Mice in the house

[LowRyter]

Odds on the cat/s will complain (very) loudly all night about their new environs, spray-mark your furniture & take a dump or 3 behind the sofa.

That's if they don't just sleep around all day & night, leaving copious amounts of fur on all your darker coloured soft furnishings, & the escape home at the first available opportunity!

Cat's will use their box.  They may scratch stuff if they haven't been declawed, depends on the cat.  I've dropped my cats off on several occasions to friends rather than a kennel and never had a complaint.  Cats are pretty instinctive hunting for small critters.

[Lannis]

A borrowed cat gathers no mice.

What are you using for bait?

Using new traps that don't smell like dead mice?

I like the bucket trap design ...

Never have tried the bucket trap, although it sounds interesting in a Rube Goldberg sort of way.

As far as using new traps that don't smell like dead mice, you don't need to do that around here, anyway.   The last traps I emptied (yesterday), the dead mouse had no more than touched the cheese, but after it tripped, another mouse came by and ate it, 1/4 inch from the smashed head of the dead one (hence the saying "The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese).

I've used those six-spring circular traps before, and filled them up in a night, which means the last mouse stuck his head into a trap that already had 5 dead mice in it.

I don't think they much care.   I'm sure that Gary Larsen made a "Far Side" cartoon about that propensity of mice at some point ....

Lannis

[old head]

UPDATE

Lets see, I started with TOM CAT bricks poison, not a single chew mark, and I bought some Victor old fashioned mouse traps with peanut butter.  they kept getting sprung but no mouse?
next I got some TOM CAT pellets different chemical, very little interest, some, but hardly noticeable.

I made up a bucket trap, rolling log.  put about 6 inches of water in the bucket.  2 nights in a row I heard water splash, but nothing in the bucket in the morning, I suspect it was the rat failing in and since I didn't have enough water in the bucket, it was able to jump out.  I put it half full the next night, but nothing.  I will but the bucket out in the shed and see what happens.

Next I made up some flour, sugar, and baking soda.  Put it in every room in the house.  First every container was hit.
Next night, refilled all the containers, again every container was eaten, not quite as much gone but definitely eaten.
Next night, refilled again, very little eaten.  But wife still hearing the critters at night.  I was up late watching EXPANSE on Prime and I saw a rat run across the kitchen floor.  not a mouse but big rat.  that night the rat got into the trash and pulled out an empty cheetos bag, its on.

Next night I made up some cocca, sugar, plaster of paris and peanut butter into little balls.  something ate the balls, but I did't see or any little critters last night.  Wife says there is some new scat in the bathroom, so I will rebait one more time.
Last night only had one ball of peanut butter gone, so I will keep rebaiting for a week or so, but I believe the invaders are gone.

Told the wife, if I see that rat again, I will be buying a pellet gun and sitting up till he comes out and blast him.

So my take, leave the poison at the store, don't even mess with the traps.  Go right to the DIY bait, it worked for me.

Old Head

[Lannis]

UPDATE

Lets see, I started with TOM CAT bricks poison, not a single chew mark, and I bought some Victor old fashioned mouse traps with peanut butter.  they kept getting sprung but no mouse?

If you shove a piece of hard cheese into the bait holder of the Victor trap, where they have to worry it out with their teeth, it'll spring on them.  Peanut butter, they just lick it off and it doesn't spring the trap.

I'm glad what you're doing is working for you, but as I read your experience and what you had to do to get there, I was not encouraged at all that that method would do anything for any rodents I've ever had .... !

Lannis

[John Warner]

Cats are good, but mine actually brings them in and lets them go . . . 

Literally hundreds of good designs for traps on You Tube, this one has to be the most effective I've seen, and easy to make.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QTdqLvD6NA

[larrys]

Rats! I had one old tom cat (long past) who liked big game. No mice for him. He liked hunting chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits, and rats. Even once found a dead weasel out by the chicken coop. Funny thing was that he would eat the chipmunks, squirrels, and rabbits but he never ate a rat. I would find the rats dead in the yard.
Larry

[normzone]

" I was up late watching EXPANSE on Prime and I saw a rat run across the kitchen floor.  not a mouse but big rat.  that night the rat got into the trash and pulled out an empty cheetos bag, its on."
...................
Told the wife, if I see that rat again, I will be buying a pellet gun and sitting up till he comes out and blast him."




Sounds like a good Saturday night to me. And everybody should have a pellet gun - my ex has mine.

