I pit people using rat poison unnecessarily. (Mercy killing of mouse)

The BBQ Pit
101

I don’t disagree with you which is why I’ve used humane traps or quick kill traps in the past.

The one time I had to use poison I used a Warfarin product. It’s not totally safe but as a first generation poison it has a much lower risk of secondary poisoning.

So, my point wasn’t about the validity of using poison, it was about the stupidity of bewailing death by anticoagulant as being so horrid. Compared to way the average mouse checks out its not too bad.

The vast majority of living creatures in this world don’t get a choice as to how to die but I bet if they did they would rank it the following way:

  1. In the arms of a lusty mating partner
  2. quick , painless, unstressed
    .
    .
    .
    . thirst with discomfort and stroke (Warfarin)
    .
    .disease (typical mouse death)
    .
    .starvation (typical mouse death)
    .
    .
    .limbs ripped off by a predator (typical mouse death)*
    .
    .
    .
    Last. Dying any way while being forced to listen to Jules27 and Scumpup insult each other
  • OK they don’t all lose limbs but you get the death by violent predator part, right?
102

I’ll take that under advisement.

On second thought, fuck 'em. Whatever gets rid of them is OK by me.

103

For several years we tried all the “humane” methods - we put food in rodent proof containers, sealed cracks, etc. Problem is, when the whether got cold the little beasties didn’t care if there was food in the house or not, it was WARM! We got tired of having our stuff destroyed, of finding nests, and so forth. There was the morning I went in the bathroom to take a shower and stepped on a mouse - yes, they had become that accustomed to living with us they no longer ran away as promptly as they should.

We tried snap traps - which usually but did not always work. Sometimes they figured a way to steal the bait. Sometimes it didn’t come down on their head but on a limb, leading to a bleeding, screaming mouse dragging itself and the trap around while we frantically tried to catch it. Also, the little buggers will turn cannibal, apparently.

We tried glue traps but didn’t like the struggling/noise so we had to dispatch any caught. And we still had the problem of partial captures desperately trying to flee with a trap attached to them.

For awhile we had two-three parrots that became mousers which helped, except there was no way they could keep up with the rodent masses. Because we have birds getting a cat is not an option.

Finally, we went to poison. It has been the ONLY thing to really keep this problem under control. On the rare occasion we find a mouse in the open in distress we dispatch it immediately, but for the most part we no longer have nesting, sounds of mouse activity at night, destroyed possessions, mouse shit piles in odd corners, or the rest of it. Sorry about that, mice. I don’t have anything against them, but I refuse to have them in MY nest and, as noted, the problem isn’t so much food as available warmth and shelter in my residence.

On the rare occasion we have caught an animal in the house live and unharmed we have released it unharmed. So far that’s several deermice, a vole, two bats, and a squirrel. We have not yet succeeded in capturing a Mus musculus unharmed.

It’s not like we get our jollies hurting small creatures. It’s not like we didn’t try alternatives. It’s not like we don’t care about secondary poisoing - we do, and we don’t want it to happen, and try to minimize the risk. Poison is really what worked for the mouse problem, though.

104

I live in a farm house that stood empty for more than a year before I bought it. The prior occupants left everything (food, etc) and simply left. So, I’ve dealt with a rodent infestation that was bad enough that if you cleaned the mouse droppings from a silverware drawer, there would be new droppings within days. This was true of all cabinets, drawers, furniture, you name it.

I have a Jack Russel Terrier who is my number one defense, but because of her, I can’t use poisons and am not keen on other traps. My second line of defense are two cats who consume a mouse in less than two minutes (they are on their own to hunt their own food, so it is serious business for them). Between these three, there was no way they were ever going to overcome the population.

What finally worked for me was cedar chips (the stuff you buy as pet bedding). The mice I have will not go into any drawer, shelf, etc where there are cedar chips. So I have sachets all over my house and chips thrown down under cabinets and behind furniture and anywhere that I’ve seen evidence of mice. When I pull stuff out to do a ‘good cleaning’ I throw out the old chips and put in new ones.

Now, the only time I see a mouse inside the house is when the cat has carried it in to eat indoors. Unfortunately, a lot of times they like to jump up on my desk and eat in front of me. So, I’m still working out how to convince them to eat their meals outside where they’ve found them.

105

nm

106

At least finish them off. “Shoot to wound” gives hunters a bad name.

