In the past 24 hours, I have been responsible for the deaths of three animals. Mammals, if you can believe that. We’ve had a bit of a mouse problem in a couple of rooms.
One was killed by the dog after I kinda set the dog on it.
The other two got stuck to glue traps, were still alive when I found them, so I drowned them in a bucket. It’s not particularly humane, but it’s better than whacking them with a hammer I guess. At least for cleaning.
Anyway, apart from flies, I’m not really in the business of killing anything. The mouse mass murder (if you can call three a mass murder) is weighing on me a little, even though we’re getting a couple of cats this week that’ll do far nastier things to them.
What are your feelings on pest control?
Get a man in. That means I’m not an animal murderer, right?
Nah, live and let live, man.
I don’t kill anything except insects and fish
I am at the top of the food chain. Fuck em. They die.
Depends on what you call a pest I suppose. I’m happy to let spiders be, for instance, but all wasps within a mile of me must die. This is because I have not the slightest trace of arachnophobia, but am more than a little vespaphobic (this doesn’t mean I have a fear of scooters, though in truth I do prefer Lambrettas to Vespas. I used to have one many years ago, but that’s another topic altogether). If I had mice or rats in the house they’d be swiftly dispatched, though I may favour a humane trap for mice so they could be let go a long distance from the house. Not sure if my dog would be any good at catching mice or rats, though I’m sure he’d try - he may be a spaniel, and a soppy one at that, but instinct is a powerful thing.
The oddest pest I’ve experinced in this country was a species of moth - small and sooty–looking, they laid their eggs in bags of rice, pasta and other dry foods. Their maggot-like larvae would then feed on the grain, eventually emerging to crawl somewhere quiet and form cocoons. After a few experiences of measuring out rice, only to find it sticking together (the larvae secreted sticky silky stuff) and with at least one moving grain, I bought a few Kilner-type jars for my rice and pasta. That sorted it.
I kill spider bros. I hate spider bros bad! When I see a spider bro, I crush him immediately, and leave his torn carcass as a Warning to his Family.
I used to pick on Wasps also, but I have laid off them lately because they seem a lot more scarce, and I don’t want to be responsible for their Extinction. Also the longstanding debt that wasp-bros owe from the stings of my Youth, has prob been repaid by now. It must be i.e. years since a wasp bro dared to do a sting on me.
Mouses is a whole other matter tho! I would never kill a Mouse! We had a Mouse In House problem recently, we would see it i.e. patrolling the house looking for food, and Bird was moaning on me to do something about it, so what I done was track it to it’s Mousehole + left some Maltesers outside. This seems to solve the problem because as long as I keep him well-stocked with Maltesers he doesn’t need to trek all the way to the i.e. kitchen it is win-win.
Slightly off topic but last weekend my daughter’s cat deposited an empty large worm type ‘thing’ that was still wriggling. A lot of debate about what it was - my other half suggested a lizard’s tale for example. Turns out it was part of a slow-worm. Apparently they discard their tailsends when they’re attacked.
The glue traps seem a lot more inhumane than them getting killed quickly by those traps with cheese on. I’ve heard little mice squealing as they are stuck on the glue. Awful. Block up any holes you can see and make sure you put all your food away and bins are dealt with quickly. The reason we have mice and rats running around our houses is mainly us.
Yeah drowning them seems harsh. I think I’d rather have my neck snapped than be drowned. Plus my Mrs drowned her hamster once and is quite traumatised by it.
Those back breaker traps can go wrong as well. We had a bit of a mouse problem in our kitchen a few years back. After a quick trip to b&q, I decided to buy a variety of traps and conduct my own “which” test.
Anyway a few hours after setting the traps under the units, I thought I heard some noise, so I pulled back the kick board and saw that the back breaker had got a mouse. As I reached in to get it, the mouse and trap shot across the kitchen floor scaring the bejesus out of me.
then followed a pretty fraught five minutes trying catch the mouse with the trap attached to the end of its nose. Once I got him in a bucket, I had to kill the poor sod. Felt terrible.
oh, the back breakers are by far and away the most effective. Use snickers not cheese.
We’ve tried all manner of humane ways, although I have not looked at the Amazon linked one yet. Ultrasonic stuff, traditional traps, they were wise to all of it. As I said in the OP, I don’t feel great about the mouse murder. I would rather have the cats do it. End result is still the same, but I’ll feel less responsible. Law of the jungle, innit?
Digging the garden last week I had to put a spade through a rat sac/embryo whatever it was so it wouldn’t suffer even if it was already dead, I will not try to kill anything though as a rule.
