What would PETA do?

[Elok]

It's winter, and we have mice. We have four cats, but we have mice--little black ones that hide in the downstairs pantry closet where there's a plentiful supply of food and the cats can't get to them. The filthy little bastards leave their turds scattered over everything. So today we got a half-dozen mousetraps, and we're setting them. But I wonder: is this Ethical Treatment of Animals? Do we have the right to kill innocent animals just looking for food, even if they do have no notion of hygiene or ownership and tend to spread disease?

What about agricultural pests? Every mouse that goes after stored grain, and every worm that tries to eat corn off the stalk, is supposed to get a very nasty death. How are the deaths of animals killed to keep them from defiling our food morally different from the deaths of animals we eat directly?

What would PETA do? My guess is that, confronted with mice in his pantry, the average PETA member goes ahead and orders special nonlethal traps to catch them alive, then air-mails them to Mexico where a special PETA program releases them in the backyards of poor fruit-pickers. The average PETA member, mind you. The more practical ones probably just go ahead and off the little freaks, but make an offering of dandelion wine to the Mother Goddess after the fact as propitiation for the death of her beloved child Pantryshitter. The most hardcore members probably just eat the turds ("nature's meat"). I'm no expert, but that's my guess.

What would PETA do?

[OzzyKP]

Three ideas (not that you seem to seriously be looking for them):

1. Non-lethal traps (as you mentioned). Something to capture the critters so you can release them in a field somewhere else.
2. Seal up all the holes in the house, especially the pantry. This should be obvious regardless of what you do. Steel wool in small holes can do the trick. Otherwise more permanent solutions to seal holes and cracks are needed.
3. Sonic mouse repellents. My gf uses several in her place after she had a mouse (she is terrified of them) and hasn't had an issue since. This is a different brand, but same general concept: http://www.victorpest.com/advice/all...-of-repellents

And if nothing else, don't get glue traps. Those are far less humane than simple snap traps.

[KrazyHorse]

Kill the ****ers. Get a bunch of snap traps. One good trick is to put two of them end-to-end (so like [.....][.....]) in a narrow passageway (like the width of the trap) that you've found mouse turds in. They'll jump over the first one and hit the second. You can also create narrow passageways in high-traffic areas by arranging boxes or other obstacles to funnel them into the trap. Also, use mouse bait on the traps. And check/reset them regularly. I would avoid the poison if you have pets (especially cats; you don't want them eating poisoned mice).

By "a bunch of snap traps" I mean at least 10 per 1000 square feet you want to cover. The biggest mistake people make is to skimp on the number of snap traps. The traps are cheap. You can get them for ~1$ each. Since they're small mice you just need the small, cheap ones. Not the big ones for rats.

[KrazyHorse]

By the way, you definitely want to make sure your cats can't get at the traps. They're powerful enough to break bones in their paws.

[DaShi]

The first step is to mouse proof your house. Seal holes as Ozzy says. Keep food where they can't get at it: sealed containers. Keep your garbage in sealed bins. Remove potential breeding areas: piles of clothes in the basement and such.

This alone dealt with about 90% of my mouse problems when I had them. I think part of it was that my neighbors weren't so clean, so the mice spent more time with them.

I tried the sonic repellents with moderate success. I still found signs of the mouse when I would return home after work.

They never ate my mouse poison, but oddly they got into my ant poison. Although, at least one mouse died in my walls because my bathroom reeked for about a week from it.

I finally got the last one with a trap baited with peanut butter. It was one of those trapped with the little hole they have to go it to get the bait. This is a fairly big mouse, so he had snapped the first trap without getting caught, but the other one got him and broke his neck. After that, I never had any signs of mice since.

[GePap]

Glue traps might be evil, but they are so effecitve at creating a good kill zone. During a single biblical scale infestation I caught at least a dozen and a half of the suckers with glue traps. And if you are heartless enough, picking them up and throwing them away somewhere were death is guaranteed is no problem.

And as stated before, using steel wool to plug up cracks works well.

[SlowwHand]

Why don't you just make a little mouse house for them?

[Elok]

We've caught two already. One died clean, but the other was trapped by a leg and wiggled around until stomped. Good thing I opened the door to check on progress or the wretched thing would be thrashing still. I was going to ask if baitless traps using chemical scent-lures work, but it would seem they do.

I'll suggest the steel wool when the infestation dies down enough and we go to de-mouse-turd-ify the pantry. We'll have to remove everything anyway...

[DaShi]

Best to clean the pantry as soon as possible. Mice won't stay some place where there isn't food and nesting. Get rid of all the food they've gotten into already. And keep everything else out of reach. I used to keep my stuff on top of the refridgerator, but, in truth, I think they could have gotten up there, if they really tried.

