What are your thoughts on glue traps?

[Fargus]

We were having mouse problems in the office and management had the delightful idea of setting up glue traps. One which was right under my desk. One morning I came in and found a mouse stuck on one of them, it was alive - but in such a very bad state. One of his hind legs were twisted/broken, his belly skin was partially torn off and he was actually in the process of gnawing on a limb in an attempt to escape. The poor thing must have been stuck all night, it looked like it was in an incredible amount of pain. I can't believe *this* is an acceptable way to kill something, to force it to maim itself and starve to death - it's a level of torture you'd expect from medieval times. So quite rightly I was upset and a little pissed at the situation.

A co-worker (who is an asshole) suggested I just throw it in the dumpster downstairs. What, so it continues to suffer like that? No way. It's one thing killing a pest, it's another to intentionally let an animal suffer like that, so I'd have no word of it. I had to put the trap in a plastic bag, tie it up and slam the mouse very hard with the bottom of my thermos. Better an instant death like this then being discarded like a piece of rubbish to die agonisingly. After this was done, I went to management and had a word - thankfully, they agreed and replaced the traps with snappy ones. Had they not have, I probably would have sabotaged the glue traps until they replaced them.

I never really gave such traps much thought until then. Now, I absolutely despise glue traps with a passion and plead/discourage people not to use them. They're unnecessarily cruel - actually, "cruel" is quite the understatement here. They're just plain evil. I'll never understand why people have to be such jerks when it comes to such things, making the death of something as agonising as possible when traps exist to instantly kill the little buggers. Maybe it's because people think "they're just mice", but it doesn't make it right to kill something like that IMO. When killing an animal, it shouldn't be tortured to death, it should be killed as painlessly as possible.

Have absolutely no problems with killing mice, or any pest animal - just that method, to me, lacks humanity.

 

[Starnerf]

Glue traps are much less dangerous to humans and pets than snap traps or poison. They are pretty cruel to the mice, but if you check them often enough you can prevent that and give them a quicker death.

 

[Fargus]

A snap trap should not be so readily accessible, or in a bait station. In fact, I would have assumed bait stations were the norm for stuff like poison, designed so that only a small rodent can get to it.

Sadly though, they are used usually as "set and forget" traps - the typical person who will get one will most likely not be consistently monitoring them (ie overnight).

 

[Metzeten]

Its just a fact that alot of pest control methods are also cruel. If you would rather, have an office filled with mouse poo.
While it does sound pretty nasty what that mouse was doing, snap traps aren't much better, and poison runs the risk of simply replacing dying mice in known places to dead decomposing mice somewhere you can't see.

The only way to not have to use any of these options is to mouse proof the building, (A difficult task) then clear out the existing problem, which still involves killing them because asking rodents nicely rarely works.

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

They make humane traps where it doesn't actually kill the mouse, you just let him go outside.

 

[Cavan]

I live close enough to the countryside that I don't have to kill things that don't have to be killed, and I enjoy that, although walking or driving miles out into the countryside to deposit the thing can be a little time consuming it feels better then just killing it. Before you say it, yes I know that house mice arn't guaranteed or even that likely to survive out in the countryside but giving them the chance is as fair as I can be to the thing.

Traps are designed to be checked at least every 2 hours, do not leave them out overnight unless it is something that will kill the animal instantly like poison, even the spring based traps need to be checked because they don't always kill the thing.

I also do not have any serious issue with killing things, i've had to end the lives of a few birds caught by my dogs because they were in a bad state, not so much my latest dogs though .

I just like an excuse to go walking and fail to see the need to kill things for existing.

 

[Capt. Crankypants]

They make humane traps where it doesn't actually kill the mouse, you just let him go outside.

This

Yep, little bent plastic tube. Mouse goes in, tips the tube, lid closes, congratulations, you have catched a mousey (yay) =D

 

[Thaluikhain]

Glue traps are restricted in certain places because of this.

