Glue Traps Work Wonders for Getting Rid of the Rodents You Don't Want

If you've ever seen a package of glue traps for mice in a store, you have noticed when looking at the box that they are for mice. Let me tell you from experience that they are the best way to catch a mouse.

How do I know? Because I have used them for that purpose - one of a several purposes.

Let me start at the beginning....

Living in the Arizona desert, unfortunately we have a pack rat problem. For cars that are left outside for too long, pack rats go under the front hood of the car and chew on the wires. If the car is left sitting for too long and the pack rats have feasted under the hood, the car won't start. Years ago I had this problem more than I wanted to. It got to the point where my car only left the property when it was towed to a repair shop due to pack rat damage. Each time, the car repairs were close to $300.00.

One time I actually drove to the dentist with a pack rat running above my head between the material on the top of my head and the roof of the car. Under the front hood of the car, a pack rat can work its way through the dashboard by chewing on the inner material and therefore, get access to the mid-layer of the car's frame. That's how that pack rat made it to above my head. Yes, I was petrified as I drove to the dentist, but I had to keep my dentist appointment.

Here's where the glue traps came in handy. Since these pack rats are so prominent in the Arizona desert, 2 chewed their way into my home through the clothes dryer vent. I don't know how long they took up residence in my laundry room, until one night when I came home I saw something quickly run past as I opened the door. Later I actually saw what it was - not just one pack rat, but two.

Needless to say, I am petrified of them, so my mind started working, "How can I catch them to get them out of my house?"

I went to Ace Hardware and bought a cage to trap them in by putting peanut butter, or cheese in it and when they went for it the door would close, but after several days of trying it didn't work.

I needed a new idea. I did research online on how to catch a pack rat and several times I saw suggestions to use glue traps.

Back to Ace Hardware I went to buy glue traps. I bought 4 boxes of JT Eaton Stick-Em Rat & Mouse large glue traps for $6.49 each - 2 glue traps per box.

I studied the path of both pack rats. They always did everything together. They would run into one room, find paper or something like that in there and then take it back to their quarters in my laundry room. I lined both entrances of the room they kept going into with the glue traps and lo and behold, they were caught within a day.

For those who don't like to kill any animals, yes, unfortunately the mice can't be taken off the glue trap to be let loose again, but they are a lot better than those old-fashion wooden mouse traps that actually kill them by catching them at the neck when the mouse goes for the food locked on it.

To me these glue traps were amazing and I thought about all the other ways I could use them.

After my experience with the pack rats in the house, I saw the boxes of Tomcat small mouse glue traps on clearance in Walgreens for only $1.99 per box of 4. I bought every box they had on clearance just in case....

Living in the desert we also have a lizard problem. As you know, lizards are very small and can get through just about any opening - large and small.

I have yet to find the way lizards were getting into my home weekly, but it was creeping me out. I would see one run across the floor in any room at any time and I couldn't stand it. I noticed that they seem to like to go towards light by the glass of sliding doors.

Out came the glue traps and I lined them in that area. Sure enough, the lizard was caught within a day.

I must say that now I keep glue traps out all the time in specific areas in my home just in case a lizard happens to get indoors.

I finished all the ones I bought in Walgreens on clearance and then I bought a case of generic glue traps on Ebay for less than $1.00 per box of 4 small ones.

Gladly, I've hardly had to use them for the past 9 months, until now....

Here we go again...but this time it's a totally different rodent in a totally different place. And much closer to me than I wish it was.

First it started with realizing there was 'something' in the fan/exhaust area above the stove. I turned on the light above the stove and thought it was a lizard. It must have fallen in from on top of the roof and down the exhaust tubing.

For the past 2 days we have been hearing a scratching noise against the metal tubing, as it attempts to try and get back out. Unfortunately, the metal is too slippery for it to make its way back up. We thought it was going to eventually die in the tubing.

Then we heard chewing on the wood inside the cabinet above the stove. It has us thinking, "There's no way a lizard would/could chew on wood." Plus the thumping noise we heard was much too loud to be produced by a lizard.

I opened the closet door and saw the covering on the metal tubing moving quite rapidly. It then had me thinking, "It's a pack rat." We put a few glue traps inside the closet hoping to catch the pack rat. The noise of it moving around, chewing and banging was driving us nuts.

Today we decided to open the closet door to see if we could see it. Sure enough we did and discovered, it's not a pack rat. It's a white field mouse.

Once again, out came the glue traps. We felt like the cartoon, Tom (us) & Jerry, as we tried to trap the mouse by placing several small and large mouse glue traps in the closet above the stove. This was a very smart mouse. It took us 5 days of emptying out the closet more and placing more glue traps down to finally catch the mouse.

Day 5 - Ta da! The mouse was finally caught.

Like I said before, I know some animal lovers may be against using glue traps, but for those very difficult hard-to-catch house invaders, you may want to give the glue traps a try as a solution instead of all those other messy options.

The glue traps are non-toxic and ready-to-use.

Glue traps also catch bugs, spiders, etc.

There's no touching what's on them, when it's time to toss them away.

Good luck!

My resources are my own personal experience and a box of glue traps for mice.