h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You will have heard the expression - "build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a pathway to your door". I don't see any pathways being beaten in relation to catching mice.

The plain old spring loaded mousetrap was invented over a hundred years ago, and no one has yet come up with anything better. It is simple, effective and to a degree, humane.

If you are going to use poison, do the same as they do with rats. Put it inside a box with a one way-door so that one the mouse is in, it can't get out. However, I suspect that mice are a little smarter than rats and wont go into something it is not sure it can get out of.

Donald

If you can get the mouse inside a box to begin with, why use the poison?

Quite. But thats what they do with rats - stops them wandering off and dying in some hole where they cannot be found. Which is what makes me think mice are smarter than rats.

Donald

We have caught mice by trapping them in a box. And then released them in the forest.

>> And then released them in the forest <<

...Where they live a short life of terror before being snapped up by an owl.

RTC

Yeah, I know. But you still sleep better at night

As for mouse traps not having improved in a hundred years, what about the Claymore? Of course the weight sensitivity would need to be changed, but otherwise it works fine.

Yeah right, they also blow childrens legs off.

Perhaps Xanatic means a Scotish sword.

Aye

One more mouse was caught yesterday but it was a tiny thing – still no sign of the alpha mice that have been running around. I was thinking of changing the variety of cheese, can anyone recommend any? (I’ve currently been using a mouldy bit that I found at the back of my fridge...)

I’m not sure whether its rats or mice that are smarter but rats are definitely more evil. My sister once had a tiny basement flat in Woodgreen and in the end she had to tape the door shut because the rats in the garden kept on trying to find a way in... I feel guilty when a mouse dies but I think I could happily kill rats all day and still sleep like a baby

bye

And thus we do not have Mickey Rat...

Go with the chunk of Mars bar!

Aye, and the only rat that ever made it into show bussiness didn't last very long.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1999/06/99/bbc_after_birt/378215.stm

Xanatic, I agree that the dried plaster death is a cruel one for a mouse. However normal poison is a nasty death too - it takes some time for the mouse to die (in rats it can be up to several days). In the meantime they are bleeding to death internally. People who sell poison say that this isn't painful, but I've seen a mouse dying from posion and it wasn't having a fun time.

I think people often think that poision is quick, but any poison that kills an animal quickly is not available to the general population (at least not in NZ).

kea.

We had some rat traps which was a metal box with a small hole in it, and poison inside. This meant that households pets weren't able to get to the poison. Except the ones that are meant to be kept in cages anyway. So the poison could probably be stronger.

I say get a python.

In NZ poison like cyanide (which kills possums within a minute) is available only to people who have successfully applied for a licence. I think this is as much about the handling and disposal of the poison (you have to know what you are doing) as it is about the actual killing of the animal.

Python . I think I'd rather live with a . I never had mice in the house here when I had a cat living here too.

My method of capture is, effective,does not harm the mouse and the procedure for dispatching them is a painless one favoured by many humans who shoose to cash in their chips.

Its your's for the paltry price of a name change.

Someone probably already said this but:
Get a cat!
cheers
ford