EEEK A MOUSE !

[Ldychef2k]

Okay, you ladies who butcher your own meat are going to be laughing your heads off at me, and I will stand tall and take it. BUT...I have a mouse in my house. I know, because a bag of bird seed which I left on the counter was open and scattered, and all the sunflower seeds were stripped and empty.

So. Beings that I am a total girl and do not want to put a trap out that will snap his poor widdle neck, any ideas for how I can get him out? I have an entire room filled with dehydrated foodstuffs and other staples. So far, no gnawed holes in boxes, but it will happen if I don't get this guy out.

Creative ideas for the weenie girl?

Kris

 

[valmom]

Snapping his poor little neck is the fastest, most humane way to get rid of mice. They are all trying to come in for the winter already up here. Our Jack Russells take care of anything that gets inside upstairs, but our basement/garage can get over run.

Just don't get those awful sticky traps- the animal is glued to it and you still have to kill it.

 

[patandchickens]

I second the snap-trap. It's really really fast and pretty reliable.

However, if you want him alive (although, what are you going to DO with him then? I'm not sure that dumping him a coupla miles away in the middle of nowhere is particularly kind...) you can buy any of a variety of live traps. Many of which more or less work. Most of the decent ones are in the $20 range.

You can TRY trapping him in a tall trashcan or wastebucket by putting something very yummy in the bottom, or by affixing something across it to serve as an axle and mounting an empty popcan (hole punched in bottom to thread onto axle) right in the middle with peanutbutter smeared around its 'waist', so that when the mouse tightropewalks out on the axle to get to the peanutbutter and then steps onto the can the can will spin and dump the mouse into the trashcan. If you have a deep enough container to prevent the mouse jumping out (and they can jump a couple feet sometimes) and very gullible mice, it works. The lethal version is to put 6" water in the trashcan; but I think a snap trap is a more humane way to go.

Still, in the final analysis, what are you going to DO with the mouse? It is not a Beatrix Potter world out there, and a mouse chucked out of the car into a likely looking field a few miles from your house is not apt to meet a pleasant (or swift) fate. And if you let it out any closer, it'll be baaaaack.

One thing that helps VASTLY is to be religious about storing anything interesting to mice in a mouseproof container. So, get a plastic (or, much better, galvanized) trashcan for that bird feed, and put kitchen dry goods in mouseproof jars and tins, and you will not be chumming up mice in the first place. Er, as much

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Henrietta23]

I have used the cube traps with success. I'm not against snapping their necks but it freaks my son out some. The cubes are smoke color plastic with a door that swings in. You rub some peanut butter on the door and wipe it off so only the scent remains. Then you bait it with something yummy stuck to the floor at the back stuck in more peanut butter. I set them at night and check first thing in the morning so they're not in there suffocating and dehydrating.
I have used the trash can method inadvertently. Had a plastic trash can that stored bird seed. Squirrels nawed through the top so DH moved it into the garage. A mouse fell in and couldn't get back out. Had to toss the seed because the mouse had made a mess in there. :/
Unfortunately my cats are the least humane way to deal with mice. They torture them playing with them. It's horrible!

 

[Dace]

I suggest snap trap...they are cheap, quick and efficient.

 

[Ldychef2k]

I am a horrible person.

I am not as concerned about the humane ways as I am about how I am going to have to deal with the remains. I would never use the sticky traps, but the snap traps mean i have to TOUCH it. (Please feel free to roll your eyes in disgust at the big old chicken.)

The bag of seed was small, only about a quart for the bird feeder. I am thinking the deep trash can thing might work. But what then?

This is frustrating.

Oh, I know. I could keep feeding it in the trash can until my SIL can take care of it. I knew I could find a cheater's way out.

Yuck.

 

[Henrietta23]

These are the mice cubes:
http://www.amazon.com/Mice-Cube-Pk-Reusable-Humane/dp/B000WB13QC
My DH takes them to the woods on his way to school and releases them. No touching (I'm with you on that one-if he weren't here to deal with the snap traps I couldn't do it. My father is totally rodent -phobic and I seem to have inherited some of that!)

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Touchless mouse traps - work like clothespins.
You set them, then when they're caught, you can dispose without having to touch the remains. If that helps
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000X7XQA6...e=asn&creative=380341&creativeASIN=B000X7XQA6

 

[patandchickens]

I am not as concerned about the humane ways as I am about how I am going to have to deal with the remains. I would never use the sticky traps, but the snap traps mean i have to TOUCH it.

Oh, that's not a problem. Just throw the whole snap trap out if you want, mouse and all. They frankly do not reuse all that well IME -- hard to catch a second mouse in a trap, and I'm not sure I've ever caught a third in the same trap. I think you never really get the smell of dead mouse out of the wood base, and other mice can tell...

They only cost like a dollar apiece, or less, so it's not such a profligate waste of money

Good luck,

Pat

 

[2dream]

You can come get my Momma. She will dispatch that thing in short order for you. I had one in the house about a week ago. She walked out of the bathroom and there it was. Just a sittin in the hall. One whack with her cane and it was history.

I am with Pat on this one. I throw the whole trap away.
I buy cheap traps at the dollar store and just dispose of the whole thing. (But then again, they are setting all over the storage shed, the chicken feed storage area and the shop). They may not get checked but once a week or so. Who wants to touch all that?
And I don't have a squeamish bone in my body.