Can you give me advice on mouse traps?

Kitty is a lazy bitch

It really depends on your definition of humane. They almost always work, and work well. Sometimes they get caught awkwardly and they don't die right away.

But, mice are disease carrying vermin and need to be eradicated as quickly as possible. They have no bowel/ bladder control and the urine/feces constantly dribble out of them, leaving a scent trail that attracts other mice.

And then, there's Hantavirus. Although rare, it's a very serious illness that is highly transmissible to humans. Make sure to wipe all surfaces with mouse urine/feces with a bleach or alcohol soaked paper towel. The virus is disbursed/ shed from dust stirred up from the act of sweeping dry feces. Never sweep up fecal matter with a broom or vacuum.

Use a tiny amount of peanut butter for bait.

Rats' contraceptive pills.

Get one of the black plastic covered ones so you don't have to look at the dead mouse other than its horrid tail. You can turn away and lift the lever and not have to see the horrible dead mouse.

PB works well, but never ever touch things with your fingers. Use gloves. They sense when humans have touched things (oils or sweat we leave behind).

Don't try any kind of drowning traps, with a bucket of water. I did one time and it was a fiasco. They can jump.

Plug up holes they may have entered through.

Set more traps than you think you'd need. Put them in ways that block their path so they have to cross them.

Definitely use peanut butter. It's never a good sign if you catch a mouse but the peanut butter is gone. Just means a live one crawled over the dead one to eat the peanut butter. Also, always reset it and leave it for a few days to make sure you don't have more.

They don't travel solo. You ALWAYS have another one. Or seventy.

They like grains. Drop a little corn meal or flour or rice on the peanut butter.

I hate killing them, but they are filthy and they should have gone to someone else's home. OP's, perhaps. Or R1's. Anywhere but my house.

OP, a female mouse can reproduce when it is only 23 days old. So don't wait.

OP, they have yet to build a better mousetrap. And that SNAP is so satisfying.

Don't use sticky paper to catch them. It is extremely cruel and causes enormous suffering and very prolonged death. They get faces stuck to it, etc. Don't do it.

R10 Fuck you, it works. If it was a fetus you'd have no problem, would you ?

I actually found one that works better and it is called, creatively, The Better Mousetrap. It works on the same principle as the old fashioned kind but is made of two solid pieces of plastic hinged like a clothespin. I no longer have a mouse problem--for some reason just one winter I had about four mice over the course of the season, never before and never since--but during that time I first tried the classic ones. The problems I found with those were they were difficult to set properly, probably because they are so flimsy that they can get slightly bent during shipping or whatever. I snapped my own finger once or twice, a couple times the mouse got the bait and didn't trigger the trap, and finally one was caught but only by one leg (ugh.)

So I got these plastic ones and baited them (very easily) with some peanut butter. No alarming sudden triggering while I was baiting them, they were set with the right tension every time, and they caught each mouse right in the middle of their body and killed them immediately and cleanly. You pick up the trap from the other end, your hand in no danger of touching the carcass, and open it over the garbage by squeezing it. I got them at Ace hardware but I am sure any hardware store would carry them. They were gray with red lettering, if the brand name is not specific enough. There are other plastic ones with similar design that probably work similarly well.

As other posters have said, don't bother with other types of traps like sticky paper or containers of water. And the 'humane' traps mean you have to do something with the mouse you catch. Wherever you take it, it is either going to find its way back to your house, find another house, or if you truly take it far out into the wilderness, it's just going to die out there anyway. I got over any feelings of concern for them once I saw them actually in my home, they were immediately demoted to a furry version of a large cockroach in my animal schema.

R11 You are an evil, disgusting pig.

I put the snap traps in a cardboard case of a 12packof diet coke (cans removed of course). I set them along the walls I've seen the mice. When the traps snap the mess stays in the case and I can just slide it out into the trash and load up again.

Be careful to keep the traps out of reach of your cat so he doesn't get injured.

R12, are they reusable?

Thanks for all the input.

I've yet to actually see the mouse, but have cleaned up plenty of dropping from the kitchen counter. There's no food out so I don't get it. The cat has been spending all night in the kitchen not exactly successfully hunting. She's really good with lizards. But I think the mouse or posse of mice is outsmarting her.

Anyway, I'll pick up peanut butter and try to get at least one of each of the type of traps you guys have mentioned (minus sticky and water related).

OP your cat is FIRED!

you should hire an expert. he will be able not only to get it out but to stop it from coming back. it's a good investment.

r18, a few years ago, the house next door was being gutted and rehabbed and I wound up with a 4 foot milk snake in my dining room. Animal control told me they only had once person for the whole county so the soonest they could get to me would be in two weeks. So, I got the number of snake expert. While I was on the phone with her, the snake slithered into a half inch gap between the dining room floor and the molding of the fireplace. What the snake expert told me was: 1) anyone who told me they could pest proof my (120 year old 4 story house) was lying and trying to rip me off; 2) she keeps snakes in her storage unit to keep rats away...; and 3) there was 50/50 chance the snake would reappear crawling out my wall to somewhere inside rather than outside. I slept with a hoe by the side of my bed for a year. It never reappeared.

