Mouse Control Question, Take Two

[sun_set_bravely]

Back in September, I posed this mouse control question to my LJ readers. We've since moved apartments, but we still have mice, because we live in New York City and there are always mice around.

So I have a question for the Anonymous Poster who left this response:

"These mice are animals just like your dog. You should not be cruel! These poisons can cause slow painful deaths, and have you ever seen a mouse struggling in a snap trap?

I always had success with those humane traps, that close behind the mouse so that they can be released elsewhere. Peanut butter was good for bait. I caught maybe a dozen mice in my apartment that way, and none of them got hurt. You have to check the trap daily, though, or the poor mouse will starve to death in there."

Now I love the idea of just sending the mouse outside, making sure it can't get in again, and then going on my merry way without anything dying.

HOWEVER, New York City mice appear to be smarter than most New York City residents. I have used several types of these humane traps, and every time, the mice avoid them like the plague.

Dear Anonymous Poster, what traps were you using to humanely catch these mice? Because I found a clump of mouse feces in my bird's water this morning, and last night, freak1c saw a mouse crawling around the bottom of our bird's cage, and these things are not okay. We have blocked off every possible entry into our house. I am now the Queen of Brillo-stuffing. What else can we do before we are forced to get glue traps?

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/lindalee_/]

GAH... i used to live in philly, and we had the same problem. it was... freaky. we finally surrendered and left them alone. we just tried to make sure there was absolutely NO food remnant anywhere to be found. very tough when you're living in a big house with 7 people.

with having pets, though... that's a lot tougher. i mean, you don't want the mice to get your bird sick! :(

i have no advice, except to say that we tried every damn trap available (yes, even the bad ones), and the mice were too smart for ALL of them.

[skyschemer.livejournal.com]

I generally have a big problem with anonymous posts, just because it's a passive-aggressive way of avoiding confrontation.

That being said, I am not a big fan of "humane traps". Relocating the mouse just makes them someone else's problem. If you lived in or near the country, and we're willing to take the time to drive the mouse out to some field where it can get eaten by a hawk, then maybe the humane route is the way to go. But in the city, a human trap is just moving a potentially disease-ridden rodent from one house to another.

If you have a serious mouse problem, call an exterminator. As much as I don't like the idea of poisoning mice, I like even less the idea of there being rodent droppings around my food, my pets, my wife and my friends...

[treehousegal.livejournal.com]

i didn't read the earlier entry, and i too have wrestled with killing the wee mice. (i had a hellofa mouse problem back in fall '03 if you'd like to go back and read about it.)

i too tried the little "mouse go in the box and don't come back out" kind with no luck. i could hear them laughing at me in my sleep.

so....
here is my advice. if you must kill, use the SNAP kind. the glue traps are horribly inhumane. the little mouses will scream all night and pull off their own legs as they struggle to get away---and if they're going to die in the end, just do it fast. and if you put peanutbutter on the snap kind, the can't weasle it away as easily as cheese. ugh. i'm sorry you guys have to deal with this!

[sun-set-bravely.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah -- I forgot to mention that we've tried to use the snap traps. We had one of them work, but after that, we've been waking up to find the peanut butter gone and the trap not detonated. So now we're just feeding them. I swear, they don't even leave a tip for their waitress!

As I clean up mouse poop every day, I keep hearing you say, "Those aren't chocolate sprinkles on your food!" to your old roommate. And I get a good laugh!

[nickelchief.livejournal.com]

I don't know what to tell you, except ... get a cat?

If you do decide to call an exterminator, make sure whatever goo he uses is non-toxic for Mister (or for you & CL for that matter). I called an exterminator in NYC for roaches once but didn't ask him any questions -- he left this foul-smelling goo all over the place and then warned us it was also poison for pets and children! The roaches didn't go away, and we couldn't get rid of the stuff either.

You could mail me your captured mice and I'll set them free up here in the country to be mauled by the ruthless talons of the local hawk population.

[sun-set-bravely.livejournal.com]

We considered the cat option, especially when we met a cat who needed a home in our local French epicerie. She was adorable, and snuggly, and as soon as I'd put her down after five minutes of snuggling, my face exploded into sneezes (dangerously close to the olives. Oops.). I do wish we could have one -- I'll bet that Mister and the bird would all get along with the cat, right???

I'll be sending the mice up your way via Amtrak. They will be carrying tiny little suitcases with sandwiches. We will recreate "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse."

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

For the record, I obtained my cat after the Great Mouse Infestation of '02. When mice ran by, she lay there, crossed her paws, and observed them. There are no guarantees with the beasts unless you've witnessed their killing instinct!

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

I hate to say it, but in my extensive experience, city mice are smart and tough and if you get too compassionate they will overrun your entire house before you can say "rodent incest." In our house they simply enlarged the holes packed with steel wool, gnawed straight through Tupperware full of oats, and often snatched bits of peanut butter off the snap traps with agility. You need to have your landlord call an exterminator or do it yourself (I don't know the laws there). If you have mice, your neighbors have mice.

We tried the humane traps, the snap traps, and D-Con (the latter of which is a waste of time as, our exterminator told us, they just breed SuperMice - city mice are already pumped up on generations of resistance). The problem with the humane traps is that unless you drive the mice far far away, they just come back. They breed quickly and unfortunately they carry disease - feces on your counter, birdcage, floor are all bad news. An open dish of birdseed is very enticing to a mouse though and it will be really hard to drive them out with that there. I don't know if Merrill eats at regular times or if he grazes, or if you can train birds to eat all in one sitting, or how that goes - I refer that to the bird-owners here.

A final thought - I prefer snap traps to glue traps if only because hearing a mouse cry on a glue trap is, to me, one of the most awful awful things I've ever heard. If you are more hard hearted than me, I salute you.

I'm sorry you're dealing with this and I hope the mice find happier hunting grounds elsewhere!