Simple 'No-Kill' Mouse Trap

Step 3 The catch!

Congratulations! Hopefully you will have demonstrated your superior intellect and caught a mouse. Now you get to exercise your capability for compassion and take care of your new pet or set it free somewhere else. As noted by another reader it may be a good idea to release them in an area with another potential food source.

Comments

[skater7832]

I just use the old rat poison cuz i have no pets or children that will get down there. so they can die quick n easy!

[bears0]

i put paint stripper on a piece of bread. :-| Mauhahahaha

[thumpergirl]

I dont know why I am astounded at the level of cruelty and selfishness society has in general. Instead of trapping a mouse in a safe and loving way,most people want to kill or torture it with those glue traps.It really doesnt take much and they need a place to live too.We have taken every conceivable space and encroached on all animals territory.Its just not right.Take a few muinutes,buy or make a live,safe trap and release the little guys into a field or forest.Somewhere where they can live. We should not place ourselves so much higher than any animal...because we do things that are so horrible to one another for fame,money,things and ego..animals only do to survive. Thats my two cents..thanks for the helpful traps..

[dblackwell]

I agree 100%, and don't think for a minute that rat poison is a fast, die quick and easy thing. Rat poison causes internal bleeding that results in a slow agonizing 6 to 8 hour death and probably the most inhumane way to kill anything. Live traps and relocation is the only way to go.

[hippyland2]

ok i dont agree with the animal rights protester bellow you (thats puting it very, very, very, very, very kindly) one rats a vermin a pest that don't as fr as i know help at all the world. maybe im thinging of rats. and yes owls and other birds eat them. but back on track. oh a animal that is disease ridden dies of thirst. yea the bird eating poisoned mice will make that happen but one poisened mouse isn't gonna do all that. all of those reasons don't mean squat to me.

[dblackwell]

Rats are different than mice and can be a different story entirely. Some rats need snap trapping and some need to be live trapped and let go. The shy ones should be live trapped and let go by a river or field and the aggressive ones snap trapped. I have only had one rat that I had to snap trap. Poison is never an option.

[beehard44]

well, to stop bait shyness, this can be used as a tool. just put your poison in the bucket then when the rat goes in, they eat the bait with poison and guess what happens....

[beehard44]

lol, they die without the other rats knowing!

[torned00]

they mutate and become a dancing banana

[pocholox8]

lolo mo dancing banana haha lorenzo yea boiii

[hippyland2]

they teleport out and breed with magical unicorns riding on rainbows?

[hippyland2]

however i do care that rats/mice/insects and other animal can quickly adapt to poison and we have to use stronger poisons and eventualy nothing will stop them. my advice kill them maualy or kepp them untill they die in a container sure i think it's inhumane but like the guy blow me said set it free

[beehard44]

they remember your bait....

[hippyland2]

sorry to annyone i offended . please disregard any message that you thought to be ofeesive im sorry if you were offended

[clairebo6]

 you know your name doesn't really suit you. hippies loved earth and everything that lived on it. no offence but your a hypocrite. i hope to god that a poor mouse doesn't venture into your house because it will be tortured to death by being starved or poisoned. it is just as easy to catch a mouse in a bucket and set it free whenever it is convenient for you, rather than wait days for it to slowly starve. have a heart.

[hippyland2]

its only a name. like if your user name was shorty582 you don't have to be short

[beehard44]

pwned XD

[whiteoakart]

Rat poison is a bad idea. And here is why: The poison causes the rats to die of thirst. Some of the poisoned mice will die indoors. Others, as they start to suffer, often go outside looking for water. Do you know what predators do? They look for the weakest animals to catch and eat. A hawk, owl, or other predator swoops down and eats your mouse. You have now given a small dose of poison to a beautiful animal. Now, these poisons do not disappear from the bird, they accumulate. Even if the toxin levels of one mouse are not high enough to kill the bird, it can kill their offspring, whether through the egg production process, or in the event the bird feeds its young with the toxic mouse. But, it doesn't stop at one mouse. A hawk needs to eat a lot of mice. There is a term for this, Biological Magnification. As you go higher up the food chain, the toxin is concentrated in the tissues. I suggest you take the time to use non-toxic pest management solutions. The paper tube method here is excellent, easy, and cheap. You could also keep a pet mouse for a couple of days before releasing it. A field mouse is way cuter than those homely white mice you get at the pet store. At our house, we catch shrews, voles, and 3 species of mice.

