CassidyAce
Senior Retro Guru
Glue traps are now illegal in the UK (except for use by professional pest controllers with a licence).
Getting rid of a mouse
- Thread starter Canuk
- Start date
Great to hear. They are still widely available on Amazon UK though.
Iwasgoodonce
Old School Grand Master
We had a rat in the loft. It sounded like it was wearing very large work boots. Our wildlife trail camera confirmed that it was indeed Roland. Being a limp wristed vegetarian, I thought that leaving a strongly worded letter up there should do the trick. No, Roland either didn’t or couldn’t read it. Next, I set a series of live capture traps baited with various thing including pork scratching (Black Country rat) and various chocolate bars. He ignored them all. By this time he had got to building a nest full of crap he had got from outside. Mostly cherry pips as well as offerings from the live capture traps (git) plus he was starting to wreck things.
My kids didn’t want him being murdered. My son was especially vocal on this until I pointed out that they can and will chew cables including the Ethernet cable supplying internet to his room. “The bugger has to die” was his new war cry. Kids today. So easily swayed.
We moved reluctantly to Murder/Death/Kill mode. I will not use poison and as mentioned, glue traps are just horrible. Rat sized snap traps seemed the way to go. Tests on a range of vegetables confirmed their effectiveness and horrified my poor daughter.
Roland had probed himself intelligent apart from him ignoring the strongly worded letter so I wore gloves when handling and baiting the traps to avoid scent.
After about a week of them being set, I heard one go off one night. RIP Rolland. It was the piece of Snickers bar smothered in M & S palm oil free chocolate spread that proved his downfall. There was no sounds after the trap went off. It was instant I think. The cheaper the trap, the more violent it seemed to be. They scared the willies out of me.
Sorry about the long post. It is cheaper than therapy.
My kids didn’t want him being murdered. My son was especially vocal on this until I pointed out that they can and will chew cables including the Ethernet cable supplying internet to his room. “The bugger has to die” was his new war cry. Kids today. So easily swayed.
We moved reluctantly to Murder/Death/Kill mode. I will not use poison and as mentioned, glue traps are just horrible. Rat sized snap traps seemed the way to go. Tests on a range of vegetables confirmed their effectiveness and horrified my poor daughter.
Roland had probed himself intelligent apart from him ignoring the strongly worded letter so I wore gloves when handling and baiting the traps to avoid scent.
After about a week of them being set, I heard one go off one night. RIP Rolland. It was the piece of Snickers bar smothered in M & S palm oil free chocolate spread that proved his downfall. There was no sounds after the trap went off. It was instant I think. The cheaper the trap, the more violent it seemed to be. They scared the willies out of me.
Sorry about the long post. It is cheaper than therapy.
CassidyAce
Senior Retro Guru
Thank you for pointing that out. I've reported the issue to Amazon UK and wait to see what, if anything, is done about it. I'm not holding my breath.
Clearly a middle class rat of some sophistication. Inclined to be ethically responsible in its food choices, but easily swayed by the prospect of a cheap and nasty sugar rush. Has anyone tried organic vegan pesto?
I reported one listing that was still heavy on the mice trapping marketing, most of the rest seemed to have pivoted to focussing on insect control (still bloody cruel). Ebay is even worse. I cannot find a contact point though.
edit: you can report each listing to eBay. In fairness, they are removing them quickly!
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I thought about humane traps for about 1 day. Once the thing had chewed through my favourite properly expensive rucksack, bit through the cable and light fitting in the garage (so it could more easily get in) and run up and down the dry walls next to our bedroom from 2am-6, I too got into the murder mode.
If you've ever had rodents you'll know exactly what I mean. My advice to anyone is stop it quickly, if you catch and release I've heard that can find their way back up to 10 miles no problem. Remove any potential food source inside (and outside) your house, religious wipe down all surfaces, drain any standing water, put the cover down on the bog and sooner or later they'll go for the traps. Once you hear that snap, you'll relax again.
Goodbye Mr mouse
If you've ever had rodents you'll know exactly what I mean. My advice to anyone is stop it quickly, if you catch and release I've heard that can find their way back up to 10 miles no problem. Remove any potential food source inside (and outside) your house, religious wipe down all surfaces, drain any standing water, put the cover down on the bog and sooner or later they'll go for the traps. Once you hear that snap, you'll relax again.
Goodbye Mr mouse
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Our repast was a brief one.
Iwasgoodonce
Old School Grand Master
I actually bought one when we caught a couple of the ratty sods raiding the bird food and hedgehog stuff. Before I could even unlimber it, the many cats in the neighbourhood caught the rats. Another chunk of money gone!
