Hey, PM me if you’ve got a surplus of gooey brownies and nobody to share them.
I had excellent results with the clamshell snap traps. I must admit I went a little overboard in my preparations, though: I dabbed some sticky rice on the release, then stuck the thing into an empty Triscuit box that was laid on its narrow side so there was only one way to approach the trap that was deep inside. Then I dabbed some more cooked rice on the flap of the box and trailed a bit more rice out away from it.
Sure enough, the mouse followed the trail to the box, munched on the bigger pile of rice, then headed inside for the big payload. I heard the trap snap during the night so in the morning I just closed up the box and threw it away (though I was just slightly tempted to toss it in the paper & cardboard recycle bin) without looking inside.
Doesn’t match my experience, at least with rats. I have some traps in my attic that I check infrequently due to the hassle. I set up a bunch of traps in a small area. The last time I cleaned them out, I found three dead rats within a few inches of each other.
Christ, yes. The most recent one screamed for about 15 minutes until it died. It was a snap trap but had somehow just caught the hind legs. Didn’t really have the means of putting it out of its misery, so I had to leave it. Ugh.
Traps may have been around for 500 years, but how many sub-populations of mice have had traps be a significant cause of death for even part of that period?
Even today we only trap a tiny portion of the habitats of mus musculus, so I highly doubt it’s ever been a significant factor in mouse evolution anywhere.
The trap was on bare drywall in the attic. A heavy thing would have smashed a hole into my bedroom.
To get into the attic at all requires standing on top of a tippy ladder and then doing a bar dip to pull myself into the space. Lifting a bucket of water up there is… not easy.
I probably could have worked something out if it had gone on for much longer. But I think I plugged the hole, so hopefully I won’t have to deal with it again…
And you should know! But yeah, peabo all the way, worked into the crevices in the trigger.
I will repeat what I learned about glue traps: vegetable oil dissolves the glue instantly. Carry the still-living mouse and trap to your neighbor’s yard and pour on some oil. Mickey will fall free and spend some time licking off the yummy oil before scampering into neighbor’s house.
And if you need to perform a mercy killing, like if your horrid dogs left you a present of a mouse licked naked, pick it up with a plastic grocery bag and sling it against the wall. Or teach your only daughter without an “Oh, ick!” reflex that important life skill. But the Little Girls no longer suffer a rodent to live; their last squirrel took too long to catch so Thisbe killed it for an extra five minutes; I don’t know how much was left. New dog betrayed his sheepherding roots with his own “Oh, ick!” reaction. Too small to scare coyotes, but foxes may recognize the low woof of someone bred to kill them.
Traps are “cruel” by definition, we’re trying to kill them, after all. I don’t like critters to suffer needlessly, but they need to stay outside. Poison has problems too, as pets can get into it.
A paper plate works good for a mercy killing device.
Fold the plate in half. (plate taco)
Scoop up the mouse (and glue or spring trap if necessary)
Turn plate so the contents slide to the bottom of the plate taco.
Take outside and lay plate taco on its side.
Step on it quickly. Repeat this step a few times.
But yeah, peabo all the way, worked into the crevices in the trigger.