We have a mouse problem (for the first time in the whole 4 1/2 years that we've lived here BTW) and I'm thinking of buying some poison to get it done and over with.

I love almost all animals, but mice are not on that list. They are gross, messy, and poop EVERYWHERE!!!!!!

Is it wrong to poison them and just want to get rid of them? I suddenly am feeling like a horrible person for wanting to get them outta here.

I know I could live trap them, but I would feel guilty releasing them out in the country, only to intrude another person's home, allowing them to go on their destructive poopy rampage elsewhere.

Oh my conscious is killing me here.

Do you have a park or anything similar nearby? I had mice in my old apartment and was able to live trap them and release them into a local (big) park where I thought they'd have ample food and not end up in someone's house. I knew our mice went back and forth from apartment to apartment and another resident had called an exterminator, so it was either catch and release or they were dead.
It's totally reasonable to want to just get rid of them and...uck...I totally hear you on the poop. If it's possible, barricade every single possible food item and the mice will usually let you be and move onto where they can find food. Despite the grossness of having mice and thier poop, I couldn't bear to kill them...especially since I gave them names. I'm so weird.

Mice are nice.
But not in my house & around my children.
I had an infestation once & had to resort to poison.
I used 'humane' traps but there were too many & poisoning did get rid of them.
If u only have a few mice humane traps are great & I wouldn't worry about where you release them as they breed like, well mice!
I hate to kill any creature but dangerous pests or vermin I will not live with in my house. The rest of the world is theirs but I need to keep my house clean & danger free as a priority, even if that means death (as a last resort) I'm afraid.

You can try to trap them in a large pot with vertical sides or something similar by putting something tasty in the bottom and let them out somewhere where they won't cause trouble. You're right to want to get rid of them, though. Often times that feces contains bacteria or viruses that can become airborne and are harmful to humans.

:sweat:

Just because you don't like them doesn't mean that they deserve to die. I also don't think that they're gross and messy. They go to great lengths to keep themselves and their little homes clean.

Try to use live traps. You might have to get A LOT, because they do reproduce quickly, but maybe you can get them in bulk. Meanwhile, don't give them any incentive to stay. Make sure that there aren't any crumbs for them to eat anywhere. Also, try and figure out how they got inside in the first place and block that off. If a hole is big enough for their head, they can get through. We often get a lot of mice around our house because we feed birds, and mice love birdseed. If you have birdfeeders you should consider moving them further away.

It just seems strange to be that people are so quick to poison mice. Would you poison dogs if they were invading your property, or would you try and capture them and get them out?

Mice just have a bad rep. :(

Animals' right to life shouldn't depend on their species, nor should your compassion. Live traps are the way to go.

Poison is one of the worst ways to get rid of mice, it causes them to die slowly over a long period of time. Additionally, it could pose a risk to other animals.

My mother once had a mouse in her house. It was only a single mouse which entered through a cracked basement window pane.

It fell into a small trash can at least twice. The first time my mother noticed, her black lab got to the garbage can before she did. The lab carefully lifted the mouse out and placed it back on the floor. :D The mouse, being rather rude, did not stick around to play with the lab. Instead it scurried off. Such are the ways of mice, who really need to read more Miss Manners.

The second time that she noticed the mouse in the garbage, she was able to trap it an release it in a field about a mile away. My mom tries to be nice to animals. :up:

There's got to be a place to release the little buggers. You can get repeating humane traps from some hardware stores (I've seen them at Osh). They really do work, but you have to check them regularly as the trapped mice need to be released before they starve or eat each other. Oddly, the last time we used traps, we were only able to catch mice in the one trap that had previously held mice - the other two we used were brand new and despite being placed right next to the older one, caught nothing.

If you can't use a humane trap, I think a quick-death from a spring trap is preferable to a slow painful death from a glue trap or poison.

I personally will not kill any animal if I can avoid it, so I would go humane traps. If you don't want to buy them you can fill a trash can with something really tasty and arrange a board or something so the mice can jump in but not get out, and then release then into a park or something, as others have said. However, you unknowingly invited them in with food, shelter, etc. so you'll have to find out where they're coming from and what they're eating to get rid of them for good. I would try to find glass or metal containers for all food, keep crumbs swept up, take the garbage out every night, etc. to make sure they stay gone.

Just because you don't like them doesn't mean that they deserve to die. I also don't think that they're gross and messy. They go to great lengths to keep themselves and their little homes clean.

