I’d been noticing mouse droppings behind the trash can under my sink, so yesterday I went to the hardware store to buy some poison (the little bags of green pellets).
Poison is my preferred method of killing, since it’s silent and the actual dying happens out of sight—the little guy (I imagine) trots back to his apartment, kisses his wife goodnight, lies down for a nap, and never wakes up. Then, hopefully, the decomposition happens somewhere deep enough in the deepest recesses of my house (or better—he staggers outside), so I don’t have to smell the death, either.
Unfortunately, yesterday at the hardware store I was talking on my cell phone, and what I thought was a multi-pack of poison bags was in fact a combo-pack containing four bags of poison, two snap traps, and two glue traps. I didn’t realize this until I was home and I had opened the package, so—with my wife coming home soon, and wanting to be able to report that I had done my assigned errand—I put out all the traps: snap traps behind the oven, glue traps under the sink, poison bags behind the dishwasher. See, honey, I did my job.
Not so fast. Because after my wife had gone to sleep last night, I heard some funny noises coming from the kitchen. I opened the door under the sink, and found captive #1 stuck to trap #1, but not stuck enough to keep him from making a racket. So I did my manly duty: I swept it into the dustpan, carried it outside, tossed it trap side up on the ground and bashed the poor thing with a giant crowbar to put it out of its misery. I then picked it up with a grocery bag, triple-bagged it, and threw it in the garbage pail in my garage.
Overall, this was a highly unpleasant experience I did not care to repeat. Unfortunately, overnight captive #2 got himself trapped, and as we speak he’s trashing around under my sink.
Hoping there was a more humane (and, let’s be honest, pleasant-for-me) alternative to bashing it with a crowbar, I Googled it:
Yikes. How about …
Hmmm. The Google-supplied answers to my question fell into three broad categories:
- “Don’t use sticky traps, they’re inhumane.”
- Ridiculously more complicated and time-consuming methods than the crowbar strategy, including a) drowning it in a five-gallon bucket (or, impractically, in your toilet, if you don’t have a bucket and a hose handy); and b) gassing it with carbon dioxide—an approach that requires, first, a handy source of pure carbon dioxide, and second, some kind of bell-jar-of-death contraption. While I’m confident in my ability to build such a thing, the mouse is thrashing around under my sink as we speak, and option B would require additional time neither I nor the mouse has at this point.
So, in case you found this post through a search engine, and assuming it’s too late to not buy a sticky trap because they’re inhumane, how should you kill a mouse that’s already stuck to a glue trap under your sink?
- Bring it outside (use a dustpan, if that’s handy, or I guess, pick it up in a grocery bag [or two or three], being careful not to let it bite you. Do this quickly and try not to squeal.)
- Drop it on a relatively hard surface, trap side up.
- Bash it with a heavy instrument, preferably a sledge hammer or something that has a large surface area (so you don’t really have to swing it and you can be sure you get it with the first blow).
- Pick it up with a few grocery bags like you would dog doo.
- Throw it in your outside/garage trash cans.
- Use poison next time.
Thànks to all the posters for baring your souls. I put a soaking wet towel over the little critter’s head so that he could chew and suck on something and perhaps asphyixiate. By the time I finished reading these comments and convinced myself of the humanity of fast execution and had fetched a baseball bat and a freshly baited snaptree, the critter had expired. I think his mom is hiding under the fridge waiting for me to leave the room so she can eat him. The pest control company advises surrounding the house with a layer of medium-cut gravel and… Read more »
GLUE TRAPS I have researched this issue back and forth and the most gentle painless method I have found is to purchase some starter fluid for automobiles $5.00 it contains ether which will allow the animal to fall asleep and unconscious and then a painless death…I have used this method many times and it has always worked…I soak a cotton ball or 2 depending on the size of the animal then place the trap and all inside a large ziplock bag with the soaked / saturated cotton balls and zip it up tightly..within minutes the animal is Unconscious and passed… Read more »
You could smash the head with a hammer or something, but this can make a huge mess (even if it’s in a plastic bag). Cervical dislocation is nearly identical in mechanism, and far less gory: 1) Lay the trap, with mouse still stuck, on a flat surface 2) Hold the trap near the mouse’s tail, with your non-dominant hand 3) Hold a pen with your dominant hand, and lay it across the mouse’s neck (should be perpendicular to the spinal column) 4) Exert JUST enough gentle downward pressure with the pen, to prevent the mouse from moving its head (anchor… Read more »
I was faced with this situation today (I am not a man). I could hear the rat scrambling around, I knew it was in the trap, but i could not bring myself to look. After several hours, hoping it would just die, I could not take it any more. I had considered the options. Stomp it, drown it, freeze it. I could not shoot it, i didn’t have a gun. I finally opened the drawer where the trap was set. Sure enough, there was a very large rate stuck in my snap trap. That was one tough SOB, the trap… Read more »
Two quick ways of disposing of these pests.
