RATS!!!

Classicalcavy

Post   » Fri Apr 26, 2019 7:52 am


I'm with you about the glue traps, sef1268. They are not humane at all. I am thankful that our mice were to smart for them. He threw one across the kitchen. Even though I wanted him gone (preferably, back to the wild) I had to admire him just a bit. As far as I know, we had three. I found one dead on the kitchen floor and another in the laundry room. The third one was set free. Thanks for the info on the trap.

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Fri Apr 26, 2019 6:30 pm


I don't have a problem with exterminating pests but there are humane ways to do it and if it comes down to having to kill the mice to get rid of them, I always choose the humane way. I've had mice in other houses I've lived in and they've caused extensive damage to property and belongings. Some of the things they chewed up are irreplaceable. They also carry infectious diseases. Their urine and feces can be toxic too. My granddaughter is on imunosupressants because of a liver transplant so we cannot have mice in our house. Still, there's no need to be inhumane in getting rid of them.

Classicalcavy

Post   » Sat Apr 27, 2019 12:17 pm


I really hate the idea of harming any animal, even a house mouse. They are just trying to survive but they do carry disease and can do a lot of damage. I have no idea what killed two of the mice and I am glad I got to release the third mouse. On the other hand, I can't afford to have them tearing up the house and spreading disease. It's a rough spot for me to be in and I am thankful there haven't been any more mice.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Sat Apr 27, 2019 12:57 pm


We moved into an old farm house a few years ago (a rental) that turned out to have a major mouse problem that the landlord had failed to mention. I hadn't really been around mice prior to that, and at first tried very hard to catch them in "live" traps and release them elsewhere. I didn't want to kill them as long as I could handle it humanely. However, it quickly became apparent that I was fighting a losing battle, as they were obviously breeding and the mice were soon all over the place. Feces were everywhere, things were getting chewed on and they were getting more and more brazen. Last straw for me was one afternoon when I was taking a nap on the living room sofa and awoke suddenly to a mouse sauntering across my chest. This was war. I bought maybe a dozen of the covered "humane kill" traps that same day, and caught that many or more in the span of just a couple of days. :(

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Sat Apr 27, 2019 9:40 pm


It's never pleasant having to kill any animal, but there are times when you just have to. I'm not willing to risk my family's health to save mice. When it comes down to having to, I do everything I can to do it humanely. I've used glue traps in the past, but I didn't like the fact that the mouse gets stuck to it and wears himself out stuggling to get off of it; only to get stuck worse and die a painful death from exhaustion and/or hunger. A spring trap is instant 99% of the time. Decon pellets are supposed to be humane too. Cats as a deterrent to prevent having to deal with them in the first place is the most ideal way to go.

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RavenShade
Thanks for the Memories

Post   » Mon Apr 29, 2019 11:08 pm


Also, be careful with any kind of poison if you have other pets. I won't use any because our cats have caught the occasional mouse and I wouldn't want to kill my cat, too. Thankfully with the cats we rarely see even bugs.

RomeAndSmores1

Post   » Fri May 10, 2019 12:07 pm


We did end up catching them. There was three, but we used tomcat mice traps. Their last memory was fond of peanut butter before they died. (It happened like at the speed of a blink and they didn’t suffer.)

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Fri May 10, 2019 6:43 pm


I consider spring traps to be humane because the death is instantaneous and painless.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Fri May 10, 2019 11:39 pm


Rats are much larger than mice. How were you able to kill 3 rats with a standard mouse trap?

DonkeyBrainz

Post   » Tue May 14, 2019 9:25 pm


I've had (many) pet mice & rats. They are really sweet and loving. I loved them as much as I love all of my babies, so thinking about killing any rats or mice seems wrong to me. But a couple years ago we started getting rats in our garage, which never happened before, and I had to think about it differently. These rats and mice are different than mine, they aren't pets so they might attack my babies or spread disease. I wouldn't let my dad put poison out because it's dangerous, glue traps are inhumane, live traps aren't efficient when an infestation is overwhelming...the spring traps seemed most humane to me.

We never had rats in our neighborhood until someone new to our area called animal control on our feral cats. A few of us were trying to regulate the population through TNR (trap, neuter, return) but this new person was impatient and just annoyed with the cats in general so she complained. They caught almost all of our cats and the ones who weren't caught ran away after they saw what happened to the others. I freed a few of them. I took one of them in (she ended up not being feral, just an abandoned pet) It's crazy how the whole thing got unbalanced. Now everyone has rats.

I'm not saying I would EVER put a cat outside to deal with rats, that's just how it always was. These cats had been here for generations and they weren't pets, they were wild. I don't believe in "indoor/outdoor" cats. It's far too dangerous. They should only be outside if supervised on a cat harness or in a catio. I'm sure my (pet) cats are the reason we don't have rats in the house. Their presence is enough.

I would trust all of my cats and my dog with my guinea pigs. I trusted them all with my rabbits, rats, mice... They're friends. Most of the cats prefer the company of the pigs to that of the other cats' or the dog. Our rabbit was free-roam and he'd go up to the cats and groom them. I think it's how well you know your pets, at least to some extent. The claw thing is the scariest part of the friendship between the pigs and cats. The one cat who does play "tag" with my piggies never uses her claws. She was raised with a declawed cat and learned to play tap without claws. She kinda punches instead of clawing. I really don't worry about her and the other cats would rather nap next to the pigs than play with them.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Wed May 15, 2019 12:05 pm


DonkeyBrainz has had a good experience with her pets getting along.

Understand that some breeds are always a danger to guinea pigs and our opinion is that any predator animal can be a danger. So precautions are always advised.

RomeAndSmores1

Post   » Wed May 15, 2019 5:08 pm


Yeah they ended up being nice sef. Human memory isn’t all that great and they ended up being mice, but they were big mice.

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