Buy steel wool to plug up any mouse holes you may find. They can't get through it and it lasts forever.

Use the old fashioned traps as recommended above. And you don't have one mouse, you have multiple, probably dozens. Don't use poison unless you want to live with smell of decomposition coming from within your walls for weeks/months. And plug any holes, steel wool is great as r20 says.

I had a mouse in my house and put out poison. A week later, I smelled something nasty and found the dead mouse behind my sofa. It looked so small and pathetic, I felt awful. And no, there were no more mice to deal with.

This homemade electrified mouse trap looks like so much fun, it makes me wish I had a rodent infestation just so I could try it out.

This mouse/rat trap looks like lots of fun as well. I could watch this video all day.

Ah, the DL Serial Killer In Residence makes his appearance. I thought maybe you'd been sent to prison, cutie.

You need cats. I do not believe you have a cat. They run from the smell of a cat. My building has feral outside cats as well as many of us have indoor cats. We have never seen one rat or mouse. Ever. 100+ units and I've lived here since I was 23, 10 years, and never a rat or mouse because of the cats.

R15 yes they are reusable. They are made of hard plastic, I washed it after each mouse murder. Oh, and remember to check them FREQUENTLY. I missed a day once because I didn't expect them to work so quickly and the mouse's guts were melting and sticking to the floor.

[quote] I missed a day once because I didn't expect them to work so quickly and the mouse's guts were melting and sticking to the floor

r27, okay, that's gross.

Watch Mousetrap Monday on YT.

There are 1,000s of ways to catch mice. Humane and otherwise.

Yes OP, it was kind of gross but we are talking about ways to trap and kill small living animals that have invaded our home. Death carries some unpleasantness. The death of the mouse was quick though, and it didn't die in the walls and stink for ages, so I call it a good outcome.

Yes, they are small and cute. But they are RODENTS. They carry horrible and sometimes terrifying DISEASES. You DON'T want them in your home. Man up and do what is necessary to get these disease vectors away from you and those you love.

The classic traps work the best and are the most humane. Glove up and man up.

These work great - as described above. Much better than the traditional wood snap trap design

r31, if that's what you consider manning up then you are a serious MARY!

So you can just kill any living creature without thinking about the fact you are taking a life and it doesn't bother you, r33? Okay, I get that.

Are you a Hucklebee son?

Would a mouse die if you took it out to the woods? Can't it find food and water?

Victor tin Cat is the best. You don't even have to bait them. The mouse goes inside and you hear it banging the tin. You take it outside , open it and the mouse jumps out.

You have to disinfect it each time because mice emit a fear pheromone.Baby mouse don't know what it means but adult mice do. Babies will go inside but an adult won't if they smell the fear pehromone.

There are other models - some with a clear plastic panel on top and one that is less wide with a clear panel on the side.

The clear green plastic ones don't work. Glue traps are inhumane. The poor mouse starts chewing its leg off before you ca take it outside with olive oil and a chopstick to pry the mouse off. It's a bloody, horrible mess.

typos: pheromone

Typo - baby mice

r35, mice are social creatures. If you remove it from it's community, it won't be able to survive on its own, and may even be killed by strange mice. At least this is what I once read.

A long time ago, I was in Nepal with my bf, staying in a guest house in the mountains. At night, we heard this loud scratching and saw a large field mouse skittering up the walls, near us. We cowered under the covers. In the morning, we found the soap and candles chewed. We brought these to the (Buddhist) owner and told him he needed to do something. He looked at the soap and candles and said, "For this you would take his life?" We moved to another place that day, but I will always have great respect for that man.

Thank you, R40! There are humane traps I found at Gristedes in west village that work well. Check them often and you can catch and release the mouse outside. Where it goes or what happens to it after isn't your concern! By releasing it live, its death isn't on your shoulders either, and that's what's important!! They deserve to a life as much as any of us, and it's not ours to take away !

r40, sweet story.

Question: if mice (adult ones, anyway) won't go somewhere that stinks of Mouse Fear Pheromone, can I buy like the Glade Plug-In version of Mouse Fear Pheromone? I know they sell something like that to calm dogs and cats in storms, some other pheromone diffused.

Some Native Americans believe that every animal you meet in life will be sitting by the Creator after you die. They will help make the decision whether you can enter heaven or not, so you must treat every creature with kindness.

I used to take them to the park but now they poison the park to get rid of rats.

The super across the street saw me freeing a mouse near my building and he said that unless you take them 5 miles away, they will return.

In our building they come from behind the stove or through the wall inside the old radiators. Many of us have had our radiators "stuffed"," meaning that a maintenance guy slaps cement around the pipes. But some mice chew thru the walls. I have to pull my dishwasher out and crawl in the space to get at my stove pipe to stuff it w/ steel wool and a mesh adhesive patch (w/ a hole cut in the size of the pipe's diameter).

I was at a friend's apt in our building and she wanted tost. I put a slice of bread in the toaster and pushed down on the lever and mouse jumped out the top.

