What would you have done? :( Mouse woe

[Nezzy]

[QUOTE=csaper58;8206041]
Rubber band the trap to a heavy rock, then drop the whole thing in a big bucket of water.

Or, put mouse/trap in a zip bag and put in the freezer for a day or two.

I probably would have released it too.[/QUOTE]

NOO!!! it has had enough torture it needs a quick death. make it FAST. The stomping thing is gross but effective. the shovel thing is also a good FAST death.

Glue traps are the most torturous things ever. saw a kitten that had gotten caught in one and died before anyone found it.

What is difficult for YOU, is easier for the suffering creature. Please don’t drown or otherwise slow the death of a suffering creature.

[sorrelfilly721]

Have you tried those things that plug into the wall and make a constant sound? We had mice all over the place and plugged one of those buggers in - magic, no more meeses.

[billiebob]

Usually my terrier will take care of a live mouse caught in a trap. He doesn’t play with it like the cats or the big dog will, so it’s a quick end. Otherwise I’ll use a shovel. I can’t stand to see an animal suffer needlessly. The spade method is what we use to dispatch rattlers around here, so that would work.

Funny story about the terrier and mice–a few weeks ago I let him into the basement and told him to “bring me a mouse.” Not two minutes later he brought a mouse (dead in a trap) upstairs into the bathroom where I was. Love my smart little guy!

ETA those sonic rodent deterrents really do work well. I have a battery operated one in my pickup.

[Appsolute]

Yep - I now have a terrier that loves to “dispatch” little problems like this.

I don’t blame you OP - I really wuss out on the thought of stomping it etc. But I CAN do it with a tool - a shovel etc - something with a long handle!!

Oh man, my good friend lives DEEP in the woods - constantly battling mice etc. He “stomps” them - the other day he mentioned that he woke up groggy, was headed to the bathroom, when he saw a little mouse - and instinctively “stomped” it - only he forgot that he wasn’t wearing shoes!!! :dead:

[Mallard]

[QUOTE=LauraKY;8206093]
This is going to sound horrible, but if I’m wearing boots and the cats let one go, I stomp on them. It’s instantaneous. The baby rabbit I took away from the cat with paralyzed hind legs? I hit it with a shovel. Again, instantaneous.[/QUOTE]

Yup. Heavy boots.

[pj1]

[QUOTE=HungarianHippo;8206052]
OP, next time you have one that is killed in the trap, you could practice what you’d do. Will still feel horrible and gross, but you’ll at least get over how the mechanics of it would work.

Yes, you should have done it differently but don’t beat yourself up endlessly. Can almost guarantee he wasn’t out there for long–would have been picked up by an owl or other predator pretty quickly.[/QUOTE]

I think the practice runs are a good idea. I’m going to do that.
Also hope that you are right about him/her being picked up last night. We do have lots of roaming hunters around here including different kinds of owls.

[Kachina]

I use live traps. They are AWESOME! Then I take them to the way back of the property and release into some good cover. When I notice there’s a problem inside or in the feed room, I sometimes can catch as many as three a day for a few days and then no more problem for quite a while, so I know that they’re not making their way back. They have them at Home Depot and Lowe’s. It’s really nice that you care enough to try to sort it out.

[workin_onit]

I would be finding the holes in my house and plugging them.

[tucktaway]

If he was mortally wounded – in a bag, over the tailpipe…

[Wonders12]

[QUOTE=Appsolute;8206280]
Oh man, my good friend lives DEEP in the woods - constantly battling mice etc. He “stomps” them - the other day he mentioned that he woke up groggy, was headed to the bathroom, when he saw a little mouse - and instinctively “stomped” it - only he forgot that he wasn’t wearing shoes!!! :dead:[/QUOTE]

:eek::disgust::dead:

[SLW]

OP- I feel your pain. Mr. SLW does the deed and ask for forgiveness from above.

OTOH, a couple winters ago I saw a mouse in the kitchen early one evening. Before we went to bed one of the cats had caught and killed the mouse. Yeah, sweet dreams ahead for me. I went to bed and the aforementioned cat was curled up on the foot of our bed where she often sleeps. Not 45 seconds after I turned off the bedside light the kitty hopped off the bed, scurried across the floor then hopped up on the bed. I thought “no, no fricking way.” I turned on the bedside table light and there she was, right at my knees with a live mouse in her mouth. We got the mouse from her and finally went to sleep. Moral of the story- cats DO bring their bounty to show the master.

[Ambitious_Kate]

I was reminded by this thread of a mouse poem I wrote some years ago, if nobody minds. Such sad ends for mouses.

Spring Mouse

Spring, which comes at last to us all
has its starts and stops
the early lilies cropped by deer
the new grasses flooded away in rivulets
the sparrows’ mangling of blue-bird chicks.

And on the cool barn floor
four mouselets newly un-blind
have gathered round their mother
(stiff these some-odd days, surely) and
too far-gone for saving
paddle the air and bleat
a poor way to go
after a fine mouse start.

Poison might have done her in.
I bristle, ticking off fool neighbors
who might have set it out risking
pets and grandchildren and
curious small things, but no,
the mouslets had fared well enough for a while
(but for want of a mousely nurse)
and no convulsions belie their dam’s repose.

She turns over on my shovel showing an angry red teat
her back leg pulled up against her belly.
A cow or a mare would have had a salve and a pill
but Mouses live or die by nature’s whim and chance
on a lovely spring morning
her kits in tow
who will never see
the best of spring’s starts
the one now hurrying
on into summer.

@2004 Cheryl Higgins

[leaf]

OP,
I appreciate your kind heart.
What has worked well for me, is to put the mouse, trap and all, in a bag. Then Whack the bag against a hard surface, it’s an instant death. Look in the bag if you need to, but the mouse is assuredly dead. By already being in the bag, you don’t have to handle it anymore.
You’ll have to buy more traps though.

I have a battery powered rat zapper now and it works great on mice.

[JanM]

I always put the traps side by side, in pairs. That way if the mouse doesn’t die instantly, the other trap kills them. It’s never failed me.

[naynay117]

Carbon Monoxide is a very humane death…it just goes to sleep. A garbage bag and a vehicle tail pipe. It is a very useful euthanasia for any small animal or bird.

[Nezzy]

[QUOTE=naynay117;8206897]
Carbon Monoxide is a very humane death…it just goes to sleep. A garbage bag and a vehicle tail pipe. It is a very useful euthanasia for any small animal or bird.[/QUOTE]

but it’s not instant. There are many methods here that are kinder.

[ReSomething]

Ugh glue traps. We had them at work and I didn’t know it till I found it with occupant. I folded it up and yep, stomped it good and hard, and then tossed out every one of those traps I found.

DH does the deed most of the time, otherwise into a paper bag, turn upside down on hard surface like concrete, and stomp. Poor things.

[Maythehorsebewithme]

When I worked in a lab, many many moons ago, and we had to kill a mouse we were taught to lay a pencil across the back of its neck, grab the tail and yank quickly upward. Broke the neck. Very quick.

[vxf111]

Smashing with a shovel. Large surface are so hard to miss. Quick. You don’t have to get close to the mouse or see the death.