Rats or mice may look like small harmless creatures but there always comes a time when they start creating havoc in your homes. Be it chewing holes in your favorite shirt, finding rat droppings behind the sofa or biting your cable wires; rats can mess your homes within a matter of a night. There will come a time when you would want to just poison these little miscreants and get rid of them for good. But killing rats is easier said than done as there are many other factors involved in poisoning rats. Firstly using poison could be a risky business due to the environmental hazards and most importantly your kids, pet or anybody else might get exposed to the same poison causing accidental poisoning.
Some might even suggest you to use the sticky traps that are available as an alternate method where the end result would still be same; the rat dying a slow death due to dehydration and hunger. But you cannot deny the fact that it is highly inhuman to kill any living being in such a manner. Nobody deserves suffering and a slow death and rats and mice are no exception to that. The good news is there are quite a few different ways of getting rid of your rodent problem, which are humane and effective to fix the problem.
Let us learn about the 6 humane ways to get rid of rats and mice without making them suffer
1) A pet cat
An age old technique that fits perfectly in the scheme of sustainable living is keeping a cat or a rat terrier. This may sound inhuman to some but it is perfectly natural for a cat to kill a mouse as per the order of the food chain. However before getting a cat ensure you have not used rat poison as you would unknowingly kill your pet cat by passing the poison through the mice.
2) Mouse traps
Another old technique that works perfectly well in getting rid of your rodent infestation in a humane way are mouse traps. Once you trap the mouse, release it far away from your home so that they don’t find their way back in.
3) Electrocution
One new technique to get rid of rats and mice for good is using electrocution traps. These traps are engineered to electrocute the trapped rats granting them instant death and hence it is a much better way to kill rats as opposed to sticky traps or poison that can cause a slow and painful death.
4) Rodent Repellents
One method that works is prevention; naturally restraining rats by using garlic oil, pepper, horseradish and salad oil work as rats cannot tolerate their smell. Moth balls, Apple cider vinegar and peppermint oil also are good examples of rodent repellents. Rat proofing your home using rodent repellents ensures the rats do not come back as opposed to killing them, as there is a chance of another rat coming in your home if one is killed.
5) Spring Traps
Spring traps have been used widely over the world as an instant way to get rid of rats by killing them. As soon as the rat tries to eat the bait on the trap, the trap springs on the rat and kills it instantaneously. This too is a much quicker and humane way of killing mice as opposed to sticky traps or death by poison
6) Do-it-yourself mouse traps
As opposed to the traditional trap and release method, there are several traps that you can build at home. An easy method to build a trap is keep a hollow roll on the edge of a table (an empty tooth paste box will do) keep the ends open from both side and at one end keep some bait like cheese or crackers. Balance the box on the table and keep a tall bin or bucket underneath the tube, so that the moment the rat walks in, it will fall inside the bucket. You can either leave the rat away from home.
Most of these methods ensure that the rats die without suffering and in a much humane manner. Though killing anyone may not sound humane to a lot of people, only a person who is suffering from rodent infestation would understand how important it is to get rid of these little miscreants for good.
