Eliminating Rodents: Are Glue Boards a Good Choice?

If you find yourself facing a rodent infestation in your home, you undoubtedly desire to utilize an effective strategy to rid your home of these critters. There are a number of different ways in which rodents can be eliminated from your home, including what are known as glue boards. With this in mind, you may wonder whether or not glue boards are a good choice when it comes to eliminating rodents from your residence or business.

How Glue Boards Work?

Glue boards are based on a fairly simple principle. The device really is nothing more than a flat rectangle coated on one side with a thick, sticky, glue-like material. A glue trap is baited with a food item likely attractive to a rodent. For example, a glue trap can be baited with cheese or peanut butter. It can also be baited with a piece of cloth or bits of string, substances that a rodent might desire to use to build a nest.

The bait attracts a rodent to the glue board. Desiring to nab the bait, a rodent steps onto the glue board and becomes stuck in the glue-like substance. A rodent typically is not able to work its way free from the glue trap. Rather, the animal is left in the trap for what can amount to days until it dies of starvation, lack of water, or exposure. As will be expanded upon in a moment, considering the manner in which a glue trap works, most people – including experts on rodent extermination – do not consider glue traps a “good choice” when it comes to eliminating rodents from a home or business.

Are Glue Boards Humane?

Even though you may be very displeased with rodents infesting your home or business, even though you want them exterminated and eliminated, if you are like the vast majority of people, you do not want any living thing to unnecessarily suffer.

Glue traps are nearly universally regarded as inhumane devices. Once a rodent is ensnared in the muck, it spends an extended period of time in agony until it finally dies.

There are far more humane and efficient alternatives to a glue trap when it comes to eradicating rodents. Even though it is the most basic type of trap, the “old school” T-bar snap trap is a far more human alternative. In nearly all cases, when a T-bar snap trap is activated, a rodent is killed instantly. Using a cliché, a rodent “doesn’t know what hit it.”

Inconvenient and Unsettling Alternative

In addition to the negative aspects of glue traps discussed thus far, if you are considering such a device, you need to be well aware of how inconvenient and unsettling the use of such a device can be for you. The stark reality is that you are not likely to want to leave a trap containing a mouse or rat lying around for days whilst the animal slowly dies. You may be able to tolerate such a situation; most people cannot not.

The alternative is that you need to collect a glue trap once a rodent is ensnared. You may find yourself in a position in which you need to devise a means through which you kill the trapped animal. (Some people place the rodent and the trap in a plastic bag and seal it, ultimately suffocating the animal.) The reality is that most people find this process truly unsettling. In the grand scheme of things, that is a natural response to this type of trap.

Overall Effectiveness of Glue Traps

Contrasting glue traps with other alternatives, another reality is that they are not highly effective options. The typical trap can only ensnare one rodent. Moreover, when other rodents infesting a residence or business set their eyes on what happens when one of their own gets ensnared in a glue trap, they eventually may learn to avoid such traps altogether. Thus, simply put, glue traps are not particularly effective in any way. Very few professionals – or anyone else, for that matter – recommends glue traps.

Professional Assistance

The surest way to thoroughly and efficiently eliminate rodents from your residence or business is to retain the services of a professional exterminator. By hiring a professional, you are relieved of the task of setting traps or putting out bait to kill and then remove rodents. All of that is handled by someone else who has the background, skill, and equipment necessary to humanely and quickly bring your home or business to a rat-free status.

Similarly, when it comes to rodent dropping cleanup and other cleaning tasks that follow the elimination of varmints from your home or business, you are likely wise to seek the help of a professional. A rodent dropping cleanup company can safely and thoroughly eliminate feces from your residence or business in an efficient manner.