Spoiler: more of PETA's bizarre fetish for half naked women

 

[Fargus]

If you would rather, have an office filled with mouse poo.

While it does sound pretty nasty what that mouse was doing, snap traps aren't much better

No, I wouldn't rather have that. But the thing is, it's not really necessary causing that much suffering to something. And snap traps are much better on a humane standpoint - most of the time the little bugger won't know what hit it, resulting in an instant death. I don't know about you, but that seems a lot more merciful than being stuck in superglue, scared out of your wits and pretty much ripping yourself apart (if not starving to death because you can't move).

 

[Cavan]

I'd like to point out that if you catch a mouse it can make its way several miles back to your house, or just into somebody else's if you do it to close to anywhere like that, in the kinda places where people live it's not always an option.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Use those devices used in ecological surveys. Food inside, mouse goes in, door closes, mouse inside with food. Shave mouse if ecologist.

 

[Zaik]

I always assumed glue traps were some really sheltered person's idea of a more humane trap. Like they thought that it would just wait there calmly once it got stuck for someone to come and take care of it.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Don't hit it with your thermos! that'll ruin its vacuum so it won't retain heat properly!

Yeah, glue traps are awful, we had a mouse in our kitchen, and dad put down a glue trap, it got caught in it in the middle of the night, he had to put it in a plastic bag and smack it off stuff in the backyard till it stopped screaming. Humane it was not.

EDIT: Accidentally wrote traps were aweful instead of awful. That typo would change the pace of my comment rather drastically.

 

[Fargus]

Though if I'm honest the glue boards are more humane than what a cat does to the mouse. But the cat is soft and fuzzy and adorable and pettable and all that, so it balances out.

Humane pertains to the actions of human beings. A cat can't be inhumane or humane because it isn't... well, human. They lack the intelligence to recognise concepts like morality, or the suffering of other living beings. Usually cats will play with their prey if they are overfed and bored, or if they are teaching their kittens how to hunt. I don't really think there's any intentional sadism in play here.

 

[Boba Frag]

I quite agree with you. My cat got stuck on one of those, and while the end result was more humourous than anything like you described (she was fine, no injuries and had to get some of her fur shaved off- which has grown back exactly the same), that sounds horrible.

I don't care to recount the amount of times I've seen still twitching mice or birds being cruelly toyed with by my cat, but she's an animal. She's just acting on instinct.

Mice are a pest, though, so usually I just leave her do her thing. I don't like when she draws it out, though. Sometimes I've shooed her away to let them escape as best they can.

There are more humane traps available, I think. Ones where the mouse is captured as opposed to killed, although the glue traps you described sound unnecessarily cruel.

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

Yeah, I don't approve of glue traps, unless nothing else is working.

They make humane traps where it doesn't actually kill the mouse, you just let him go outside.

You know I have tried three models of those when I had mice. Damn mice either didn't go in them, or found ways to eat the bait and get out. Maybe I just had smart mice...

I switched to more traditional snack traps and the mousies started dying.

The 2nd time I had mouse issues a few years ago was coincidentally when I got a new kitten. About the same time the kitty turned 3 or 4 months old the mouse problem just disappeared on its own. Good kitty...crunch crunch crunch.

As much as I love kittens, I don't think I could do that. I'm kind of a pansy when it comes to killing things, even bugs and spiders. I only had one mouse loose in my house. He ran and tried to hide in a shoe that was sitting nearby, so I just took it outside, and let him continue to live his life.

Seriously, I wouldn't even be able to eat meat if it weren't for the fact that honey mustard chicken is the greatest thing ever.

 

[Woodsey]

That's pretty sick.

I'm sure, as someone else has said, you can get traps that don't harm the animal.

 

[PurplePlatypus]

Well they trap things alright but they neither leave the small rodents in a good state to be released nor do they kill them. Which makes them a bit shitty if you want one of them outcomes.