1. Place the gluetrap & mouse in a garbage bag, start your car, place garbage bag over the exhaust until it fills up. Tie the bag in a knot and let sit for 10 minutes. Mouse goes to sleep and dies.
2. Purchase a Red Ryder bb gun and a package of bbs from Wal-Mart, proceed to shoot mouse in head.
I currently utilize both of these methods.
There are a ton of sociopathic comments here! I don’t want mice in my house either but I’m not going to torture or kill them! They didn’t ask to be born mice. They’re just trying to survive this shitty world as you are! This world wouldn’t be so shitty if we were all compassionate & not selfish! A cage type of humane trap with some peanuts inside works for me & is fine for you, too. Repeatedly check for a catch then release in a wooded area. Snap & certainly glue traps are cruel but hearing how these other people… Read more »
Agreed 1000% Sweetie!! There aren’t many compassionate people left in this shitty world anymore.
Get a snap trap, pull it back, place glued mouse underneath, and SNAP!! Quick humane and relatively painless
We had our basement windows replaced with glass block last week. Unfortunately, the workers left the basement windows open for several hours once they realized they had brought the wrong materials. Enter mouse. Two days later we began to see mouse droppings and found a loaf of break completely tunneled through. It was disgusting. We set both glue traps and the round traps that we have used previously, but had no luck for 5 days until today. Today, the mouse came from behind the couch, dragging the glue trap to the fireplace hearth. At that point, I was so freaked… Read more »
1) Place the mouse/trap inside a brown paper grocery bag. Note the position of the mouse
2) Close and fold the bag around the mouse (more layers to absorb)
3) Place folded bag on hard surface
4) Use your shoed foot or another large, solid object to put the mouse out of its misery
Two mice were stuck in a glue trap in this little cabinet built into the wall by my kids’ art table. They were squeaking like birds. I was trying to concentrate on work, but once I checked it out and saw them, struggling, I tried to find a way to put them out of their misery. I wished for some kind of long, electrocution stick or something. It doesn’t feel great, but at least they are not squeaking, slowly and painfully dying. I put an unused glue trap where that one was.
Birds don’t squeak
Why does everybody think mice are innocent. They kill other creatures. Steal from each other, kill each other. eat their babies. These mice are criminals, remorseless, violent, criminals. 9 times out of 10 the mice you killed had it comming .
Okay that makes me feel better now ?
That’s just what I needed to hear. I was in tears this morning looking at the face of that sweet little mouse who was suffering and not dead yet in the spring type trap. Now, I know better thanks to you and will proceed with confidence and warrior-like courage to protect my family and friends from those pesky, mean-spirited, cruel little monsters.
I caught 5 rats with 2 glue traps and used my fire extinguisher and it died in seconds.
Simple enough – just put it back in the box and return it.
Hopefully you bought it at a big box ‘hardware store’ – to hell with them, let them deal with it.
If that seems cruel (it is) to the rodent, instead gas it to death with pot smoke.
Please visit the facebook page for more great ideas.
Take it outside and hit it in the head with a hammer. The first blow should kill it instantly, hit once or twice more to be certain, and then wash off the hammer.
Spring traps baited with just a bit of peanut butter are the most humane, quick & reusable method. Who would trap and release a tick, mosquito, cockroach, sewer rat…..? [Years ago… The interior walls of Rock Center. Building are made of hollow gypsum blocks, while doing elevator lobby restorations we disturbed whole tribes of mice… Called in the exterminator who set dozens of glue traps… Monday morning the laborers went around and found dozens of headless mice.. Evidently the rats like to bite the heads off of trapped mice. Grown men who would only dispose of the traps with long… Read more »
So this says speak your mind right? Here we go. The only way I’ve ever been able to catch mice in my home is with glue traps… That being said I usually will hear them squeaking right away when caught on the glue trap, then I just grab a plastic bag for a glove, get a little vegetable oil and walk out my front door. I proceed to place the trap on my neighbors lawn, toss a bit of cooking oil on the mouse, and he’s free to run back to where he came from in the first place, my… Read more »
I like your response so much! A cage type of humane trap with some peanuts inside works for me. Repeatedly check for a catch then release in a wooded area. Snap & certainly glue traps are cruel but hearing how these other people kill them is disturbing. The mice didn’t ask to be born as mice & feel things as we do. It doesn’t take much to be compassionate. Be better humans!
