My "No Fail" Humane Mouse Catcher

debodun

debodun

SF VIP
Location
way upstate in New York, USA
I don't have the heart to use conventional rodent traps, so I developed one that never misses. Take about an 8 by 3.5 inch plank of corrugated cardboard or thin styrofoam (like hamburger meat comes in at the store). On one end tape a tunnel-like semi-circle dome of construction paper. Place the bait right at the end of the plank under the dome. VERY CAREFULLY balance the plank over the edge of a cabinet where mouse activity is suspected. Right under that place a tall (at least 3 foot) high container (I just happen to have a 3 foot high trash can). Leave overnight. Next day, if you do have a mouse, it will be in the bottom of the trash can. If not, try again the next night. When I do catch a mouse, I take the whole trash can out to the car and we go on a nice ride out in the country and I release it. Then if it gets run over or eaten by a snake or bird of prey, that is the mouse's business. One time I got two at once.

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Very nice invention. And easy. I don't like to kill anything either. Sometimes when I've had them cornered I'd use a paper bag and a stick. They run in the bag, I quickly turn the bag upright and fold it over and then do the same thing, release them in the woods.
 
Judycat said:
And easy.
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And inexpensive. If it falls in the can with the mouse and it chews it up, you can always make another with materials you probably have on hand. Some I saw on YouTube looked pretty cruel. They work on the same tilt & dump principle, but drop the mouse in a tub of water where it drowns. Others electrocute the critter - yech!! I am fortunate I live in a fairly rural area. One time, however, a police car passed me as I was releasing one and I though he was going to stop and ask what I was doing (it probably looked like I am dumping garbage along the road), but he didn't. I only really have to do this procedure 2 or 3 times a year, so I can't say I am overrrun with rodents. I really wouldn't mind mice except they leave droppings all over (which is the first clue I have a suspect on the premises) and they might carry disease and that means after I catch and release, I have to come back home and Chlorox the kitchen counters. They also tend to gnaw anything chewable. Now I keep everything except canned goods in the fridge. I asked Gus, my cat, why he allowed this. He was not very forthcoming. This is my "go to" place for release - out in a farm field near a treed area about a mile away, although now it's grown up into a corn field.

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Cats. I suspect my cats are how the mice get in the house. One will bring the mouse in and release it for a fun hunting experience for all of them. Unfortunately, they become tired or distracted and then the mouse settles into his new home.
 
This brings back one of my early childhood memories. When I was about 7 years old I was playing out in the yard and this little field mouse came up out of nowhere and scared the bejesus out of me. And there was this metal decorative thingy that goes on your car where the front liscense plate would go laying near by. It looked something like this:

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And I picked it up and beat the little feller to death with it. It wasn't very humane, but it was effective.

Then many years later a rat got into our cottage. And I chased that sucker all over the place with a wooden canoe paddle until I finally
cornered him in the kitchen where I beat him to death with the paddle.

That's me. Stone cold killer. :)
 
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I have a humane mouse catcher that cost me $15. at the exterminator. It's steel or aluminum and you put your bait in and they come in to eat it and the catcher puts them in a box inside it. I have taken numerous mice for rides to release them. Just could not kill them any more.
 
Judycat said:
Cats. I suspect my cats are how the mice get in the house. One will bring the mouse in and release it for a fun hunting experience for all of them. Unfortunately, they become tired or distracted and then the mouse settles into his new home.
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Indeed! I had a mouse living in my kitchen for several months, after it escaped from my cat. I eventually managed to chase it outside, where it made a nest under a concrete slab.
 
Many years ago, we owned an old house in Michigan and had the occasional mouse problem.

One night, I was already in bed under the covers and my husband was getting ready for bed. He looked over at the waste basket and said, "I think there's a mouse in there."

"No", I said, "it's just the plastic from the pack of panty hose I opened and threw in there. It's just the cellophane uncrinkling."

He kept insisting it was a mouse and I....unwisely, it ensued...told him to dump the basket out on the end of the bed and he'd see that it was just the cellophane rattling. He says, "Don't blame me if you get a mouse in bed with you!" More prophetic words were never spoken.

So he did just that and it was indeed a mouse in there. And the mouse, in its panic, ran across the bed and got under the covers with me. I screamed and jumped over the end of the bed with all the blankets. The little mouse is running laps around the bed; my husband is swatting at it with a pair of pants. The mouse dives off the bed and disappears down the heating register.

It was really hard to get to sleep that night.
 
Judycat said:
I find having a bat flying around the room to be unnerving too. They are like butterflies with teeth.
I catch and release those too.
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Bats don't scare me, but my mom was petrified of them (snakes, too). If we got a bat in the house, she would wake me up and demand that I catch it. She liked to drown them and would plunge the business end of the net in a bucket of water. After a few times of this, I told her that if she had to waken me, we would dispose of it MY way (i.e. shake it out the window). Bats are good for the environment - they eat mosquitoes.

You can't catch a bat if it is flying towards you, you have to wait until it passes then catch it in a net (although it may take a few tries). I made a bat net out of an old broom handle, a coat hanger bent into a circle and a plastic shopping bag taped to the hanger.
 
Wow, that's a good invention too. I usually wait until they land on a wall and go up with a towel and grab them then release them outside. Your idea doesn't require any chairs or ladders. 👍
 
Caught another one last night. I put the trash can in the backseat as usual, but when I got to the release site, the mouse wasn't in the can. I said to myself, "Oh, well, at least it isn't in the house.", and started back home. I was halfway back when a movement caught my eye and I saw in the mouse in the rear view mirror running along the ledge under the back window. I put the car in the garage, but left the doors open.
 
debodun said:
Caught another one last night. I put the trash can in the backseat as usual, but when I got to the release site, the mouse wasn't in the can. I said to myself, "Oh, well, at least it isn't in the house.", and started back home. I was halfway back when a movement caught my eye and I saw in the mouse in the rear view mirror running along the ledge under the back window. I put the car in the garage, but left the doors open.
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Was the car still in the garage this morning?

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I can no longer call my system "no fail". I had two misfires with it this weekend. The plank was tipped, but no mouse in the can. It is either very small, very strong or very clever. I will now have to re-think my design. Maybe a paper towel cardboard tube as the plank?
 
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