107

I was going to point this out. Really, the mice want to stay in the house and there is no nice polite way to convince them to leave. Any method of pest control has the potential to lead to lingering, unpleasant death. So, what would people like Jules27 have us do? Just live with the little buggers? I get the feeling he’s never dealt with a real infestation, just like the OP.

108

Google Ad:
Death With Dignity.

109

I’m curious how the OP could be confident that the mouse she was picking up was not rabid, instead of poisoned. Maastricht, I do hope you weren’t bitten at all.

110

No rabies in The Netherlands.

111

Had a young squirrel in my house. Solid hit in the temple, 500+ FPS with a BB. Nothing. Hard jab in the ribs with the end of a 2x2. Nothing. Wife wouldn’t let the Little Girls perform their life’s work because she was afraid it would claw up their faces and this was their first time with anything bigger than a mouse. Daughter finally caught it and released it by the bike trail. Next day I saw it (distinctive coloring) in the middle of the street, taunting drivers to try to kill it, saying, “You don’t scare me. I survived dropzone’s house.”

Lesson: Arboreal mammals are tough so they can fall out of trees with no damage. Fortunately, rats and mice aren’t nearly so tough.

112

Mice are cute…when they’re outside. Inside my house, they’d better be dead. Fortunately most of the time, they’re in the basement – it’s been rare that they’ve been upstairs. (The worst was the time one of my cats decided to bring a live one into my room in the middle of the night)

They carry disease, they chew things up, and I don’t want them in my house. I’ve got six cats, so I’m not too worried about it.

They do it because they’re animals and it’s instinct. Nature isn’t pretty.

113

Small rodents do not carry rabies.

From the Centers for Disease Control.

http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/exposure/animals/other.html

114

Want 'em dead fast and painless? Zap them.

115

Some snakes will only eat live food – they won’t eat anything that’s been pre-killed.
Look, if I find a live mouse in my house, I’ll try and catch it and put it outside. I have no desire to hack the thing to death, nor do I want it running around the house. (The traps are in the basement) However, I’m not going to shed a tear if one of my cats happen to get it.

(Well, as long as they don’t bring it into my room in the middle of the night – alive. At 2am. Thanks a lot, Maggie.)

116

Mice. Wonderful. They will eat damn near anything. There was the lady that had a 3 day old car. Car would not start. Damn mouse ate through the positive battery cable, no start. Lady was not upset that she had to pay, she was upset that we would make a car with stuff that mice eat. Umm, lady mice and rats will eat everything but concrete, and concrete is not very good to build a car out of.
Or the cars that I have seen that have had multi-thousand dollars in repairs for mouse infestations. The largest $ charge I have seen was $11K, but before I got there they had a $17,000 dollar repair for mouse damage.
I know of one XC-90 Volvo that was totalled by the insurance company as the repair outstriped the actual value of the vehicle.
Do you think any of the people that had to pay for these repairs think mice are cute little animals?
Every single one of them is now a firm believer in nuke them from orbit, it is the only way to be sure.
Not to mention the Hanta virus, and the plague.

117

But they’re just like humans really…and they didn’t ask to come into this world as mice…and what you’re proposing is just cruel. How can you live with yourself???
:smiley:

118

Actually the winter that the 11K mouse repair came in, I was considering swapping out the WD-40 in the shop for butter flavored Pam, and the silicone sealant for peanut butter in an effort to boost business.*

*for the humor impaired, that was a joke.

119

Shoot the fucker in the head, and it squeaks and goes between the logs it was standing on when I shot it, I can barely see it, when I go to the other side and look, and it runs and hides somewhere in the wood-pile. Yeah, right. I’m going to go digging through that wood-pile to finish it off. If you want to, you’re welcome to come here, and move the wood for me. I’ve wanted that shit gone since last year. Me? I’m going to let the fucker crawl off to die. Fuck 'em. It ain’t “hunting”, it’s “pest control”.

120

I was feeling a little disgusted with myself for reading this entire trainwreck of a thread, until I came across this post. Then I felt entirely disgusted with myself. Thanks for the world’s most annoying earworm, dude!

For the record, I am a soft-hearted animal lover, and I have used poison on mice. Because they’re vermin. They eat everything. They piss everywhere. They carry diseases. They’re destructive. Sure, they’re sorta cute, but I don’t want them in my house.* And yes, if I find one that is dying from exposure to poison, I’ll flush it to reduce its suffering. But I’m not losing any sleep over the poor widdle meeces.

*With four children at home, two still in diapers, I have all of the ravenous, destructive, incontinent, cute disease vectors I need, thanks.