to not bother using a humane mouse trap?

[Flojobunny]

No I'm not being serious but I've got a mouse loose about my house and the bastard thing has eaten through my rivetas that I was saving for a saturday eve treat instead of chocolate and I've chewed through the kids cheerios and pasta and savoury rice and cake mix

[Montybojangles]

Why would you need a sticky trap? The humane one I used had a kind of seesaw door, so once in it just couldn't get back out, no need to stck the poor thing to the floor.

[Bubblegum78]

We used humane mouse traps and they don't work.

We bought a pair from our local hardware store for about £4. Put the bait in (we usesd chocolate) and BAM! It snaps down on their heads!

Mwahahahahaha!

Got rid of 6 of the buggers in a week. winks

[TapirBackRider]

The only decent thing about having mice is that they get rid of any and all spiders in your house - unfortuately counterbalanced by the mice pissing over everything they walk across and being germy little fuckers.

Not had mice in a while, but still have a trap at the main 'highway' into the house (can't get to the hole) and it's baited with chocolate.

[SchroSawMargeryDaw]

"My husband ending up killing it by squeezing it to death with the end of a broom handle"

[Whatsdoneisdoneisdone]

I caught one in a humane trap.
It died, presumably of a heart attack, after wetting itself a million times and frantically gnawing at the trap (teeth marks in the plastic). It did not seem terribly humane. When I opened it its face was frozen like the people in the film The Ring.
After that I switched to snap traps. I caught three and found it quite satisfying. Which worried me as generally I am an animal lover and gave been veggie for 26 years!

[CointreauVersial]

I didn't want to use snappy traps because I heard some horror stories about partially-trapped mice being still alive, and I don't think I could cope with that (even with a broom handle).

I doubt I'll be killing any owls, as I don't imagine my loft-dwelling mice ever venture outside.

[Twattybollocks]

I've caught many a mouse in the spring traps and never found anything even warm the next day let alone still alive.

[ratbagcatbag]

We had one alive one, but it snapped at two am and heard it dragging the trap around :( DH dispatched it with a small wooden hand brush.

[insancerre]

I don't mind mice. I just don't want them in my house. Which is why we used the poison.
The only drawback is that they die and stink the house out for a couple of weeks.

[austenozzy]

We've got three cats so we don't have mice in here. But they do occasionally catch various types of rodents in the farm next door or fields around us, bring them in and let them go while still alive!

Then they crawl into a tight space, die, and I have to get on my hands and knees and find them. The smell is really something else.

We had one once that found its way into the swing lid bin we use to keep dog food in. I didn't spot him in there for a few days, and he died. He was a fat little bastard when I hooked him out - must've gorged on the dog food and died happy!

[EndoplasmicReticulum]

I don't know if this is true - but I read somewhere that if you use a humane trap and deport the mouse they are likely to starve to death as you put them out of their territory.

Get a cat? (not very humane, but should get rid of the mice!)

[EspressoMonkey]

Best tip i have been given is to put a blob of Nutella in a bit of old tights and stick that on the trap. They get their teeth caught in the tights and then snap.

Worst mouse story: My friend was renovating her house and they had vermin. She put her baby down for an afternoon nap and when she woke him up an hour later a rat/mouse had gnawed on his sleep suit cuff where there was some left over lunch. Make me feel sick just thinking of it.

[DumSpiroSpero]

YANBU - old fashioned spring loaded traps with a chunk of chocolate are the best - quick, effective and you don't have to worry about furry bodies rotting under the floorboards.

My most memorable encounter with a mouse was finding a dead one in my footwell after driving 10 miles to visit my parents. Whether it was already dead or whether I flattened it with the clutch pedal I'll never know .

[BambieO]

Please don't use glue traps. I naively didnt think what they would entail when our next door neighbour had a rat and when we put a glue trap a small mouse for caught and I cried for hours because it was so horrific. It was dying slowly all it's limbs were broken, I have it some water and food and my husband had to end it's life because it was obviously in so much pain.

It was one of the saddest things I have seen. I still feel dreadful and tell everyone not to ever consider them.

[BambieO]

*got not for

[BambieO]

Oh and *gave not have - I give up

[Rooneyisalwaysmoaning]

Oh gosh Bambie I am so sorry for what you went through, I can imagine how awful that must have been. I'd have cried buckets too.

I felt so sad with the mouse we caught last week, but I know it was quick, at least - I was wondering if he ever got to taste the chocolate spread before he died poor little mite.
But leaving them in the house doesn't work - they eat through cables and all sorts of things, it can cause fires and so on. And sticky traps clearly aren't the answer, and humane ones are a bit hit and miss. So what do you do?

I think a bit like with rats and terriers, a cat if it's an effectual one is probably the best and most natural solution. Ours did bring in a dead baby rat once, but she never catches mice in the house.

[Pixel]

We've only ever had one and if it wasn't for the possible cable chewing/firestarting scenario I'd have left him be, he was so cute! He vanished after many nights of emptying my traps (snappy and humane) of peanut butter so I think the cat must have finally got him. I'm thinking that by then he was too fat to run away .

[feralgirl]

YANBU about the mouse but YABU to have ryvita as a treat

wrt poison, I had a mouse that the cats very thoughtfully set loose in the house and it completely refused the humane trap so I poisoned it. It spent a whole day sat on the hearth twitching and I have never felt so guilty. I obviously couldn't take it outside and leave it as I was afraid a cat, badger or fox would eat it and get poisoned. The only think I could think of to do was put it in a carrier bag and hit it with a spade. I still shudder to think of it

I once found a dessicated dead mouse in our 'clean' laundry basket and another one welded on to the front of our rayburn

[Nigglenaggle]

Humane traps arent so humane, more a squeemish trap. As others have said unless you move the critter miles away he/she will just come back in, and by moving them from their territory they are likely to starve and otherwise be outcompeted to death.

Poison is really unforgiveable on welfare grounds - they bleed to death slowly over 2 weeks. Not humane and should be banned.

The traditional snap traps are often quite good actually - normally it gets them in the middle of the head and death must be pretty quick - maybe bait it with rivitas ;P

What I really recommend though, is a good cat - we get lots of mice in but none of them make 24hrs. She is far too greedy to play with them, straight down the throat :D

[Nigglenaggle]

Haha and ditto to feral about the rivitas :P

[psynl]

We used traditional spring traps to catch our mice which were effective. One morning though, we put the toaster on to be greeted by a horrible burning hair smell. Electrocuted / burnt mouse was not what I wanted for breakfast!

[Dominodonkey]

What a lot of disgusting cruel people there are on mumsnet - I really don't see why you can't buy the humane ones and set them free.

Mumsnetters find the idea of a tap on a child's hand for bad behaviour absolutely horrifying but it's perfectly fine to torture animals to death.

[LessMissAbs]

When mice start making a mess in my (old, rural) house, I use rat traps to ensure a clean kill. They're bigger and more powerful. I use chocolate as bait. Ideally you don't want them to bleed a lot which means they died straight away. I will live with a few mice, but when they get bad I take action.

I heard of some people using "humane" mouse traps and simply throwing them in the rubbish with the mouse still in them! Also, a house mice is likely to freeze to death if released into the outdoors at this time of year!

[BambieO]

domino I know it makes me sound incredibly dense but I genuinely didnt relise what a glue trap entailed, I thought you could take them off and release them.

I did and still do feel disgusted with myself and will never forget that poor mouse.

I didn't mean for it to happen, I just didnt do enough research. I didn't mean to be cruel.