And those poopers probably keep fucking in your closet as well.
The results from removing a mouse from a glue trap is a live peeling. Somebody else decided to try this. I use a snap trap. I won’t use a glue trap unless the bubonic plague comes around. Glue traps should trap the fleas too.
While getting ready for the flood, Ive run across mice mummies lately in the wood stacks.
It improves the problem somewhat, but not always 100%. There doesn’t even have to be food, per se. I have a cardboard box in my garage with various items stored in it. I saw a mouse fly out of there the other day, so apparently there is a nest in there. They nest wherever they can. This includes under the hood of my car in the air filter. I have found bird seed and other messes that mice have made in there.
You wait until you have a huge bill to fix your car when the mice have eaten through the wiring! I use snap traps baited with peanut butter and toss them and don’t give it a second thought. Those things are pests and no more!
Take off and nuke them from orbit.
It’s the only way to be sure.
That begs the question of what to do with the tide of mutant roaches.
This tends to imply that cats are humane when killing mice, a proposition my experience suggests is more than a bit dubious.
Snap traps are a necessary evil in my book, I’ve got nothing against those. It’s just glue traps that are sickening to me.
Critters gnawing at wiring is indeed a serious problem, not just because of the costs, but also for safety. That makes it all the more important to determine what critter exactly does the damage and how best to deter it, by killing it or otherwise. In that battle, all we have going for us against their gnawing little rodent teeth and their speed of breeding, is our brainy knowledge of their ways. 
So, while I’m sure that mice take the opportunity to nest in your garage, as that will be warmer and more sheltered in winter then outside, I wonder if mice are also responsable for the gnawing at the wires under your hood.
In my experience, mice have permanent nests, and as there is neither food nor opportunity for permanent nesting in cars, they just don’t go there.
If you had gnawed wires in your home, wires that were in walls and other undisturbed places, wires unprotected by wals, hard plastic or metal piping, AND you had mice nests in nearby, then yes, I’d point to mice as the guilty party.
When it comes to cars, however, mice are a less likely suspect. In Europe, most gnawing at car wires is done by various species of marten, which are larger, weasellike rodents. They are mostly solitary, and a one-night stay under a still warm car hood is more up their alley. You might be spending effort in catching and killing mice, that do nothing worse then damaging your cardboard boxes, while you let the real wire-gnawer run free!
This article, by a car mechanic, discusses the various creatures that may be found under car-hoods, and how to deter them best.
Good luck!
Dubious indeed, a cat playing with mice is cruel, but even then, it is a matter of an hour at most. Not hours or days, as with glue traps.
But the larger value of a cat is that a cat acts as a natural deterrent. A patrolling cat, the smell of predator in the house, will make it far more likely that the whole mice population will move away.
A cat chases away more mice then you ever might hope to catch with dozens of snap-traps.
Can’t you borrow somebody’s cat, dog (of the mouser variety) or ferret for a week?
I don’t argue your logic and knowledge one bit. The car wiring nibbling was info from my car guy.
If my car was parking anywhere other than where it is, which is inside an attached garage with the outer doors closed unless we are entering or leaving, within village limits, I would say you could be right, that it is another animal. When I was growing up and living on a farm, a cat crawled under the hood of the truck for a nice warm nap. Until I started the truck. Gruesome.
Didn’t read all the posts, but I noticed if you search the page for the word “microwave” nothing comes up. And thats after 50 posts. Does no one else watch aqua teen?
In my experience, mice will nest in a 4-wheeler and eat through $400 worth of wiring harnesses. Judging by the mice that jumped out when I started the engine, I’m pretty sure it was mouse damage.
Also in my experience, mice will nest in the blower of a car heater. I’m pretty sure it was mice in this case also, judging by the remains of the one that was too slow to get out of the way when the blower started.
Also in my experience, mice will nest in the trunk of a 3 week old car that is driven daily. I’m pretty sure they were mice also, seing as it was mice that ran all over the place when you opened the trunk.
No mercy for the little bastards.
Maastricht, I first have to say I appreciate the way you laid out your vehement disagreement with me in such a respectful tone. I do understand what you’re saying, but the comparisons you make – to pets, to loved ones – doesn’t work for me.
Mice (and roaches) are vermin, to me, capable of spreading germs and disease. I try very hard to keep them both to a minimum, but living in the inner city in a multi-dwelling apartment building, it’s hard. I (mostly) keep food sealed up, sweep/wipe up spills, etc. I’ve given up on getting my absentee landlord to provide extermination for the entire building, as in doing it in a systemic, wholesale way, so I take it upon myself.
I do that by using glue trips and poison pellets. I don’t really like to use pellets because I’m afaid they’ll die in the walls or behind something where I can’t get to them. I use glue traps in dark but easy-to-get-to corners.
Having said all that, given the fact that releasing them isn’t viable and that they will die anyway, I will consider your recommendation to consider snap traps. A cat is not an option for me at the moment either, even a borrowed one. Thanks for your reasoned response to me and for providing me with food for thought.
Mice build nests in cars and other vehicles routinly, and do a lot of damage. It also is wonderful to have to use a defroster that is blowing mouse pee, or feces laden with disease into the air. To make it worse is when one dies in the ductwork. Two favorite spots for mice are the air cleaner, and the heater core compartment.
Two? Had there been three, I’d have suggested cutting off their tails with a carving knife.
I couldn’t have said it better myself Maastricht
The simple fact is, mice are living breathing creatures too. Yes we consider them vermin, but they do have a purpose on earth just like everything else does. We may not like them and we may need to get rid of them, but we really should do it in a humane fashion. Glue strips are the same as paw traps, both should be banned IMHO. Anything that doesn’t kill the intended animal in a timely fashion is just cruel.
The cat issue is a whole different matter. Cats are the mouse’s natural enemy and who am I to say they should kill them faster?
Wait…these were all mice nesting in a car or in motor equipment that hadn’t been used for some time?
I do understand the idea of pests; when it comes to fleas, I don’t show mercy either, though even then prevention is better then killing. 
But I know too much of the biology of social mammals, such as mice to be able to tell myself that mice fall in the same category as fleas.
That made my day. Thank you for your open mind.
Which you’d promptly make into mouse tail soup.
I used to have a big mouse problem in my apartment. After a while it was getting to the point where we were catching 3 mice a day. For a while we were using glue traps, but this created two problems. #1 was that I would often find traps completely covered with fur, but with no mouse. #2 was that one of my roommates at the time had huge objections to killing mice, even if they were vermin who were messing up our kitchen and destroying our pantry, and if HE found a trapped mouse, he would take it outside with a thick glove and attempt to free it. The problem is that mice are not only stupid and won’t learn their lesson, but have an instinct which helps them find their way back home, so every mouse he released would be returned to the vermin pool.
In short, the best way to deal with a caught mouse in a glue trap is to kill it. If you don’t, you aren’t solving your vermin problem. Do it fast with a hammer or shoe, or take the time to experiment if you’re feeling sinister (I AM an animal lover, but this mouse invasion was pissing me off so much that I felt like taking it out on them a couple of times the slow way…after all, THEY started it!). If you can’t handle killing the mouse, then you have to be ready to handle living with them.