Mice in my Cabin

[N80]

I have a cabin in the country and up until recently I was there about every other weekend. Lately I have no been able to get down there very often and we have been over run by mice. We see them when we open the door and we can see where they have been.......which is everywhere and I mean everywhere.

We've had a mouse or two in the past but we put out a few traps and problem solved, usually within a few hours.

Last weekend we set traps and put rat poison all over.

The second we walked in the door yesterday we say two or three. I shot one with the pellet gun and my neighbors German Shepherd got another one. All the poison was gone. All the traps had the cheese or peanut butter removed without tripping.

What can we do? The rat poison seemed to have no effect at all and my neighbor said the same thing about the mice in his shop. He sees them eating it and he still has them.

Theory about the poison. It is warfarin, a potent blood thinner. The effects of warfarin are reversed by vitamin K. Could it be with all the new spring greenery that the mice are eating enough greens rich in vitamin K to reverse the warfarin? Seems crazy but what else would explain it?

Anyway, crazy theory aside, I'd appreciate any tips or tricks for getting rid of the mice. And we don't expect to never see a mouse. Its a weekend cabin in the woods. But we'd like not to be over run and to see mouse droppings in and on EVERYTHING.

Thanks.

 

[Bird]

So far, I've not had a problem with mice or rats that couldn't be cured with Victor traps baited with peanut butter. I once caught 5 in my office in one day between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.:laughing: If your traps weren't tripped, it sounds as it they were set improperly.

We moved into a new house in Sept. 1972, in what had been a mesquite pasture, and I could hear something in a wall and found droppings in the attached garage. I set a Victor mouse trap a couple of nights, it would be tripped the next morning with the bait gone, but nothing caught. So I went and got one of the bigger Victor rat traps and sure enough, the next night caught a big rat. No more problem.

 

[N80]

Well, that's part of the problem. We did not have the Victor traps. The ones we have have little plastic bait platforms. They are set properly but they rarely work properly. We did find a couple of Victors and in the past they have worked better but we've had mice steal the bait out of Victors too.

I do not know who makes the other ones that we have. The xenophobic cynic in me suspects they were made in China. Leave it to the Chinese to make an inferior mouse trap!

Fortunately no signs of rats...in the cabin. The ENTIRE engine compartment of my tractor was filled with leaves, branches and trash last month. I saw a pack rat jump ship when I cranked it (before I knew all that trash was in there). I put one of the large rat bait holders in there after clean out the engine bay for about 30 minutes. The poison was gone and the rat has not been back in a month. Still see the occasional mouse jumping overboard when I crank it.

 

[Little_Grizzly]

sounds like you could use one of those "mice bucket trap". Google for it to find out how to make one. Seems pretty straightforward and good for "high volume" applications.

 

[Rocksprings]

Be careful, those mice will attract all kinds of snakes.

 

[tractchores]

You may have warafin resistant mice. They make poison specifically to target those types of mice (it'll say for warafin resistant mice right on it). Other than that your best bet is probably to prevent getting them in. You can carefully go around the place and plug any holes with steel wool and expanding foam. Once that's done you just need to get rid of the ones stuck inside and the flow of new ones will stop. I live in the woods and we get a TON of mice and the only way to deal with them is to keep them out, poison and traps only work on the current crop and if more can get in then you'll never keep up.

 

[N80]

Be careful, those mice will attract all kinds of snakes.

I don't mind snakes.

tractchores, my cabin is a log cabin kit that I built myself eek. Sealing it from mice would be nearly impossible. And, as mentioned, this is the first time we've had an epidemic. A mouse or two I can live with.

 

[samandmax]

Sounds like you need one or two spayed female cats and spray your tractor engine bay with WD- 40 every so often.

 

[tractchores]

I don't mind snakes.

tractchores, my cabin is a log cabin kit that I built myself eek. Sealing it from mice would be nearly impossible. And, as mentioned, this is the first time we've had an epidemic. A mouse or two I can live with.

Yeah, sealing that probably isn't realistic. Maybe the poison for warafin resistant mice will keep the numbers down to a reasonable level. Keeping brush and especially brush piles & wood piles away from the building might also help since mice love that stuff.

 

[Mousefield]

This is a product we have found very effective in controlling rats and mice around the barn and chicken coop. I have it in cedar boxes with mouse/rat size openings so things we don't want eating it don't.
It is somewhat similar to a candle with a hole down the middle. I put a screw down the middle and attach it to the bottom of the cedar box. Mice and rats will carry away both the power and pellet form of warfarin and similar products so this is much safer. Sure don't want the chickens, goats, dog getting at it.

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Key Information
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