Actually, few things compare with the fun of making your own traps. I once rigged up a contraption with a jar that succeeded in capturing at least one mouse. I’ve also thought that a wine bottle tipped just so, and with a layer of olive oil smeared about the throat of the bottle, would be impossible for a mouse, once in, to get out of.
However, in my case, the missus has limited patience with this kind of experimentation. That being the case, we’re a poison-and-snap-trap kind of household.
Agree with your sentiments, but I think that for a critter such as a mouse in the overpopulated-with-mice urban enviroment, life after being set free would be likely both short and brutal.
As I said, I use kill traps, but I’m fussy with the brands - some of the “easy-to-use” ones are slow and cruel. So I risk my fingers. Even assuming the mice are sentient enough, I doubt they’d even know what hit them. Rather that than death by playful cat.
FWIW, I read an article in Science magazine a few years back about a scientific study as to what is most effective as mouse bait. Gumdrops were the winner by a wide margin, followed by peanut butter. Cheese was 'way down the list.
My parents live out in the woods, on a river, and have live-trapped a number of critters in their house and on their grounds over the years. They make it a point to release the critters on the other side of the river, and it seems to work.
I knew a girl who INSISTED on putted a live trap in her boyfriends apartment as it’s so so so cruel to use the type that kill, the boyfriend agreed on the condition that she empty it when it caught mice.
Boyfriend was leaving his apartment one day for work and left a note for the girlfriend which said “Empty the trap” As he had checked and noticed quite a chubby mouse inside, and he usually checked before heading off to work.
The girlfriend of course doesnt see this note as she didnt come by the apartment as she generally did.
Long story short they get back from holiday to find the mouse had starved to death in the trap… along with it’s newborn baby.
I think mice would resort to eating their young rather than starve.
I can live with a few mice, but what of house/roof rats? I declare i could not deal with rats.
In the thread listed below, Athena (post #9) and I (post #25) describe home-made repeating bucket traps that work well. Just omit the water/antifreeze in the bottom if you want to keep the mice alive.
Check traps daily, or you’ll end up with 1 fat mouse and a bunch of skeletons. Release mice at least 5 miles from your house, as they have been shown to have excelent homing instincts. Better yet, release it immediately outside your house, and watch where it goes back in. Fill hole with steel wool + cauking, repeat until you stop catching mice inside.
Most of the year, releasing outside is humane, but once winter comes, you’re just starving the animal instead of killing it quickly. Don’t release them near someone else’s home - I’d be pissed If I saw someone releasing them near my home.
I hypothesized that the smaller mouse came in later, yet was assured there was a chubby/pregnant mouse to begin with, and two afterwards.
Now that you bring it up it is a good point to make though.
Standard traps will tend to ensure they don’t come back!
Holy shit - is that a RAT?
Okay, I confess that I snickered at this. 
Oh, and I’m in favor of the classic, kill 'em dead traps. Mice are nasty dirty little nuisances who befoul anywhere they decide to live. Cleaning mouse nests out of your car’s ventilation system is no fun at all, and then your car stinks forever. I always have at least three baited and set in my garage.
I have Tin Cat live traps. Tomorrow during daylight I will place it, baited with peanut butter coated cookies.
If I catch anything, I’ll post a photo. Wanna make odds on if/how long/how many I catch?
If it’s only one, maybe I’ll keep it and make it a mascot.
I have caught 5 mice today, and no, it’s not the same guy over and over. I’ll have to think about mouse-snapping traps, I’m afraid. The mouser cat is getting too old and the new cats don’t seem interested.
Goddess help me, I caught the/a mouse on top of the live trap, by slapping a container on top of it as it was sitting there.
And now, after spending $28 on a cage, etc. at the pet store, we have a new pet…
Congratulations.
(Can you deflea a mouse?)
I don’t know…but we’re going to be keeping it as a hand-off pet for a month or so until we are sure it’s acting healthy.
Sounds good. I hope you enjoy your new house guest!
With respect, Una, I think you need to check your definition of “humane”. It doesn’t mean not killing something, it means not causing undue suffering. Animals are routinely killed in humane ways. Killing a mouse swiftly (if brutally) is, IMO, humane. Killing a mouse using Charter Member’s girlfriend’s method is inhumane. Obviously, reasonable people can disagree on these things.
I guess the takeaway for the rest of the folks is, I caught one mouse, and I’m keeping this specific mouse because it is brave, friendly, and cute. If I catch more, I will release them because it’s unclear that keeping multiple mice is a good idea.
For anyone who cares, here are links to two pictures - they’re not great, but I had trouble taking them through the glass.
http://65.69.77.33/forums/images/Frontpage/acorn1.jpg
http://65.69.77.33/forums/images/Frontpage/acorn2.jpg
SQUEE! You have a deer mouse!
At least I’m pretty sure you do, from the photos. The deer mice have larger eyes and different build/coloration from regular house mice, and in fact are more closely related to hamsters than to house mice. They are very pretty, sleek, elegant little things-- smart too-- and they “sing” to each other in the wild. (The Peromyscus Genetic Stock Center has a lot of great info about the various deer mouse species and their ranges.)
From what I understand, deer mice naturally prefer the outdoors but will come inside if they have the opportunity for a better living spot (as distinct from house mice). Your mouse looks young enough that he may have been born inside the house.
We caught a young deer mouse (actually, I believe, a* P. leucopus*, or white-footed mouse) in our kitchen in a very similar way in the summer of 2006. His mom had ventured inside because of a very rainy summer, and had her babies under our stove. We caught and evicted the momma mouse and three babies, but left the live trap out for good measure, and caught Ne-taro (“Mouse First Son” in Japanese, a proper samurai name). He was young enough that we decided to try raising him ourselves. Although he was never really tame enough to be happy being picked up or anything like that (for that I blame not handling him enough when he was little), he got accustomed to us, and enjoyed watching us (and we him). We kept him quite happily until he escaped one day early this year-- I think he may have gotten out through the same hole under the stove, which we hadn’t patched very effectively. 
A note of warning: deer mice are potential carriers of hantavirus, depending on where you live, so please do some investigating and factor that into your decisions. We live in a region where it is not endemic (Northern VA) so we decided to press on-- but you may want to check with your local Fish and Wildlife department to get the full story in your area.
If you do decide to keep him as a pet, check out here (awesome baby pictures!) and here for advice and tips, and here for a Flickr set about a wonderful rescued baby deer mouse named Stu.
Sometime down the road, you may want to consider getting your mouse a “friend” eventually. We and other folks have had some luck keeping deer mice and domestic (house) mice together: they generally get along very well, and can’t interbreed. We ended up adopting a trio of lady mice from a local rescue, and (after an initial few days of nervousness on both sides) Ne-taro ended up totally smitten with one of the ladies, Allie, and vice-versa. They slept together, ate together, and were pretty much inseparable.
I don’t claim to be an expert, but we did really enjoy the unexpected addition of our little guy into our lives, and I’d be happy to try to respond to any questions/concerns you might have (and the above-linked Deer Mouse Ranch page has a great message board that can provide better information than I can).
Good luck with your new little friend, and may he be as good a companion as Ne-taro was to us. I miss him.
ETA: our guy liked to 1) chew, and 2) climb-- so it would be a good idea to make sure the enclosure you are using is amenable to both. We found a Martin’s Cage to be a good solution.
