mousetrap woes

[mamallama]

Can I just say how I hate, hate, hate emptying mousetraps?!!

Having mice in our house is obviously not an option.

I strongly dislike cats. Getting a cat is not an option (also, one of my dogs is a confirmed cat killer.)

I don't do poison because I think it's cruel and environmentally irresponsible.

Glue traps are inhumane, period.

I am philosophically opposed to live traps.

Snap traps are where it's at.

I really like rodents! They're cute and curious and they have a neat lifestyle. My kids have had pet rats. We currently have pet hamsters. I think rodents are super cool.

It breaks my heart to snap the little mousie's neck! But he's ruining my family's food and he leaves his little poops in the silverware drawer. He carries disease. I can't have him in my house!

I hate seeing his beady little eyes, the life snuffed out, as I empty his body from the trap so I can use it again to trap his brother.

Why??

Being a grown-up sucks!

I need some love!

[meemee]

curious mama. why are you opposed to live traps? i went on a bio field trip and we used live traps to trap the little rodents. we were doing a data study. so we would catch them and then release them.

i dont understand. why is snap trap ok. is it a kind of kill trap?

this is the trapping device we used with oatmeal and peanut butter.

http://compare.ebay.com/like/2004646...Types&var=sbar

either way its so hard when you like the dang creatures.

[mamallama]

To start, releasing "varmints" is illegal. Not that I'm so entrenched in the letter of the law, but the spirit being that it's just foisting my problem off on someone else and not actually addressing it.

From a biological perspective, house mice fill a human habituation niche. Releasing a house mouse into the woods does the mouse no favor. It's not his expected habitat. He is not adapted to find food or shelter. I am not interested in assuaging my conscience by killing the mouse indirectly--ie-putting him into a habitat in which he will ultimately perish because he does not have the skills to survive. Wood mice live in the woods. House mice do not. My house is plagued by house mice, not wood mice.

Therefore, live traps are not an answer for me.

I wish it were so easy.

Gimme the love!

[Fuamami]

I actually use poison because we had too many mice get away with a trap on their leg or tail, and I thought that was totally cruel. D-Con is supposed to be pretty safe for secondary poisoning, too.

Also, I just threw the whole thing away when I did use snap traps. Maybe you should do that? Not particularly environmentally responsible, but not as gross.

[mamallama]

I totally thought about throwing the whole trap out...but since I had to handle it either way, it was only slightly worse to empty it, and I felt somewhat better about tossing the dead guy into the neighbor's yard (where a scavenger will pick it up well before he gets around to cutting the grass again) rather than sending him to the landfill.

It just sucks.

ETA--I have been trapping mice for a long time. I've never trapped a leg or tail--it's always been a clean kill.

[InMediasRes]

We have a mouse problem too. I tried all sorts of "clever" ways to trap him live, but we ultimately resorted to snap traps as well. We have had a few snap on tails or legs, but they are mostly clean kills. At least, cleaner than when my DH kills them with his shoe :yuck.

I also love rodents. I have two pet rats right now who are totally mine even though DS thinks they're his. I hate killing the little suckers, but I can't have them eating through my flour sacks and leaving poops everywhere either. And I have to crack down on them early because they seem to like nesting in my kid's dresser. Going to grab a pair of clean undies and finding baby mice is just not my cup of tea.

[Liquesce]

The first time I saw a live mouse in my house I went all "aww, just like something out of Beatrix Potter!" I am so not cut out for killing them either.

Have you considered enclosed traps? They're more expensive, and I have no idea if they're as effective or not, but there are options out there for people who don't want to look.

[Logan's mommy]

We used these when we had a mouse problem a few years ago. These were less messy and easier for me to handle.

[limabean]

Originally Posted by mamallama

Gimme the love!

I was all ready to, but then I read this:

Originally Posted by mamallama

I felt somewhat better about tossing the dead guy into the neighbor's yard (where a scavenger will pick it up well before he gets around to cutting the grass again) rather than sending him to the landfill.

Not cool! Why on earth choose the neighbor's yard, no matter how quickly you think a scavenger will pick up the body?

[ElaynesMom]

Originally Posted by mamallama

I totally thought about throwing the whole trap out...but since I had to handle it either way, it was only slightly worse to empty it, and I felt somewhat better about tossing the dead guy into the neighbor's yard (where a scavenger will pick it up well before he gets around to cutting the grass again) rather than sending him to the landfill.

