nerelas wrote: the glue can be dissolved with alcohol, which is a good method for extricating your pets as well

Alcohol can also dissolve a lot of problems, although it can cause others, when consumed by humans.....

Mike B.

Agreed. Considering the damage the mice could cause to the house, and the (admittedly slight) possibility that they could transmit a disease to my two young boys, I quickly got over the queasiness which their desperate bleating evokes. I suppose the humane thing to do would be to crush them and end their misery, but I've brought myself to the point where I consider them enemy hostiles and just toss the whole trap, live mice and all, into the trash receptacle (which I keep outside the garage).

Another thing that I was resistant to learning, but which became abundantly clear after our first mouse extermination campaign, was that if you've actually seen two mice, it means there are at least 10.

JohnGaunt wrote:And that's why a discharging a real gun is either a good idea or a very, very bad idea.  I think I'll stick with gluing my mailbox back on and having a shotgun as backup in case they want to do more than beat my mailbox.

Take better advantage of the Castle Law.

If your mailbox is right next to the curb, move it back a few feet. That way, when you shoot them (while they are in the progress of vandalising your mailbox), you'd be absolutely sure that they're on your property.

Ask your post office though if it's ok to move it from its current location, especially if they deliver directly from their vehicle (as opposed to a walking carrier).

Then it's just a matter of a gun you'd be comfortable shooting with...  

nerelas wrote:
Yeah, they unfortunately live for a few days in the trap before dying (presumably of thirst). When more have joined the first, and there's not much room left, that's when I throw it out. Whatever, it is kind of gross...though I've never really seen the new ones try to eat the old ones; I think it's more of a social thing (responding to the call for help). I've had pet hamsters, though, that have gone cannibal in a remarkably short period of time (like 2 days) without food.

I'm so glad I don't have any pets at the moment <sigh>.

Honestly, the only times I have ever seen the glue traps used, the mice caught in them didnt die of starvation, thirst, or being cannibalized by their kin.  They died from trying to escape the trap.  They pulled so hard that they either ripped off their own skin or pulled one of their limbs off and bled to death.  Pretty sickening, especially since I witnessed one of them trying to escape once.  Seeing any animal suffer, even vermin such as mice or rats, just isnt my thing.

I once worked at a Target store that was across from a construction site where they were building a new restaurant.  During the construction a whole slew of mice infiltrated the stockroom and built several nests by burrowing into boxes of birdseed and pet food.  It got so bad that they almost had to shut the store down.  I remember pulling a box of litter boxes off of a high shelf and losing my balance.  The box tipped back towards me and a dozen or so mice plus half of their nest (including droppings!) came tumbling out of the box on top of my head.  I fell about six or seven feet off the ladder and jumped up and down for ten or fifteen seconds to make sure all of the mice and crap were off of me.  The damn things had chewed a hole in the side of the bottom of the box and nested there.  We ended up having to go through all of the boxes in the stockroom to check them for nests after that.

They brought in professionals and they put poison and glue traps all around the stockroom.  The glue traps worked but again it was pretty sick and a lot of people that worked there didnt like the way in which they worked.  The poison traps were a lot more effective but the main problem with poison is that the mouse doesnt die immediately and goes off to die where you cant find him.  Then later you smell the decomposing body but cant get to it because its in a wall or some other crevice.  Traditional traps can be a pain having to reload them but they are very effective, kill instantaneously, and you always know where they are.

lucyjoyce wrote:Florida 45  Oklahoma 35

Is that billions of mice?  

Thanks for the mouse stories and tips.  I need to buy more mousetraps and let them kill themselves.  The alternative is to let the following scenario play out:

- the mice have (more) babies
- the baby mice grow up, go to college, and find their own houses
- parent mice retire and move to Florida
- I am left with a house full of shredded paper and mouse crap

In addition, the dryer vent and water pipes are easy openings into the house.  Gotta get Brillo pads and spray-foam and seal them up.  Or give them BadMike's address and some cab fare.  

And now for something totally different --- my Star Wars and Shatterzone books have made a successful escape attempt from their sealed cardboard prison:

MERCHANDISE IS MISSING. UPS WILL NOTIFY THE SENDER WITH ADDITIONAL DETAILS. / ALL MERCHANDISE MISSING, EMPTY CARTON WAS DISCARDED. UPS WILL NOTIFY THE SENDER WITH DETAILS OF THE DAMAGE

Poisoning mice is a bad way to go. Not only do their droppings contain the poison, which can lead to food and water contamination, but you also run the risk of the mice ingesting enough poison to become poison carriers, but not enough to kill them. If another animal kills and eats it, the animal gets affected.
This is why the bald eagle almost got wiped out. People used DDT liberally as a pesticide. It washed into the lakes and ponds, and the smaller life forms ingested it. It went up the food chain until larger fish such as trout and salmon began to have high concentrations, which was transferred to the eagles. The eagles themselves didn't die, but their eggshells were so thin that the eggs would break merely from being sat upon by the mother.
My solution? I have three cats. One is a mouse killer; he'd murder hundreds every day if he could. Saves me a ton on food. I also have (not by choice) a 5' Honduran milk snake wandering the basement, walls and attic. On the occasions I've recaptured her, she has been almost fat. I haven't seen a live mouse in 6 months.

Deadlord39 wrote:Poisoning mice is a bad way to go. Not only do their droppings contain the poison, which can lead to food and water contamination, but you also run the risk of the mice ingesting enough poison to become poison carriers, but not enough to kill them. If another animal kills and eats it, the animal gets affected.
This is why the bald eagle almost got wiped out. People used DDT liberally as a pesticide. It washed into the lakes and ponds, and the smaller life forms ingested it. It went up the food chain until larger fish such as trout and salmon began to have high concentrations, which was transferred to the eagles. The eagles themselves didn't die, but their eggshells were so thin that the eggs would break merely from being sat upon by the mother.
My solution? I have three cats. One is a mouse killer; he'd murder hundreds every day if he could. Saves me a ton on food. I also have (not by choice) a 5' Honduran milk snake wandering the basement, walls and attic. On the occasions I've recaptured her, she has been almost fat. I haven't seen a live mouse in 6 months.

Kinda boggles the mind what one seemingly insignificant thing can do to an entire ecosystem.     I once knew a guy that was an avid hunter.  The only problem was he was the type of hunter that shot animals just for the sake of killing them.  He once bragged about shooting several large predatory birds on the farm land which he owned.  I dont know how many or exactly which kind of bird but the words 'Eagle' and 'Owl' popped up in the conversation.  He was a total prick so it wouldnt have surprised me much if he was telling the truth.  If he would have thought just for a minute what the consequences of killing birds like that could have been he might not have done it.  Birds like that die and the snake population isnt held in check.  And the next time he is out looking for something to shoot he gets bit in the leg by an 8' long Western Diamondback rattlesnake.  

Deadlord39 wrote:Poisoning mice is a bad way to go. Not only do their droppings contain the poison, which can lead to food and water contamination, but you also run the risk of the mice ingesting enough poison to become poison carriers, but not enough to kill them. If another animal kills and eats it, the animal gets affected.

I hadn't thought of that.  I have heard coyotes near my house and seen a hawk on my roof, and I have no desire to poison them.  And leaving poison or traps outside the house would likely affect the rabbits, doves, and the roadrunner(s).

Ah, well.  The new mousetraps that I bought have a short metal clip instead of the standard flat-plastic trigger.  The new traps don't work for crap, judging by the crap around the trap.  

It's nice to see Radovarl is back again using yet another ID. Some people, I'll tell ya.