There's a mouse in the house...

September 23, 2005 8:42 AM

Best way to get rid of a mouse without killing it?

I'm a vegetarian--for many reasons, including ethical--and I'm pretty much opposed to killing animals. But boy, is the mouse living in my kitchen a pain. I've isolated his hole, and I am wondering if there are any good ways to get him out of there, and my house, without murder!

posted by dead_ to Home & Garden (29 answers total)

http://www.havahart.com/nuisance/cagetrap_quickguide.asp

Finding a place to let it go safely is your job.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 8:47 AM on September 23, 2005

Lots of live traps available, bait with peanut butter. Then release somewhere else.
posted by Mitheral at 8:49 AM on September 23, 2005

Peanut butter rolled in marijuana seeds is even better. You can buy them at the pet shops as "sterile hemp seeds" for canaries. The other good mouse bait is carnation heads. Put flower in trap, throw away the green stick. Your local florist may have a few broken ones they will donate, if you ask politely. After they stop laughing.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 8:54 AM on September 23, 2005

There are all sorts of humane traps available. Just put one near his hole and wait. When he gets caught, pick up the trap and take him outside. We have used the sticky traps before, you will have to help him get out of the glue either with your hands or some other tool. The others are simple catch and release.
posted by kyleg at 8:56 AM on September 23, 2005

I'll vouch for the Havaheart traps. I used them last December to catch some squirrels that were nesting in my walls. The traps work very well and are completely humane.

I hired a service to pick up the squirrels and rehome them. (The animals were taken to a forest preserve several miles away.) In the case of squirrels--and this may be true for mice as well--they need to be moved several miles from their original base of operation or they will return.

Incidentally--I say this as someone who has tangled with mice in the past--it's never just one mouse. You may not have a full-on infestation but I would bet that there are at least a few living in your kitchen.
posted by Sully6 at 9:09 AM on September 23, 2005

I've had good luck with the ultrasonic noise generators that you plug into the wall. I would've thought they'd be useless, but on a couple occasions, after noticing a mouse was about, we plugged the thing in and never saw the mouse again (for a couple years).
posted by rxrfrx at 10:30 AM on September 23, 2005

Your devotion to keeping alive disease-carrying vermin is certainly nice, but would you please not release it near my house? Because that "somewhere else" is likely going to be where other people live.
posted by phearlez at 10:32 AM on September 23, 2005

A question like this about rats was asked about 2 days ago.
posted by fire&wings at 10:35 AM on September 23, 2005

There's the Tin Cat, which I've used with great success. Bate it with peanut butter spread on a scrap of toast, and place along a wall near their hole. This trap is nice, because it'll catch several at a time.
When you release them, be prepared to drive them at least a mile away, or they'll find their way back. (Supposedly) Also, I'd recommend trying to find out where they're getting in, and plug it with a mouse-proof material, like screen or steel wool.
If you have any doubt as to how they're getting in, there's a neat trick of using talc or flour sprinkled around possible areas. If there are little tracks the next day , you know they've been there.
posted by sarahmelah at 10:41 AM on September 23, 2005

Based on events in my own house this morning, I advocate grabbing the little devil with the barbecue tongs -- gently, but firmly -- and tossing him out the front door (also gently, but firmly).
posted by melimelo at 10:44 AM on September 23, 2005

Tossing him out the front door won't work; he will find his way back in.

You've got to take them at least a mile away (so goes the rule of thumb), but you should know that field mice are very territorial, and chances are slim that the little guy will make it.

But he might.
posted by Specklet at 10:55 AM on September 23, 2005

While holding him with the barbecue tongs?

I'm hoping that the trauma of being stalked by two cats, chased under a stove, scooped up with tongs, and then tossed out the door will keep him away :-)
posted by melimelo at 11:02 AM on September 23, 2005

I once asked this question on a forum somewhere. Aside from being told a hundred times to just kill them, the one thing I learned is that the humane traps have issues, too.

A mouse is a very nervous creature. More than one person told me that when a mouse gets trapped inside of one of these traps, it pisses itself, shits itself, bangs its head and body a lot, and sometimes even kills itself in the frenzy of trying to get out.

The humane traps should only be used if you are going to be able to monitor them constantly. So if you have a job, you should put them away then, and while you sleep, at least if being humane is your primary goal. (Assuming the stuff I heard wasn't all crap. My cat eliminated the problem without my asking, and then we moved, so I never got to try the things).
posted by teece at 11:04 AM on September 23, 2005

There's no such thing as one mouse.

I respect your convictions, but in the wild mice are getting killed by savage owls and weasels all the time. Put some humane poison down, and let it fall asleep.
posted by lunkfish at 11:08 AM on September 23, 2005

Respecting his convictions would probably mean not recommending poison, no? He doesn't want to kill it!