I tried freeze dried bobcat urine in a shaker top bottle but that didn't work. Peppermint didn't work.

I don't believe in poisoning mice or rats because they usually end up dying in the wall and stinking. Also, that poison gets into the ground water.

[quote] Some Native Americans believe that every animal you meet in life will be sitting by the Creator after you die. They will help make the decision whether you can enter heaven or not

Okay, well, there's no afterlife. The supernatural is imaginary. Cavemen invented gods to explain lightning. We have science now. Unlike the theistic fantasies, mice are quite real.

I use glue traps. Love to hear the little bastards screaming for their lives. I put a plastic bag over the trap and the delight in smashing them with end of a hammer.

There’s no need to be gruesome, R46.

Also, no poison. It goes up the food chain to the big cats.

OP, in addition to the traps, be sure to store any food that mice will eat in a place they can't get to. I bought large, lockable storage tubs at the Container Store and put all grain products - flour, corn meal, oatmeal and rice and anything made with them, like bread, cookies, crackers, pasta, nuts, snacks, etc. - in them. It's a pain in the ass to have to go into a storage tub every time you want a cracker, but keeping food away from the little critters is one way to reduce the infestation. Mice can chew through cardboard and thin plastic like it isn't ever there. They generally can't chew through stiff, thick plastic and definitely can't chew through glass or metal, so your peanut butter, canned goods, jam and condiments are safe in the containers they come in.

Vacuum often. Very often. Crumbs on the floor are a buffet supper for mice.

Mice are awfully cute. So small and furry and timid. I always feel kind of bad when I trap one, but you must get rid of them or you will be overrun.

awwww... they are so cute......

>>>Some Native Americans believe that every animal you meet in life will be sitting by the Creator after you die. They will help make the decision whether you can enter heaven or not.

Does that include animals you have eaten and whose pelts and hides you have worn?

Get the electric ones ( batteries) from amazon. Amazing! Instant no suffering death, body stays completely inside the trap. Bait it with three small pieces of dry dog food and do not turn it on. Let the rat or mouse take the food. Reset it with dry dog food and turn it on second time. Boom. Will be dead by morning. Just take the trap, dump dead animal into trash bin and reset. I have an old house and this has worked in the basement for years. I believe they are made by Vector

Those are rats R49. Not cute.

The birth control method sounds promising if they did it on a large scale, especially in big cities.

There's a documentary on Netflix called "Rats" I believe, very disturbing.

I have no qualms about killing mice and rats, they're vermin. Get a few cats and most of your problem will be solved. No to poisons and glue traps. Get snap traps also, with mostly instant death results. Keep out of access from your cats.

I’m allergic to cats & live in a 170 year old brownstone - mice are just a part of nyc apartment life - you keep things clean, try not to have clutter on the floor, store food in metal containers and always have a few snap traps baited and set. They seem to come in cycles - noting for a few weeks and then you catch a few over a weekend.

I did use glue traps for awhile - but then you still need to kill the mouse - I’d drown them in a bucket with hot water and ammonia. Snap traps are definitely more humane. I have no problem with killing mice, but there’s no reason to be excessively cruel about it.

Just releasing them outside is pointless - you might as well do nothing at all. I do not believe in any sort of an afterlife for the mice or for us.

R3 sounds the New York answer. I read the article, and they were working on it in 1989. Folks, 20 years later and it's not been perfected and used? Wtf, we have drugs with major side affects interested and released to they public quicker. VCD, where are you??

R50 I'm a vegetarian mostly. But NA's do eat meat and have used pelts in teepees and clothes in the past. You bless the animal and thank it for making the sacrifice for you.

The electronic anti-pest devices that you plug into a wall outlet. Don't work at all. They don't repel mice, coackroaches, ants or spiders. The cockroaches actually end up being attracted to it and get a buzz off its vibration.

Some people swear by spritzing peppermint oil mixed with water as a way of repelling mice. They supposedly hate it. Of course your place will smell like peppermint for a few days and it might not work. Results vary.

R58 I've tried peppermint oil. It didn't work.

I've tried the homemade version of this with no success. i didn't use water as that would have drown the poor mice.

Here's a variation of the same thing.

Homemade catch-and-release mousetrap using a soda bottle...

This specific moustrap did not ever work for me.

JUST HIT IT WITH THE SEARS CATALOGG. WORKS FOR ME!

R64 Unless you are a roadrunner or Superman, not an option.

[quote]all. I do not believe in any sort of an afterlife for the mice or for us.

Can we not get religious just for once?

snap traps and peanut butter

refresh the PB every week or so

Les tapettes pourraient-elles me recommander des tapettes?

To reiterate, the drowning method really does not work. I had a mouse end up in a bucket of water and start screaming its head off in the middle of the night. To my horror I discovered the damn thing was jumping up and down and I frantically had to find some kind of lid to cover the bucket with. It was an old random bucket and there was no freaking lid. And that damned creature would not stop screaming. And I mean like full voice screaming. I've never heard anything that loud from a mouse before.

Did not sleep that night, I can tell you.

Drown the evil little assholes.