Jatopian wrote:
Why be humane to non-sentient creatures?
Actually, I disagree. Mice and rats are sentient. Once I had a family of them living in my garage, and when I came to scare them out, I could tell they were very frightened, since they were all huddled in a corner looking at me. Also, if they weren't sentient, they wouldn't be able to sense things around them and so react to their environment, which is obviously not true, as anyone who have ever had mice or rats in their houses would agree.
P.S. My first negative mod. No one likes true pragmatism. I'll bet this post would garner plenty of support if you all had lived in loca with real rat problems, like medieval England.
I agree with you to the extent that although being humane is the best possible method when dealing with animals, it's sometimes just not practical to do it. For example, I wanted to drop a bucket over that same family of mice I mentioned earlier, slip a card under it, and then tip the bucket upside down, allowing me to drop the mice off outside. The mice (understandably), were having none of it, however, and scattered when I attempted to do it, threatening to run towards the house, so I ended up killing three and scaring the rest off.
However, I don't feel such a strong response is necessary. Mice and rats are just looking for a home and food, just like all animals (and pretty much all other living things too) do to survive. It's just that their interests conflict with ours, since we don't want them living with us, whereas they would absolutely love being invited in. It's important to be practical about them, since they are a nuisance and can be dangerous, but they are living things, just like us, so it's unfair to view them as if they aren't.
Miss one single opposite-gender pair, and your problem regenerates.
Toss them all out, and they or their descendants will bother someone else or yourself again.
True, but the problem partly lies with you or whoever owns the building in question. If you seal all the holes made by mice properly, they shouldn't be able to get back in.
In a less helpful vein, I support traps instead of poison, because rotting flesh attracts even less savory things.
There, however, I agree. Poison is pretty nasty, dangerous to other animals and probably people, and can lead to messy results. At least with a trap, you can make sure you've actually got one, and can account for it, while it's much harder to tell with poison. Traps that catch mice (live) when they walk into them are probably the best kind, as Schik mentions, since they don't kill the mice, which is advantageous as you don't need to deal with any dead ones, and you won't be responsible for any mouse killings.
The best long-term solution, I think, is probably to use a good sealant and fill all the holes that the mice have been making with it. It will make it much harder for them to return (I've not had any mice in my home for 5-6 years since we did this) and may discourage them. Also, try to keep the house surroundings tidy. If you have rubbish everywhere, you may be attracting mice towards your house, and so encouraging them to get in. Ultrasonic repellers are also useful, but if the mice are already in the house/building, they probably will get used to it and ignore it after a while (the mice in my garage did).
Edit: Actually, I just had a strange idea. Maybe you could borrow someone's cat for a while, and see if it can deal with some of the mice, in conjunction with other mice-repelling techniques.
Edit2:
My first 5 negative mods? This is getting mildly insulting...
I just spotted this, and while the post was a bit strong, -4 is a bit unfair, considering it is a legitimate (if not exactly considerate) point of view.
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Resident Medic/Mycologist
[Last edited by agaricus5 at 12-22-2005 08:33 PM]
Disclaimer: I'm Welsh, left-handed, and stupid. 
