving the lives of the rodents intruding in your home, you can opt for an electric mouse trap. Like traditional mouse traps, electric traps are generally pressure-activated. You place bait inside of the trap and seal it up. Then, when a mouse finds its way inside and grabs the bait, a switch is activated and the mouse is hit with a lethal electric shock.

That may sound a bit violent, but it's actually a far more humane way to kill mice than traditional traps. Spring-loaded snap traps often just severely wound and trap mice, leaving them to suffer over the following minutes or hours. Likewise, traditional glue traps simply trap mice in place, leaving them to suffer until they either starve or are killed by the homeowner. In contrast, electric traps will kill mice painlessly and instantaneously.

As an added bonus, electric traps are more sanitary than traditional traps. If a mouse is injured in one of your snap traps, you may wind up with streaks of blood all over your floor. Mice can be hosts to a number of dangerous diseases, so you have to be extremely careful when cleaning up after them. With an electric trap, you can simply put on a disposable glove and remove the mouse carcass from the device.

Carnivorous Coffee Tables

The meat-eating coffee table designed by Bristol Robotics is perhaps the most extreme and over-engineered mouse trap ever invented. To catch mice, the designers left bits of food on top of the table. The only way mice could reach the food was by climbing one of the table legs. Conveniently, they designed one of the legs as a hollow tunnel so mice could easily climb their way up and reach the food.

This is where things get brutal: as the unsuspecting mice make their way toward the leftover food, an automated electronic blade system activates and chops them into bits. The mouse bodies are then funneled into a chemical dissolving cauldron so that the system can extract energy from the carcasses and power itself. Essentially, it's a futuristic meat-eating robot.