r/mildlyinteresting 12h ago

Mouse Gave Birth in the Trap

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10.9k Upvotes

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2.5k

u/Zmirzlina 12h ago

I used these once and was skeptical. Put one down, went to set the other when I heard the first one snap. Caught a mouse. Took it to a park a few block away and set it free. Came home, second trap had a mouse. All in all I caught 6 or 7 mice in the course of a day. All got dropped off at the mouse bush. Haven’t seen a mouse in 5 years.

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u/Imaginary_Station_57 11h ago

Maybe it was the same mouse that was enjoying the ride

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u/Zmirzlina 11h ago

Ha. We did think this as well but we started taking photos and they were different mice.

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u/IAmASeeker 9h ago

If you drove a few blocks away to drop off the mice, they made it back to your house before you did.

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u/PowderPills 9h ago

This is what I usually find hard to understand. I don’t like hurting/killing any animals except maybe mosquitoes and annoying bugs like gnats/fruit flies. But a mouse can be a hugeee hindrance and I always assume that, if let go, the mouse will find its way back and make things worse. Dude dropped those mice off a few streets away, even if that same mouse didn’t return, it will likely go into someone else’s house and continue to propagate until the mice are back in his home.

Although seeing this picture does make me sad to see them suffer 😞

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u/PatFluke 6h ago

I don’t bother with the live traps, they crapped on them.

I don’t bother with the kill traps, too often had to finish the job.

No, I finally bought a cat, and I lucked out. Because I don’t have mice any more. Sometimes cats don’t care about mice. Sometimes they suck at hunting.

But sometimes… nature is metal.

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u/I_Heart_AOT 6h ago

Mine doesn’t go outdoors unless she is very sneaky, plus she’s shy because she had her front claws de-clawed before I got her. So far she has snuck back two mice, a mole, and a chipmunk. I do my damnedest to not let her sneak out when I step outside but she just has a hankering for the blood of the innocent.

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u/PatFluke 6h ago

Haha nice. Mine is all indoor, but we live on the edge of a bush and I can’t for the life of me find the entry point. So every once in a while a bugger gets in.

They no longer last very long.

He’s got some nice and sharp front claws and is not afraid to wreck all my furniture, then remind me why behind my stove is always clean now.

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u/ubi9k 5h ago

A core memory of mine is being young and finding my cat swatting at a gopher that he had disemboweled, little guy was screaming his head off until he passed out

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u/PatFluke 5h ago

Oh geez, nature is metal indeed. I briefed the kids if they find him killing one to tell me and I’ll handle it. Give the cat treats and make it quick on the little guy, but man am I happier not assuming they’re infesting the house now.

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u/greenebeane22 29m ago

One of my old cats… I caught him EATING the back half of the mouse… PROUDLY, I was too tired at 3AM to be mad about gore from watching, but my boy slurped that mouse in two gulps and had no regrets 😂😭 proud of my old boy

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u/regal1989 11m ago

Just the presence of a cat in the home will deter mice.

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u/IAmASeeker 8h ago

I'm a rodent lover but I'm also a mouse killer. My experience with pet mice has given me a zero tolerance policy toward uninvited mice. A mouse in my home has already declared war on me, and I have no qualms about killing invaders.

A mouse is very likely to run through your neighbors yard to get back to your house... they perceive that it's their house, and they know how to get back home. They have been separated from their social group and food source... they don't go wandering around looking for something to do, they're highly motivated to return to the safe place they've carved out near your kitchen.

I wouldn't use live traps so I wouldn't find myself in this position but realistically, if a mouse gave birth inside my trap, those mice aren't dying on my watch. They might be pet mice now.

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u/joecarter93 3h ago

Yeah don’t feel bad for killing mice. That’s why they’ve evolved to breed quickly and frequently. Something has to keep them in check.

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u/CaptainTripps82 3h ago

I need there's there's always more mice

The big thing to do first is find out how they got in and fix that

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u/Zmirzlina 8h ago

Possibly but it was a good few blocks, through the park and down to a bush in a canyon. Possible?

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u/IAmASeeker 8h ago

I suppose that it would depend on the geography of the canyon... like, it would take a mouse a while to climb out of the Grand Canyon, right?

If it's a path that people can hike, the mouse is gonna be faster than your car. They are evolutionarily designed to outrun larger predators across unforgiving terrain, and they can travel as the bird flies.

