Help! We have a mouse in our apartment! - Page 2

[ChristyMarie]

I'm guessing the OP doesn't want to kill it with a sticky trap.  Those seem horribly cruel to me as well.  The snap traps are a quick death.  And poison just means they'll die somewhere you can't reach them and rot.  *ewwwwww*

Originally Posted by prothyraia 

Edited to add: Although I'm not entirely sure why you're opposed to killing it- it's in your home, and all it's going to do after you let it go is find somewhere to make more mice that will then try to find a way into your home.

[MittensKittens]

Originally Posted by ChristyMarie 

I'm guessing the OP doesn't want to kill it with a sticky trap.  Those seem horribly cruel to me as well.  The snap traps are a quick death.  And poison just means they'll die somewhere you can't reach them and rot.  *ewwwwww*

Originally Posted by prothyraia 

Edited to add: Although I'm not entirely sure why you're opposed to killing it- it's in your home, and all it's going to do after you let it go is find somewhere to make more mice that will then try to find a way into your home.

Yeah, that! I am not opposed to killing it, but I think the slow and painful death resulting from a glue trap is not nice. Plus the fact that it might still be alive when you find it, and then you would have to hit it with a hammer or something. I'm not in favor of poison for exactly the reason you mention. I hope we'll have snap trap success tonight - but I am doubtful.

[MittensKittens]

Well, I finally caught the mouse this morning! It had managed to avoid all the traps I set up for it and was seriously starting to consider poison, even though I was worried about the kids. Then, this morning, I saw something moving under the throw that is covering a couch. I got a blanket to catch it in, and lifted up the throw ready to catch it. Of course, it jumped onto the floor right away but I managed to catch it into the blanket and took it outside! I'm so glad!

[jecombs]

We've been dealing with mice too.  Not mouse... mice.  We live in the country in an older home, so we get them every year.  We used to have a cat, but he died this past spring.  The mice have been much worse without him and his scent around our house.  The snap traps have never worked well for us, so we use... glue traps.  Gets 'em every time.  We only use them when we're awake, so the poor mouse doesn't have to be stuck all night.  I always hear the mice when they get caught, then my DH takes the trap outside and gives the mouse a quick and painless (we hope) death.

I feel bad for the mice, but I don't want my 8 mo. old and 3 yr. old exposed to their droppings, so we have to get rid of them.

[petey44]

Glue traps are disgustingly inhumane.  Snap traps, if used perfectly (by you and the mouse) are quicker, and therefore more humane.  If you live near woods/open space of any sort, get a humane capture trap, catch it/them, and take them on a little drive to their new home.  If that's not an option, get or borrow a cat.  I lived in a gross apartment building in college, there were huge mouse problems- but my only run-in with the actual mice would be to find the dead body after one had the misfortune to stumble up to my apartment, inhabited by my super-mouser of a cat.  They were never there long enough to leave droppings or get into my food or papers or anything- seriously, cats are amazing at their mousing skills!

I've had a few acquaintances who have complained of mice in their houses- I've offered my cat for a weekend- but they always cite allergy problems and end up spending a fortune to have someone else come and put down those disgusting, should-be-illegal glue traps and/or poison-which is also horribly bad, because guess what?  the mouse doesn't just have an immediate heart attack from the poison- he eats it, takes it back to the nest, if there is one, and dies a slow agonizing death.  Then the poison can hurt/kill your pet, your neighbor's pet, a wild animal that you're more accepting of- anything that comes along and tries to eat the dead mouse.

OP- glad you got the mouse out with a blanket!!  Maybe your mouse-catching skills rival my cat's!

[Otto]

I don't know that it makes a great deal of sense to suggest that death by cat has much in the way of moral high ground over glue traps. When I've failed to catch and release a mouse that the cats have brought in, it tends to be a protracted process, with the mouse suffering accumulating injuries while trying to flee just as impossible a situation.

As for catching them, providing some sort of tube to run into (jar, tumbler, narrow box) when startled has been the most successful method I've come across.

[MittensKittens]

Originally Posted by Otto 

I don't know that it makes a great deal of sense to suggest that death by cat has much in the way of moral high ground over glue traps. When I've failed to catch and release a mouse that the cats have brought in, it tends to be a protracted process, with the mouse suffering accumulating injuries while trying to flee just as impossible a situation.

As for catching them, providing some sort of tube to run into (jar, tumbler, narrow box) when startled has been the most successful method I've come across.

Great idea! Our mouse was a clever fellow. It would not go into mouse traps at all. I had about five encounters with it before I finally caught it. Every time I discovered its new hide out, it moved on. The night before I caught it, I found it in a beach bag with baby clothes (the small ones, not currently in use), which was hung up somewhere. I opened the bag to see if I could give some clothes to a friend's newborn... only to see that the little brown fellow had found them too. In the time it was in my house, it lived under my bed, under the oven, inside the door posts, in a kitchen drawer, and in a cardboard box with unused kitchen supplies - it had made a nest with a straw basket in there! It got food from the traps all the time, but never made them go off. Even though the traps were set properly and would go off really easily.

I can't imagine having to deal with multiple mice, jecombs! They are hard to deal with. About snap traps being more humane... A friend who raises chickens once had a rat problem in her chicken coop so she put up traps in places where the chickens couldn't get too. She once found a little nose and nothing else in the trap. Snap traps can be horrible too. At the end of the day, you just have to do what you can to get rid of them. I noticed that cleaning the spots where the mouse had been triggered breathing problems for me. Mice are not healthy to have around.