Here’s Why Kentuckians and Hoosiers Should Never Use Glue Traps

There's an old Robert Burns poem called "To a Mouse" that contains the iconic verse, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." It's where John Steinbeck got the title for his literary masterpiece Of Mice and Men. The line fits Steinbeck's theme, and, unfortunately, it also plays out in practice and usually when--coincidence alert--mice are involved.

The Horror of Glue Traps

So let's talk glue traps. And since I have a story about glue traps, I'll start. Light years ago, in the early 1990s, my sister was working at Owensboro-Daviess County Hospital, back when that was its name. That's also back when it was in its old location AND before it got a remodel on that old site. Glue traps had been placed behind large pieces of equipment, and they worked...maybe a little too good for my sister's money. She is deathly afraid of mice, and when one got caught, it started screaming. You don't have to be a musophobic to find that unsettling, and it was.

How Glue Traps Can Harm Other Animals

But animal lovers have bigger issues with glue traps aside from the aesthetic discomfort. That's because it's easy to harm other animals that pose NO issues. Take a look at some recent work done by staffers at the Sweetbriar Nature Center in upstate New York. A beautiful screech owl ran afoul of a glue trap, something the center says has become far too common an occurrence.

Make sure you read and understand all the information in that Facebook post before attempting to help a wild animal caught in one of those infernal things.

We want to keep both the creature AND you safe from harm.