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Congratulations: You've just caught a mouse with your humane trap. Now what?
By adamg on Fri, 02/11/2011 - 8:59am
Jim Sullivan confronts the situation:
I had never thought of what would happen AFTER I caught a live mouse. At least, I hadn't considered what to do with one in the winter when there was about three feet of snow on the ground everywhere in our neighborhood. I had purchased the trap during a summer when it was easy to imagine releasing a mouse in some flowery field, where he would see the abundant food supplied by blooming trees full of succulent fruits and hearty nuts, maybe some shapely lady mice nearby giving him a come hither look, and then he would gaze up at me with big brown eyes full of gratitude for not crushing his head, give me the mousy equivalent of a tip of his hat, and saunter off to live his suddenly wonderful life. Instead, I was faced with the prospect of tossing a cute little furry animal into a snowbank to die.
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Comments
awww
petco locations near boston
I had the same problem...
With me and my mom we just caught a mouse and its winter in Maine. We had absolutely no idea what to do with it. We thought we could keep it for a night and let it go at the dump the next day, but it would be dead by morning because of shock and its tail was injured and bleeding. Then we thought we could let it go in town, or keeping it as a pet. We finally decided to put it in the freezer, that way, it would fall asleep, then pass away in its sleep. We didn't exactly want it to suffer any more than it had to. When we caught the mouse, I named it Stud Muffin :P
i had a very tenacious little
i had a very tenacious little mouse in my apartment for the last couple of weeks. it was so bold that i think it actually began to enjoy my attempts at catching it.
i set up live-capture traps that it just laughed at. until TODAY! it went zipping around in my computer room and i had a plastic bowl in hand. i learned to anticipate its moves and plunked it down right on top of it.
this is october, and there is a little park nearby. so i slid some plastic between the bowl and the floor and then taped the plastic to the bowl.
then i waked the mouse out of my apartment up to the park. some people were so curious that they asked me what i had. i said quite proudly, A MOUSE!
i found a nice little spot and pulled the plastic off the bowl. the mouse was stunned at first - just looking at me for about 5 seconds. then it went off, bounding through the dew covered leaves to a tree.
this was important for me because the last mouse i tried to catch went into a live-capture trap and i was very neglectful and by the time i checked the trap it was near death. a horrible thing for any living creature to suffer. it was still barely alive, and i put it into the freezer to help curb its pain.
i didn't want anything like this to happen to this new mouse, and i feel like i have in some small way vindicated the death of the previous mouse. this new little mouse is going to have so many new experiences in the park. i hope that doesn't include being captured by a crow or something nasty.
Humanity always an issue...
...But that is an argument for another day.
I know someone who had the same quandry upon catching some squirrels in his back yard. (They were chowing down on his grape vines and simply had to go. Yes, yes, Sisyphean task, I know.) He finally settled on taking them over to the MIT campus where they could eat all the pizza crusts they could get their little mitts on.
Anybody have contact info
For the MBTA snake lady?
so instead of a quick
and fairly painless death by broken neck, the little bugger probably froze to death slowly. Awesome.
It's a frikkin mouse! A dirty
It's a frikkin mouse! A dirty disease carrying rodent!
I'll bet you wouldn't feel bad about killing that mouse if you got Hantavirus (causes hemorrhagic fevers)from mouse droppings.
Kill it!
Tommy the Cat is the name, and I say unto thee...
Say baby do you wanna lay down by me?
Say baby do you wanna lay down by my side?
Ah baby do you wanna lay down with me?
Say Baby
SAY BABY?!?!?!?
Off topic, but of great importance
I hope you saw that you (Tom Waits) are being inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame next month and by none other than Neil Young. Taped airing on fuse TV on 3/20
Two answers
1) Putting a mouse outside in a snowbank isn't going to kill it. In fact, if you're dumb enough to do it too close to your house, he'll probably make it back inside before you do. You didn't find him in the house because he slipped in the front door when you weren't looking. You have a hole in your foundation somewhere...and he already knows about it. Wherever else you put him, he'll probably find his way inside the next closest house instead. So, you didn't solve a problem...you just transferred it to your neighbors. Thanks.
2) The most painless, quick, and ethical way to kill a mouse is to push down behind the skull where the head and neck meet. Apply a bit of forward pressure towards the head while pulling quickly on the tail. This is called a cervical dislocation. You are basically opening a gap between the spinal cord and the brain. Death is immediate.
"2) The most painless, quick,
"2) The most painless, quick, and ethical way to kill a mouse is to push down behind the skull where the head and neck meet. Apply a bit of forward pressure towards the head while pulling quickly on the tail. This is called a cervical dislocation. You are basically opening a gap between the spinal cord and the brain. Death is immediate."
I can confirm this as gruesome as it might sound. I work in a Biology lab dealing with mice, and this is the approved method of terminating a mouse right before it is needed.
