The great mouse war of 2010.

[draggar]

Fellow Pagans, feel free to yell at me for this but I'm at the end of my rope.

I've tolerated the mice in my yard. For some reason they decided to take up residence in my yard. It could be the chickens, it could be the tomatoes and peppers I used to love planting (so I stopped planting them) but it's gone too far.

I've tried "shake away" (crystallized fox / badger / coyote urine) with some success but I guess they got too smart - they came back and the stuff was ineffective.

I've tried "poisonous" flowers and other plants (poisonous to rodents) with no success.

Pepper, peppermint, spearmint, etc.. none of it worked.

The neighborhood cats seemed to prefer watching chicken TV and try to figure out how to get my chickens as opposed to catching free-range rodents. Even live traps were completely unsuccessful.

The only deterrent that's worked was a fresh supply of ferret poop (when we had them) but we do not have the time, space, energy, money, or anything for pet ferrets (as much as we enjoyed them) and the local ferret rescue probably thinks I'm some sort of freak when I asked about buying poop from them (and yes, I explained why, too).

I tolerated them as they ate all of my tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, banana peppers, even jalapeno (which also turned into habenero). But now they've gone too far.

They got into my Rubbermaid shed. It now has a small hole in a corner where they opened or chewed it open. The floor was covered in mouse droppings (this happened sometime over the past two weeks). I plugged up the hole the best as I could but then I noticed the true casualty.

They ate THOUGH a container that I had wild game bird feed (for the quail) and ate FIFTY POUNDS OF THIS. Now I have a couple pounds of mouse poop in the container. I just bought this bag a month ago (so maybe 5-7 pounds was out of it). I can also see where they're trying to get into the general feed as well as the layena.

No more mister nice guy. The gloves are off.

I'm getting kill traps. I hate the fact that I have to resort to this but they're eating our food and our pet's food (less food for the chickens means fewer eggs for us, too).

Don't worry - I will NOT use poisons. I feel these are way too horrible for them (and if something eats a poisoned mouse it will be poisoned).

I'm going to go to Home Depot to get spring traps. Hopefully it'll be quick and humane for the little buggers.

If anyone has any other suggestions - I am all eats. I don't like the fact that I have to resort to this but I feel I have no choice now. They've damaged a $600 Rubbermaid shed and chewed holes in two tarps. God knows what they'll do to our bicycles, grill, and other supplies in there.

[Exaspera]

The neighbor cat is lazy. Get some new ones.

[BlaqueKatt]

I'm going to go to Home Depot to get spring traps. Hopefully it'll be quick and humane for the little buggers.

Spring traps are NOT humane-they can break the spine(not killing just paralyzing the mouse) or merely suffocate the mouse(long drawn out death with the animal suffers needlessly)-I'd suggest springing for the victor electric mouse trap also available at home depot-it electrocutes them very quickly, most humane of the kill traps(actually meets international humane kill standards-spring traps do not for the above reasons)-uses batteries.


Also wood spring traps will retain the "dead mouse" smell and after one or two traps the mice will avoid it due to the smell.....

[Mishi]

We've had a recent appearence of a mouse or three so we had to buy Safe N Sure mousetraps again. They're springloaded plastic traps that crush the mouse's or rat's head and it appears to kill them very quickly. We've also bought an ultrasonic/electromagnetic vermin deterrer that plugs into the wall. They've moved out of that room, but it gives me migraines so we only turn it on at night to keep the mice/rats out of the kitchen. I'm not a fan of poisons, we have small children as well as dogs that chase any little creature (other than birds) step on it and try to eat it. We also have a small flock of sparrows nesting in my jasmine that I don't want accidentally poisoned.

[AccountingDrone]

metal containers for the critter feeds. Rodents go to town on plastics but metal will stop them. Classic metal garbage pail with lid, and clamp the lid down [racoons, dontchaknow]

[draggar]

Spring traps are NOT humane-they can break the spine(not killing just paralyzing the mouse) or merely suffocate the mouse(long drawn out death with the animal suffers needlessly)-I'd suggest springing for the victor electric mouse trap also available at home depot-it electrocutes them very quickly, most humane of the kill traps(actually meets international humane kill standards-spring traps do not for the above reasons)-uses batteries.


Also wood spring traps will retain the "dead mouse" smell and after one or two traps the mice will avoid it due to the smell.....

