Keeping Fleas Out of Taxidermy and Other Pest Control Tips

Humane Ways to Remove Rodents from Your Home

11 September 2015

Letitia Smith

With spring now steadily on its way, animals everywhere are preparing for the breeding season. As cute as baby animals are, some are far more welcome than others.

Rodents, like humans, would prefer to spend their cold winter days indoors. While mice tend to breed wherever there is food, they have bigger and more frequent litters in spring. These two things together can mean household rodent outbreaks in early Australian springs.

Calling an exterminator or laying out traps and poison may be a fast way to get rid of them, but many people can't find it within their conscience to kill them. But these people needn't despair; there are many other ways to perform pest control and remove these invaders from your home.

Here are some alternatives:

Humane Mouse Traps

Some supermarkets and hardware stores stock humane mouse traps that work like regular mouse traps but do no harm to their captives. Simply lure them in using any bait (meat, pet food, peanut butter or sweets). Instead of snapping and killing the mouse, it will trap them inside. Once caught, remove the mouse from your house and set it free. Some traps can even be reused!

If no shop nearby stocks these traps, you can buy them online for $10 AUD plus shipping.

Peanut Butter Traps

Mice love peanut butter. The best part about that is that peanut butter smells, and mice will be able to find it from the other side of the house. Even if no one in your household eats it, it might be a good idea to keep a jar of peanut butter around if mice frequent your house.

Spread some peanut butter on a little bit of bread and place it at the bottom of a 10-litre bucket. Place it somewhere it can climb in (like in a shelved cupboard,) but not out. Leave the bucket there overnight until you catch something. Once you do, take the mouse outside, preferably somewhere where it won't make its way right back inside. The best part of this is that it only uses household items.

If your house is prone to rodent outbreaks, however, it might be a good idea to mouse-proof your home altogether. Here are some things you can do to prevent rodents from coming back to your home:

• Cut down branches that hang over your roof. Mice might be using these to find a way into your homes. About 2 metres away from your roof will do.
• Seal any holes in your crawl space bigger than one-quarter of an inch.
• Check the outside of your home for any gaps of the same size, and seal or bridge them.

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