I'm afraid that a humane trap is really your best bet - it might freak out and hurt itself inside, but that hasn't been my friend's experience with them - in fact, they worked fine. Your mileage may vary. But I encourage you to try it - couldn't hurt, and it's certainly better than killing it.
posted by agregoli at 11:11 AM on September 23, 2005

Don't use glue traps if you want to catch it humanely. My experience with those involved having to wrench a tiny little soft thing off a very strong glue--it's going to lose fur/skin in the very least. You *can* find isolated areas where the mouse won't make its way to another house (then again, I live in a more remote area), but if you do have more than one mouse like someone suggested, you might get tired of making the drive every time you catch one.

And another second on the ultrasound. I didn't think it'd work, but it was really successful.
posted by artifarce at 11:13 AM on September 23, 2005

Fair do's...I'm just saying if you get a colony of mice and have to call in an exterminator in the end, that's even more deaths.
posted by lunkfish at 11:23 AM on September 23, 2005

Well, but that's an if - regardless, anyone recommending poison or how to kill it isn't answering the question.
posted by agregoli at 11:27 AM on September 23, 2005

I had a mouse population explosion once, and wound up trapping 3 dozen or so mice with a havaheart trap with no mouse deaths. I checked it first thing in the morning, and before and after work. I used an old aquarium for temporary housing for them (shredded paper, food & water provided, board on top with rock holding it down), and on the weekend I'd take that batch down to a field by an estuary. I've trapped rats with havaheart, too.
posted by tula at 11:29 AM on September 23, 2005

Don't use glue traps if you want to catch it humanely
Seconded. Man that was a traumatic experience.
posted by Popular Ethics at 11:45 AM on September 23, 2005

Poisoning the critter may not be the best choice. A decomposing mouse can really stink up your residence.
posted by alumshubby at 1:18 PM on September 23, 2005

My old roommates and I used to catch mice in a have-a-heart trap. While we were at it, we tagged them with red hair dye before letting them go, in the hopes that we would be able to tell if we were catching the same one over and over. Never did re-capture a mouse with a red racing stripe.
posted by autojack at 1:55 PM on September 23, 2005

Toothless, declawed cat?
posted by kahboom at 2:13 PM on September 23, 2005

Poisoning the critter may not be the best choice. A decomposing mouse can really stink up your residence.

The main reason it would not be the best choice is because the poster does not want to kill the mouse/mice.

Why is it so hard to answer the question posed?
posted by agregoli at 2:17 PM on September 23, 2005

Thinking laterally, if you have an ethical problem about killing mice and don't want to 'murder' them, then why not share your living space with an a cat which can mouse, or a terrier which is a good ratter? They're animals and it's in their nature to hunt, you'd be giving them a good home and they'd deal with the mice as nature intended.

That way you wouldn't be passing disease-carrying mice onto other homes, or ill-treating the poor creatures by confining them in a trap and then traumatising them by transporting them somewhere strange where they'll starve or rapidly be snacked on by an owl or a fox. Keep your own natural mouse predator and let it keep your house clear of rodents.
posted by Flitcraft at 4:13 PM on September 23, 2005

Thinking laterally, if you have an ethical problem about killing mice and don't want to 'murder' them, then why not share your living space with an a cat which can mouse, or a terrier which is a good ratter? They're animals and it's in their nature to hunt, you'd be giving them a good home and they'd deal with the mice as nature intended.

Yeah, or why not hire a person with a pathological love of killing mice to stand by the mouse hole and smack them with a hammer when they pop their heads out? That wouldn't be against your principles, would it?

To answer your question instead of changing it, I've never used it myself but have seen the Have-a-Heart traps work very successfully in friends' houses.
posted by louigi at 5:00 PM on September 23, 2005

By the way: I like it that you put mickeymouse as a tag for this post...
posted by louigi at 5:01 PM on September 23, 2005

Not the same. When I was a vegetarian I objected to people killing animals for food/fun but I didn't go around thinking dogs should be muzzled or cats declawed to stop them from killing mice. I might think it's wrong for me as a human to deliberately kill a mouse, but not wrong if my cat happens to do it, because the cat is not in a position to make a rational decision to kill something, it's just doing what comes naturally to it.
posted by Flitcraft at 6:51 PM on September 23, 2005

I've used a simple little plastic rectangular box sold as a humane mouse trap before. It worked quite well. I think they were available at the local giant pet goods store. It was a really simple design--rightside up, the mouse could enter, but not get out; turning it upside down caused the "door" to open and we could release them away from our home (in a wooded area, not some pissy neighbor's house, but thanks for the idea phearlez).

In our case, the mice were after dog food, so we just put some of that in the trap. The hardest part was not reacting when we saw them, letting them get comfy with going up to the trap.

Those glue traps seem like something for budding pyschopaths...
posted by MightyNez at 11:10 PM on September 24, 2005