I would like to pose a question that I am very curious about. Do you reuse mouse traps in your home?
We rarely have issues with mice in our garage because we are very careful about keeping the door closed, but I spotted one the other day. After I was done letting out the appropriate scream, I immediately hollered to my husband, “We need to set a trap!” And by we, I meant him. So he fetched the same mouse trap that he has been using for four years, put some peanut butter on it, and set it.
“I can’t believe there are people in this world who reuse mouse traps,” I said to Mr. Handsome. But apparently his family was all about reusing their mouse traps when he was growing up.
The very next day, I happened to find myself at Home Depot, in the pest control section. And I just happened to see that mouse traps sell for less than 50 cents each. And I thought to myself, “Mr. Handsome must not know how cheap these things are.” So I bought 12.
Now we will never need to reuse another mouse trap again. Problem solved. And since disposing of the mouse won’t involve prying its dead body off the trap but simply throwing the whole thing in the garbage, I think it’s a task I can manage myself. I’ll even be okay with setting them, now that the process won’t require me to touch a dirty trap.
So I have to ask…do you believe in reusing mouse traps?
Depends on how lazy we are or how messy the kill might have been.
Totally freaked out by rats and mice, but our cats took care of the problem. Haven’t seen a mouse in yrs. Down to 1 cat left, and he’s almost 13. He was the youngest cat we had. I had 5 kids, and each one had their own cat. It’s heartbreaking to lose beloved pets.
If you’re keeping your garage door closed and mice are still getting in, you have an opening somewhere you don’t know about. Look around carefully and seal whatever has a gap. It may be at ground level or at your garage door seal. The mice may also be getting in another part of your house and you just happened to see one in the garage. You know that snakes come after rodents, don’t you? Snakes love garages and any gap will let them in.
Growing up, my dad reused mouse traps. Awful. I’ve never needed them as an adult, but I wouldn’t!
A couple of months ago, I had the surprise of discovering a good third of a chocolate bar that had been hidden in my pantry eaten by mice. I was really outraged since it was a 70% organic fair-trade equateur chocolate! I had a serious conversation with my cat, reminding her what was expected from the cat of the house but I don’t think she paid much attention to my lecturing. So “we” (my husband) set traps and we (my husband) endend up reusing the traps for a couple of weeks (there were more than one culprit). My husband would desinfect the traps with bleach each time. I think it was a lot of efforts for 50 cent traps!!! I would not have reused the traps! But since he was the one taking care of the problem, I let him do it his way.
I would have been upset about that, too. I love that kind of chocolate!
Haha! This is so funny. My husband is very frugal and has reused mouse traps. But, I a completely agree with you that they are so inexpensive it is ridiculous to not just pitch them.
No way because when we had mice back in California, I insisted on those No See traps. They go in, but don’t go out. I don’t have to see them. I would probably scream louder than you Ellie if I had been there.😱
We’ve always bought new ones so we don’t have to deal with taking the mice out of the trap, 😬
Wooden mouse traps are for reusing in my experience. There’s not a lot of money put out for mouse catching and those are more economical.
I agree with your methods! Use it and throw the whole thing away!
No you should not reuse a mouse trap. Mouse traps have germs on them
Is anyone licking the traps? How would they come in contact with these “germs”? Unless the mice are carrying diseases that spread by spores, any “germs” left behind would dry out and die within a day or two.
I’m such a city girl, I don’t even set my own traps… I have a pest control company who comes round every 2 weeks and keeps the mice at bay…
Hm.
Before reading your post it had never come to my mind to NOT re-using mouse traps.
In Germany we even get refills for mouse traps with long lasting /permanent baits.
I think the difference is some kind of cultural thing. Avoiding to unnecessarily wasting resources and producing garbage is much more important in a densely populated country than in the US.
I wash my hands throughly with soap and re-use my traps until they break. But that being said, I was raised by a widow with 7 kids at home and very limited resources. Limited like as not having enough money to buy toilet paper. We cut up old t-shirts for that job. I personally would never throw a working trap out and buy a new one just because I am afraid of germs. Nope. Not happening here.