# Traumatised!



## AyJay658 (Jan 15, 2012)

My housemates set some mouse snap traps for the little wild mouse that has been eating their food (not mine because the cupboards aren't falling apart on my side!). They used the ones they found already in the house called The Big Cheese Mouse Traps. I have encountered these before. They are cheap, plastic and when you put your finger in them, they do not hurt one bit. So I told my housemates that there is no way the power of that will kill a mouse, it will just trap it and let it suffer. They didn't listen. Well today I went into the kitchen and heard some scuttling. I thought maybe it was the wild mouse helping himself to a snack...Well I was right on one count. The poor little thing had gotten his head stuck in the trap (which should guarantee death if they were any good) but was alive and kicking. Well as I knew the mouse would just be caught again in the same way a few days later so I decided to get one of my house mates to kill him (I couldn't face it myself). But surprise surprise they are all out!! So I had to get the landlord to do it. I felt so sorry to let him die like that and now I am wondering if it was the right decision. I couldn't have set him free and I couldn't have kept him in a cage (not fair for the poor thing when its been a wild mouse) but I still feel guilty for sending him to his death =(


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## tinyhartmouseries (Dec 30, 2010)

I think you made a hard but humane decision-he could have been somewhat injured from the trap or could have been starving. It's ok to keep wild mice out of your home and our pantries, we do have that right as fellow creatures especially when wild mice can bother our own pets and spread parasites and pregnancies to them.
I am sorry you had to go through it, there are surely more reliable mousetraps out there for cheap, I hope you convice the roomates to change them out.


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## bethmccallister (Mar 5, 2010)

I agree on all accounts. I use snap traps to protect my mice, I seem to get wild ones regularly in the winter months. It's just one of those things in life we'd rather not have to do at all.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

I don;t like seeing any animal suffer, but one does have to set reasonable priorities. Wild mice are a hazard whether or not you keep pet or fancy mousies, so whatever measures are taken are justified as long as those measures are not intentionally inhumane.


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## AyJay658 (Jan 15, 2012)

I didn't give my housemates much of a choice about the traps! I chucked them and if we get any more, they can buy decent ones. This is a real life we are talking about and there is no need to make it suffer any more than necessary. I was slightly worried that I might get him in my room due to all the mouse food on the floor! But I saw no sign of him so hopefully my mice are safe! I am sure his appetite was much more in tune to stealing yummy pasta and crisps than mouse pellets! I am a little less traumatized now and thank you for your kind words =)


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

It's hardly ever just one wildie; if you see one, there are a probably a couple of dozen scurrying around behind the base boards. This is why I have adopted strict rules for cleaning in the mousery area so there's not a crumb of food left to attract them. They have to risk going downstairs, where my kitties are always on guard, if they want to grab a snack.

The mousery floor gets swept or vacuumed every night, and I have my tanks on shelving units with wheels to make it easier to do a good job at that.


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## AyJay658 (Jan 15, 2012)

I hoovered yesterday :lol: There is a door to the staircase so I am not sure if they could get past that. And the there is my bedroom door of course. Well we shall just have to wait and see. There is no way I am letting them use cheap traps though.


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

You can try a bucket trap. There's videos on how to make them on youtube. I don't really like the ones where they put water in the bottom, and drown the mice. . . but an empty bucket makes a great repeating trap.


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## Laigaie (Mar 7, 2011)

Live box traps are also quite effective, so long as they're checked regularly, and if you have cats, they can't get in as easily as with a bucket trap.


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

Oh yeah, cats and bucket traps don't mix. :lol:


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

The bucket trap is almost a gimme; it happens by accident anywhere you have an open trash bin that includes food waste. Once a mousie gets to know a food source, they always return. That's how I trapped Skreech, the chocolate addict. She couldn't resist the traces of chocolates on some wrappers, and dived straight in to a bin empty but for a couple of unwrapped chunks of dark chocolate. Loudest darn mousie I have ever heard!! She came completely unhinged when she realized she was trapped.

Like all the tiny furry criminals round here, she was transported to the region of the compost bins out back, there to fend for herself in great outback of our yard.


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## AyJay658 (Jan 15, 2012)

I would love to live trap them and set them free several miles away, unfortunately I cannot drive and I highly doubt my housemates would fancy spending any money at all on a *pest* (my quote marks are broken!). When I have my own house it will be cats all the way! And live traps if my cats end up being super lazy :lol:


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