PSA: Glue Traps and the Harm They Cause

This is a basic glue trap. This is actually the very one that the pest control service uses in my office. We recently expanded into an office that had been empty for a while, and had a roach problem.

Here is another type of glue trap. This one, unlike the other, is just a board, no cover over the top. Ones like these are larger and meant for bigger pests... Like mice and rats.

Unforunately, it's more than just mice and rats that get caught in these traps... And it's already sad enough that these are used for those purposes.

From what I understand, when I found this image on google, this poor mouse is still alive in this picture. These traps ensnare any poor creature unfortunate enough to walk on it, leading to slow, painful deaths, either by starvation, or suffocation if the critter gets its face stuck in the thick layer of glue on these things.

In some case, rats and mice have been known to bleed out, because they chew off their limbs in trying to escape.

These are just a few of the very sad pictures I found just from googling "glue traps"

When I got in to work this morning, I saw in one of the glue traps by the door this unfortunate little guy. Since the trap was only placed yesterday by the pest control person, I knew right away it would still be alive. And sure enough, he was. He couldn't move at all, even his head got stuck. I took this picture after I had opened the trap and cut around him, and started working on getting him free. His tail had originally been caught too.

After looking up how to do it, I worked desperately to try and free him from the trap. I soaked the bottom paper portion in hot water, and used a small amount of soap on the glue around him. The main thing I had to really be careful about was keeping water away from his face. The last thing I wanted to do was accidentally drown him while trying to save him.

After lots of soaking, and very VERY gently wiggling and loosening, he was almost free. His head was the tricky part, again, because I didn't want to drown him while trying to get him free. Thankfully, I was able to soak the bottom of the trap without getting his face wet, and gently pry him from it.

And I did it! Poor little fella was probably terrified, but he had to have been exhausted as well. At the very least, he had been stuck in that trap for well over 12 hours. He only moved a little bit after I got him free.

He was so small. I was lucky I got him off the trap relatively unharmed (he did have a couple toes still stuck together, but refused to let me separate them).

I held on to him for a while. He clung to the back of my hand while I worked at my computer. Finally, after he started to move around a lot more, it was time to let him outside. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of him outside.

TL;DR - OP saved a critter from a glue trap, and wants to spread a little bit of awareness.

Glue traps are very inhumane, and causes creatures to suffer needlessly. If you really need to get rid of pests like rats or mice, please choose something else, such as a no-kill trap, or if you have to kill it, please use a mouse or rat trap that will kill it quickly. Don't let the animal suffer like this...

EDIT: As multiple people have mentioned, vegetable oil WILL get a critter unstuck from one of these things. If I hadn't been at work, where we don't have any, I would've used it myself.