Be careful with poison if you have dogs or cats. Dogs are especially sensitive to rat poison and can bleed to death internally if they ingest the poison or a poisoned mouse. Cats metabolize the rat poison a bit differently so it can make them very ill, but they have a better chance of survival. We use the snap traps and the glue traps in drawers. Bat your eyelashes at your husband and ask him to pick up the glue trap, put it in a plastic bag (leave open), place it on a hard surface (glue side down), and step… Read more »
You all are crazy! Inhumane or not, I want them to suffer! Glue traps rule! I’m tired of being scared of going into my cabinets scared of what I may find. I’ll always use the glue traps 🙂
Thank you.. me 2! They are nasty and i absolutly do not care if they are intelligent obvipusly bot intelligent enough 2 not get caught and to stay in the walls. I currently have one stuck to a plastic tray glue trap that i set a heavy glass bowl over just in case he does turn savage and bites his leg off to get free he will still be stuck.. im hoping he will just sufocate underthere and that will be the nd of it. I know there is at least one more in the kitchen i can hear it… Read more »
i pour boiling water on them
Having a rather large foot and growing up in the country has given me a bit of tolerance to killing mice I suppose. Here is what I do. 1. Catch mouse in a glue trap. 2. Take it outside along with 2 plastic bags. Make sure you have on shoes. 3. Put the trapped mouse in one bag (set the other aside, you’ll need it in a moment) and set it on the ground. DO NOT TIE THE BAG. You need the airflow. 4. Place the bag on the ground, glue side down. 5. STOMP. (If the tied the bag… Read more »
I used to swear by poison – it kills the little rudewords. However, they aren’t the nice of houseguests and are ruder when they die. They die in walls and floorboards are impossible to find, let alone remove. The smell is disgusting, and attracts maggots and flies. Last time it happened – we had so many flies, they looked like a carpet on our ceiling. I have glue traps everywhere, and they finally caught some! After all the destruction they cause – eating our food and leaving droppings everywhere – I am delighted to kill them! Smashing their heads gives… Read more »
In nature, you don’t always die a quick death. Youtube “african wild dogs kudu” if you don’t believe me. Animals get their guts ripped out alive all the time. You can’t save them all. Crushing the mouse in a glue trap is about as quick as an animal can hope to die. So don’t give me all this animal rights crap. Release the mouse and it’ll make another batch of little mice that’ll end up having to be killed. For those of you who want to kill the mouse – you can take a skewer, make a notch in it… Read more »
Sometimes the trap misses! I found Ms Rodent quivering next to the trap and walked around with her in a towel trying to figure out how to put her out of her misery as she gasped. I’m going to have the starter fluid handy next time. Cats much prefer little birds, lizards, and any thing that makes little jerky movements (endangered or not) to mice.
I live in NYC and I luckily only have to deal with about six stray mice a year that have wandered into my apartment. I used glueboards in the past, but swore never to use them again, because of their cruelty…I hate mice…but still. I just used one again because i had a stubborn mouse that lived happily under my fridge and never touched a snap trap. I laid it down on a Saturday morning , so it wouldn’t suffer long if I wasn’t home when it got caught. Within two hours, it got stuck. I never heard a mouse… Read more »
Ether is an effective and humane anesthetic. “Starter Fluid” from an auto parts store is ether pressurized with propane in an aerosol spray can. To humanely kill a trapped mouse: fold a paper towel twice; making a square four layers thick; inhale and begin holding your breath; spray the square with ether nearly soaking it making an ether saturated pad; immediately place the ether saturated pad over the mouse; cover the mouse and ether saturated pad with anything handy to retain the vapor – a kitchen dish towel, a plastic bowl, an inverted trash can, etc.; step 8-10 feet away… Read more »
Personally, I don’t think it is humane at all to kill a small defenseless animal. People have this idea in their heads that mice are out to kill you…lol. Mice don’t care about us they just want to survive like everything else. I use a glue trap to catch them. Then I take them to the park with a pond about 3 miles from my house and douse them in vegetable or olive oil (minus the head) to get them off the trap. They run away. If some other animal wants to kill them fine, that is the circle of… Read more »