# What to do with two trapped mice

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-two-trapped-mice/439585>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 29, 2008, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-two-trapped-mice/439585 "2008-02-29T01:28:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![masterofnone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@masterofnone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/masterofnone)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2008, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-two-trapped-mice/439585/61 "2008-03-05T17:58:09Z")

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[QUOTE=Maastricht]  
Wait…these were all mice nesting in a car or in motor equipment _that hadn’t been used for some time_?  
[/QUOTE]

Nope. I was using the 4-wheeler 6 days a week while clearing land to build my house. I’d start the engine, they’d scatter. I’d pull off the seat and remove the nest. When I got done working I’d shut it down. Repeat for 3 -4 months. The 3-week old car had been driven every single day since we bought it, and my wife drove the car that they nested in the blower 5 days a week to work. The weather in that case had been mild, so the blower it self had not been used in a week or two, but the car had moved.

The only way I’ve been able to keep their numbers down is with repeating bucket traps to drown them in areas where our outside cat can’t get to them, like my sheds. My house is as close to mouse-proof as I could possibly get it, and I have seen no sign of them inside. I’m working on mouse proofing + insulating one of my sheds, so that I can just use the other for stuff mice can’t damage.

In my experience, unless you’re a complete slob, food access is not the issue. They will nest anywhere it is dry, and love to chew on plastic, rubber, or almost anything else - even copper wire. They have eaten gas lines and wiring on lots of my outdoor power equipment in storage, where no food source was present.

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**Author:** ![masterofnone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@masterofnone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/masterofnone)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2008, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-two-trapped-mice/439585/62 "2008-03-05T18:34:25Z")

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Too late to edit, but here is a thread in which **Athena** and I describe two types of repeating bucket traps (posts 9 and 25 respectively).

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=451484&highlight=mice+bucket](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=451484&highlight=mice+bucket)

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**Author:** ![Von\_Erich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@Von\_Erich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Von_Erich)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2008, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-two-trapped-mice/439585/63 "2008-03-10T19:39:14Z")

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[QUOTE=Argent Towers]  
Jesus! I hope you’re joking. You should either take them out to the yard and shoot them, or smash them. If you can’t bring yourself to smash them by hand, you could put them beneath the tire of your car and then drive over them. Giving them electricity seems kind of unnecessary.  
[/QUOTE]

Of course I was joking. These mice were at my work, not my home. The glue traps were used because that is what the owner of the business I work for wanted me to use. The mice were put out of their misery with a cinder block.

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**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2008, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-two-trapped-mice/439585/64 "2008-03-14T01:09:12Z")

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#1 Don’t use glue traps

#2 If you have a small injured animal in the throughs of death, put it in a plastic bag, use all your Babe Ruth strength, and Wack it with a shovel. Twice.

Sometimes hard to do. But fast and humane.

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