[Brand X]

https://www.ebay.com/i/303350444350?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=303350444350&targetid=858317652168&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9033175&poi=&campaignid=8080424524&mkgroupid=89344395112&rlsatarget=pla-858317652168&abcId=1139446&merchantid=118879063&gclid=CjwKCAiA66_xBRBhEiwAhrMuLdeWxqwqaY6SwKEwg3cSjhORt7O6Ex6HqgDsB4ngdanzonQWiGrBNBoCcAQQAvD_BwE

[John Warner]

" I was up late watching EXPANSE on Prime and I saw a rat run across the kitchen floor.  not a mouse but big rat.  that night the rat got into the trash and pulled out an empty cheetos bag, its on."
...................
Told the wife, if I see that rat again, I will be buying a pellet gun and sitting up till he comes out and blast him."

We had a big Rat take up residence in our Boiler Casing.
It had chewed through a wire, so the Boiler was playing up.
I removed the front cover to find the whole of the insides stuffed with chewed-up carrier bags and paper, and a long pink Tail poking out.
I grabbed my late Father's 1927 BSA .22 Airsporter, and poked the mass of plastic with a long stick.
It shot out, one of our Cats had a go at it, but wisely chickened out almost immediately.
It ran into a corner, and just sat there with it's back to me.
One shot from a couple of yards and it was 'toast'.

[80CX100]

     It's a little bit of thread drift, but I just learned something interesting about mice&squirrels in vehicles the other day I wasn't aware of.

     Here in the north land, mice,squirrels and all sorts or rodents like to set up home in all sorts of different vehicles, if given the chance for the winter; I've had it happen many times, usually without causing too much damage, but that is apparently changing with new Eco friendly vehicles.

     In an effort to be kinder to the planet, a lot of the new wiring is now made with some type of Soy product mixed in with the plastics in the wiring insulation. The critters apparently all love the taste of it, causing huge damage; it's a problem that the manufactures are aware of, and apparently they all have fine print in their warranties, not covering rodent damage.

     I drive old beaters that probably have nasty tasting wires, but some moth balls sprinkled around your new Eco friendly vehicle as a preventative, might be a good idea.

     fwiw

     Kelly

     

[lazlokovacs]

I have a friend who is an expert on megalithic cultures, he assures me that for many millenia we have used barn owls for this very purpose.

He says proof of their long term domestication is their cuteness (relative to other owls)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_owl

thread drift over.

[dguzzi]

90 seconds in mouse years is a while?

I like to tally my mouse kills, just to be sure of the risk of being over run by ninja mouse hoards....

[Brand X]

I have a friend who is an expert on megalithic cultures, he assures me that for many millenia we have used barn owls for this very purpose.

He says proof of their long term domestication is their cuteness (relative to other owls)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_owl

thread drift over.

The owls work well for taking out cats too.. Least around here. I keep my cats inside, and really watch where I nail up the bait..  Right Inside both shop, and garage doors work well for me. I really got tired of cleaning out my Wirefeed/and other electronic things from mouse piss/etc...

[dguzzi]

oh yea owls would be cool to watch.,  hide the chickens...

[80CX100]

oh yea owls would be cool to watch.,

     I was out skiing one day and watched a big owl take out a grouse that was basking in the sun on the frozen stream in front of me.

     Feathers exploded everywhere, and watching him hook his talons in and get his wings out to full spread so he could lift up and fly off with dinner was very impressive.

     I hear owls quite often, but very rarely see one.

     Kelly

[Testarossa]

The only serious incident I've had with mice occurred when, after a January annual, an A&P tied my Comanche down on frozen ground. I was away for a six weeks skiing, and when I came back in March the upholstery was chewed up and the cabin smelled of mouse turds. No electrical or structural damage but it was a nasty clean-up.

[Dukedesmo]

Quote from: 80CX100 on Today at 01:52:46 AM

     

     I hear owls quite often, but very rarely see one.

     

Likewise but my Mother-in-law has twice had an Owl in the living room - it could only have fallen down the chimney as they often sit on the top.

Last time I went to get it out of the house and there was also a (dead) crow in there with it - not sure if it was the Owl's food or if just a coincidence?

It had knocked over many things and wasn't an easy thing to catch/expel from the house, I went in equipped with a broom and a large cushion and eventually got it to fly out of an opened doorway but only after it had flown head first into a couple of windows.

We have mainly Tawny and Barn owls around here and luckily it was only a (small) Tawny Owl but then I suppose a Barn Owl wouldn't fit down the chimney!!

