I've just caught a mouse... (Humane Traps)

[23 Daves]

I woke up this morning and went into the kitchen to wash up my cereal bowl, only to discover a cheeky (and rather fat) mouse scuttling around by the washing machine trying to clear up the bits of cornflakes I'd accidentally spilt.  

Now, there's a problem here.  I do have a certain amount of affection for mice, but my parents house got mouse-infested years ago, and I hate poisoning them, and most especially using those bloody nasty "nail through the head" spring traps some people favour.  

With this in mind, I nipped out to get some glue traps, and amazingly, I've just caught the fella (he came out again, and I shooshed him into the direction of the trap, and he lay there squeaking at me frantically).  Trouble is, the traps come with no instructions.  They just tell you to despose of the mouse "humanely".

The first bloody problem is getting the rodent off the trap.  It was stuck rigid, and I had to prise it away from the glue with the handle end of a fork, in the process nearly breaking the poor sod's legs (which were really skinny and frail).  Plus, in its panic it kept climbing back on to the glue, which was no help, and it seems to be panting in sheer terror at the moment.

There has to be a better way of doing things than this - does anyone have any recommendations?  I've struck up a sort-of relationship with the rodent now due to our communal struggle, but sadly the wife won't let me keep him as a pet, so I'm going to have to nip over to the Lea Valley downs and let him go in a minute.

[Lee]

There's a great little documentary out at the moment called 'Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Wererabbit', which heavily deals with the issues of humane rodent capture. I suggest you watch it intently.

Sorry. ;)

[levitica]

I always just chase the mouse, throw one of those see through chinese cartons over it and then slide some card underneath.  Mouse can then be easily let go of.  They can also be moved to a safe place, fed ham and be made to dance and look cute for my amusement.  Ahh.

[TraceyQ]

Taking him out to the countryside is usually what the makers of the traps mean by "humane". Probably best to do that.

[butnut]

But he's a town mouse - he'll get beaten up by all the countryside alliance mice in the fields.

[Almost Yearly]

We used an old fashioned cartoon spring jobby last year. Very quick and probably more humane than releasing them to the predators with glue on their feet. Nah it was a horrid thing actually, seeing him with the bar across the back of his neck, poor little cute black eyes looking up at us. His mouth had nearly reached the cheese and was open in expectation, which made us laugh, but it wasn't a nice laugh, we felt bad. For some reason Ms Yearly had been convinced that cheese wouldn't do it.

[ccab]

If you switch on the gas oven and leave the door open for a few hours, stand outside and flick a cigarette stump through your letterbox, you can stun them well enough to be able to gather them up and remove them to a new home.

[George]

Ebay.

[TraceyQ]

I knew it. Either "Ebay" or "fuck it and eat it"

[Munday's Chylde]

I turned a cog wheel which caused a boot to kick over a bucket containing a silver ball which rolled down some stairs, down a slide and knocked a black ball off a walkway, through a plastic bathtub onto a seesaw catapaulting a 'strong man' diver into a small barrel which in turn released a red cage from the roof which then descended on to the mouse.

Hope this helps.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

There's a great little documentary out at the moment called 'Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Wererabbit', which heavily deals with the issues of humane rodent capture.

Pah!  That film's nothing but a load of liberal propaganda.

[Tre]

On the subject of little animal things, I helped save a Hedgehog yestorday - I felt quite proud.

[zozman]

I knew it. Either "Ebay" or "fuck it and eat it"

I'm just astonished that nobodies suggested pissing through its letterbox.  And scarpering.

[23 Daves]

Anyone who is interested may like to know that I have since released the mouse into the countryside - he ran under a pile of leaves.  Sadly, though, I had to really coax him out of the container I'd been keeping him in, because I left him some Turkish Delight to keep him quiet, and he was very loathe to leave the tasty treat behind.

I haven't caught or heard any more since, so I'm wondering if he's just a one-off who got in from the market, or if there are others.  The man in the local hardware store complained that he couldn't get new mouse traps in fast enough at the moment - they're all coming in from outdoors (the market area of Walthamstow) to set up camp in people's houses at the moment, apparently.

[greencalx]

They reproduce every fortnight, apparently, so if you've got one you've got a whole family.  I had a chap called Dave round to sort mine out.

[All Surrogate]

Use a milk bottle.

[George]

fuck it and eat it.

[sproggy]

fuck it and eat it.

That breaks the monotony of shoving them up your arse then does it George? ;-)

[Suttonpubcrawl]

fuck it and eat it.

Only do that if it looks like Grahan Norton though.

[menguin]

I never had mice in the house before I got cats.  They tend to bring them inside with the intention of playing with them but somehow get bored or distracted very quickly.  I haven't tried any of the traps, humane or not, but might have to invest in some for next time.  Up till now I've just tried to corner them and scoop them up using a tea towel or just quickly picked them up by the base of their tail-but I can't count the number of hours I've spent 'mouse hunting'.

You can always try the spring traps next time-this catches them in a little compartment so they can be released quickly and without sticky feet.  It presumably reduces the stress to the little fella too.  

http://www.livetrap.com/shop/product_shots/cat_shots/101c.jpg

However well done on your successful capture and release

[George]

I'd consider calling a humane pest controller

Only do that if it looks like Grahan Norton though.

Seconded. The preparation for a dive is always a tense time.

