Great White Hunter Fail!

[roofus]

I live in a rural area, and the occasional rodent intrusion into the house is not unusual. This morning I checked my kitchen trap and it had been sprung . . . but no mouse!!! Just some turds!

I reloaded it with peanut butter and carefully set it back int place. When I turned around there was a small mouse watching me. I am not sure but I think he winked at me!

The mice are getting smarter, but my IQ seems to have peaked a number of years ago!!!

Any tips? I am using the old style Victor traps loaded with peanut butter and a live trap that looks like a black banana and trips the door shut when the mouse trots in to retrieve the food.

Mighty Mouse has evaded both.

[pehayes]

Have you tried a glue trap?  The included bait isn't particularly good.  I like to add peanut butter or oatmeal.  Put a spoonful of dry oatmeal in your mouth and saturate it with saliva until you have a nice ball.  Put that in the trap.  Your saliva starts the digestive process and sets off some irresistible aromas.  Use a RAT sized glue trap so there is room for company.  When you catch one, leave him there for a day.  He'll periodically squeak and squeal and his buddies will come to help him out.  I'm managed four at a time.  The social lure is more powerful than the food lure.  Heck, maybe go buy a little mouse at the pet store and stick him in the glue to set off the attraction.

Patrick Hayes
Fremont CA

[bigbikerrick]

Tie a little piece of bacon to the victor trap using sewing thread, and also smear a bit of peanut butter on it, he will come licking the peanut butter, but will then pull on the bacon.......and Wham! Works every time.
Rick.

[Bill Hagan]

Funny stuff.   :D

There was a previous, similar thread about "big game hunting" a couple of years ago.

http://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=58953.msg893894#msg893894

Good luck with bagging your trophy.   ;D

Bill

[Joe A.]

I use the circle of death. 3 or 4 old school traps in a circle.

They don't survive.

[flangeman_70]

Pumpkin seed!

[fotoguzzi]

my dad has a bucket half full of water with a rod holding a thread spool in the center smeared w/PB.. another spool must be crossed to get to the bait and as soon as the mouse steps fully onto the spool he's spilled into the water to drown.. we provide a ramp for rodent to access the rod.  we've had a dozen at a time in the pole barn.

[Adk.IBO]

my dad has a bucket half full of water with a rod holding a thread spool in the center smeared w/PB.. another spool must be crossed to get to the bait and as soon as the mouse steps fully onto the spool he's spilled into the water to drown.. we provide a ramp for rodent to access the rod.  we've had a dozen at a time in the pole barn.

^^^^^^^^this works!^^^^^^^

[Guido Valvole]

Years ago in the old Berkeley apartment (Ducati content :) I got up one morning, walked into the kitchen, and there was Mr Mouse waiting for me on the counter top… he didn't seem particularly afraid of humans. I chased him off and got a glue trap.

Didn't seem to work, more evidence everywhere. Got a couple of "baited" Victors. Hahahahaha, these are Berkeley mice, not that stupid. Add cheese to trap and wait.

Reading in bed later and I heard the trap go off. Gotcha! Then the other trap went off… Mouse swiped the cheese from the first and then got overconfident. Or a full stomach slowed his reflexes… So good bait and multiple traps.

Here, the neighborhood cats ensure no small house rodents. A few years ago the kids next door went trick-or-treating on Halloween. Waffle, their cat, wanted in on the action -- brought home two dead rodents. Good kitty!
cr

[cruzziguzzi]

Long story that I'll save everyone the eye strain of:

End game for me... Feral kittens. Swirling, furry vortices of doom for Rattus-Rattus here. Once those sinister, virulence spewing super villains queered my trap plays one by one... they got the pussies x3 which had been deposited in my old Buick by their momma.

No more rats, fewer geckos (if only they could bring an end to the GEICO mascot!), no squirting Toms and no more flying rats making off with my twice-annual seeding. Side benefits include but are not limited to cleaning all the bulldog droppings around the food bowls.

Todd.

[Lannis]

I use the circle of death. 3 or 4 old school traps in a circle.

They don't survive.

If you're the only one in the house, you can pick your method.   However, your partner may not always be consistent in their feelings.

For 20 years, we had cats in/out of the house, and as a result there were no rodents within 50 feet of the house at any time.   But the cats are gone now; we still don't have a problem but see the occasional rodent outside the house.

Fay is OK with old-fashioned traps that instantly break the mouses neck or back (although when it catches them on the nose it can be a long messy suffocation).    But she'll have no part of glue or water traps where the poor critter has to struggle and/or drown over some period of time, so when traps are called for, we use the old-timey trap with bacon and cheese, irresistible to our local mice.

I haven't reminded her yet that the most horrible and painful death for a mouse is being caught by a cat in the mood for sport, a method of which she highly approved in the day, probably because she didn't have to dispose of the result afterward!

