Mouse in the Apartment!!

[zazanomore]

There goes my breakfast...

[Giantmoa]

didn't see that picture coming if I didn't have to gut/cut up meat for the raptors where I volunteer I'd be a bit more disturbed. Does anyone know of some humane mouse traps? I don't really like the look of that one and am hesitant about poison because I don't want some other animal coming along eating said mouse and suffering/dying as a result...

[entrancedbymyGCC]

didn't see that picture coming if I didn't have to gut/cut up meat for the raptors where I volunteer I'd be a bit more disturbed. Does anyone know of some humane mouse traps? I don't really like the look of that one and am hesitant about poison because I don't want some other animal coming along eating said mouse and suffering/dying as a result...

Actually the snap traps are typically fairly humane, if ugly. Gross mangling of the head and neck region typically doesn't allow survival for very long. The zap traps are also quick, a bit mroe sure, and they have the advantage that some are designed so you don't even have to view the remains... they go in and get electrocuted and with some, the box has a light on top that tells you the trap has fired. and you can empty it sight unseen. I have a friend who successfully used these. The most humane is, of course, live trap and release. I'm a sucker and would probably try that first, along with finding and closing off all the mouse sized entrance points to my house.

Poisons aren't necessarily humane. Few are quick acting, they take days or weeks to kill. Just because you don't see the suffering doesn't mean a thing is humane -- exterminators tend to concentrate on the aesthetics and reassuring the humans, NOT on the welfare of the exterminatees. However some poisons don't leave a poisonous corpse behind. Most, in fact, are such that a dog or cat eating the body would not be badly affected. A decent exterminator will be able to recommend something cat and dog safe, but I wouldn't bet on bird safe. We bird fanatics hardly know what is bird safe.

[Michael]

What is humane? You mean like nuclear weapons and napalm?

Let me just say that of all the different things I've tried, those "humane catch and release traps" are the most useless thing I've ever tried. Regardless of the bait, not a single mouse went into one of those ever. Of course the plentiful of bird delights left behind in random places doesn't help make the mouse more desperate to go in there.

[captwest]

A couple of corn snakes work the best!!!!!!

[Giantmoa]

good info to know entranced! My first pet was a mouse so I'm quite the softy
I know someone who used the catch and release traps and caught several mice but I didn't get a followup about whether or not they got rid of the infestation...
and captwest, my bird is so small I'm afraid the snakes would eat her and not the mice!

[captwest]

Hey Giantmoa, i haven't had a problem with the snakes and birds. the snakes seem to stay outside or under the house where the mice are nesting .They will trck the mice back to the nest and eat the babies ,so small snakes work great.

[TheNzJessie]

didn't see that picture coming if I didn't have to gut/cut up meat for the raptors where I volunteer I'd be a bit more disturbed. Does anyone know of some humane mouse traps? I don't really like the look of that one and am hesitant about poison because I don't want some other animal coming along eating said mouse and suffering/dying as a result...

or scooping out a horses brain and giving the head to the lion at work (sorry horse lovers) and then using the brain to put her medication pills in it....the morpork at work gets mice to kill them for the morpork you have to grab it by its tail spin it around so it gets dizzy and doesn't have a clue whats going on and then you bang it on a log to kill it, the first time i had done it was the worst.... morporks got to eat.....



but that method of killing mice wouldn't work with ones running aorund you hours because you have to catch them first....a humane trap would be a cage with a door with a stick with food attacked and when the mice moves the stick with the food it releases the door, when you could ethier freeze is so it goes to sleep, get it put down at a vet (pricey) or not feed it for 2 days and then slip it some poision...>.<

[michellet]

Since reading this post almost a week ago, and on the same night my cat bringing me a dead mouse, my vaccuum cleaner is in shock! It's had more use in the past week, than in the past year!! I'm determined to get every grain of seed before it hits the ground!! And I've laid traps today....be gone mice!!!

[MandyG]

Well we have mice now apparently. And dogs obviously don't do anything to help! We found a mouse in our large fish tank a few months ago and then found a nest in my car. We put the old fashioned snap traps everywhere in my car and near the birds but we haven't caught anything in the house. I was hoping that maybe the one mouse in the tank was the only one but I knew there's never only one mouse. But still we've caught nothing. I finally put a glue trap in my car and got one mouse (yes, it died from trying to get itself out of the glue, yes I felt awful about it at the time). Still nothing in any of the old fashioned traps though. Now I've found another mouse nest under the hood in my car and found the first droppings in the house. Apparently the mice are too smart for the old fashioned traps and I'm going out to buy a LOT of glue traps tomorrow, of course putting them in areas that are not accessable to the dogs or birds. Unfortunately I haven't found any poison that I feel comfortable using although there are a few that claim they won't cause secondary poisoning.

I've never heard of the electric traps though, are they available in Canada? Right now I'm hoping the glue traps will work tomorrow. Sorry to all of those that think they're cruel, but my family's health and feeling comfortable in my own home is much more important to me than the way a poor mouse feels. I felt bad about the first one but now I'm just angry. It's not my fault the mice are outsmarting the 'less cruel' traps and now I have to try a more aggressive approach. I'll keep you posted on what works for us.