Well, that's a shame. From what I've heard, they have a good reputation of being good to the environment. I think their response (or lack of) will say volumes about the real character of this company.

I'm glad PETA brought this to the public's attention.

Posted by: Maya | May 25, 2007 02:50 PM

Home Depot is lousy to their employees, I've heard that much.

Posted by: Canaduck | May 25, 2007 03:29 PM

this glue trap is really an invention of an ill brain - how can a human being go so far to torture animals?

all my love to the above featured activists - thank you for doing this great job!

Posted by: little big woman | May 25, 2007 04:30 PM

I thinks it's so wrong that Home Depot sells glue traps. I know as a fact that they don't have any humane traps either. They most likely don't realize that the animals being cought in this trap suffer just as much as they would. I'm glad Peta does what they do to help animals in need.

Posted by: Melanie V. | May 25, 2007 05:13 PM

I thinks it's so wrong that Home Depot sells glue traps. I know as a fact that they don't have any humane traps either. They most likely don't realize that the animals being cought in this trap suffer just as much as they would. I'm glad Peta does what they do to help animals in need.

Posted by: Melanie V. | May 25, 2007 05:13 PM

Don't people know to seal up their homes? I mean, I can understand the worry about hantavirus and all that, but all these traps do is put a band-aid on the problem. Only sealing up a home can prevent mice etc without killing any animals.

ps the exception is chimney swifts, since we've ruined their habitat they depend on chimneys to live in, so from what I understand they may go extinct if we seal up chimneys.

I hope PETA educated folks on how to seal up their homes. I'm sure some people don't know how if they're out buying this poor product.

Posted by: Maya | May 25, 2007 08:42 PM

Menards and Meijer stores sell glue traps as well. It's mean enough for people to use lethal traps, but to use the cruelest kind available is disgusting. My brother and I wonder what you're supposed to do when you come across a successful trap (if the animal hasn't already suffocated or gnawed their limbs off and escaped)...Do you leave the trapped animal until they slowly starve to death, or are you supposed to throw them into the garbage alive? The whole thought of it is sickening. I understand why people do not want rodents in their home, and that's why they should use live traps and release unwanted guests outside in a wooded area where they belong. This way they and the animals can go about their lives. Having compassion for others CAN be a win-win situation.

Posted by: Cuckoo4tofu | May 26, 2007 12:54 AM

this world is degrading quickly into a hellish system: this thing here is really on the lowest level - shame on you - home depot - for your dirty money making! there is absolutely no need for this atrocity. a peaceful person can co-exist with every kind of species without disturbing each other. in my castle i have spiders, rats, craws and in the park are snakes and foxes and i'm still alive and my animals also - we have all a very good life and a harmonious co-existence! distruction of so-called dangerous animals and all this pest-control has his origine in the stingy human heart which doesn't want to share life with other creatures...

Posted by: nightingale | May 26, 2007 05:53 PM

I hate these things. And to think some people actually think they're more humane than a conventional mousetrap. I used to work at a hotel that used them, and every time I found one I threw them away. I wonder if they ever wondered where their traps were going...?

Posted by: Danielle | May 27, 2007 01:42 PM

The original Home depot founder is good to the environment, he has also sold and retired from Home Depot long since this.So this is a new bunch running corporate Home Depot!

Posted by: A | May 27, 2007 05:38 PM

Home Depot isn't the only store selling glue traps--they are in many stores in port st. lucie, Stuart in florida--shouldn't they be declared illegal?

Posted by: mary panos | May 27, 2007 06:11 PM

"My brother and I wonder what you're supposed to do when you come across a successful trap (if the animal hasn't already suffocated or gnawed their limbs off and escaped)...Do you leave the trapped animal until they slowly starve to death, or are you supposed to throw them into the garbage alive?"

You do what everyone does - get a shovel or something heavy and put it out of its misery as soon as possible - then chuck it.

I don't know anyone who uses glue traps, but my neighbour's used poison a few times; which means that I sometimes get rats in my backyard that're obviously on their way out. Best way I've found is a quick strike with a shovel. Advantage is that you can then carry the carcass to the trash on the end of the shovel, so you don't have to touch it.

Posted by: Matt | May 27, 2007 11:50 PM

Hey guys, just wanted to say great job on bringing public attention to this terrible thing. I love you guys for speaking out for the animals. Glue traps should be completely banned from all stores, and this is the first step to awareness.

Posted by: Haileigh | May 28, 2007 10:48 PM

Thank you so much for this article! I have had such trouble with mice no matter living in the city or near fields (I'm HUGE on cleaning and being neat-FYI:) When I recently moved to the suburbs near a field I thought I had finally escaped city rodent life- until the temp. dropped and chaos began with a massive influx of field mice wherein the only humane action I could take was to kill them to stop them from procreating. Many a night I would hear these mice screaming for hours because my brother/roomate had left glue traps where I couldn't find them to throw them out- Remember if your roomate ever does this - VEGTABLE OIL WORKS eventually to free the mice!

