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A PSA about bats and glue traps
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this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2023
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Glue traps are terrible, but there's an easy way to get something free from them without hurting it: Hang the glue trap upside down over a container or bucket or something. Just let gravity slowly pull the critter free. They'll be able to clean themselves after that.
If you try to pull something out, the glue stiffens and pulls back more as the glue is a non-newtonian fluid. This will cause damage and hurt the creature. But, allowing gravity to do the work for you takes just a moment and leaves minimal glue behind on whatever got stuck. Then, you can set them free without worry. The little bit of residual glue gets even easier for them to clean when it gets a little dust in it.
I mean you can dissolve the glue pretty easily with vegetable oil. The problem is that the bat will be trying to pull itself out of the trap the whole time it's stuck before you can free it and will injure itself in the process because they are very fragile. It even says in the post that they need time to heal afterwards.
I've freed mice, lizards, a few other things, even a baby rattlesnake this way. Never my own traps. But, yeah... a lot of times the vegetable oil thing just isn't an option. And, it seems much more difficult and traumatic for the animal. They freak out being handled by humans, as they should, honestly.