[kristinakristina]

This is so great to know!!!

I am a huge animal lover and I always love learning more about how we can be nicer to everyone and everything. I would never want an birds especially to be harmed.

LOVE THE TRAP IDEA TOO!

[dragonreaper]

Sure they may look cute, but i don't think you'd want to catch wild mice as pets >_> They could be contaminated with diseases that show no symptoms in mice, but could prove fatal for humans. Aside from the fact that they can be ridden with disease, taming them is also another problem. If they're born in the wild, they should stay in the wild. The sudden change of environment could kill the mouse, or we do not have the means of raising these mice. It's better just to release them farther away from your home, or to just kill it if its causing a problem.

[whiteoakart]

@ dragonreaper: understood.  We don't actually keep them as pets, per se, although we have kept them around for a day or so.  Never had one die on us and we certainly don't handle them.  But we do take them a loooonngg way form home before releasing them. Usually under the porch of one of our annoying neighbors.

[dragonreaper]

;) Good idea rofl. Just dont let them see you :P Or you could be in for quite the surprise XD

[Silence]

Actually it causes internal bleeding. The unsanitary and inhumane part is it will take them a while to die and then you have a dead mouse where you cant find it.

Have you ever tried to keep a wild mouse as a pet ? they are houdinis at the worst of times and can jump like they were fitted with springs, ordinary hampster cages will not do. The only thing that would hold the mouse i had was an 85 gallon fish tank covered with a window screen. And i got rid of it after a few days cause it stunk something fierce.

[simfire687]

or you can slap mother nature across the face and put rat poison in peoples bird feeders. hawks and owls wont be complaining for long

[mr.break_it]

or "Bioamplification"

[chuckr44]

Whiteoakart, I think they phased out that particular poison. They now use a blood thinner which will not hurt larger animals like predators.

[beehard44]

it's murderous to rats in .01g doses ut good idea to go to the hospital for some gastric lavage....

[countable]

Plus it's not as dangerous if consumed by humans (treatment for ingestion of anticoagulant is high doses of vitamin K, however i would recommend in the first instance to go to hospital).

[bLiTzJoN]

OMG! I was just going to type an Instructable on this very method and thought I would do a search just to see if someone else thought of the idea. It works great! I found a paper towel roll to be a lil more effective and wedged it between two tin cans [of veggies] to keep it from rolling either direction. I used some rodent attract gel with a cracker on the end. After catching it, I took it for a ride out in the country to drop him off [to give him a chance]. I personally could careless, but my kids convinced me to be merciful to the lil guy. Too many mouse movies/cartoons I guess. He was just infant and wouldn't set off any conventional mousetraps and I didn't want to use poison for fear our cat, kids or dogs would find it.

[whiteoakart]

I have caught several house mice with this trick now, but it doesn't work for the field mice that visit my house. They can jump higher than the tall kitchen garbage can. I need a taller can.

[Madrias357]

I know I'm late on this, but one could use a nice 30 gallon can.  Let's see 'em jump outta that!

[Silence]

An alternative to this, probably piss off some animal lover tho, is a large pail filled half with water and a margerine lid dabbled with peanutbutter suspended in the center.
Its a death by drowning cause the mice cant get back out and swim till they tire.

[rose_red]

i'm sure it works but what do you do with the mouse once it's in there?

[kre84fun]

That is up to you. Besides setting them free in an area you think they would do better in, you could ask if anyone you know wants a mouse for a pet (hopefully no one with a pet snake). Or as one reader does, set them free near the home of an elected official.

[beehard44]

if you have the time, where the president lives.....
lol, he would calll his troops for that frickin mouse...

[0087adam]

LOL

[everywhere]

or give them to a cat

[LilithAvalon]

If you have a cat, why waste the effort? kre84fun- I wouldn't suggest using a wild mouse as a pet. Who knows what kind of diseases it could have? And they're not used to captivity either. Just stick with letting it free near an elected official's house, lol.

[RetroLeatherHatter]

Cool and uber-simple! Everybody has TP tubes! Trying to think up something to catch rats the same way w/o spending any $$$.

[kabeza]

Wow I never thought I'd find such a simple mouse trap I'll catch the fu**ing mouse next days. He's scaped twice... 3rd is mine lol Thanks !!