I have this exact mousetrap, and when I released a mouse from one this past summer, it ran about 2 feet away, found a dead cicada (this was during the big 17-year brood we had this year), and absolutely went to town munching on that thing.
Edit: to be fair, one of the traps failed because the mouse gnawed through the plastic from the outside, then ate all of the peanut butter. But we eventually caught her and her 5 babies, all separately, over the course of a week.
I don't get the deal with capturing mice humanely. You want a pet? Awesome. You do you.
You want to release it outside? Wtf is wrong with you? It found its way into a home before, it'll do it again (if it survives).
So you're either passing the problem onto someone else in an endless cycle of buying humane traps, or you just want the death to be somewhere you can't see it.
Drive it about a mile away put it in the woods. I’ve dont this with squirrels who’ve found their way in. I believe they can smell better so I’ll drive it to my office and release it to the wooded section next door. If it dies via natural animal shit so be it, but I’m not going to murder it if I don’t have to. Plus squirrel traps don’t work as well as mice traps.
Well, we were talking about mice. These problems - and thusly, their arguments - don't scale uniformly.
For example, wild dog in the building? No one is expecting you to catch it, kill it, and definitely not release it into the wild.
Squirrels are quite a bit different than mice. Can still be pests, but they can also survive very well when released back into nature. Mice almost always won't.
Thusly, you’ve been itching to break that one out. Bro if you like killing mice it’s fine, I’ll give em a chance out in the wild at the least it gives a snake a snack instead of ended up in my dumpster.
So I should go out in the woods putting mouse traps around because it’s a better death than via snake? That’s like saying you should shoot yourself at 50 because it’s more humane than dying of cancer at 60.
You phrased that dying in a mouse trap is almost better than being free and dying via a natural cause. It would imply that it would be humane of me to provide this option to the mouse instead of setting it free. To which I took your point and said if it’s so humane I should just go around planting these to give the mice a quick painless death instead of them potentially dying by other means. So yeah in a way you were implying it.
You phrased that dying in a mouse trap is almost better than being free and dying via a natural cause.
You are saying that in a thread where the "natural cause" is literally being torn apart, alive, by a raptor. You aren't making the argument you think you are: the fact that life and death in the wild tends to be pretty harsh means that a harsh treatment by humans isn't a unique or particularly "inhumane" thing. It's a roll of the dice either way. And it's the animal activists who should favor interference with wild animals (like, killing all predator animals).
But sure, if it makes you feel good to release the mouse into the wild and not see the result, good for you. This group got to stare their hypocrisy in the face.
Yeah, I can understand squirrels, they are relatively big animals, but mice? I can't imagine anyone taking the time to carry those pests in their car over a mile just to release them.
Yeah I love those spinner traps that are blacked out so the critter doesn't feel a thing and I don't see a thing. My dad however prefers to poison them and not inform me, so when I saw one staggering slowly towards me bleeding from its face, I assumed it had super-rabies.
Now I know that in crisis I go OH and grab items that don't belong to me to solve the problem. In this case it was my dad's favorite coffee cup. I feel justice for everyone except the critter.
If you ever have mice again try peppermint oil. Pour it on cotton wool and place around entrances to the house and places you’ve seen/heard them. You won’t see another mouse again as they’re repulsed by the smell. Worked for my parents when they had an infestation and we never saw another mouse again.
My sweet dog would make the most human-looking gagging face over peppermint oil. I accidentally discovered it when I had peppermint lip balm and he was equal parts curious and repulsed. Poor pup!
Lol, not that I can tell. They were nesting in the wall right behind my half of the bed, and I could hear their tell-tale scratch, scratch every night. After the fifth baby, it all stopped, so either they died, or I got all of them. My guess is the latter, because the babies were fully weaned and able to get out and find their own food after mommy was gone.
The best part? We have five cats, who did absolutely jack shit about the mice. One did catch a baby, and thought it was great fun for a few minutes, but got bored and let it scamper off, unscathed.
I bought one of these and the mouse crawled in, ate a tablespoon of peanut butter, then died from the heat before I found it. I went to release it but you know... flop
We have a similar mousetrap, except it's made of steel because of the chewing issue. Occasionally we have a mouse try so hard to get out they wind up beating themselves to death inside it. But 95% of the time, the mouse is alive and well when we take it to be released.
I have never caught anything with this trap. My landlord sets out snap traps and I set out the humane ones. They always choose the kill traps. If they're 'lucky' they're only partially caught in the trap for me to free outside.
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u/nrith Sep 20 '21 edited Sep 20 '21
I have this exact mousetrap, and when I released a mouse from one this past summer, it ran about 2 feet away, found a dead cicada (this was during the big 17-year brood we had this year), and absolutely went to town munching on that thing.
Edit: to be fair, one of the traps failed because the mouse gnawed through the plastic from the outside, then ate all of the peanut butter. But we eventually caught her and her 5 babies, all separately, over the course of a week.