Dangers of Glue Traps
Each year, countless animals are unintentionally caught in glue traps or “glue boards”. Glue traps are typically sheets or tubes covered in an extremely sticky glue; the traps are traditionally meant to capture flying insects, like wasps or flies (when hung up high) or rodents (when placed on the ground).
When an insect or animal is caught in this trap, its death is not quick or painless. Often, the animal struggles against the glue in an attempt to free itself, and eventually succumbs to injuries, exhaustion, starvation, or dehydration during a period of a few hours or several days.
THE DANGERS TO WILDLIFE
Sticky traps are indiscriminate and often catch animals that are the unintended victims of the trap – typically birds, snakes and lizards, and small mammals. In the cases of wider glue boards, even larger mammals have been stuck to traps and suffer injuries or fur loss when pulling free.
When hung outside of a home or in a barn, these traps (often in the form of tubes or strips of paper) catch not only wasps, but other flying animals, such as owls, bats, flying squirrels, and songbirds who accidentally fly into the glue trap, sometimes in an attempt to eat the insects that are stuck to the glue.
Most often, the animals that become stuck to the traps are small bird species or bats that eat flying insects and are not strong enough to pull free from the trap. Animals stuck in glue traps often suffer injuries to delicate wings, skin, body, or legs. Bird feathers become damaged and mangled from the glue. If not discovered and freed from the trap quickly, the animal will die. If an animal becomes stuck to a glue trap, it always needs medical treatment.
Courtesy of: The Wildlife Center of Virginia