Would the electric trap be OK in the rain? We get **a lot** of rain here in south Florida. I'll take a look at them when I'm there today.

We've had a recent appearence of a mouse or three so we had to buy Safe N Sure mousetraps again. They're springloaded plastic traps that crush the mouse's or rat's head and it appears to kill them very quickly. We've also bought an ultrasonic/electromagnetic vermin deterrer that plugs into the wall. They've moved out of that room, but it gives me migraines so we only turn it on at night to keep the mice/rats out of the kitchen. I'm not a fan of poisons, we have small children as well as dogs that chase any little creature (other than birds) step on it and try to eat it. We also have a small flock of sparrows nesting in my jasmine that I don't want accidentally poisoned.

I'll look at those traps, too.

metal containers for the critter feeds. Rodents go to town on plastics but metal will stop them. Classic metal garbage pail with lid, and clamp the lid down [racoons, dontchaknow]

I've been considering it but I don't think I'll be able to find any small enough to fit 50 pounds of the wild game bird feed (takes up the space of about 30 pounds of dog food).

BTW - my wife insists that they're mice - these are either pretty BIG mice or average sized rats. (I saw some scurrying around last night when taking Luna out).

[crazylegs]

I'm sure you're aware to check the traps at least every 24hrs - if something is only half dead you need to know about it sooner rather than later so that you can put the thing out of its misery - if you're squemish then a bb gun may be of use (depending on their legality in your location).

[jedimaster91]

If you do go with spring traps, put peanut butter both on the trigger and underneath the trigger. Sometimes a clever rodent can get the bait off the top of the trigger without setting off the trap. We also had to bait the traps with crackers once because they weren't going for the peanut butter.

[TheSHAD0W]

I've had good results with "Ketch-All" traps. They are live traps which can hold several mice at one time. You can either release the mice somewhere else, or dump the whole thing in a 5 gallon bucket of water for 10 minutes.

[RetailWorkhorse]

Several of my fellow RVers swear by the string-lights in the tube. Get a whole lot of it and surround your stuff (...I'm aware that this works better in small spaces, like say A CAMPING SPOT but I never said it was for homeowners, just what other use).

Don't ask me why or how, they don't understand it either.

[elsporko]

At my camp when we had mouse problems we made a trap out of a bucket of water and peanut butter. If I remember correctly you set up blocks or something so the mouse can get to the top of the bucket, put peanut butter on the handle, and when the mouse goes for the peanut butter to falls in the bucket and drowns.

[protege]

Grandma's house had a problem with mice. *Had* being the word. When she was away one weekend, I declared war on the bastards. I put sticky and spring traps in all the drawers, in the cabinets, behind the 'fridge, behind the oven, and anywhere else they'd been seen. That night, I caught about 6 But, they really stayed away when I brought the cat in the next weekend. He got two that Friday night...and if there were more, they left the building

[draggar]

Spring traps are NOT humane-they can break the spine(not killing just paralyzing the mouse) or merely suffocate the mouse(long drawn out death with the animal suffers needlessly)-I'd suggest springing for the victor electric mouse trap also available at home depot-it electrocutes them very quickly, most humane of the kill traps(actually meets international humane kill standards-spring traps do not for the above reasons)-uses batteries.

I picked one up and we definitely have rats, not mice so I had to get the rat version ($40).

Unfortunately, the box says "for indoor use only" so I had to rig something up so the trap wouldn't get wet. (Inside a bucket leaning so no water will go in and stay in plus something to cover it - but the rats can still get in).

I'll let you know how it works.

[BlaqueKatt]

Don't ask me why or how, they don't understand it either.

they like dark spaces to hide in

[AccountingDrone]

Would the electric trap be OK in the rain? We get **a lot** of rain here in south Florida. I'll take a look at them when I'm there today.



I'll look at those traps, too.



I've been considering it but I don't think I'll be able to find any small enough to fit 50 pounds of the wild game bird feed (takes up the space of about 30 pounds of dog food).

BTW - my wife insists that they're mice - these are either pretty BIG mice or average sized rats. (I saw some scurrying around last night when taking Luna out).

20 gallon galvanized metal garbage can. Partway down the page. You can get galvanized garbage cans from 1 pint [i have one, ill gladly post a picture of it sometime if asked =) ] up to 80 some odd gallons.