Try to use live traps. You might have to get A LOT, because they do reproduce quickly, but maybe you can get them in bulk. Meanwhile, don't give them any incentive to stay. Make sure that there aren't any crumbs for them to eat anywhere. Also, try and figure out how they got inside in the first place and block that off. If a hole is big enough for their head, they can get through. We often get a lot of mice around our house because we feed birds, and mice love birdseed. If you have birdfeeders you should consider moving them further away.

It just seems strange to be that people are so quick to poison mice. Would you poison dogs if they were invading your property, or would you try and capture them and get them out?

Mice just have a bad rep. :(

Mice cause a lot of structural damage.

I guess I'm not sure why they're suddenly coming around after being here for 4 1/2 years. The only thing I can think of is that something got disturbed when our neighbors (we live in a duplex) moved out, and then the new one moved in.

I put all food away each and every night, there are no crumbs laying around, and I've been vacuuming and spraying Lysol like it's going out of style. So as you can see, I'm at my wits end with this.

And when you're the one cleaning up their poo every morning/having to sanitize everything REPEATEDLY, and worrying about your child getting sick from their crap, then you can condemn me for wanting them dead or at very least gone. And yes, they are very destructive and poopy little animals.

Well I've heard that poison is pretty much the meanest way to kill them.

One more thing. In your original post YOU asked:


Is it wrong to poison them and just want to get rid of them?


YOU asked what people thought. If you didn't want answers contrary to what it seems you wanted to hear, you shouldn't have posed the question. Not to mention that this is an animal rights and welfare forum. Poisoning mice doesn't really fall under either category.

I never said I was definately going to poison them, and yes, I did ask for opinions. I don't, however, like to feel like I'm being ganged up on or made to feel like I'm a horrible person for wanting these creatures gone out of my home.

I've heard there are ultrasound devices that irritate mice enough to make them leave, but some say they don't work well. Mice are not supposed to like the odor of peppermint (or was it spearmint?) You might want to do a Google search on some of those terms.

I'm against "using" an actual cat, because that is pretty lethal and painful too, but I've heard that the mere smell of a cat is pretty efficient. As strange as it sounds, what I would do is maybe borrow a cat litter box from some cat-owner I know and temporarily put it in some appropriate place, that could do the trick.

I never said I was definately going to poison them, and yes, I did ask for opinions. I don't, however, like to feel like I'm being ganged up on or made to feel like I'm a horrible person for wanting these creatures gone out of my home.

And I didn't say you are definitely going to poison them.

Just because you posted this on a vegetarian board, and all the respondants tend to reply with those values in mind, doesn't mean you are being ganged up on. I'm sure if you went to a hunting board or something they would be unanimous in telling you to go ahead and use the poisons.

And who said you're a horrible person?

One more thing. In your original post YOU asked:




YOU asked what people thought. If you didn't want answers contrary to what it seems you wanted to hear, you shouldn't have posed the question. Not to mention that this is an animal rights and welfare forum. Poisoning mice doesn't really fall under either category.


Good point.

Maybe s/he wanted a spanking or something. :p I'm sure a few people on this forum poison mice without posting about it.

Good point.

Maybe s/he wanted a spanking or something. :p I'm sure a few people on this forum poison mice without posting about it.

Well, ultimately each of us has to live with our own actions, right? It's not up to VB members to vindicate each other. :)

Because the mice lived here before we did, we try to figure out how to avoid conditions that encourage them to move into the buildings, and when necessary, live trap them (which hasn't been so successful). We did dead trap a couple before we decided it was wrong for us to do that. They mainly chew on my husband's vintage car, which makes him very angry, but he found if he leaves a package of kleenex in there, they tend to chew that up. But they still make nests in his car, except now they aren't made from his car.

Of the dead trapping methods, old fashioned snap traps are more humane than sticky traps. Sticky traps are horribly cruel.

Yeah, a spanking. Ha ha. *places hands over buttcheeks, giving my best "I'm so amused" look*

We're getting a cat from MIL to take care of the problem. Hopefully kitty will scare them all away, and I'll be able to avoid poisoning them, thus clearing my conscious, and avoiding be damned to hell by everyone here.

Meatless only licks.. I don't think she spanks.

A friend of mine has the same problem. She doesn't want to poison either. Soo I suggested in the "natural order" of things wouldn't a cat be it's natural predator? Also in thinking that it would give the mouse a choice to vacate the premises if it avoid's getting caught first. What do you think?

A friend of mine has the same problem. She doesn't want to poison either. Soo I suggested in the "natural order" of things wouldn't a cat be it's natural predator? Also in thinking that it would give the mouse a choice to vacate the premises if it avoid's getting caught first. What do you think?Does the mouse care about a "natural order"? I would be considering first and foremost the fate of the mouse.