How Not To Kill A Mouse

When the weather gets cold, mice tend to find warmer places to sleep.  Sometimes that ends up being inside our houses.  That is certainly the case for me and the mice who have decided to join us in our house.  Unfortunately for them, they are not welcome in my house.  Unfortunately for me, I can't seem to get them to leave.

This year has not been as bad as the years in the past, and I certainly don't have an infestation of mice, but there are some in my house.  I could tell when they had moved some apple cores from the trash can where I put them to the drawer above the trash.  So I decided it was time to get the traps out.

I don't mess with the so called "have a heart" traps.  I've tried them.  I have a heart.  But after seeing too many of them half caught in the traps and chewing off their own legs to escape, I had enough.  I wanted them out for good.  The only way that I know to do that is to kill them.  I also believe that it should be quick.  I don't want the animal to suffer, but I also don't want it to think that it can come back into my house every year.

So I got out the old school wooden trap with the wire that snaps.  I set it up as I have in the past with the peanut butter on the trap.  That has always been my bait of choice.  I cleaned out the drawer and placed the trap where I found the apple cores and went to bed.

The next morning, not only was the trap not snapped but the peanut butter was completely cleaned off the trap.  Back to the drawing board...

Day number two, I took some American cheese and put it on the trap.  No luck.  Day number three, I put some more American cheese under the bait tray on the trap and smashed it on there so that they would have to really get in there to get the cheese.  They cleaned it off again.

At this point I'm feeling like I'm just feeding them.  But if they get fat, they might get slow...right?

What method works best for you?