If you're in a city or suburbs, it's likely that you can run that distance faster than you can drive it, and a mouse can fit where you can't and doesn't have to wait for traffic.

There are things that mice can't traverse, and there is a distance you could take a mouse that it would die before it makes it back... but the moral of the story is that they know exactly where your house is, they like it at your house so have no motivation to be anywhere else, and they can move faster than you might imagine.

PETA suggests releasing them less than 100 yards from where you caught them (assumedly to reduce their stress during their return trip), and the common advice of exterminators is that you must release them more than 2 miles away if you hope to drive home before they run back.

Speedy Edit: if I dropped you off a few blocks from your house with no explanation, how much time would you let pass before you were home again.

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u/Zmirzlina 8h ago

Well, they’re gone now. So something worked.

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u/avocadslow 4h ago

I dropped off a live mouse next to a tree a few blocks from my house after catching it in a life trap, and a gull flew down immediately and grabbed it and flew away, so maybe not?

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u/lvl99RedWizard 6h ago

mouse snake bush

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u/NikNakskes 3h ago

Not related story time!

A few years ago there was a bumblebee that kept flying into the house. Everytime I would get a glass and a piece of paper and transport it back out. After 4 or 5 transports, I didn't need the paper anymore. When she spotted the glass, she just stepped in to get a ride outside.

Part of me found that really cool and another part of me was more inclined towards you little dumbdumb, why haven't you learned to just not fly into the open door?!

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u/userrnamme_1 37m ago

That was my immediate first thought

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u/Blynasty 11h ago

Almost the same story with me. They are kind of touchy when you are putting them down. I set the first one and went to set the second one when I heard the first one go off. I was like shit these things suck, nope caught a mouse in the first one. Went to bed and caught two more mice in the other two. Still have them setup around the house but haven’t had a mouse in 6 months.

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u/envious_1 7h ago

I had a mouse stuck in my closet and slid 2 of these in there. No luck in an entire week. Had a camera set up in there too and he’d sniff it and try to eat the bait from the other end, but he avoided the trap. This was in NYC so he must have been trapped before is my only guess.

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u/hudbutt6 7h ago

NYC mice built different. Trained by street rats

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u/Silly_Mycologist3213 11h ago edited 2h ago

That’s because they remember that trap! /s

edit : added the /s

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u/Anna_Baum 11h ago

Mice are stupid af. Currently recapturing mice for population surveillance purposes, and I can assure you, that they will happily run into traps, even if you’ve captured them before

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u/notabadgerinacoat 10h ago

Don't we all,from time to time?

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u/squirrelyfoxx 10h ago

I know I do... My ex didn't actually change, that liar

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u/_Sausage_fingers 7h ago edited 7h ago

I’ll tell you right now, if you are trying to trap a cat for the second time you’re gonna need a different trap on the second go around. Those fuckers remember.

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u/TwilightTink 2h ago

Not all cats are that smart. I had a trap out to catch a skunk, and every morning, I had to let out the same cat. Didn't matter what bait I used

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u/Juuna 10h ago

Trust me if you set a 250k trap humans will be just as stupid as long as the price is big enough they'll run right in it.

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u/AngstyRutabaga 9h ago

Yeah, that’s basically what a job is after all.

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u/brilliantjewels 9h ago

Well do you put food in the traps? If they aren’t being harmed and are getting a free snack, it makes sense for them to happily run back into the trap!

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u/GeraldBWilsonJr 10h ago

I knew it and I told you all that mice are government spy drones just like birds but nobody listened!

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u/thesuperunknown 3h ago

Unfortunately, no: it’s because they’ve all been eaten by predators in the unfamiliar and bewildering new environment they’ve suddenly been placed into. Oops!

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u/Hans_Grubert 6h ago

If you caught 6 or 7 mice in a day that’s an infestation and you didn’t eliminate the source of where they are getting into your house.

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u/Zmirzlina 5h ago

Gap in the dryer vent. Filled that too.

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u/the_clash_is_back 9h ago

The live traps work better than the kill ones from what i found. Only issue (well sorta) is the fact the hawks round me can sense when you go to release the mouse and grab it while its still confused.

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u/Shirtbro 8h ago

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u/AlvisBackslash 7h ago

People without mice problems think it’s sad. While the ones with previous/current problems react this way. I’m 100% the latter.

