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blarg im dead Anonymous
Did I misread the directions?? This is not how a non-kill trap works!

So here's the story.. A little while back we found evidence of a rather large rat in our house. We weren't so worried because it wasn't a permanent resident, but probably just wandered in now and then from the yard (yes, I have seen a rat living in my yard) through a pipe in the laundry room.

To try to get it, I got a non-kill trap, or more specifically a Havahart trap. After putting out the trap and noticing that the bait kept disappearing with no trippings, I suspected that the large rat moved out and a smaller rat or a mouse moved in. A few days later, still with disappearing bait and no live catch, curiosity got the better of me.

I set up the trap as usual in the laundry room but with a night vision video camera in front of it. The cables went under the door to a monitor, as well as a string tied to the trigger (YES, high tech box+stick+string trap). It worked out, because I could watch tv in the next room while watching for movement on the monitor. Anyways, I saw the mouse on the first night, but kept failing to catch it on a couple of subsequent nights.

Since covering up the walls of the trap a couple of days ago to prevent possible escape, I hadn't seen much of the mouse. When I checked the trap today though, it was tripped, and I had caught the mouse, but totally in the wrong way. The two bars on the side of the trap that hold up the doors are held down by a trigger that's connected to a bait plate inside. Somehow the mouse had gotten sandwiched between the two bars as they slipped from the trigger and swung up.

So in the end, I caught the rodent, but with a little bit more guilt than I had wanted. Ironic though.
tldr ver: Killed a mouse with a Havahart non-kill trap.
>> blarg im dead Anonymous
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>> blarg im dead Anonymous
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blarg
>> tigerfeather !CrwtTbFNxQ
Now you can call him Lurch.
>> Anonymous
hilarious, wrong, and even funnier that you used night vision.
>> Anonymous
>tldr ver: Killed a mouse with a Havahart non-kill trap.

You know, the irony does actually make the story amusing. I for one think you were awesome for at least trying not to kill it, even if... you did. Little guy was cute too.
>> Anonymous
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>>225184

OP here, I have gerbils so I feel extra bad about killing the little guy. I just have bad luck with them, I caught a baby over a year ago but it got weak and died the day after I caught it. Posted about it on /an, maybe anon remembers.
>> Anonymous
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woops
>> Anonymous
>>225171
That's a delicious trap. I recently cought a cat with a similar one.
>> Anonymous
That trap looks to big for mice and rats. They look like they can slip right through those holes.
>> Anonymous
>>225218

You can feel even worse knowing that mice are smarter and friendlier than gerbils.

WOMP WOOOMMMMMP
>> Anonymous
>>225171

...I think you were supposed to use something smaller for ... eh.... *sigh*

Oh well, lesson learnt for today: Never get someone from the internet to set up non-kill traps.
>> Anonymous
You didn't misread the directions.

You used a trap that was MUCH too large for the animal you were trying to catch.

A live-catch trap for mice/rats is far smaller thatn the one you have.
>> Anonymous
Yeah the trap was almost certainly too big for mice, but I think it's about right for the rat I was originally trying to catch. I've seen it in the yard and it's about like 1/2 to 3/4 the size of a squirrel.
>> Anonymous
>>225171
>Did I misread the directions?? This is not how a non-kill trap works!

Your post should have ended there. I lol'd. I didn't even bother any of the rest of your post.
>> Anonymous
>>225297
Te average rats can slip through holes and cracks the size of a quarter. I own rats and they're really awesome at getting into things.

That cage still looks to big for a rat unless you have one of those NYC rats in your house.
>> Anonymous
Maybe if you used a trap designed for something smaller than a possum it would have worked.
>> Anonymous
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>>225530

Yeah the little guy in the pictures would be able to squeeze through a hole the size of a quarter, but I was originally trying to catch a mid to large sized rat. I've only seen it in the yard from a distance, so I don't have an accurate comparison for size (other than maybe 2/3 the size of a squirrel).

To give an idea of the size of rat I was expecting to catch though, here's a picture of some of the droppings that I found, plus a patch of carpet that the rat had dug through to get under the door. A much smaller rat or mouse would have been able to squeeze between the carpet and door (about 1/2-3/4"), but this guy had to create a gap of about 1.5-2" to get through...
>> Anonymous
>>225600

heh maybe my imagination blew it out of proportion into the size of an opossum
>> Anonymous
Hijack - We had a mouse my cat caught escape in an upstair's room last night. Is there any way I can catch it myself, or lay a trap to find it, so we don't need to call some sort of pest control and have it killed?

Assuming they can even catch it. Like, if there's a certian food I can leave out to try and catch it.
>> Anonymous
Therefore, it wouldn't have died if you used a regular rat-trap.
>> Anonymous
>>226309

Nice logic
>> Anonymous
File a wrongful death suit against the manufacturer