Humane mousetraps have the disadvantage of not being so because they confine the mouse in a small box with little food for a long period while they "wait" for a human to release them from the trap. If they are forgotten, they die.

The answer is to combine a mousetrap with a fun place to be for mice, including huge quantities of mouse food, a water dispenser, ventilation and lots of space, perhaps even a mouse of the opposite gender, achieved by sorting the rodent by pheromones to avoid conflict. In other words, a large mouse cage with everything a mouse could want other than freedom. The mouse can then be transported gently to a great distance and released.
-- nineteenthly, Jan 28 2005

(?) luxury highrise http://www.thepetgl.../images/mansion.jpg
[FarmerJohn, Jan 31 2005]

This could have also gone under a home improvement category, cuz if you need a path, the world should be beating one to your door right about..... now.
-- Giblet, Jan 29 2005


Giblet, a more humane mouse trap isn't necessarily better... and I'd assume the people who would beat a path to a door for a better mousetrap probably don't like mice all that much.
So basically this idea is to give every mouse in the world one of those habitrail (sp?) things?
-- cuckoointherye, Jan 29 2005


Not at all, [intherye], just when they are captured.

Sadly, i doubt very much it would be a better mousetrap from a human point of view, but from a mouse's, and i wouldn't want them beating a path to my door because i don't want any in the house. Especially since the mice i have in mind are, i suspect, of the modern supermouse variety considering their probable origin.
-- nineteenthly, Jan 29 2005


I asked my pet mouse what she thought of this. She said it's weak.
-- Detly, Jan 29 2005


I'll bet your fish thinks it's deep.
-- Ichthus, Jan 29 2005


My pet insects don't talk, like yours, they just creep.

Oh, and my headless chicken implied im a geek.
-- cuckoointherye, Jan 29 2005


Yes. And lets leave out doughnuts for the mice. [-]
-- Blumster, Jan 29 2005


Even Even EVEN More Humane Mousetrap: buy a cat. Mice will smell the cat and not get anywhere near your home. Mice stay free, your house stays mice-free, the kitty gains a family and you gain the company of a pet. It works for everyone.
-- Pericles, Jan 29 2005


It doesn't work for the numerous clients with animal dander allergies who visit this place.
-- nineteenthly, Jan 29 2005


I'm allergic to mouse dander...
-- robinism, Jan 29 2005


[robinism], i'd never thought of that before! That's a really useful comment, thanks.
-- nineteenthly, Jan 29 2005


BrauBeaton, that's some mouse. For its next trick, does it make a phone call?
-- robinism, Jan 31 2005


Mice are'nt Human, so how can THEIR trap be Humane?
-- macncheesy, Feb 01 2005


'humane mousetrap'. nice oxymoron. [nineteenthly]
-- froglet, Feb 09 2005


Simply decapitate a mouse then place his head on a cocktail stick in your lader. The sends a clear message to all other mice 'hands of my cheese'. Humane after a fashion.
-- nicepalmtrees, Feb 09 2005


[BrauBeaton], fantastic film. Is there a "Mouse II: this time it's personal" in the works? I didn't mean for the mouse to be kept in a cage for days, just for a few hours before the "trap" is checked again. Another version might be a long and fun-filled one way tunnel to the outside world.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 09 2005


All these ideas are well meaning and sound in theory. However all will ultimately cause the mouse distress and in some form do its little head in. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. So whay not go high-tec on their furry little a*ses and invent a trap that uses nuclear technology to vapourise the mouses at a sub-atomic level so it simply fries the instant it even sniffs your cheese (the nuclear concepts I refer to may not be sound, it is not something I can claim expertise in - though I did once wack a mouse with my shoe and that sorted out the little b*gger). The drawbacks of such a device would be danger to household pets and children, but if refined and tested it would be fiendishly efficient at destroying mice before they even felt a thing.
-- nicepalmtrees, Feb 10 2005


ok nuclear technology may be a wrong path. what about just sellotaping a bunch of cats together? that would form a mega-kat. kind of like voltron, but with cats and sticky tape. the combined power of many taped together cats would destroy all the mice in your pantry for good.
-- nicepalmtrees, Feb 10 2005


Any cats involved would have to be either sphinxes or shaved on a daily basis, which would make the sticky tape less uncomfortable for them, but what about their colophony allergy? It did occur to me that i could seal the pantry off completely with plastic, but it would probably take a humungously long time for the mouse's lungs to use up the oxygen available, even assuming the room is completely sealed. Maybe it could just live out its life in an isolated environment.
A sufficiently powerful laser would vapourise it in a few picoseconds, but i can't bring myself to do that, what with all my awesome laser technology and all that i have access to of course.
Maybe the answer is just to adopt it as a companion animal.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 10 2005


How about a mouse-trap which lures the rodent through a one-way door into a box. Then, a series of one-way doors and scents lure the mouse into a long flexible tube several yards long. After an extended walk, the mouse is ejected into a park or open space half a block away?

Of course, neighborhood cats would take to "spawn-camping".
-- the_jxc, Feb 11 2005


// My expanding foam weiner dog cluster could kick your sticky tape cat cluster's ass any day [scout] //

hmm. I don't think we'll ever really know for sure will we?
-- nicepalmtrees, Feb 11 2005


Wouldn't the most humane solution, from a mousey point of view, be for the trap to trigger an impenetrable barrier (perhaps a steel box) to surround all non-meesine occupants of the house? Thus protecting the humans from the horror of witnessing unwelcome furry presences in their abode whilst leaving the meese/mice/mouses to go about their business in peace and quiet and enabling them to leave quietly in their own good time.
-- DrBob, Feb 11 2005


I think an impenetrable barrier would indeed be good, but you'd have to be careful where it went, because there could be things either side of it required by the appropriate species that would become inaccessible, such as food, baby mice and in this case a store room. The problem is not fear of mice but the fact that they eat the stock and proceed to urinate and leave droppings in unhygienic places.
Actually, has anyone seen that video game where there are balls bouncing around the screen and you're supposed to confine them in an ever smaller area? That might work. Erect compartments in various parts of the building until the mouse is immured. There would need to be a mouse detector of some kind for this to work though.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 11 2005



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