To catch a mouse

[Warpy]

Well, it's that time of year again and my 20 year old cat will sit and growl at a place she's heard wildlife but she's too old to do much more than that.

So I started to experiment. The spring traps are out because my manual dexterity and weak joints can't cope. In addition, I hate touching mouse corpses because they carry a lot of really horrible diseases here in NM. The glue traps work beautifully, but you're stuck with a panicked mousie trying to chew his leg off to get off the glue. Not good for the mousie or my own emotional equilibrium.

I put out electronic traps a month ago before it got cold enough for mice to come in and managed to zap a few desert cockroaches. Yes, they are that big here. I pulled them up and forgot where I put them until today.

I started to hear mouse noises a couple of days ago and the cat was growling. So I experimented.

Low tech, the toilet paper roll precariously balanced on the edge of the countertop was the first. Mousies were smart this year and just rotated the tube to get the cream cheese. Then I put vitamin bottles on either side of the tube and caught two mice that way. Live mousies went into the wheelie bin with the week's garbage to gorge themselves in mouse heaven before the Sanitation Local bore them off to glory this morning.

The third mouse was zapped 20 minutes after I put out an electronic trap baited with peanut butter. Disposal is easy, just open the door and drop the corpse in the garbage.

I will continue to keep the electronic traps out, even though I've only seen evidence of the three mice and they're all gone.

The bottom line is that somebody did make a better mousetrap. I can recommend these highly:



http://www.victorpest.com/store/mouse-control/bm2524promo

[Kali]

1. the plastic snap traps are a LOT easier than the wood ones

and a lot cheaper but those do sound effective

[Lugnut]

4. Those worked for me.

I loaded it with peanut butter and got rid of the problem. They're easy to set and work like a charm.

[Silver Gaia]

2. These no-kill traps work really well, too, and they're cheap and reuseable.

http://www.amazon.com/MOTOMCO-Tomcat-Mouse-Live-Catch/dp/B000X7VM6G

Lowe's has them for under $5. I just dump the mouse into a really tall wastebasket it can't jump out of (important! they can jump really high!), cover it with a towel (just in case), carry it over the the far side of the nearby park and dump the mouse out under a tree near the RR tracks. They stay gone, and it's not near anyone else's house, either.

I can't stand the little buggers, but I hate killing them.

[Warpy]

3. Putting them outside to starve isn't all that humane, either

as I found out when I researched the trapping methods. Putting them outdoors in a random spot means putting them away from food sources as well as related mice who might share. Also, I live in the inner city and donating a mouse with potentially lethal diseases to somebody else's house wasn't an option.

Mice are cute little things, that's the main problem and why people hate to dispatch them to their happy hunting ground.

The zap of electricity seemed like the best way to go for me.

[Silver Gaia]

5. It depends on where you are. I doubt they'd starve here.

The mice I get are field mice anyway. They come from the empty lot across the street every time the owner bushwhacks it. Stuff they can eat grows here year round, especially in the park where I take them. There's a river canal there, too. And there are picnic tables and trash cans. Or they may become a meal for some other animal. There are lots of hawks and owls around here. Their death would at least serve a purpose that way, and that works better for me.

I wasn't trying to say I thought you should do what I do, and I certainly wasn't judging you. I'm sorry if that's what you thought. My intention was just to offer another alternative for others who might read this thread. I totally get that what I do wouldn't work for you in the inner city, but I live on the edge of the city, so this is the better option for me.

[Walk away]

6. I hate killing them but the only thing that has worked for me are the...

electric traps. They run about $20 each but they last forever, are relatively humane (as compared to other kill traps) and really work.