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aemeijers

wrote:
I use a live trap emptied at least twice a day,

I release them to the outdoors where they belong.

frankly i prefer to not kill anything unnecessarily.......

since something out there will kill me someday

I sealed the house well and dont keep a food source around. my big
mistake was the 50 pound sack of sunflower seeds............

with a plentiful food source, nice cozy house and one pregnant mouse.

over 40 went out in the live trap/ a few old geezers did die, probably
from old age and fear.. they were very grey like a old person.

dont kill them just relocate.

Make sure you do it at least a mile away, or they will beat you back to
the house. I had one that was dragging away the ant traps to eat the
bait, so I got a couple of the 'teeter totter' live traps. Worked great,
with peanut butter as bait. No window in the trap, and they are heavy
enough that you can't tell anyone is in there- I picked up a tripped one
to reset it,and the mouse jumped out and ran under the cabinets. But he
has a short memory, so I caught him again 2 days later. Dropped him off
in some tall weeds by the river at the park down the road, on the way to
work the next day. Kept setting traps for a couple weeks, but no more
hits, so I guess it was a bachelor male. No mice since then, knock on
wood, but the well-washed traps are on the shelf waiting for next time.

Yeah, I know- being an inexperienced indoor mouse, he was probably an
owl midnight snack within 24 hours. But at least I didn't have to kill him.

And as to the sunflower seeds and other tempting things- metal trash
cans with tight lids, and 5-gallon buckets with tight lids, make good
vermin-proof storage.

aem sends...