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Table of Contents
Q1. Are glue traps all I need?
Q2. Should I add poison to a glue trap?
Q3. Why is the glue trap I set out last night missing this morning?
Q4. Is the glue used in glue traps poisonous?
Q5. Mice seem to be avoiding my glue traps. What can I do?
Q6. I put out glue traps two nights ago but they haven’t caught any mice. What next?
Q7. Do glue traps work in cold weather?
Q8. Do glue traps work outside?
Q9. How long do glue traps last?
Q10. How do I get rid of a rodent once it’s glued to the trap?
Q11. But I want to let the little mousey live.
Q12. How long will a mouse or rat live stuck on a glue trap?
Q13. What is the best brand of glue trap?
Q14. What’s a “Rodent Runway”?
Q1. Are glue traps all I need?
A. Glue traps catch younger mice and older rats more than they catch older mice and younger rats. It’s always best to use a combination of snap traps and glue traps.
Q2. Should I add poison to a glue trap?
A. No! Let glue and peanut oil bait that comes with the trap do the work.
Q3. Why is the glue trap I set out last night missing this morning?
A. If you set out glue traps singly rather than in pairs, larger rodents can do a long jump over the trap. They might just get one of their hind paws stuck in the glue. They can drag the trap back to a hole in the wall and pull it off, or, in a few cases, they will even gnaw off their paw to escape. It’s kinder to the animal to put out two traps, not just one, with an inch (2.5 cm) gap between them.
Q4. Is the glue used in glue traps poisonous?
A. No, adhesives used in traps for rats and mice are non-toxic for humans, pets, and even for the mice and rats themselves.
Q5. Mice seem to be avoiding my glue traps. What can I do?
A. Use a glue board rather than a glue tray. Or if you use a glue board, place it where it is lower than the rest of the floor. A glue trap has an edge that the rodent will stop to inspect. A glue board does not.
Q6. I put out glue traps two nights ago but they haven’t caught any mice. What next?
A. If you don’t catch any mice or rats by the sixth day after you put out the traps, put on gloves (so you don’t transfer your scent to the trap) and move the trap to another rodent runway. But make sure the traps haven’t become covered with dust or bridges of debris that give mice and rats the traction they need to escape. If the glue isn’t smooth and continuous, put out a new trap.
Q7. Do glue traps work in cold weather?
A. The glue most commonly used in traps has a freezing point of -7.5°C (18.5°F). If you live in a cold-winter climate, and you are putting out traps in an unheated room, the glue becomes completely non-sticky at this temperature. However, it’s “stickiest” at 10°C about 50°F) to 30°C (86°F).
Q8. Do glue traps work outside?
A. Not very well. They can catch many more critters than just mice and rats, and they tend to blow away or to be dragged away by larger animals seeking to dine on the mice or rats they trap.
Q9. How long do glue traps last?
A. Glue traps last as long as the glue isn’t covered by dust, dirt, trash, or insects. The cleaner the area is when you start, the longer the glue trap will remain sticky. Just to be sure, don’t use a glue trap for more than 30 days.
Q10. How do I get rid of a rodent once it’s glued to the trap?
A. One way to dispatch the rodent is to give it a sharp blow to the back of its head with a crowbar or tire iron or heavy stick. Or you can just put on heavy gloves (so you won’t get bitten), scoop up glue trap and rodent together into a plastic bag, and dump them in the trash. Then replace the glue trap with a new one. This may be your best bet for dealing with a dying but not yet dead rodent. If the rodent has died, put on heavy gloves (so you won’t pick up bacteria or ticks from the carcass), and pull off the glue trap. Place the dead rodent in a plastic bag, and into the trash. The rodent’s scent on the trap will attract more mice and rats to the same trap.
Q11. But I want to let the little mousey live.
A. Then use this technique. Find a plastic container wide enough to hold the glue trap placed flat with edges at least 4 inches (10 cm) high for mice and 8 inches (20 cm) high for rats. Put on heavy gloves so you won’t get bitten. Place the glue trap and the mouse or rat rodent-side up in the plastic container, and take outside. Spray the rodent with vegetable oil as a lubricant. (Do not dab the oil on the rodent with your fingers. It will bite.) Grab the rodent by its tail and help it wriggle free of the trap, tipping it out of the container just as it gets free.
