Mousecapades - a tale and a warning

[rixtory]

Finally - Something I can comment on - with 20 years as a licensed pest control technician.

Baits are great for the least amount of work, but not always the best or safest method.

poisons. - Single feeding bait blocks are best - onefeeding and a lethal amount is consumed. It is best to try NOT to use bait blocks around domestic animals, but if one must, please consider putting them inside a tamperproof bait station or nailing them to a wall (That's what the holes are for) in a location in which they can possible be tampered with by pets.


what find works best is the regular snap traps. Put them out - Perpendicular to the wall, trigger closest to wall - but don't set them.
place a dab of peanut butter on the trigger. It wil take a few days for the mice to gradually stop running around these new obtrusions, and instead slowly maintain their trail next to the wall and eventually run right over the traps, stopping for a snack.
Rodent behavios is usually always to run along walls, keeping their whiskers or guard hairs along a wall structure.
I beleive they also rely on muscle memory when they run along known paths - which is why they are cautious at first and will swing wide around a new object, but slowly, they will come closer and closer til they are running over it.

OK after a week, set all the traps one afternoon, careful not to move them. include a dab of peanut butter. Count your rodents the next morning. Don't leave tehm dead and stinking up the trap. It will lessen your future trap's effectiveness.

Repeat this process again.

Another phase of this is to use a napkin over the traps instead of peanut butter to avoid the rodents being overlysuspcious of new metal/wood contraptions.

It also helps to keep pressure on their environment - clean up areas outside the barn. Trim away brush and get rid of lumber leaning against the buildings. pick up rubble that affords hiing spots in these areas.
Try to avoid spilling grain and meal (shop vac - great for spills).
Cheers

 

[Bird]

I agree with the traps, and I've used peanut butter for bait successfully. However, I've also seen mice lick all the peanut butter off a trap with tripping it. The most successful, never fail bait I've used is a small piece of uncooked bacon tied on with thread. I've never had anything steal that bait without getting caught and it sure seems to attract them.

 

[megaboz]

I did find out that dcon doesn't kill cock roaches, as a matter of fact, they ate more of it then the mice. I guess I will have to nuke those little critters.

 

[8226hamer]

I agree with the traps, and I've used peanut butter for bait successfully. However, I've also seen mice lick all the peanut butter off a trap with tripping it. The most successful, never fail bait I've used is a small piece of uncooked bacon tied on with thread. I've never had anything steal that bait without getting caught and it sure seems to attract them.

The best way I found to bait the trap is to use a half peanut, or a piece of potato chip SUPER GLUED to the trigger. It will last a long time and they can't steal it without firing the trap.

 

[M_Brown]

I have a mouse problem right now. I have a large garage with a loft and find mouse dropping inside on top of things, like the boat, tractor, car, ect. I thought they were on the floor but found that if i covered a spot on the floor with a board on top of two boxes the dropping were on the top of the board and never underneath. I believe they are using the beams and such overhead to travel around and that is why the dropping are only on top of things. I don't have anything in the garage that they would want to eat and have gone through everything and find no signs of them. I have put out traps with peanut butter, but the traps are never touched. I see the dropping only in the summer and not in the winter. I keep the yard clear of anything that will attract them and first noticed them when my Neighbor cleaned up a large pile of brush that had been sitting around a couple of years. I do have a 10X20 enclosure that hold lumber that is stickered and drying that i had milled from trees on the property and have found dropping in there to but no other signs of them. I have a trap in there and will check it in the morning. Any Ideas?

 

[weedsportpete]

Hi all,

Someone just suggested leaving old potatoes out for rats or mice to eat, and somehow it kills them. Has anyone heard of this?

Thans,
Pete

 

[cappys tractor]

I saw a neat new idea. (Although it is not new, or even novel)

A friend took a 5 gallon bucket. poke two holes near the top of the rim. poke similar size holes in the ends of a beer can. slightly scuff the beer can with fine sandpaper. Put a small wire through the can, and fasten it to the two holes in the bucket. smear peanut butter on the can.

put about a gallon of the RV antifreeze in the bottom of the bucket.

go away. then scoop out the dead drowned mice from the bucket.

this has the advantage of using non toxic, pet friendly antifreeze, so nothing gets poisoned by mistake.