Lannis

[O]

Hey Roofus,

I had the same problem (150+ year old house), and once I moved my V7 into the basement for the winter, I knew I needed to find a solution.  The old style Victor traps just weren't up to the task.  The best result I got was a few drops of blood, but no mouse.  I picked up a Ratzapper http://www.amazon.com/Rat-Zapper-RZC001-Classic/dp/B002665ZTC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422911270&sr=8-1&keywords=rat+zapper&pebp=1422911273095&peasin=B002665ZTC from Amazon, and problem solved!  Relatively humane, no mess, easy disposal, and no mouse pantry under the seat of my bike.  

If memory serves, I'm pretty sure I learned about this product on a previous WG discussion.

Good Luck!
Owen

[bigbikerrick]

If you're the only one in the house, you can pick your method.   However, your partner may not always be consistent in their feelings.

For 20 years, we had cats in/out of the house, and as a result there were no rodents within 50 feet of the house at any time.   But the cats are gone now; we still don't have a problem but see the occasional rodent outside the house.

Fay is OK with old-fashioned traps that instantly break the mouses neck or back (although when it catches them on the nose it can be a long messy suffocation).    But she'll have no part of glue or water traps where the poor critter has to struggle and/or drown over some period of time, so when traps are called for, we use the old-timey trap with bacon and cheese, irresistible to our local mice.

I haven't reminded her yet that the most horrible and painful death for a mouse is being caught by a cat in the mood for sport, a method of which she highly approved in the day, probably because she didn't have to dispose of the result afterward!

Lannis

Same here, Lannis. My wife will have no part of a glue trap or drowning where the little critter struggles. A quick ,humane death is imperative at our house. My wife has tried to release scorpions from glue traps because it is "mean" to keep them there stuck!
Go Figgure!
Rick.

[Sasquatch Jim]

  I have trapped dozens perhaps hundreds of mice and rats using purchased and home made devices.  The trap with the highest score and the least trouble to set is the sticky glue trap.  They also catch giant cockroaches and other large bugs.  Be sure to place them close to a wall or somewhere that you will not step in it.

 I my brothers shop I sometimes caught a dozen at a time in one of my home made traps.  One of the more imaginative was some PVC pipe and a plastic bucket with a lid.  I discovered that the mice were on the lunch counter at night so I did this.  I obtained a decorative PVC candy cane about an inch and a half in diameter.  I sawed a diagonal at the crook end so that the cane could hang from the counter top by the crook and a mouse could enter that end.  Just past the crook I drilled a 3/8" hole for bait. I cut a hole in the lid of the bucket the same diameter as the pipe.  I cut the length of the pipe to reach from the counter top
 down two inches into the hole in the lid.  I put a dab of peanut butter in the 3/8ths hole and hung the cane from the counter top with the end in the bucket.
  During the night mice would enter the end of the crook seeking the peanut butter.  The bait was just barely past the crook so that as the mouse reached for it
 He would slip and fall down the pipe into the bucket.  In the morning I would have a bucket full of live mice.  I would just remove the pipe and pour about 4 inches of water into the bucket thereby teaching the mice to swim for the rest of their lives.  Then I would pour the bucket into the trash dumpster and the trap was ready for another night.  A simpler one is a bucket of 4 inches of water and a ruler and a few small boxes.  Tape the ruler to the edge of the bucket so that 5 inches reached to the inside of the bucket and 7 inches outside.  It must be taped so that it teeters easily.  Set the boxes along side the bucket to support the 7 " end of the ruler horizontally and give the mice an access route to the ruler.  Put a dab of peanut butter on the end of the inboard end and go away for the night.
 If there are mice in the area, they will walk out the ruler to get the bait and it will teeter, dropping them into the water in the bucket where they will swim for the rest of their lives.  Since the heavy end of the ruler is outside the bucket, the ruler resets itself for the next guest.  If you only put one inch of water in the bucket,
 the mice will be alive and their noise will attract others while the shallow water will inhibit them from being able to jump out of the bucket.  A mouse in one inch
 of water cannot jump very high.
 When I lived in the mountains and was plagued by pack rats I made very effective explosive traps that were very humane in that the rat probably did not even have time to realize that he was dead.  They were best used outdoors as they were messy.
 I also had a muzzle loading trap built in the middle of the nineteenth century.  It was a two inch long gun barrel that could be loaded with bird shot or a single double ought buck ball.  The trigger was out in front so that to get the bait the critter had to line himself up with the barrel which was fired by a precussion cap and black powder.
  Trapping critters only requires that you be more clever than the critter to get him to do himself in.

[sgtstinky]

Remove competing food sources and your bait will work, you can add to the peanut butter with bacon grease or something sweet but it really don't matter. Trap placement maybe an issue, if you cannot bait them in, place the traps facing the wall so they have to travel over the triggers. Sooner or later you will get one. Mice tend to follow walls when they travel.

