They are horribly cruel and slow.
If I have to kill something, it’s going to be quick and painless.
So far, the mice keep to themselves and only nibble at the goat feed.
Decades ago, I rented a house with a major mouse problem.
I took 2 liter pop bottles, put peanut butter and a drop of water in them, and propped them up on books.
The mice went in for the food and the peanut oil made their wet feet too slippery to climb back out.
I trapped a hundred mice, the first week.
Then I built them a custom enclosure and they lived in the basement.
When I moved here, I brought them with me.
They “evolved” from plain gray house mice into mice with fancy white markings and became very tame.
I turned them loose in the old barn in the field beside me.
Once in a while, 26 years later, I’ll see a house mouse with white markings running around.
I know it’s “one of mine”, then.
Plus, I have numerous reptiles, amphibians, voles, shrews and deer mice here.
Don’t want them getting ‘stuck’.
I hate voles! Nasty little cannibalistic stinkers....none of the hunting animals will touch them. Glue traps are too good for the vermin, IMO, especially after washing out a drawer or a shelf for the third time in three days.
I won’t write out my worst vole stories....too much grue.
Enjoyed your mouse tale.
We had a similar experience. We used peanut butter in the have a heart trap & release traps. At first I was catching 5 a night. You would hear the soft snap and get up take the mouse outdoors and reset the trap. We kept a tally and got to several hundred. Then they petered out and we were able to stop. Now just an occasional mouse for the cats to handle 2-3 a year.