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Homing Mice?

GNC

GNC

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In the latest Mythconceptions, there's a question about mice: if you find a mouse on your property, should you humanely let it go at least a mile away? That way it won't find its way back to your home, because mice, like pigeons, have a homing ability. This is assuming you don't squash it or whatever.

Has anybody actually tried to despatch a mouse they've found miles away anyway?
 
I would prefer to dispatch it using a catapult.
 
Don't go half measures, get a trebuchet.
 
It makes sense it would try to go back home. Why would a house mouse want to live in the great outdoors when it can live in a nice warm skirting board with crumbs and delicious woodlice on tap!

Otoh if you want it gone at least some other critter can enjoy it...
 
Ladyloafer said:
It makes sense it would try to go back home. Why would a house mouse want to live in the great outdoors when it can live in a nice warm skirting board with crumbs and delicious woodlice on tap!

Otoh if you want it gone at least some other critter can enjoy it...
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That's why it's best to release them inside a wooded area.
 
I've tried to relocate frogs from my pond before they spawn - if the foster pond is anything less than a mile and a quarter away, I'd find exhausted frogs back in my pond the next day.
 
GNC said:
In the latest Mythconceptions, there's a question about mice: if you find a mouse on your property, should you humanely let it go at least a mile away? That way it won't find its way back to your home, because mice, like pigeons, have a homing ability. This is assuming you don't squash it or whatever.

Has anybody actually tried to despatch a mouse they've found miles away anyway?
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My cats have bought them in for years. These days the Big Fella spits them out in the living room so Young Ted can play with them, (he's a firm believer in education is the Big Fella). My wife catches them, (with her hands), and lets them outside. We've not found any desire from them to be let back in.
 
Funnily enough I was talking to a colleague about this the other day and she was sure her mice were coming back as she was constantly catching and releasing mice but when she resorted to trapping them she caught five and then never saw any more.
 
The answer to all rodent-related questions is almost certainly somewhere in the collected youtube videos of Shawn Woods!

I have watched hours of these, starting at a time when I had mice but also, I admit, for their entertainment value. Mr. Woods is a real craftsman, prepared to spend hours or days recreating historical mousetraps and testing them.

Youtube, alas, has had qualms about content and rendered his extermination videos unprofitable. No more mouse-snuff vids! He feeds the local wildlife with them. Mysteriously, for all his skills, Shawn Woods always has a barn full of mice!

I am wholly unsentimental about vermin* and firmly of the Dalek persuasion, when it comes to traps.

*I draw the line at glue-traps. I have experimented with them but the UK versions are useless. Youtube does feature many overseas versions, which demonstrate how quickly trapped rats resort to cannibalism, when stuck. These tend to be unedited. :oops:
 
A Trip Trap (humane non-killing rodent trap) is good fun when you have a mouse.

You bait it with chocolate or peanut butter and the mouse runs in there and can't get out. Then you say to the former Mr Snail 'Don't look into it while you open it because the mouse will jump out in your face!'
So the former Mr Snail does exactly that to show you how wrong you are, and the mouse shoots out from the trap like a bullet from a gun and bounces off his face before running down his back and disappearing under the pantry door. There is girly squealing and cackling laughter.
 
escargot said:
A Trip Trap (humane non-killing rodent trap) is good fun when you have a mouse.

You bait it with chocolate or peanut butter and the mouse runs in there and can't get out. Then you say to the former Mr Snail 'Don't look into it while you open it because the mouse will jump out in your face!'
So the former Mr Snail does exactly that to show you how wrong you are, and the mouse shoots out from the trap like a bullet from a gun and bounces off his face before running down his back and disappearing under the pantry door. There is girly squealing and cackling laughter.
Click to expand...
That never gets old.
 
Tbh, I think humanity towards rodents is misplaced; taking them walkies just lets them breed to infest other people's homes or spaces.

Cats first earned their keep by tormenting the buggers with their usual sadistic flair, so a sudden snap of the neck is humane, in my book! :yay:
 
Mice are a valuable food source for nature's predators - not suggesting people eat them, but releasing your catches in a field somewhere (assuming one is available) is not necessarily letting Mickey off lightly, but could be good for the environment. I do wonder who can really be bothered with the rigmarole, though.
 
I humanely trapped wood mice and voles on an Ecology field trip in the mid 80'. The traps were set in the evening and each morning the catches were counted and a ring drawn around the tail with a marker pen - and then the beasties were released. The proportion of mice caught the next day which had already been ringed was fed into a magic formula which gave an estimate of the total woodland mouse population. By the end of the week there were a couple of mice with 4 or 5 tail rings - they'd sought out the traps for the free food and bedding. Small wonder mice are reluctant to leave a house.
 
This made me laugh!

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