I discovered that mice really like yogurt and will go nuts for your discarded containers. I used to make it a habit of washing some of my garbage before throwing it away so the scent would be gone.

Also, if your neighbors live close by, go visit them and leave crumbs and such all over their house. That way the mice will go over there.

[Nikolai]

Don't mind PETA, it's not like they have much intelligent to offer anyway.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by Elok
It's winter, and we have mice.
...
What would PETA do?

They'd get the Ultra Rat Zapper 2008 Deluxe Edition. Works like a charm. Do not use poison. not only are your pets to be considered, but dead rat in hard to get to place is also a problem.

[DaShi]

I choose the poison after I read how horrible it is for them. Bastards pooped all over my silverware.

[Elok]

Yes, I had similar sentiments. I wondered if it were possible to design a spring-loaded mouse guillotine. Then I remembered that the guillotine was meant to be humane. If it weren't for the stink I'd say decapitate one of the two we caught and stick its little head on a toothpick as a warning to the others.

[Jon Miller]

I have only had one mouse twice, despite having a very filthy kitchen (in MD) and a pretty messy house currently (not all my fault, the carpet needs replaced, and when they were redoing things they didn't seal the floor and walls).

JM.

[Jon Miller]

I just used a snap trap, worked like a charm.

One time we had mice at a lab I was at (in undergrad), we caught one with peanut butter and a waste paper basket and let it go far away...

JM

[Space05us]

As others have said remove what the mice want and seal up the holes. Even with traps you're only removing/killing a fraction of the total population.

Or you could set up a temple.

[snoopy369]

Simple solution: let the cats into the pantry

[Wezil]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Simple solution: let the cats into the pantry

Talk about half measures!

Clearly the only solution if you are serious about this is to remove all food from the household. Permanently.

[Deity Dude]

My mother-in-law owns a cottage in a rural setting. My son was playing with his BB gun and shot a squirrel. My mother-in-law gave him a huge lecture that the only legitimate reason to kill an animal was for food. If he ever shot another animal with his BB gun he would have to eat it for dinner. Not more than 5 minutes later a mouse ran through the living room of the cottage and she freaked out, picked a broom that she had just been sweeping the kitchen with before her lecture began and swatted the mouse. Needless to say my son asked his grandmother how she was preparing the mouse for dinner.

[Elok]

Had an interview today. Took some time to find my suit, before I realized it was in my sister-in-law's closet for some reason. Got dressed in a hurry and rushed out the door. Five minutes down the road, I happened to glance at my right arm, said "WHAT THE--?"

My right jacket sleeve looked as though it had been attacked by a bulldog. It ended in a ragged edge at the elbow. Thank God I noticed in the car. I'd have hated to hold out my hand to shake and have the guy ask what the hell happened. As it is I left the jacket in the car and said there was a mishap at the dry cleaners.

That was a Perry Ellis suit. I was lucky to get it in my size on clearance. I'm a hard size to get (tall and skinny).

Little bastards. Now it's war.

[Jon Miller]

Are you sure that your sister-in-law doesn't have some interesting life you don't know about?

JM

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Simple solution: let the cats into the pantry

That was might first thought.

[Lefty Scaevola]

We had a filed mouse plague at a hunting lease about 40 years ago, bought a dozen traps. In one weekend in our cabin 71 mice bit the crank in the traps, and I personally dealt for 3 in foot to mouse combat.

[Zkribbler]

.

[Winston]

Originally posted by Deity Dude
My mother-in-law owns a cottage in a rural setting. My son was playing with his BB gun and shot a squirrel. My mother-in-law gave him a huge lecture that the only legitimate reason to kill an animal was for food. If he ever shot another animal with his BB gun he would have to eat it for dinner. Not more than 5 minutes later a mouse ran through the living room of the cottage and she freaked out, picked a broom that she had just been sweeping the kitchen with before her lecture began and swatted the mouse. Needless to say my son asked his grandmother how she was preparing the mouse for dinner.

He-he.

[The Mad Monk]

I would make a broth.

[Boris Godunov]

I was slightly traumatized by a mouse caught in a glue trap when I was in NYC. The apartment building management had laid them out in the hallways, and one day I came home from work and heard this horrific squealing. A mouse (or, more accurately a rat I guess) was stuck along its entire left side, even its head. I got three plastic grocery bags, put the poor thing inside them and then beat it to death with a hammer.

While I know snap traps can lead to prolonged suffering as well, I much prefer them, since they are least more likely to cause instant death.

[DaShi]

You should have performed a cervical dislocation rather than clubbing it with a hammer.