While I can empathize with senior disciple for their loss, you've committed a great blasphemy, that we cannot turn our eyes against.
Your mention of the freedom unit is a spit on the rules-based order of the leftist cult. This shall not be let go, and you'll be punished thoroughly with twenty-five whips for every freedom units you've uttered in front of every disciple.
For those of you who were traumatised by the imperial units, here's the conversion rate: 1lbs = 0.453592kgs. Courting death!
Imperial would be better if it actually was base 12. Instead, it's base 12, base 16, base 3, base 4, and whatever the fuck else. It's awful and you know it.
I feel you man I live in the country and all my shit is in plastic bins because of mice. Sorry you had to find out the hard way.
And yes you have to kill them or you will get infested. Use A LOT of snap traps. I have 10 in my attic and one in every cabinet. Poison baits hurt raptors and should be illegal tbh.
while you are rethinking your storage situation / strategy, i just want to give an endorsement for Cambro polycarbonate food grade containers. they make containers and lids that seal tight, last forever, and at volumes ranging from "i'm a normal kitchen human doing normal things" to "me and my several large adult sons will rule these wastelands with bellies full of grains and pulses" or maybe "this is for a commercial kitchen" i suppose. they are usually stackable and color options with transparent sides, usually with unit markings to tell you how much you've got left. stg, i do not have an affiliate link, lol.
if you're in North America, webstaurantstore.com usually has the widest selection, a powerful search tool and sometimes insanely cheap prices, but their costs for shipping are buttcheeks for residential addresses so it's a bit of a wash. i would make an account there regardless and request a free catalogue, because they are fun to look through. amazon can occasionally have some good deals on Cambro stuff, but their algorithm is shit and it will try to steer you towards knockoffs. sometimes i find the thing on webstaurantstore and then search for it on amazon using specific terminology. i like squared sides (as opposed to round) because i'm an efficiency asshole, but round bottoms have their uses if you want to occaisionally use smaller (~4-6 qt) containers for mixing ingredients.
not even Rat'xal, Lord of 10,000 Rats, could defy the sanctity of my grain and lentil storage situation. though there is a cat around here too, but the only thing he catches is naps.
Cambros fuckin rule. All my grains and beans are in Cambros. There’s a local restaurant supply store open to the public and I stock up when they’re on sale (both containers and dry food)
I would make an exception to the no-kill rule tbh. Or get a pet snake and let it roam around the cupboards frequently enough that mice will smell trouble.
Bucket. 20oz plastic soda bottle. Stiff wire or rod - the rodents should be able to walk on the wire/rod. Drill holes the size of the wire near the top of the bucket (1/2" or so from the top) opposite one another. Drill through the center of the bottle cap and the bottom of the bottle - wiggle the drill a bit to make the holes bigger/jankier. Wire goes in one drilled bucket hole, through the bottle, then out the other. The bottle should spin freely. If it doesn't, embiggen the holes in the bottle slightly. Provide ramps to the wire. Peanut butter on bottle. Rodent gets up, high wires to the bottle, gets dumped into the bucket. You can put something in the bucket to make it harder for them to escape (powder or some shit, dunno), or a few inches of water to inhumanely drown them.
There are bucket lid kits on amazon that prevents all that DIY nonsense. Regardless, this bucket is a mouse killing machine and you can just dump it out. Once you get your mouse population down you can go back to single trappings.
I started like you. The first mouse I ever caught got a night in the dumpster outside with a piece of bread covered in peanut butter. After they murdered my water cooled 2080 gaming rig I turned into a genocidal maniac. I would try to end them with my bare fucking hands.
If anyone asks those mice if they'd rather spend the night with a man or a hexabearian, those mice had better say a man.
Bonding with your cat by hunting with it works well. You chase together and the cat gets used to you moving obstacles. You lift couch, cat goes all catty, mouse dead. On the counter? Put cat on counter. Move shit when the mouse hides. Mouse dead.