This looks funny, but the mice try and try to jump to the beer can, and since it spins they can't hold on and they go for a swim. just make sure the inside of the 5 gallon pail is smooth, and hasn't been scuffed up so they can get a clawhold on it and climb off. after about two weeks it should thin out the herd somewhat.

 

[Dead Horse]

Here is what I use in my barns, shop and other places I store cars and other things I don't want mice getting into. Works very well.

Take a 5 gal plastic pail and thread a piece of coat hanger through the rim frome side to side. On this coat hanger "axel" thread a coffee can so it acts as a roller between the two sides of the pail. On the coffe can sides, spread peanut butter evenly such that the can easily rotates on the wire axel and is balanced. Put a a half gallon of antifreeze mix in the bottom of the pail. Place the pail along a wall, with a ramp from the floor to the rim of the pail.

The little buggers will walk up the ramp, and jump on the can to get to the peanut butter. The can spins and sploosh, in the antifreeze mix they go.

You don't have to empty the trap but once a season or so, and the antifreeze pickles them so no smell.

Works great and absolutely CLEANS OUT the mice from my barns and shop.

Send yer royalty checks to the NRA!

HA!

EDIT: The timing of the post above mine is ASTOUNDING! BTW, a coffee can works better! Cappy, do I know you?

 

[C6rider]

Agree 100% on the 5 gallon bucket scenario. We used to do that in our aircraft hangers to protect the planes. Works great.

 

[wwalkersd]

Here is what I use in my barns, shop and other places I store cars and other things I don't want mice getting into. Works very well.

Take a 5 gal plastic pail and thread a piece of coat hanger through the rim frome side to side. On this coat hanger "axel" thread a coffee can so it acts as a roller between the two sides of the pail. On the coffe can sides, spread peanut butter evenly such that the can easily rotates on the wire axel and is balanced. Put a a half gallon of antifreeze mix in the bottom of the pail. Place the pail along a wall, with a ramp from the floor to the rim of the pail.

Doesn't the peanut butter attract ants (PB being one of your basic picnic foods, after all)?

 

[wwalkersd]

barn cats

This might work in some areas, but not in San Diego. Despite our best efforts to bring them in at night, we haven't been able to keep barn cats. The coyotes get them.

 

[BucketBoy]

I have had very good luck in my garages by using commercially available predator urine to deter them. I place a cotton ball near all potential entry points and apply the urine about once every 4-6 weeks. One thing that you must do is to seal up as many entry points as possible. I have not had any mouse problems in 10 years. I am located in southern NH. Another use for the urine is under the hood of my pick-up (which lives outdoors). I zip tie a gauze pad in the engine compartment and use the urine weekly in the fall and winter. So far so good. I used to buy the urine at Gemplers but now I get it at the local Agway. I have had equal luck with bobcat and coyote urine.

 

[irvingj]

There was a another thread on this topic... I've had lots of damage over the years from mice "moving in," and have tried various remedies-- but when they decided to call my tractor their home, I got serious! (In the past, they'd already claimed my classic '72 Blazer as well as my '82 Peugeot 504D wagon...)

I'd heard about the dryer sheets idea, so I tried it, and it seems to work. My daughter suggested "Bounce" dryer sheets; when I first discovered the little beasts had been making a home on my tractor's engine block, I stuffed a sheet into/under the fuel lines where I'd seen their poops & seeds... It worked!

Now, several months later, with several cahnges for fresh dryer sheets, I've yet to see any further evidence of the little buggers.

I now have the sweetest-smelling diesel in the area! (And no mice inside!!)

 

[weedsportpete]

Thanks guys.. I figured if anyone had heard of using potatoes, it would be someone here.

Yes I have seen mice expired in 5 gallon pails, and once I also used a peanut butter / 5 gallon pail method. I like the can on a wire trick. I used two pencils joined by peanut butter. It only works once. I'll also try the dryer sheets.. not sure if they will work in out barn.

Pete