Sticky traps don't work

[Imzadi]

I now have at least 2 mice running around my garage with half of their hair gone.

Yes, when I was living temporarily in a house across the street from another house doing construction, they dug up rat holes that caused the rats to find a new home in MY house.

My landlady called a BUG exterminator. BUGS are even in the same classifications of living things as RATS. Apparently they did not know how to get rid of rats. For $200, they set out large sticky glue traps with peanut butter on it. One night, one got stuck on it, and by morning, it pulled itself off the glue trap and all that was left was a bunch of fur. AND it knew to avoid the rest of the traps after that.

Those sticky traps are basically Brazilian bikini waxes for rats & mice.

I'm not a fan of any mouse trap killing but atleast use a quick kill one instead of one that will have them die a slow painful death.

FYI: I spoke to a Health Department expert and he said if I ever found a rat/mouse on a glue trap, to dump the trap into a bucket of water and drown it quickly.

I thought, NO WAY! What? I use a loooong pair of tongs to pick up the trap with the rat struggling on it. It knows now it's about to die. So it has an extra adrenaline surge to work it's way off as I have a hold of the trap and runs up the tongs and up my ARM??? EEEEEEEEKKKK!

 

[Callie]

They love peanut butter! My mom use to use one that kept them alive. We caught so many mice! I think she dumped them in the trash can? Not sure how humane that way.

One decided to chew a hole in the lid of vegetable oil...and go in! He drowned to death. My mom says it was the nastiest thing she has ever seen in her life! She tried to get her aunt to remove it from the house.

 

[Enchanted Minnie]

How could they not work? We use the rat size sticky traps all the time because we have a bit of a snake problem in our laundry room. We catch mice and small and larger snakes with them.

I think I would burn down my house and move somewhere else if I had a snake problem!!! They terrify me!

We got a few mice in our garage and used the snap traps and the live traps. We have an arroyo behind our house we could dump the live ones in and they couldn't climb up.

We've actually had a lot of rain recently here and with the rain more flies, brings more rodents, then more snakes! Ugh why does it have to be snakes!!!!!

 

[cobright]

I now have at least 2 mice running around my garage with half of their hair gone.

I swear to all things holy, I will disown you from the human race for this.

Glue-traps are the most inhuman method of removing mice. The little guy steps onto the pad and gets stuck. He can't get his feet out so he tries to push the pad away with his face... Then sometimes for minutes he struggles and gasps through what little bit of mouth or nose is open to the air until his thrashing puts the glue pad fully over his face. Then he slowly suffocates.

Just go get a wooden spring trap and bait it with a blob of peanut butter.

 

[Poohbug]

I agree, the sticky traps are worthless.

My Mom had a mouse problem last winter and tried them. She found a mouse leg one day. Just a leg. We just put out snap traps and they work much better.


By the way it took a couple of weeks to finally catch the three legged mouse.

 

[Voicesinmyhead]

Glue traps should be illegal. In fact, they are banned in many countries, I'd expect any animal-friendly country with animal cruelty laws to ban them.

I do not understand why anyone would superglue a mammal onto a piece of plastic, for it to struggle and suffer so much. It is sadistic, disgusting and wrong. These traps appeal to the lowest common denominator - incredibly selfish and lazy people who are indifferent about an animal suffering in their house. They would rather care about their own squeamishness, and the "icky" factor of the rodent rather than the actual concious suffering being stuck on their stupid trap. Crying out for help, possibly mutilating itself, some people who use these traps just simply throw the animal out, still alive, in the trash still to suffer for hours to days. Do you know what I call these people? Heartless cowards. It's a living creature, not a burger wrapper.

There are so many alternatives - cage traps, snap traps, electrocution traps, a whole assortment of traps that kill the animal relatively quickly. Those should be used instead. Glue traps are unnecessary, but yet people still use them. Why? Do they want to torture something to death? I do not give a flying f if they are "pests" or whatever convenient excuse you glue trap users like to use - torturing an animal is wrong, end of story.

