Glue traps are coated with a sticky substance, and they don’t discriminate when it comes to catching animals. Dr. Karra Pierce is the lead veterinarian at the Wildlife Center of Virginia.
“Say you’re trying to cut down on the amount of bugs in your garage. All those bugs get stuck to the glue trap, and then a little Carolina wren comes along and says, ‘Well look at this platter of bugs someone has put out for me.Delightful!’They go to try to catch those bugs, and they themselves get caught.”
The Wildlife Center sees dozens of cases each year involving snakes, rabbits, squirrels and other animals that are subject to an inhumane death according to center spokesman Connor Gillespie.
“Usually these animals, once they are trapped, they become terrified, and they struggle to free themselves and become more trapped. They die from exposure, starvation, dehydration.It’s just this really horrible way to go.”
So the Wildlife Center is urging Virginians to figure out how animals are getting into their residence.
“Because no matter what kind of trap you use to deal with that problem,” Gillespie says, “if you don’t seal up those entry points, they’re going to get right back in.”
Then, use a live trap to catch and remove unwanted wildlife.
“It’s a very easy thing to set up. You can just put a little piece of peanut butter or something else enticing in there, and then once the mouse is inside, you can move them outside, open up that trap, set them free. Now they can’t get back in,” he concludes.
Dr. Pierce says animals stuck to glue traps can sometimes be saved, but it isn’t easy.
“We are able to usually get them off, but that’s just the first step. Then we’re left treating a patient with often a lot of medical problems inflicted by the glue trap, whether that be dehydration, emaciation – wounds. They can get their skin torn from being on the glue trap. Birds in particular, often a lot of them lose feathers, and then we have to wait for those feathers to grow back.”
Which is why a number of cities have now banned glue traps, and one, Ojai, California, used data from the Wildlife Center of Virginia to make the case.