This technique doesn’t buy the mouse or rat a lot of time. If you put in it other rodents’ territory, they will attack it. It’s also vulnerable to predators. But you will have avoided killing the creature yourself. Don’t reuse the container for food storage.
Q12. How long will a mouse or rat live stuck on a glue trap?
A. Mice trapped on a glue board or glue tray seldom live long enough for you to find them alive. They have very fast metabolisms and need to eat nearly all the time. They expire from lack of energy in at most a few hours.
Rats trapped on a glue board or glue tray or in a glue tent may live as long as a day. They tend to die of overexertion rather than starvation or thirst.
If you put bait on the glue board – which won’t really increase the number of rodents you trap – you only prolong the animal’s suffering.
Q13. What is the best brand of glue trap?
A. Actually, there are three. However, you do need to choose the right trap for your rodent problems. Click this link to learn about the top 3 rat and mouse glue traps.
I have been using glue boards, bait trays, and various kinds of snap and spin traps. The spin traps have been catching mice every night which is great…I am Just very confused as to why there are mice droppings right in the middle of the glue board but they never seem to catch any mice. I mostly got the glue boards so that I could see exactly what kind of mice we are dealing with but somehow they run right through them even when they are brand new. I should mention the glue boards I’m using are the folding kind to avoid them jumping over the traps…so how are they getting droppings clear inside but not getting stuck themselves? Seriously confused by this.
When glue boards are too hot or too cold they become less effective. Dust will also make them less effective. You say droppings are clear inside, can you also see where the mouse has walked over the glueboard?
I have seen more than one rat in my kitchen on a night. I have glued up where I think they may be getting in and they have knawed through it. only problem is they are (I think) hiding behind my kitchen cabinets (The back of them) as they have bitten the wood to make a sort of run behind the cabinets. how can I get rid of them without having to take out my whole kitchen! sometimes I can hear them in the loft, then in the kitchen! I desperately need help please as I feel like a hostage in my own house!
You need to put a wire mesh over the holes before you seal them up. Have you tried putting down rat traps and/or bait stations behind the cabinets?
Please help! I HATE mice! I caught one in my garbage can and brought it outside and let it go then I heard it again a couple days later. I have 4 traditional snap traps but it keeps eating the peanut butter off of them without getting caught so I bought 6 tomcat glue traps and put those down there too. I feel like I’m in a cartoon and am dealing with a super mouse! Could it be the same mouse that got back in? That’s what I’m thinking cuz I don’t hear or see a bunch of them. And there isn’t a whole lot of droppings. Should I put food on the glue traps and take the other traps up? I feel like I’m just feeding it at this point.
Don’t put peanut butter on the glue traps. Do put the glue traps either side of the snap trap and it might be worth investing in some new traps if your old ones are not being triggered. If you have one mouse, normally more will follow so do everything you can to catch it.
Why are you recommending people throw a live animal in the trash? First, it may eventually get off and second, it’s unnecessarily cruel. No need to prolong its suffering.
Hi Chris – can you please tell us a better way to handle this problem?
i have rats in my loft which are not taking the bait at my wits end what to do ny ideas would be most welcome thanks
Have you read all the articles about how to get rid of rats in the “Rat” category?
I have a mouse in my bedroom walls and I don’t know how to get it out. I put moth balls in my walls but it wasn’t much help. Any ideas?
Robert
Have you read all the articles about how to get rid of mice in the “Mice” category?
Hi, one of my glue traps is stuck to my furniture. How can I remove it? (it is the thick rat-sized one).
Try using cooking oil.
Hi. I have mice problem. First night I put a glue trap near where mice travel. When I woke up in the morning. There was mouse hair and bits of blood on glue trap but jo mouse. What happened?
It doesn’t sound like the glue trap was sticky enough. Try placing glue traps either side of a snap trap.