Posted by: Jules | May 29, 2007 05:21 PM

Have any of you ever had a serious cockroach infestation? I’m talking about finding them crawling around in your food inside the refrigerator, across your leg when your sitting in the living room, even in your bed. I had an apartment like that once, and we would see several of them a day in every room. Eventually you could smell them. Their poop was all along the edge of the floor. It was unhealthy. Nothing we tried could get rid of them, but glue traps (yes, we bought them at Home Depot) worked the best. They helped a lot and are much better for the environment and safer than pesticides.

Posted by: yeahbut | May 30, 2007 10:22 AM

The way to deal with a cockroach infestation is to take preventive measures like not having open food containers and crumbs all over your house. Glue traps might work to solve your problem, but the point is that they're cruel and inhumane, and there are other solutions. For more information about humane, effective cockroach control, go to http://www.helpinganimals.com/wildlife_livingWithRoaches.asp

Posted by: J | May 30, 2007 10:27 AM

When you move into an apartment and discover a serious roach problem, you’re limited in what you can do. I did some research on options. We put all our food in tightly sealed containers, and that at least kept our food safe, but it didn’t get rid of them. They eat everything; cardboard, skin flakes, the glue off postage stamps, each other, their own poop. Plus, the building was setup in a way that made it easy for them to go back and forth between units, and all our neighbors had them. We tried to seal up all the cracks and crevices as best we could to isolate ourselves, but complete isolation was impossible. This was the Deep South, so there was no hard winter to slow them down. We tried those ultrasonic bug repellers, and they did nothing. We tried poisoned baits which seemed to work at first, but they came back strong and the baits didn’t work a second time. Glue traps kept there numbers down, but didn’t eliminate them. I refused to use spray, but I know our neighbors used it, and it didn’t work either. Once our lease was up, we moved out, and I haven’t had a roach problem in any of the apartments I’ve lived in since. I’m grateful that those glue traps were available.

Posted by: yeahbut | May 30, 2007 11:58 AM

best method against cockroaches: keep your apartment or house always clean. once i had some when i lived in an apartment in town - i cleaned every day and so they left after two weeks - maybe they went to the neighbour who was not so clean!

Posted by: bluebird | May 30, 2007 12:28 PM

Keeping your living space clean is important, but it’s not enough in the face of an entrenched roach population especially in a warm climate and in an old apartment building full of small holes that they can travel though. We got to the point where we were sealing up our trash so that they couldn’t get into it, and washing our dishes the instant we were done eating. We were putting baking soda and soap in the sink drains to try to deny them that source of water. We tried home remedies we found online (Bay leaves and Nutmeg). We tried that stuff that’s supposed to make them sterile so they can’t reproduce. It was like a Biblical plague.

For people in a situation like that, I think the glue traps are a better alternative to sprays and foggers. More effective. Less harmful to the environment. Less harmful to your health.

Posted by: yeahbut | May 30, 2007 12:48 PM

to yeahbut:
if they don't move one could also try to make the following: first clean, then give them a space: to put something they like in a special place. me i put a huge bowl with cookies - if everything else is clean they go inside but they cannot climb the bowl - then i take the bowl and put them outside in the field, but far enough - so they cannot come back. now i'm in a big house and there are many animals inside like rats and mice. in winter i give them eating in the basement - so they don't come into the house and in spring they go again outside. with the snails in the garden it's easy: i mix always wild plants with garden plants - so they are not interested. if there is a rainy year i create for them a special place where i plant just tagetes - this they like so much - so all they go there for to eat them and let the other flowers! there are many ways to avoid conflict situations with other creatures - for this we got brains to resolve these problems without killing them: sometimes it needs some time to try something but till now i always found a solution...

Posted by: bluebird | May 30, 2007 01:21 PM

post scriptum:
two other solutions for avoiding to kill animals: if there are wasps or bees lost in the house: if it's evening - close the light and open the window - they always follow light or fresh air! during the day i have always a glass and a hard paper besides me; when the insect sits down on the window i put the glass on it, then i smoothly put the hard paper under the glass between the window and the insect, then i open the window, remove the hard paper and the insect can fly out of the glass!
second experience: in a big garden it's always useful not to remove the dead trees - so the animalkingdom goes to take shelter there: if you remove the dead trees they attack the most week ones in the garden and so you shall have a damage! i hope to have been helpful...

Posted by: bluebird | May 30, 2007 01:38 PM

I totally sympathize with yeahbut, if only because we had a cockroach problem too. We kept things INCREDIBLY neat and took every precaution we could but we lived in an old building with tons of holes, and our next door neighbor was a bizarre hermit of a neighbor whose apartment smelled horrible even from the hall. I do agree that glue traps are cruel, but when it comes to having cockroaches all over your house despite taking all available precautions, well...

