Marco.org

Dear Christine, my wonderful sister:

Poison and glue traps are both very terrible ideas. The most humane and practical way to trap mice (assuming you’re not going to go to the ridiculous lengths to remove them but also keep them alive) is a simple, old-fashioned snap trap. It’s the only way that doesn’t involve a slow, horrible end (or the impulse to chew off limbs) — and the mouse doesn’t wander away and hide somewhere inconvenient to die, leaving you with a fun game of “find the source of that odd smell”.

I recognize that snap traps aren’t desirable to look at or dispose of after they’ve worked. The fine designers at D-CON realized that too, so they developed this wonderful covered variety. My nearest huge grocery store sells them — I bet yours does, too. It says “reusable”, but that’s optional. I’m perfectly fine buying a new one each time.

My neighbors have a mouse problem. And the mice occasionally walk through our kitchen on the way to the neighbor’s place. In the last 2 years, I’ve caught about 10 mice with these. They’re remarkably consistent.

1. Bait with peanut butter blob, close lid, and set on the floor in front of the stove.
2. Turn the light off and go in another room for a while.
3. (WHACK)
4. You’ll only see part of the tail sticking out. Pick up the trap by the front (nowhere near the tail) and dispose.

The delay between steps 2 and 3 is never more than a day. Once, it was only 20 minutes. If you wake up the next morning and haven’t caught it yet, it probably left to your neighbor’s warmer kitchen. If you want to leave the trap out longer, or want to re-set it after a while of it not being in use, put fresh peanut butter inside.

Love,
Marco