>   

[lazlokovacs]

If an owl as majestic as that one came down my chimney with a dead crow I'd be calling the local druids for a spot of divination consultation!!

[John Croucher]

Beat em and eat em.  Soup is always good.

[Testarossa]

In a logic class I took, the instructor explained that the existence of mice proves that there are no invisible flying cats.

Obvious nonsense. Nature provides invisible flying cats in the form of owls. Yet mice persist.

[old head]

Update
the peanut butter balls stopped being eaten, thought I had gotten them all.  Then I got a glimpse of something much bigger than a mouse. 
Did some chocolate with plaster of paris, made 14 marble sized balls the first night.  They all got eaten.  Did 12 more today.  2 were eaten within an hour of being placed.

I went to LOWES and bought 2 rat traps, Victory wooden traps.
came home baited one with an almond, and the other with some chocolate.
Within an hour the trap went off and I got a rat, with a body about 8" I would guess, big sucker.  I took a picture to show the wife in the morning, she goes to bed early.

Hope that's the last one, but I reset the trap and we will see what happens.

Old Head

[normzone]

Congratulations, a confirmed kill !

 

Is the plaster of paris supposed to mess them up internally or something?

[old head]

theory is that when they drink water the plaster hardens up and stops up their digestive track.  This sucker was tough.
baking soda is supposed to create gas when their stomach acid interacts, and since rodents can't pass gas, it is supposed to expand and kill them. 

the plaster and baking soda got rid of the mice pretty quick, but this guy ate everything I gave him and kept coming back for more.
I don't know how long it is supposed to take, but it was taking too long.
Hopefully, he was the last one.  Time will tell.

Old Head

[larrys]

I was told by an old farmer that if you see one rat, there are at least six more...
Larry

[Lannis]

theory is that when they drink water the plaster hardens up and stops up their digestive track.  This sucker was tough.
baking soda is supposed to create gas when their stomach acid interacts, and since rodents can't pass gas, it is supposed to expand and kill them. 

the plaster and baking soda got rid of the mice pretty quick, but this guy ate everything I gave him and kept coming back for more.
I don't know how long it is supposed to take, but it was taking too long.
Hopefully, he was the last one.  Time will tell.

Old Head

That's a pretty hard way to go, come to think of it.   He might prefer getting played with by a cat and then eaten while he's still breathing.

On the other hand, he's a rat, and he doesn't get many choices ... !

Lannis

[80CX100]

theory is that when they drink water the plaster hardens up and stops up their digestive track.  This sucker was tough.
baking soda is supposed to create gas when their stomach acid interacts, and since rodents can't pass gas, it is supposed to expand and kill them. 

the plaster and baking soda got rid of the mice pretty quick, but this guy ate everything I gave him and kept coming back for more.
I don't know how long it is supposed to take, but it was taking too long.
Hopefully, he was the last one.  Time will tell.

Old Head

     That's quite the complicated game plan, I'm thinking you did well in chemistry class in school,huh? lol   

     Congrats on your first big game kill 

     What's the gestation period for a big rat like that, in other words how soon before the young'uns start foraging? 

     Glad to hear you went for the sure thing and brought out the big guns, V for Victory ! 

     Kelly

[Chuck in Indiana]

The only serious incident I've had with mice occurred when, after a January annual, an A&P tied my Comanche down on frozen ground. I was away for a six weeks skiing, and when I came back in March the upholstery was chewed up and the cabin smelled of mouse turds. No electrical or structural damage but it was a nasty clean-up.

Back in the day, I was doing a pre flight walk around on Dorcia's Stinson, and noticed a hole in the fabric where the main lift strut attaches. The little barstid had walked up the strut, ate a hole in the fabric, went inside, and started chewing the rib stitch cords.  After that, the only good mouse is a dead mouse..

[RinkRat II]

  Went to move my  66 Anglia one day and found this bastid had moved in to the engine compartment as his new winter home. I promptly evicted him and it took about two hours to remove all his furnishings. Luckily nothing had been chewed up.

       Paul B

[Mark Dasher]

I was having this same problem, as we live in a 120 year old house that mice and bats just love, until I discovered this magic trick!  This really works well.

For once there actually IS a better mouse trap!  You can even buy kits on eBay for a few $ now and you supply the bucket.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMZaJZ6x3bA

[cliffrod]

My mother next door saw a mouse and droppings.  My wife set a plain trap with a little cheese. About a week ago, she caught two at once.  Should've took a picture.

she just smiled and said "ok, now its your turn to impress me....."