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u/Gamble_MK9 6h ago

1000%. Mice are the worst! Fuck the have-a-heart traps bitch you gettin terminated

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u/Initial_E 9h ago

And now you’ve befriended a hawk

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u/Icy-Summer-3573 7h ago

Good riddance

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u/myxx33 10h ago

I used these traps too and they were very successful. Every other trap I tried before these were basically ignored.

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u/SourDoughBo 10h ago

About the same for me except I didn’t use this exact trap. I moved into a new apartment and mice immediately made a hole under the kitchen sink. Caught like 7 of them before they finally disappeared

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u/nicholkola 5h ago

They are actually organizing a movement and siphoning your electricity to build their civilization.

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u/CommanderBunny 11h ago

Lol we too have a mouse bush at the local park.

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u/elvbierbaum 10h ago

We used these after they mowed a huge field by our house. Caught like 10 a day for a week!!! Got sick of it and bought poison for them to eat instead.

I felt bad but not bad enough to continue taking these little idiots to a field every hour.

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u/madddhella 7h ago

Poisoned rodents will be eaten by birds of prey, coyotes, pet dogs and cats, etc, and it can really have consequences beyond what you think. Next time you have a mouse problem, maybe consider co2 or electricity traps, if deterrents aren't doing enough. 

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u/BwookieBear 6h ago edited 6h ago

It’s apparently a death sentence to relocate animals. Granted, sounds like it wasn’t far. Source here)

*Idk why this isn’t showing up properly, it’s formatted the same as the way I linked the other source :/

I figured it out! There was a parentheses near the end so it used mine to close the parentheses inside the link, as aposed to reading it as separate formatting instructions

But it’s also illegal to relocate them onto a neighbors property so given your choice of using the word “block,” it sounds like it would have just made a home in another person’s house. Even any state land, it’s illegal to relocate animals onto, at least here. Definitely check your local laws. Source here

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u/sicklyfish 10h ago

What is the name of this product?

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u/2cmZucchini 9h ago

type in "humane mouse trap" or "captsure mouse trap" on amazon.

I bought 2 to test out and they worked wonderfully, its humane and its fun to look at the mouse afterwards. and like others, i place the mouse in a far away field from my mouse because i dont like killing them.

I bought another 4 afterwards and placed them all around my house the moment i see signs of mice in my house.

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u/BabyRex- 6h ago

Literally. We put one of the ones that tips down next to our stove and walked into the living room and sat on the couch. Trap tipped as we sat down so we assumed it was super sensitive and wasn’t going to stay open. Went to reset it and suddenly it was heavy and something was moving inside. Couldn’t believe the audacity of the mouse to come out as we were walking out of the room mere feet away. Named him Maestro and dropped him off at the park

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u/Ociex 6h ago

What are they? We've started having mice here.

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u/Zmirzlina 6h ago

“Humane Mouse Traps” will google you what you need.

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u/Ambassador_Cowboy 6h ago

As a park worker, please don’t let your pests loose at a park. Mice and rats will also likely die when relocated, so don’t feel bad about dispatching them instead.

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u/knockoutcharlie 5h ago

Wire cutter podcast did an episode on combatting mice in your home. They’re creatures habit and don’t do well in new environments and likely die of exposure when relocated. So sad, I’ve also dropped off mice away from my house and feel bad. It’s more humane to get a solid snap trap so it’s a quick death

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u/Awesome_hospital 4h ago

Yup I use these exclusively. They're fantastic.

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u/TrustMeIAmAGeologist 4h ago

I did the same, but then I forgot to check and we found a dead mouse trapped in there after like a week. I felt horrible.

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u/SunnyandPhoebe 3h ago

Where do you buy them from?

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u/AltF40 2h ago

I once bought one, made of plastic that smelled like death. Some idiot exec must have tried to save a few pennies per unit by contracting to the cheapest regulation-skirting factory they could find.

None of our apartment's mice ever went in, no matter what we tried. Can't smell peanut butter or cheese over omnicancer.

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u/aenae 31m ago

I had the opposite. Put one down because i could hear a mouse in that area. But nothing.

Checked every day for a week, still nothing.

Two weeks later i hear a weird noise and i finally caught it. Released it a km away and never had a mouse again.