This is a good argument for their prohibition This is from a glue trap fact sheet provided from the state of Victoria, Australia:

A scientific review of rodent control methods concluded that glue traps are one of the most inhumane methods of rodent control “because of the enormous distress these traps cause, even if the trapped animals are found after just a few hours and then humanely dispatched ... rodents are likely to experience pain and distress through being trapped, the physical effects of the adhesive on functioning (e.g. suffocation), and trauma resulting from panic and attempts to escape, such as forceful hair removal, torn skin and broken limbs. After three-five hours, animals have been reported as covered in their own faeces and urine. When boards are collected, animals are also often squealing; one pest control operative even described them as "screaming their heads off". Some rodents also
bit through their own limbs to escape.”

More information on this review can be found in Mason, G and Littin, K (2003) The Humaneness of Rodent Pest
Control, Animal Welfare, 2003, 12:1-37.

Yay humanity for finding the most painful and sadistic way of killing animals! I invite the people who use these contraptions to find a human-sized glue trap and stick themselves to one for a couple of days, without food or water, in a garbage skip while at the same time, being completely and utterly frightened while urinating and excreting all over the trap because of it. Maybe if you could emulate the broken bones and ripped skin as a result of struggling, you'd see how it feels like. Rodents are generally more fragile, a wild animal would probably lack calcium in its diet so its bones would be brittle enough to snap in its struggles. People have reported detatched eyeballs and jaws of a still living creature.

And you people still use these damn things? Get some humanity and compassion please. People who use these stupid traps are just highlighting why humans absolutely suck sometimes.

 

[Voicesinmyhead]

Exactly ,and the possibility of that mouse to spread some type of disease in the house or else where. Get rid of that mouse ASAP!

Oh please. Every wild animal spreads disease. Every single one of them. There are many mice where that single one came from, so what difference would it make if you released it? If there's a large mouse population in the area, chances are "elsewhere" would have the same problem. This issue wasn't brought up at all when the mouse was outside previously, so why is this an issue now? I think people who throw out the "but they might go into someone else's house" don't really care about that, they're just picking a convenient excuse to kill something because it's easier and less time consuming for them.

And there is the crux of the matter, people will kill a mouse instead of releasing it elsewhere not because of concerns to other homes, but because it's simply more convenient for them. Walking two blocks away to release it is more time consuming than just taking a shovel and whacking it, or throwing it in the bin to starve to death.

PS. For the record, I don't disagree with killing rodents as long as it's quick and humanely done (as it SHOULD be), but don't lie to yourself. If you weren't, you'd be trying to kill every single one outside to prevent them from going into other homes.

 

[Badamon]

How could they not work? We use the rat size sticky traps all the time because we have a bit of a snake problem in our laundry room. We catch mice and small and larger snakes with them.

Ok, I'll deal with the mice. I think I would die if I had snakes. Where the heck to you live?

 

[Voicesinmyhead]

FYI: I spoke to a Health Department expert and he said if I ever found a rat/mouse on a glue trap, to dump the trap into a bucket of water and drown it quickly.

I thought, NO WAY! What? I use a loooong pair of tongs to pick up the trap with the rat struggling on it. It knows now it's about to die. So it has an extra adrenaline surge to work it's way off as I have a hold of the trap and runs up the tongs and up my ARM??? EEEEEEEEKKKK!

And this vindicates what I said earlier! In that personal squeamishness > another animal's suffering. You should be more concerned about how much pain and fear that animal is in, rather than paranoid delusions about it breaking free and running up your arm. Use logic, use your brain for a moment here; if the animal is almost dead, it is very likely that it is weak and unable to do anything. It's not going to go anywhere stuck firmly on the trap. And it's most likely suffering heaps, but nah, all you seem to care about in this situation are unrealistic scenarios. As I said, people seem to care more about an irrational squeamish factor than the actual creature itself. And that, at least in my POV, is morally wrong.

