How do i catch a mouse alive??

[MixiMan]

Recently moved into a new home, the complex/neighborhood is scheduled to be torn apart and make place for something new. So it does not meet contemporary housing standards.

Very simple consequence of that fact is that i have a mouse in my house. I kinda like the little fella because he seems to respect my privacy enough to not interrupt me while doing important stuff( He even looks at me once in a while when he travels from his Den to the kitchen before moving on ). Thing is though, he has his home set up in a storage room which is troubling me. They do go Poopie...

Since i am considering him ( Hans ) a roommate, i absolutely don't want to kill him. Especially since his best friend Gerry is living outside in my 3m^2 "Garden".

Question is, how do i catch Hans without hurting him?

[Herald of Doom]

There are special traps that capture mice without killing them. My dad has a lot of them (he has a small 3 man factory producing diet pills made of beer yeast) and they just have a very powerful spring that closes down a trapdoor a safe distance away from the mice and shuts perfectly. You don't want miceblood spraying around in a room near food :p

PS: Before anyone starts worrying, they never caught a single mouse it's just a precaution ;)

[semiiramiis]

While I am bloodthirsty when it comes to the little rodents, a cheap possibility may be to use a fish trap. Take a plastic bottle and cut off the spout end about three, four inches down...so you have what is basically a funnel. Dab your bait of choice on the inside of the topless bottle (i suggest peanut butter) Then put the top...inverted...back on....so that the spout top is now on the inside of the bottle.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/fish_trap.php

Only because the mouse is much smaller than a cichlid, don't cut off the end where the lid is screwed on. (Of course, remove said lid) If it doesn't work..you're not out much. If he's a big one, or its a small bottle you might want to cut a little bit...but not too much.

[MixiMan]

Thought about those kind of traps, but i don't want to waste money. Was thinking of building one myself. The old "Disney cardboard box with piece of cheese and string" type of thing.


I am rhyming without even trying today


Edit: Semi, how can you be Bloodthirsty when it come to mice. They seriously rule. At least Hans does.

As i said in this reply, i am going to try out your trap. Thanks for the idea

[semiiramiis]

I live in a fairly rural area, and every october I get about 6-7 mice. After awhile, I got sick of them. But if you want to save yours...that's fine. Also I suggest if the trap works, put it down again even after you remove Hans. There may be more than one...they all kind of look alike.

[MixiMan]

It seems you did not meet Hans. He dyed his hair. There is only Hans! i hope...

I understand the felling though, if you have a lot of mice you kill them. But somehow i still think this guy rules.

[elsegundo]

make sure you give it enough room to climb up to the spout. and if you also want, you can grease the sides. but they do jump well.

[ahhdamm]

take a peace of paper and a strong rubberband and put it over the top of a jar tight so it's like a drum. take a razer blade and cut a x in the paper but don't ripe the paper, make it still look like a flat surface.
put the jar by hans den where he can climb up to the top of the jar.
use some string and hang some bait over the x. when he goes for the bait he falls through the paper into the jar.

[Memkel]

Hahaha, go Hans! :D

Good luck catching him!

[odinsnephew]

ahhdamm's plan is kind of ok but........being Hans he will overcome all and escape to liberty or live happily ever with Miximan :grin:

Good luck catching the bugger mate and where would you release him? Not just on some street corner I hope?

[MixiMan]

ahhdamm's plan is kind of ok but........being Hans he will overcome all and escape to liberty or live happily ever with Miximan :grin:

Good luck catching the bugger mate and where would you release him? Not just on some street corner I hope?

I have a nice big field of grass nearby with some bushes on the edge. I was thinking of dumping Hans there.

I am afraid that Hans will eat his way out of every contraption i will make, but at least it'll keep me busy :P

[moopy]

A few things... first- mice don't have sphincters, so they just poo on the go- the main reason why having them running about is bad. They may be cute and fluffy, but they're a health risk.

Secondly.. humane traps are easily available at a hardware store, they aren'y expensive. Mice aren't (contrary to the cartoons) too into cheese. Try fruit and nut chocolate. Leave the trap parallel to (and up against) the skirting board or similar- a route the mouse is likely to use as a run.

Finally, when you do release the mouse- do so at least half a mile from your home. They're more than capable of finding their way back otherwise. If you know of a "church" of scientology building near you, this is ideal.

[tylrdiablos]

My mum's house has mice too. I blame their hugely overgrown garden.
It honestly looks like something out of a Vietnam film.


I read that one of the best methods is to put tempting food at the bottom of a propped up glass jar.
The mouse crawls in, eats the food and cannot crawl out because it can't grip the glass.

Good bait to use is bacon + peanut butter (apparently!)

I've offered to set up this method in my mum's place but they stick to using spring-loaded traps that the mice get the better of. (90% of the time. The other 10% you're just left with a horrible mess to clean up.)

I figure if I ever do catch the mouse then I have 3 options:
1: Keep it as a pet.
2: Give it to my 2 cats to enjoy.
3: Take it to my friend's house for his snakes to enjoy.

I like pets so it'll probably be option 1 ;)

[surodat]

Oh my god. "Give it to my 2 cats to enjoy."

I had a kitty that would keep my student apartment free of mice. But she wouldn't eat them. She would just bat them around. I'd wake up in the morning and find a mouse with four broken legs trying to get away from a cat that was batting it up and down the hall... :(

But effective pest control....

[MixiMan]

My first idea was actually to get a cat, not allowed where i live. So that idea went out the door.

Spring loaded traps are what most people use, they are effective but as pointed out, potentially cause big messes. I say no to that. Because i have to clean the mess up.

Naturally the catching it alive idea emerged. Actually like it because it keeps Hans alive.


I have tried a big glass jar, tilted up with a ramp and some peanut chocolate thingy inside. Seems Hans and treat got out of the Jar...
Haven't seen him in 4 days now, so maybe he went out with the nice weather past days. Might also have to do something with me being extremely hungover ( nice weather has it's downsides when you think about it ).

Hope he is gone, don't want to think about the mess those buggers made once they decide they found a new home.

Will try an enhanced version of the glass Jar if i see Hans again. Maybe with some small land mine. The glass should contain the mess^^ or make a bigger one....

[elsegundo]

some vaseline inside the jar will help with climbers. but you might also want to conside the fact that mice can jump pretty high for their size.

[Shortall]

Take a plastic pop bottle and cut off the top at about where the bottle just gets to its largest. Now turn the top that you cut off around put it back in the bottle and tape it on. Place bait inside and it should keep em inside when they get it.

It's possible for the mouse to get out but very unlikely. He shouldn't be able to jump accurately enough and get a grip to get back through the hole he just climbed through.