Glue traps - adhesive boards used to catch rodents - cause extreme suffering and are subject to growing calls for bans across the UK and internationally.
Glue traps cause profound suffering. Animals caught on adhesive boards experience terror, physical injury from escape attempts, and prolonged dying over hours or days. The trap mechanism ensures no quick death - victims experience the full duration of their remaining life in immobilised panic. Non-target captures of non-pest animals are common and entirely avoidable. The welfare case against glue traps is overwhelming in the scientific and ethical literature. Alternatives - snap traps, live capture traps, and exclusion methods - achieve rodent control without the sustained suffering. Scotland's 2024 ban demonstrates that pest control can function without glue traps.