so I have a bunch of mice living in my kitchen, because I previously underestimated how well they can climb and jump (very well it turns out) and I was keeping my bird food bags in a bucket on the table. I thought that would be way too slippery for them to get in but mice are powerful.
I now put the bird food into a closed box with a weighted lid and I'm experimenting with using the bucket as a live trap for relocating these friends outside (I have a boundary against folks habitually using my kitchen as a bathroom and mice don't respect that which is why I want them to move out.)
I hope that by making sure that all food is sealed away from them and by relocating the mice that are here now, I can keep the issues at a minimum.
it was rough to read about how to do this on the internet cause even when you explicitly look for live/humane traps, you find a lot of people talking about deliberately killing these animals in very cruel ways. meanwhile here I am feeling a bit bad for even putting them outside cause I know they have social structures and the outside world is full of dangers for them.
I ended up making my own design cause I didn't have the materials on hand that folks on the internet used for theirs. the current trap is a plastic bucket with peanuts inside and plastic film over the top secured with a rubber band, and a small hole in the center of the film for them to get in. I release the mice a ways away from the house, in the fields by an unused shack and a small stream, and I put peanuts out there as well. so far I've relocated 3.