Marg's Man
Member
Seriously folks, the old style 'break back' trap is still the most ecologically sound (no poisons, etc) and humane way of getting rid of rats and mice.
After cleaning away the suffering bodies of some caught by those @#$%! 'humane' sticky traps for an elderly neighbour I swore they would never be used by me and mine EVER. The poor things (there were three) were effectively glued down. One had chewed its own leg off in attempt to escape, another was suffocating slowly as the material was wrapped around its muzzle so it couldn't breathe and the third was just slowly dying of dehydration because none of them could get to water. I don't like pest rodents and will kill them (cleanly) without a qualm but there is no way I will willingly inflict this sort of suffering on them. I also have a horror of poisons because I have seen the suffering the various poisons cause. These are even worse than the sticky traps but I spare the more squeamish among you the details.
The old style trap is not 100% effective but I'll go with the 95+% success rate I get my way over these other methods of torture before a slow death, even for vermin. One last note, bait it by rubbing the trigger with peanut butter. It doesn't need much and if they have to push a bit to get the peanut butter off it is more likely to trigger properly and avoid a painful glancing blow.
Marg's Man
After cleaning away the suffering bodies of some caught by those @#$%! 'humane' sticky traps for an elderly neighbour I swore they would never be used by me and mine EVER. The poor things (there were three) were effectively glued down. One had chewed its own leg off in attempt to escape, another was suffocating slowly as the material was wrapped around its muzzle so it couldn't breathe and the third was just slowly dying of dehydration because none of them could get to water. I don't like pest rodents and will kill them (cleanly) without a qualm but there is no way I will willingly inflict this sort of suffering on them. I also have a horror of poisons because I have seen the suffering the various poisons cause. These are even worse than the sticky traps but I spare the more squeamish among you the details.
The old style trap is not 100% effective but I'll go with the 95+% success rate I get my way over these other methods of torture before a slow death, even for vermin. One last note, bait it by rubbing the trigger with peanut butter. It doesn't need much and if they have to push a bit to get the peanut butter off it is more likely to trigger properly and avoid a painful glancing blow.
Marg's Man