And you wonder why people can abuse animals so easily, without a hint of remorse. People who throw out the "it's only a mouse" or "it's going to die anyway" will be missing the point, of course. The whole point is not to be an *** when killing a helpless animal on a trap, it's about being a decent person; to show respect of the fact that it's a living, feeling animal, NOT in inanimate object. Those who will say "it's only a mouse" are being narrow minded and silly. Yeah it's "only" an animal that can suffer/feel pain, can recognise enough to attempt for self-harm to get off, etc. That's never an excuse to be unnecessarily cruel. I mean, imagine if an alien species decided they'd inflict pain on a "lesser creature" because "it's only a human" ? Same logic and fundamentally, it is extremely unethical.

We usually use the old fashioned wood traps with peanut better with good success. The store was out of them so I got the sticky traps instead. I saw/ heard a mouse in one of them yesterday but I'm a wimp and was going to wait for DH to get home to throw it away. I went in the garage a few hours later and noticed it wad moved. It was empty with just some yucky fur stuck to it.

You mean throw it away in the trash so it starves to death?

Annnd again. "Eww they're alive still, I'll just wait here and let it struggle and rip pieces of itself off, rather than put it out of its misery. I'll wait hours for my husband and he'll just throw it away like a piece of rubbish".

Do you have any conception, any idea of what happens to animals on these things? For crying out loud, they break their little bones and chew their limbs off to try and escape and you do nothing, but just lengthen that?? Stop being so irrationally squeamish and do the right thing. :|

 

[si-am]

I also couldn't stand to see any animal suffer, not even a mouse. They are just doing what they do... No ill-intent behind it. They aren't evil! I wouldn't want one in my house necessarily (And good luck to them if they decide to move in with our two cats!)

But something quick and painless or non-lethal is the kinder option.

 

[Voicesinmyhead]

Btw, if anyone was actually serious about removing pests, they wouldn't be using glue traps anyway. The CDC themselves do not recommend them based on the fact that a frightened rodent will excrete more, thus increasing exposure to possibly dangerous pathogens. Especially if on for long periods (rodents pee and poop a lot because they have short metabolisms and can't hold it in, though domesticated ones can be potty trained). But I guess because glue traps are "cheap and easy", people will neglect this very fact. It amazes me, the cruelty and ignorance of people sometimes. These traps shouldn't even be available on the market.

 

[java]

We used catch and release traps. Both mice we caught freaked out inside it and died anyway. We use snap traps now.

 

[Deb in IA]

Btw, if anyone was actually serious about removing pests, they wouldn't be using glue traps anyway. The CDC themselves do not recommend them based on the fact that a frightened rodent will excrete more, thus increasing exposure to possibly dangerous pathogens. Especially if on for long periods (rodents pee and poop a lot because they have short metabolisms and can't hold it in, though domesticated ones can be potty trained). But I guess because glue traps are "cheap and easy", people will neglect this very fact. It amazes me, the cruelty and ignorance of people sometimes. These traps shouldn't even be available on the market.

Yup.

We don't use the "catch and realease" traps. I don't like to kill things either, but I am NOT going to try to release a panicked mouse who is peeing and pooping all over the place, and possibly exposing me to hanta virus.

And we don't use the sticky traps either. Just snap them. So much less cruel.

This is not Mickey we are talking about here, you know.

http://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/pdf/HPS_Brochure.pdf

 

[Arielle22]

Yep. That's what I said. Release them in someone else's yard.

How hard it is to drive them to a field somewhere to release them?

I'm not a fan of any mouse trap killing but atleast use a quick kill one instead of one that will have them die a slow painful death.

For those us of who live in a city or suburban area, it would be difficult to find a field that wasn't within sight of a home or business.

