Be Aware Of These Issues When Live-Trapping Mice

Posted on: 30 July 2016

If you tend to have mice in your house over the winter, you might be dreading the return of colder weather. Despite closing up every gap that you can find, the little critters seem to find new ways in constantly. Trapping them can help, but cleaning up after dead mice can become tiresome and rather disgusting. If you've decided to try live-trapping the mice to release them elsewhere, that could help, but there are a few quirks of live-trapping that you need to know about.

Food Baits Can Get Messy

Placing a ball of peanut butter on a snap trap can make you think that using food baits doesn't create that much of a mess -- after all, the mouse barely has time to eat the bait before the trap snaps over the mouse and kills it. But it's different with live traps. These literally trap the mouse in a box, and if the mouse panics, it can run over and through baits like peanut butter. There's not much you can do to control the behavior of a trapped mouse, so be prepared for a sticky situation inside the trap. Then again, it's just food, and not a dead mouse, so it may not seem as bad to you, relatively speaking.

The Type of Mouse Makes a Difference

If your only purpose in using the live trap is to avoid dealing with dead mice (and the contents of their bladders, which are released once the mice are killed), then this might not bother you -- but it could if your purpose is to protect the mice. When you use a live trap, you're supposed to release the mice outside. Yet if the mice you trap are house mice (those used to nesting inside walls) as opposed to wild mice (those used to nesting outside), you could be placing the mice in danger by releasing them outside. Wild mice will survive, but house mice may die unless you release them near another structure that they can run to.

Don't Ignore the Trap

Some live traps are meant to hold more than one mouse. That may lead you to think you have to let the trap sit for a few days, but you should definitely check the trap daily. If a mouse gets caught, you don't want to leave it in the trap. Multiple-mouse traps allow several to be caught in one night, but if even one is caught, you'll need to empty the trap quickly.

You may want to call a mouse-removal or pest control service like Environmental Services Pest Control instead. These companies can remove the mice and the nests from your home and eliminate the need to deal with a trap to begin with. The service people may also be able to help you seal up areas that you didn't realize the mice were getting through.

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