Let me warn you though, Kaz makes it sound much easier than it is, and if you don't do it right on the first try, you will be putting the mouse in much more pain than releasing him into the cold. I would certainly advise against it.
An alternative
Product #39462003:
Holy S***, Adam
I gave a mouse a cookie, you think I'd actually be able to guillotine one? Thanks, anyway :-)
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Some biologists can be sweet
Some biologists can be sweet when they're not doing brutal things in the lab.
True
My nephew does some of that sort of work. He's one of the mellowest and nicest guys I've ever known, despite the fact that he sometimes offs small creatures while on the clock.
Who knows? Maybe if he didn't let out his aggressions in the lab, he'd be a serial killer :-)
Suldog
http:jimsuldog.blogspot.com
brrr
just put the 'safe' trap int he freezer - mousie goes to sleep. toss it in the morning.
reminder..
don't make Kaz mad
At least...
...not if you're a mouse. Don't worry about making me mad though...I'm pretty sure most of you don't have tails.
Funny response
Because:
Mice, like most animals, have an uncanny instinct for navigation. Catch and releasing a mouse within a mile of his home just ensures he might be gone for a few days. He will find his(or her) way back.
Second, most house mice are rather acclimated to human conditions. Take one and release it a field / the wild somewhere is pretty much a death sentence. Unless it's close to other structures, and then you're just making your problem someone elses.
I broke out laughing
After I read your final words, I could barely contain my laughter. It reminded me of the STTNG episode where this Borg was reciting how to kill each person in the room in the quickest way, dependent on his/her species. He always ended with "Death is immediate."
Oh good times.
Heh
At least someone got it.
Live long and prosper...unless you're a mouse.
Pencil death
I once startled my husband by announcing, more or less out of the blue as we were walking down the street, "I know how to kill a mouse with a pencil." I worked in a surgery research lab in the 1970s as a high school sophomore, doing odd jobs like cleaning the animal cages and general lab cleanup, and was taught that technique for dispatching mice. It has come in handy from time to time over the years since then.
I know how to kill a mouse
First, you distract him and grab the pencil away...
I can kill you with my brain.
Summer Glau, is that you?
Summer Glau Auto-Reply
http://xkcd.com/311/
Funny stuff...
"The next time I catch one, I'm going to draw a big X on his back in magic marker so I can see if I'm catching the same freakin' mouse over and over."
Blue-tailed squirrel
My neighbor in Cambridge had a bird feeder which was constantly being emptied by squirrels so he started trapping them in a Hav-a-hart trap, then he'd drive out to McClean Hospital in Belmont, about 5 miles away, to release them*.
After a few weeks he'd trapped dozens of squirrels and still he had squirrels marauding his feeder. The next time he caught one he sprayed a little blue paint on its tail before releasing it. The next day a blue-tailed squirrel was at his feeder in Cambridge.
* it's illegal to relocate wild animals without a permit.
and why McLean's?
I've heard of pet therapy with dogs but not squirrels...maybe the squirrel thought it was just getting a ride to work.
Maybe he thought the
squirrel(s) would enjoy some nuts.
Isn't the answer obvious?
Get on the Red Line and feed it to Penelope.
Cayenne Pepper
Don't know if it would work with a mouse but it discourages squirrels.
If you can get close enough to sprinkle it with cayenne
it's probably too weak to make it all the way up the bird feeder, anyway.
Pet mice
My friend used to keep them in a glass tank, with a hamster wheel and stuff. They liked to pile up in a corner on top of each other and just sit there.
Then he'd get drunk and feed them beer occasionally.
Consolidate posts
See attack cat.
I Like This One
See, I know I'm a hypocrite. I can't bring myself to kill the mouse, but if I had a cat, and the cat did the job for me, I'm OK with that.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
No apologies needed
Cats killing mice is part of the natural order of things.
However, if someone intentionally caught the mice and put them into a locked cage with a cat, that would be a different story.
I have three cats. You can
I have three cats. You can borrow one.
Thanks. I Truly Wish I Could.
However, as explained in the story, MY WIFE has an allergy to animal dander. A cat in the house would leave her with extreme breathing difficulties in a short time.
(I realize a mouse - or mice - will do the same, but not as fast, so, for now...)
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Been There!
I had the same problem. We actually had an infestation of them, and I found one one morning in the drain of our kitchen sink. People have spoken so casually about killing mice in your home, but it's actually much more difficult than you'd think. I put our little visitor in a fishbowl with some oats, moss and cereal, and he's now happily hanging out in the living room. We'll set him lose in Spring, someplace nice and forest-y!
I kept the mouse in a plastic
I kept the mouse in a plastic trashbin and fed it clementine slices and whole wheat crackers for a few days, until the temperature was above freezing; I then released it in a wildlife reservation several miles away.