Um, does your neighbor know you are doing this and is ok with it? I'd be pretty annoyed if my neighbor decided to throw dead animals (which you admit likely carry disease) into my yard. Please don't do this unless you do in fact have permission from your neighbor.

[Amatullah0]

Originally Posted by InMediasRes

At least, cleaner than when my DH kills them with his shoe :yuck.

Ewwww! On that note, my DH used to smoosh rats with a cricket bat when he was living back home in Pakistan, and his dad was in the USA (cause he was the 11 year old "man of the house" then

Rodents, or any animal, bug, etc., running around the house creeps me out, but killing them creeps me out too. I don't know what I would do in your situation, I'd probably beg DH to sell the house, probably not an option though

[meemee]

so here is the love mama. i am giving you my love and empathy...

... because i am a no kill person.

if i was in your shoes i have no idea what i would do.

i have geckos in my house now and i love having them.



when i was growing up i had a 'pet' mouse. we had electrical wiring outside the wall on it. and every night at 11 pm a mouse would come walking on it and going to a certain part of the house. i never told my parents. i dont think they ever foudn anything either.

[mamallama]

Whoa--my bad on not being clear on the neighbor situation! I can clearly see how that wouldn't be cool with very many people!

My situation is different. I didn't ask the neighbor's permission, but if I did, no doubt he'd give it to me! He has no kids, no dogs, confirmed bachelor...he uses the "yard" as an archery range for a couple of weeks before deer season starts, and that's about it. It's currently waist high with weeds.

I didn't toss it in my yard b/c my dog is a retriever, and he'd just bring it back to me...the choice was over the fence or in the trash.

[ElaynesMom]

Glad you clarified about the situation with your neighbor's yard


And sorry you have to deal with mice, that must suck, I would hate having to kill animals too, but sometimes it's unavoidable

[luvmybaby333]

It sucks to be an adult sometimes.

We never had a rodent problem until this year. I was always quite glad of that fact, because I have owned many rodent pets in the past and I didn't like the idea of viewing them as my adversaries.

When our first mousies showed up, I thought it was adorable. There seemed to be just 2 or 3 of them. We though they were contained in a cabinet of ours (where they had been content to eat our left-over fast food sauce packets and my sushi supplies.) We eventually bought a live trap and waited patiently to catch them. For a couple days after we removed their food source I heard them frantically banging around in the cabinet in search of more food. It was several days before our trap caught anything. When I asked my DH to check it, he sadly reported that there was way more than we thought (about 4-7 had stuffed themselves in there) and that they'd all killed each other. I cried like a freaking baby.

Shortly after that incident we had our over-grown yard mowed (we live deep in the country.) Apparently cutting the grass drove all of the field rodents to our house. At that point they began over-taking our home. They were no longer contained to just that one cabinet. They were getting in everywhere, They were even coming up the floor vents-- which leads me to believe that they have ruined our duct-work under the house. *sigh* After pointlessly depending on our cat to run pest control (though the idea of him killing them made me very sad) and after accidentally killing a couple whilst trying to catch them on our own to release in a more unpopulated part of the countryside... I finally broke down and consented to poison. I didn't want the little critters to die. I didn't want them to suffer. But I desperately had to get rid of them. It was not safe or healthy for my girls to share their living-space with wild rodents. We got some Havoc from our local feed store.

It broke my heart to know that they all were dying. But within 3 days or so, our rodent problem was non-existent. I still feel really bad about. Killing them on such a large scale hasn't desensitized me to the act. In fact, we had a tiny little guy get in a couple weeks ago. I saved him from the cat's torture, and managed to safely capture him to await my DH's disposal. When my DH got home... things didn't go as planned. He ended up killing the little guy. I was so upset. I bawled for quite awhile.

It does suck being an adult.

[mamallama]

Thanks for the love, ladies.

It is comforting to know I'm not the only one who jumps straight to Beatrix Potter at the thought of a mouse....

I am so grateful that my mouse situation is not as bad as what some of you are reporting! One or two a month seems almost manageable in comparison.

[mattemma04]

I have the cheap victor snap traps.Hard to set. The T-rex traps are easy to release the dead mice. We have deer mice.Very cute,but can not have them in the home or car.We kept some,killed some,and released some.All depends on my mood.

I just went in the crawl today and forgot I had set traps.Ewww old dead mice are super nasty to get off a snap trap.