The victor traps with the expanded triggers work best, they look like slices of yellow swiss cheese.

Glue boards work well, but I prefer the victor traps. Keep moving them if the bait doesn't work.

[rtbickel]

Colibri .22 shorts with no gunpowder can be most entertaining when stalking the elusive rattus rattus.  Just keep your aim low cause the damn things can still crack a window.

[sgtstinky]

Colibri .22 shorts with no gunpowder can be most entertaining when stalking the elusive rattus rattus.  Just keep your aim low cause the damn things can still crack a window.

I believe he is talking about Mus musculus, for that quarry a .22 maybe packing too much gun, may I suggest a blow gun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqYH-ryorEg

[guzzi4me]

Mice are , after all , the most intelligent species on the planet  :D "So long and thanks for all the fish"  ;D

  Dusty

From Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy......one of my favorite movie's. Enjoy watching it every month or two.

And dolphins were the most intelligent....with Whales being a close second according to the Star Trek movie series!!
Again one of my favorites!!!

Ride safe and often,

Jeff

ps Hi Dusty!!!!

[roofus]

Funny stuff.   :D

There was a previous, similar thread about "big game hunting" a couple of years ago.

http://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=58953.msg893894#msg893894

Good luck with bagging your trophy.   ;D

Bill

Thanks Bill!

I was wondering if I could borrow your gun?

[Dean Rose]

Stop feeding the little critters and they'll go away.


Dean

[Greg Field]

Place the trap with the baited side against a wall. Better yet if you place it in a natural pinch point in his normal pathways through the house. This forces the mouse to approach from the side, which makes it almost certain that if he plays with the bait it will trip the trap.

[boatdetective]

I have no problem with exterminating pests- but definitely don't approve of glue traps or spending all sorts of time inventing traps for entertainment purposes.

[Sasquatch Jim]

I have no problem with exterminating pests- but definitely don't approve of glue traps or spending all sorts of time inventing traps for entertainment purposes.

Not entertainment purposes, in a situation where there are hundreds of the damn things all in the same  building, You don't want to be setting them after each catch.  You will never catch up that way.  You need to have traps that reset themselves or operate continuously for multiple catches to make a dent in the population.  Running a trapline gets old.  Better to catch a dozen at a time in each trap.

[boatdetective]

Jim, you gotta take a mouse with one shot (cue the Deerhunter). Hundreds?? Damn, son, you need a feline SEAL team.

[Late to the party]

my dad has a bucket half full of water with a rod holding a thread spool in the center smeared w/PB.. another spool must be crossed to get to the bait and as soon as the mouse steps fully onto the spool he's spilled into the water to drown.. we provide a ramp for rodent to access the rod.  we've had a dozen at a time in the pole barn.

Image(s), please.

[normzone]

Was it on this forum that I read about the compressed air rat cannon that was triggered by the rodent crawling into the barrel after the bait, which reset itself after each use?

[Sasquatch Jim]

  I don'no, was it aimed at a neighbors house or just into their yard.

 Did it keep count?

[rodekyll]

Was it on this forum that I read about the compressed air rat cannon that was triggered by the rodent crawling into the barrel after the bait, which reset itself after each use?

That's a concept I dreamed up for a line of 'better moustraps' called the VERMINATOR.  I went with spring power for the working models, and it does need to be reloaded between hurls.  It includes models like the RATAPULT and 'COON CANNON.  I have a working proto, but so far, when I 'splain folks the idea, the responses are about 90% negative -- and I haven't gotten to PETA and the SPCA (vermin are people too -- we need to ADOPT rattus rattus and rehabilitate him) yet.  Somehow if it's also entertaining, it's not an appropriate method.   ::)

[boatdetective]

That's a concept I dreamed up for a line of 'better moustraps' called the VERMINATOR.  I went with spring power for the working models, and it does need to be reloaded between hurls.  It includes models like the RATAPULT and 'COON CANNON.  I have a working proto, but so far, when I 'splain folks the idea, the responses are about 90% negative -- and I haven't gotten to PETA and the SPCA (vermin are people too -- we need to ADOPT rattus rattus and rehabilitate him) yet.  Somehow if it's also entertaining, it's not an appropriate method.   ::)

...and now we know that Dave's true calling would have been to work for DARPA.

Tell me, sir, what kind of fps and muzzle energy numbers are we talking about?  Is smoothbore the way to go- or could you introduce rifling?

[rodekyll]

It's a smoothbore concept.  You can dial in the fps for the distance you want the vermin to go, from just out of the tube to the middle of the neighbor's pond.  Or in 'indoor mode' you can cap the end of the tube (mouse enters through a port in the side) and it goes into the cap at muzzle velocity.  In this configuration you then open the tube over the garbage can and dump it out.