Incidentally, we used poison despite being vegan otherwise. It was that awful. The poison didn't work, either, and if I'd known about glue traps I'd probably have considered using them too.

Posted by: Canaduck | May 30, 2007 02:01 PM

some more special experiences:
i have a metal letterbox on which the sun is shining directly - so the ants put their eggs there inside and are breeding inside the letterbox. they never go on my letters - they know the whole story! if one is anyway lost on an envelope i put her back to her tribe - but you can be sure i never have one ant in the kitchen!

i never cut stinging nettles - they are very important for butterflies breeding their eggs!

i don't remove spiders and their nets in all the house - so i almost don't have mosquitos!

i don't cut the grass so it's a shelter for hedgehogs, snakes, etc.

i don't correct the small stream - so it choses his own way - sometimes underground and this is building biotopes where frogs and dragonflys are settling...

i mean i try always and so i get good results for the animals and myself...

Posted by: bluebird | May 30, 2007 03:05 PM

to bluebird:
Thanks for the garden tips. If you can come up with a safe, effective, environmentally friendly and economical way to handle roaches in a dense urban setting, in a hot and humid climate, you stand to make some good money! If you can make it humane, all the better. Keep in mind that people who rent typically have very little authority to alter the property itself.

Posted by: yeahbut | May 31, 2007 01:19 PM

I think this raises some really good points, most importantly to give people alternatives that are realistic and affordable.

Even the wealthiest people will only stand for "infestations" for so long before they look for anything and everything available to get rid of the problem, no matter how toxic or inhumane.

People with low income should be the very last people on the planet that we criticize - and they are often the most tolerant of these conditions anyway.

Protesting Home Depot is fine, but advertising stores that offer realistic alternatives should be a top priority. The ideas here are excellent too; they should also be announced to the public so people actually have some direction.

Posted by: Maya | May 31, 2007 02:15 PM

the girl stuck on the mouse trap is brilliant.

Posted by: miranda. | September 18, 2007 07:01 PM

It's amazing how absurd people can be just to feel a little rebel. Glue traps? I mean... what?! are you guys planing on having a bear protesting against another bear about the cruelty of eating fish? Guys common!!!! I understand other campaigs about conservation and anti-abuse, but... this?!?! I mean, give me a NOT CRUEL solution for a rat infestation in my house.

Posted by: efcos | January 10, 2008 10:50 AM

Efcos... glue traps are torturous to any animal caught on them. That's essentially abuse... and considering the wide variety of humane alternatives available (snap traps are far more humane and cheaper too), there is no reason to use them.

Imagine a small animal stuck on superglue, tearing its skin off and breaking all its bones. Some people even throw them into the bin in that condition where they take days to die.

Is that the right thing to do?

You can't honestly relate THAT to bears on fish - bears eat fish to survive. They don't create sticky cardboard and let their prey starve to death. They don't intentionally plan to make their prey suffer. I'd rather be crushed and killed quickly via a bear's jaws than starve to death or die from my injuries from a glue trap.

You have countries banning this trap, and you have stores taking them off their shelves. You have anecdotal evidence of their cruelty and you have a scientific report citing their cruelty as well. Why do you think this has happened?

Glue traps seemed to be designed to maximise pain. I don't know if this is true, but a workmate told me glue traps contain some sort of chemical that "dissolves" their hair and skin while still alive, and makes their internal organs melt and seep through their skin pores.

If people think this is an acceptable way to kill animals, then my faith in humanity has been lost.

Posted by: Chuck | March 27, 2008 12:41 AM

The glue traps aren't the problem in the issue you're addressing - it's the negligence in checking them. Mice and rats can easily be humanely anesthetized once they are caught, so long as the individual who set the glue traps actually bothers to check them.

Releasing urban mice and rats into the wild isn't particularly humane either. You're leaving them in an environment they're not accustomed to (and likely haven't been for many generations) and they'll very likely die from predation after a short while of struggling to adapt. I wouldn't think being eaten by an owl or perhaps a raccoon to be particularly pleasant, either.

Face it, when they act as pests we need to get rid of them when, mostly for reasons of sanitation / disease prevention. They'll likely always be there, and we'll always have to get rid of them. ... Would anyone argue that an individual with lice shouldn't wash with special shampoo because it would kill the poor little lice? There is such a thing as coexisting with nature. What I'm hearing here amounts to submission to nature. Do you believe that nature is more important than your own well-being, and somehow humans are not part of nature but lesser beings? If not, then it's our right to combat these disease-ridden pests as best we can, with all proper ethical AND objective considerations.

Posted by: This is ridiculous | May 17, 2008 02:46 PM