When all through the house...

Not a creature was stirring... that's because they're not in the house. They're in the garage. One of my annual struggles is to only overwinter plants, not animals. Especially the rodent types.

So I end up catching a lot of mice in the garage as winter kicks in. Before I realized this was something I needed to stay on top of, there was a year where the little critters didn't stay in the garage -- they came into the basement and forced me to "knock it up a notch. Bam!" That was years ago though, and I have a pretty good system now.

***

Once my garage gets full of potted plants in early winter, it becomes impossible to get to the one wall. With little exposure and no chance of being disturbed, that area becomes quite attractive to mice. I can sometimes hear them (or something) scratching around over there.

Remember that I caught some shrews in the garage earlier this year.

I catch the mice in the same way. I use this non-lethal trap:

That center hole was once the same size as the others. Little gnawing teeth.

When empty the door stays open, but once something climbs in the trap tips slightly, causing the door to fall closed. The little yellow tab is the "lock".

It's quite effective.

After catching the critter I will empty it into a bucket, add some birdseed and usually some water, then leave it alone for a while to let it calm down.

These ears look fake.

Okay, he's been eating. Must be calm enough to move now.

Later that day I'll grab the bucket, jump into the car, and release the mouse in a nearby field:

Remember, I'm usually doing this in early winter, before it gets very cold. This year is unusual in that it's been so mild, so the mice are still looking for winter dens -- or maybe this one has been in the garage all along, and just woke up hungry? I thought I was done catching mice for the year. In any case, I figure that releasing them is better all around than using lethal traps.

This was confirmed somewhat by the previous mouse I released. A kestrel (small hawk) must have been sitting in one of these nearby trees, and as soon as I released that mouse and got back into the car, it dropped down, snatched the mouse, and flew off. Sorry mouse! You're welcome kestrel!

This new one got itself under the grasses without incident though. But releasing one so late in the year makes me think... is this really better for the animal? If it's going to starve to death because it doesn't have any food cache, or will die of exposure because it doesn't have time to build a suitable "house" -- is that better than quickly dying in a lethal trap?

So I'm still debating this. Maybe I'll switch to lethal traps for the rest of the winter. Maybe I'll keep the live traps in place, and if I catch any more mice this winter I'll just put them into a big unused fish tank I have and treat them as pets until spring.

For now since mild weather remains in the forecast I'll just put the live trap back in place with some sunflower seeds as enticement and see what happens:

Of course I can always just let Super-whitey (who lives in the house with us now and is called Kumo) live in the garage for a few days again. That will take care of any mice for sure.

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