[difbrook]

most important thing if the litlle fella (with the assistance of a female mouse of the opposite sex, obviously) has spawned Squeak:The Next Generation is to make sure there's nothing around that they can feed off. They tend also to be incontinent, so if you think you have mice in residence clean every work surface you can reach. Just in case.

I was plagued with mice in my flat for months at the beginning of the year (and I'm not assuming that the little buggers have gone yet, either). I used to buy bread at the supermarket and not having a breadbin, used to leave the bag sitting out on the worktop. I soon discovered I'd come home from work and find there were little holes in the side of the bag and mousey tooth-marks in the bottom of the loaf.

make sure all your food is kept in a high cupboard, and keep all your work surfaces completely crumb free. If you have a bin in the kitchen, either empty it regularly or make sure it's got a heavy lid on it that they can't get into. Sounds like obvious advice, but it was only since I started doing simple stuff like this that they got bored and drifted off to someone else's flat (of course, fate being what it is, I'll doubtless get one back in the flat tonight).

had a battle royale with the last one, as it got bolder and bolder, and started to squeak defiantly everytime I went into the other room. I'd run back into the kitchen, not find anything and then he'd go "neek" again when my back was turned.

Eventually he got himself trapped in a corner behind the microwave. As he struggled for freedom by attempting to climb out, I lobbed a scrubbing brush at him, which caught him a glancing blow and stunned him. He sat there shaking his little whiskery head for a few moments and was unceremoniously scooped into an old storage jar I had lying around.

I then hurtled out into the Edinburgh night, wearing nothing but a pair of old jeans, with the intent to release him in a garden several streets away. Ran straight past a young woman who studies at the university I work at, and I'm sure the sight of a half naked librarian running down the street, cackling maniacally with a half-awake mouse in a storage jar is something that has driven her into years of expensive therapy.

Coincidentally, I also ran past a very interested looking street-cat (you know the type, scraggly, eyes like the pits of hell, and the attitude that says they'll take on anything up to and including the size of a baby elephant and either screw it or kill it. Or both). Maybe there's a connection between that and the reduced rodent presence.

[Almost Yearly]

They reproduce every fortnight, apparently, so if you've got one you've got a whole family.

I assumed the same, but  - perhaps oddly, I don't know - we only had the one. We'd been hearing him scratching about for a while, and you could tell it was only one then.

[Lee]

There's a great little documentary out at the moment called 'Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Wererabbit', which heavily deals with the issues of humane rodent capture.

Pah!  That film's nothing but a load of liberal propaganda.

...that'll explain the Aardman fire then.

[slim]

I turned a cog wheel which caused a boot to kick over a bucket containing a silver ball which rolled down some stairs, down a slide and knocked a black ball off a walkway, through a plastic bathtub onto a seesaw catapaulting a 'strong man' diver into a small barrel which in turn released a red cage from the roof which then descended on to the mouse.

Hope this helps.

Hurray! Never leave again.

[23 Daves]

They reproduce every fortnight, apparently, so if you've got one you've got a whole family.

I assumed the same, but  - perhaps oddly, I don't know - we only had the one. We'd been hearing him scratching about for a while, and you could tell it was only one then.

Apparently they do sometimes drift away from their bases to explore other territories, so yes, it's quite possible there could just be the one mouse.  I'm pretty sure it was just the one yesterday morning, and I haven't seen any fresh evidence or heard anything much since - we're meticulously clean at the moment anyhow, because downstairs have a serious cockroach problem and they do tend to drift up here through the floorboards quite a bit if we leave sides unwiped or plates unwashed.

To be frank, the people downstairs are absolutely rank and I wouldn't be terribly surprised if this was their mouse as well, doing a bit of inter-floor wandering.  

I don't have a humane cockroach trap though - I just stamp on the fuckers and spray them with Raid.  Loathsome things.

[Dark Sky]

Hope this helps.

You owe me a new ribcage.  

We used to have some poison trap things at home, but we had to stop using them after my sister got sick of witnessing mice in their death throws spazzing out outside her bedroom in the middle of the night.

Not really related at all in any way, but just today I had not one but TWO grasshoppers bounce into my room and land on my work and on my knee respectively.  Though it may have been the same one, I dunno.  Never seen a grasshopper before so I was a bit scared that it might hop into my eye and blind me.  Luckily I could do the ol' trick of letting it crawl onto a piece of paper which you then shake vigorously out of the window until it falls off.

I guess they might have been crickets.  I dunno.

[My Giddy Aunt]

peanut butter.

[Huzzie]

We seem to have a hamster infestation problem each year at about this time, we haven't seen any yet though so touch wodd they are leaving us alone for a winter.

Normally, we leave them a nest of some kind last year it was a leather cover for an amplifiar, screwed up which they soon found a home in. The good thing about this was it makes their hamstering around very loud, so we can hear when they are about and also, we can easily pick up the "nest" and dispose of it outside somewhere. Of course, you need to stick the "nest" somewhere close to where you think the hamsters/mice/rabbits/rats/whatever are coming in from.

[Cerys]

Hamsters...?

We get resident mice every year, as the cats bring them in and then lose them; but we always manage to relocate them and release them back into the community.  Or else the cats relocate them and play with them until they break.  There were two threads on the previous incarnation of the boards dealing with our rodent-related shenanigans (ooer) - including the invasion of my person by a particularly cheeky and resourceful mouse.