The Best Humane Mouse Traps and How to Use Them, According to Experts
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The Best Humane Mouse Traps and How to Use Them, According to Experts
8 humane mouse traps and 2 DIY solutions to rid your home of mice, with tips on how to use them from experts in the field..
Both experts we consulted agree that glue traps are terrible. But, before you bait and set your live capture Mouse Hotel, John Griffin Senior Director of Urban Wildlife Programs at the Humane Society has some important caveats. “The exact same thing can happen with live catch traps as with glue traps if you’re not monitoring them or if you wait too long [more than 6 to 12 hours]. Animals can die in them and it’s the same kind of inhumane death.” Griffin recommends traps made of clear plastic for easier check ins. “There’s a clear green plastic trap that’s good and you can actually see the mouse in there.”
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This mouse trap was designed for easy catching and even easier releasing: just pull the tab up on the front and wave goodbye. But Sarah Preston, associate director of PETA’s animal cruelty investigation department, has a warning about where you release your mice. “A lot of people think that they should go out in the woods somewhere. But for mice who have lived their entire lives in the city, that’s pretty much a death warrant. They’re not going to know where to find food, water, and shelter, and they could be mauled in territorial disputes with other animals. Let them go about a block from where they were trapped; if there’s a park nearby, that would be the perfect place.”
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This baby blue trap lets you easily see your mouse and release it without much drama. Its trapdoor system is also more effective than other humane traps with hinged ramps.
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If you want a clearer picture of who you’re dealing with, the fully clear plastic Mice Cube is your best bet.
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If, on the other hand, you’d rather not see your tiny houseguests, Victor’s Catch & Hold trap will allow you to check for mice without freaking yourself out by seeing too much of them. However, something to consider if you’re thinking about purchasing these traps: Preston says that multi-catch traps can “result in stress, fights, and even cannibalization among the rodents who are caught together.” So if you’re using these (as I did in my own apartment), you’ll want to check them even more frequently.
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Or, to be 100 percent certain you’re not catching more than one mouse in a trap, you could opt for the all-black Tomcat Single Catch Trap, which lets you trap one mouse at a time without seeing it. Griffin likes this trap for its ease of use. “For user-friendliness, Tomcat has one that’s pretty simple, easy to set, and easy to release.”
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Hopefully you’re just dealing with a cute family of mice. But Griffin, who stressed the environmental impact of poisoning both mice and rats, “If they are eaten by another animal like a coyote, a fox or even an owl that animal can be impacted through secondary poisoning”, has trap advice for bigger rodents as well. “For rodents larger than field mice or house mice, you can use what’s called a Sherman trap. It’s an all metal enclosed box which folds up. You could use one for a black rat or a roof rat which are the same thing.”
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To increase your chances of humanely ridding your home of mice and other pests, Preston recommends soaking rags in regular old ammonia and placing these at suspected points of entry. “In our experience, the best product you can use to repel rodents is ammonia, which is a cleaning product that you can buy in any pharmacy or supermarket. We recommend soaking rags in ammonia and placing them in areas where mice are coming in (under the sink, in crawl spaces, in the attic). They hate the smell and they’ll evacuate quickly if you do that.”
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