Havaheart capture and release. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

[Baitball Blogger]

I try to overlook nuisance visits from wildlife like armadillos, unless they start tearing up the yard. In those cases I generally hire pest removal services because I understand that you need a permit to relocate wildlife. Generally, however there hasn't been a big problem with wildlife since the last neighbor took down their tangerine tree years ago.

But something has changed this year and we have seen an increase of wood mice periodically turning up in the yard. I have cameras set up in strategic areas in the yard just for the entertainment factor of watching and enjoying wildlife, or in the case of rats and mice, to find a way to eradicate them. I think the increase in sightings is due to this set of events: Coyotes have finally made it to our stick of the woods and there has been a decrease in stray cats. So, with the cats gone, the mice will play. The increase of mice and/or rats would have been expected. However, it got much worse when the golfcourse began clearing large patches of palmetto brush. You put all this together and the displaced rodents are looking for new habitat. They don't stay long in my yard because I am very proactive with the havaheart traps.

So, here's the thing. The two wood mice that I have caught since Christmas I relocated to a wild preserve. Here I was thinking they had a chance, maybe even a better chance, since they have more wild habitat out there than they do here. I even remember the last one I released and was amazed how she blended in with her environment. She stopped four feet from me and if I hadn't followed her movements, I wouldn't have seen her. She was perfectly camouflaged.

But then I made the mistake of reading the internet. It says that you should release them no more than 100 yards because they won't acclimate to a strange place and will not know where to find food, water and possibly end up dinner for a predator.

Well, damn. What's the point of releasing them 100 yards away if the point is to get them so far from your residence that you won't see them or their progeny again?

Anyone have any info to contradict what I'm reading on the internet?

[sinkingfeeling]

1. I've always released them about a mile from the house. I don't see how

they cannot find food or water in a new spot unless they were orphaned as babies.

[BusyBeingBest]

2. I do the same with the trap we have in the garage.

We drive them down the gravel road where nobody lives and let them go.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. Same here.

I think the last one was looking for a place to nest because I picked her up on two cameras, circling the house. So I hope I caught her before she had a litter. Not sure what to look for if she had babies around the house.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

4. I'd would

Get rid of those coyotes.

They hurt/ kill cats.

That's enough to get them relocated. Or killed in my book.

Cats are nessesary where people are if there are vermin.plus they're territorial of thier owners home.

[dpibel]

5. Ummm...coyotes eat mice

I do understand all the mythology about coyotes loving nothing better than snacking on Chihuahuas and Siamese. But I'm a little sensitive about this because I have a neighbor who hates coyotes, and has been known to kill them, whilst I have a garden that is under eternal siege from cottontails and voles.

No idea what you might consider an authoritative source. Here are some links.

"Coyotes are omnivorous and will eat just about anything, but their main natural diet consists of
"small mammals (mice, chipmunks, squirrels)
"insects (grasshoppers, beetles)
"fruit (persimmons, blackberries, figs).

https://atlantacoyoteproject.org/the-coyote-diet/

"Coyotes are not picky eaters. They eat small game such as rodents, rabbits, fish and frogs, and larger game like deer. Their diet is 90 percent mammalian."

https://www.livescience.com/27976-coyotes.html

"A study analyzed over one thousand droppings. In the report, they found that 'the most consistent substances eaten were small rodents about half, fruit around a third and deer and rabbit about a third.'"

https://northamericanmammals.com/what-do-coyotes-eat/

I'm not at all disputing your mice invasion, and I feel your pain. Just wondering if it might be something more like a warm winter that allowed high survival rates amongst the mice, or something similar. Because, even if the coyotes ate all the cats, they'd likely pick up the slack by eating all the newly available mice.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Cats feel comfortable walking around the edges of the house where the mice

might roam looking for food and warmth. The one coyote that my camera picked up skirted the edge of the property, but did not venture into the property. It was following a possum mom, hoping to pick up its babies. I found one in the street the next day and took it to a rescue.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

7. My cat is an indoor cat.

I get saddened by people who let thier cats outside unsupervised..dispite the very real dangers.

It makes me angry that people are so stupid they let thier cats outside when coyotesare around.

I don't hate coyotes.

I just get upset when cats are neglected,harmed or killed.

Cats to me,are sacred beings and the definition of love in a loveless world. I'd be dead if it wasn't for cats. I feel very protective of them.
Because of the shit I have been through. I love them to the bottom of my heart.

[Baitball Blogger]

8. It is pretty shitty what's going on out there at night.

Coyotes were definitely displaced by habitat loss. I think another reason why I haven’t seen the regular stray cats around here is because there may be good hunting with the displaced mice somewhere else in the neighborhood. I just checked the cams and I have one of the stray cats in the yard right now. I will sleep well tonight.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

10. Good

Glad part of the clowder remains.
Keep an eye or cameraon them for me.💜

[Kali]

9. trap and release of vermin

is nothing but a fool-yourself feel-good exercise. use humane, fast kill snap traps.

[abqtommy]

11. While I'm all in favor of catch/release for some critters I have some hard feeling towards

rodents. Rats, mice, chipmunks and ground squirrels are all hosts for hantavirus and plague that can
be transmitted by coming into contact with the feces, fresh or dried urine they leave behind, to say nothing of having personal contact in following the steps necessary for catch and release. Every year here in New Mexico and other areas in the southwest there are deaths due to this so protect yourself
and your loved ones and neighbors.