 

[Voicesinmyhead]

For those us of who live in a city or suburban area, it would be difficult to find a field that wasn't within sight of a home or business.

Most suburbs would have a local park.

 

[monorailsilver]

Where do you think the released mouse will end up?

Right back in your house.

With a 1000 of its newest relatives that it just made...eekkk!!

My dh has traps all over our yard, shed & in the attic. He also puts decon all over too.

If there was a trap to catch spiders I'd have those all over our yard as well!

 

[daughtersrus]

Most suburbs would have a local park.

And that park is mostly surrounded by homes

 

[U2_rocks!]

Oh yeah, let's all go and release our house mice in the park!

Not a good plan. Now you'll have much more mouse pee and poop than usual in the park for all the kids to touch while they are playing. Where I live, rodent-carried leptospirosis is an issue. Dogs and humans can catch it. We would not want to encourage rodents to be where dogs and kids play.

ETA: I guess I have no issue with releasing mice if you live in a rural area and can truly release them safely away from people and pets. The reality where I live (and the same would apply to many here) is that the rodent population is already bigger than it should be, there is already too much interaction and spread of disease between the rodent population and people/pets, and it is actually necessary to control the population. The best way to do that is to kill some of the rodents. It's hard when they are cute little mice, but it's necessary for health reasons. Just kill them humanely.

 

[mom2rtk]

LOL, only on the DIS. I knew when I opened this that it would be full of people berating others for killing mice (other than Mickey of course!)

OP, how do you feel about cats? I have one great mouser in the mix here. Actually she's a great moler too. Even caught a couple snakes through the years (she's an indoor/outdoor cat). She has earned some extra kibble on more than one occasion.

Unfortunately we have other cats who would rather play with their toy mouse than chase after the real thing. But the odds are with you that a cat would help out. Even the ones that wouldn't catch one for me would sure alert me to its presence so I could hunt it myself.

 

[Voicesinmyhead]

And that park is mostly surrounded by homes

So?

The mouse could very well be eaten by a natural predator, or live the rest of its life under a log eating insects and algae. It could very well never enter any of these houses. And there'd be other mice in the area, most likely, hardly matters. We have a natural reserve nearby with mice... and guess what, we haven't had them for over a decade.

Oh yeah, let's all go and release our house mice in the park!

Not a good plan. Now you'll have much more mouse pee and poop than usual in the park for all the kids to touch while they are playing.

With that mentality you'd might as well put your child in a bubble and never let them go outside, because they might catch something from playing in the soil.

Whether we like it or not, mice will be in the area regardless so it's not going to matter one iota if you release it in the park. There will very likely be other mice there, not to mention poop from other animals - feral cats, possums, birds, insects, other rodents, etc

Where I live, rodent-carried leptospirosis is an issue. Dogs and humans can catch it. We would not want to encourage rodents to be where dogs and kids play.

Then do not let your children play in soil with any open cuts (because that's how it is usually transmitted). Do you have any feral cats in your area? They are known carriers too. Dogs are also known carriers, in fact 25-30% of dogs and cats are carriers of this disease. Your dog could very well be a carrier too.

People worry about disease when mice carry no more disease than any other wild animal. The major issue with mice is their breeding rate if they make a nest in a home, and their habit of gnawing of wires. To get a disease from one is rare, or for one to be so absolutely careless as to let them run on the kitchen counter for lengthy periods of time.

The whole point of releasing them is for them not to be a problem any more; you're returning to how it was before that mouse was in your home so where ever it goes, is completely irrelevant. People will kill them because they're too lazy releasing them, it's more convenient for them. I feel that killing is a last resort measure, and I don't agree with it unless you have an infestation (and that means, dozens of them). But if it's done humanely, I'm OK with that even if I might disagree. The main thrust of my criticism is the use of glue traps, and the OP suggesting that that'd let their husband throw a live animal still stuck on the glue trap into the rubbish. Now that is completely unnecessary and beyond cruel.