Mice - how many ?

[Henry]

As I said in my previous post I put them out to be caught again.

Henry

[Grant]

Obviously, it depends but I took out 5 in 48 hours with 2 classic wooden traps and chocolate. Not seen evidence of any since.

[Andy Dingley]

Depends on how you're putting them in there. - Big Tom & Jerry mallet, or hydraulics ? They should dead-press to about 3g/cm^3

[Steve Walker]

Yep - same here. Some of our local mice have Loyalty Cards.....

[Steve Walker]

If I were a mouse, I'd choose the slim chance of survival.

[Lobster]

Ah but it's not very humane for me having to listen to my kids banging on all weekend about how cruel it is for Dad to kill poor little mousie... so - Dad captures it and re-releases it live; mouse is removed from my property - result Dad happy, kids happy.... Dad still happy.

[Dave Fawthrop]

|Ah but it's not very humane for me having to listen to my kids banging |on all weekend about how cruel it is for Dad to kill poor little |mousie... so - Dad captures it and re-releases it live; mouse is removed |from my property - result Dad happy, kids happy.... Dad still happy.

One of Dad's jobs is to educate the kids about the unpleasant aspects of life.

[Nigel Molesworth]

In doing so you are giving them the antidote to Warfarin. So even if you are not using poison, any that escape your traps will re-visit your neighbours.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember [e-mail] saying something like:

I've tried the super-dooper modern plastic traps with some success, but for consistency I've found the traditional wooden jobs pretty good. The trick is the right bait (I use a sliver of dog chewy treat) and getting the release just right.

It's effective. Got about a dozen of them in the past month. No more for the past week and no sign of them, so I reckon I've accounted for this lot anway.

[Dave Liquorice]

We live capture and release (miles, literally, from any human habitation). Why deprive the local predators of a food source? I like stoats, weasels, the half a dozen or so birds of prey that live around here.

[Andy Dingley]

I've been unimpressed with those. They're just too sensitive - if the mouse knocks them from behind they can go off. This probably makes the mouse more wary of the traps for the future and certainly doesn't catch them.

[Dave Fawthrop]

|On Thu, 02 Feb 2006 22:33:39 +0000, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote: | |>>> (released on the other side of town). |>>

|>> Where they become food for the local predators |> |> |> |> Big deal; | |We live capture and release (miles, literally, from any human |habitation). Why deprive the local predators of a food source? I like |stoats, weasels, the half a dozen or so birds of prey that live around |here.

If I were a mouse with the choice, I would prefer to die in a "Little Nipper" brake back trap. Wham you are dead.

[Dave Liquorice]

A bite, you're dead, Stoats and Weasles take rabbits, a mouse is a mere nibble. Birds of prey are in for a quick kill as well.

It's only well fed domestic cats that play with their "prey" because they don't *need* to kill to live. A wild predator kills to live, it doesn't want to give any prey the chance to escape.

[Mr Fixit]

worked ok with my mice but I had to tie the bait to them as they managed to take the first lot without springing it, not had it once go off with out catching one apart for the time its had me :-)

[Huge]

You've never had foxes, then?