The great mouse war of 2010.

[Exaspera]

Edit: They also started to eat my tomatoes!!!

Okay, here's the part where I would absolutely declare WAR!!!!!

I had a rat in my apartment a long time ago. Traps, peanut butter-nada. I borrowed a cat from my friend, with my landlord's permission, took 3 days and no more rat.

I got tape-fulls of cat fur from the furniture and stuffed it in all of the corners. Never saw another one.

[dalesys]

I like how Robert Kirby, an ex-cop columnist for the SL Tribune, handled his rat problem:

It was still better than the time I was called upon to rid the kingdom's backyard of a rat. While the queen was out, I opened the sliding glass door. Then I got down on the kitchen floor to await the challenge.
When the rat appeared near the sandbox, I shot it with a .270 Remington. This did away with the rat but also flash burned a square yard of linoleum. The lord of the castle spent two nights in the moat for that one.

[AccountingDrone]

I like how Robert Kirby, an ex-cop columnist for the SL Tribune, handled his rat problem:

It was still better than the time I was called upon to rid the kingdom's backyard of a rat. While the queen was out, I opened the sliding glass door. Then I got down on the kitchen floor to await the challenge.
When the rat appeared near the sandbox, I shot it with a .270 Remington. This did away with the rat but also flash burned a square yard of linoleum. The lord of the castle spent two nights in the moat for that one.

Really, you plink rats with a .22 =)

[draggar]

We have a lot of them now. I estimate at least 15-20 (I counted 15 last night and there were others I didn't count) so I've contracted more help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ApipYOlxkg

Of course my wife is complaining about it, comparing our life now to that from Caddyshack but this is coming from someone who sleeps with a .38 Special under her pillow (figuratively, that is).

[draggar]

I just spent over 3 hours cleaning out the shed (took everything out of it) and used concrete anchor stuff (concrete from a caulking gun) to seal up the opening that they made (looks like the floor split from the wall and that's how they got in).

Shed is clean and bleached and I threw away a lot of crap we didn't need.

[Sarlon]

Hey draggar, I'm coming to Florida at the end of the month...I could ask to bring my mom's rat terrier down with us :P

[draggar]

Hey draggar, I'm coming to Florida at the end of the month...I could ask to bring my mom's rat terrier down with us :P

If two Belgian malinois, a German shepherd, and a Czechoslovakian vlcak as well as neighborhood cats don't care them then what difference would a rat terrier make?

[AccountingDrone]

If two Belgian malinois, a German shepherd, and a Czechoslovakian vlcak as well as neighborhood cats don't care them then what difference would a rat terrier make?

rat terriers are seriously specifically interested in ratting ... it is almost impossible to keep them from digging around foundations and places where rats tend to make tunnels. I have a friend who named his rattie Cratering Charge. That is about what his back yard looked like until all the miscellanous small rodents were dead =)

[draggar]

We're considering enlisting some help in the battle. My wife is pretty sure they're mice - just the big ones she saw were really REALLY fat mice (from going though 50 pounds of chicken food in 2 weeks most likely).

The help?
Musteloidea Mephitidae

We just need to look into the restrictions for this (licensing etc..).

[Shalom]

Really, you plink rats with a .22 =)

My grandfather told me a story once. He was living in Brooklyn, back in the late '30s, and he saw a rat in the house. At the time he was in college, and a member of the rifle team (Brooklyn College no longer has a rifle team, and the shooting range behind the old library is under water, or so I am told) so he borrowed a .22 target pistol and took it home with him. He's sitting at his desk at about 1 in the morning, and sees the rat poke its nose out of the hole, so he picks up the .22 and lets him have it.

He got the rat, but he woke up the whole neighborhood. His grandmother came running in from her bedroom screaming at him in Yiddish... What are you crazy, shooting a pistol in the house?

[Salted Grump]

Really, you plink rats with a .22 =)

Rule Number 37 of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates: "There is No Overkill. There is Only 'Open Fire' And 'I Need to Reload'"

I've plinked Rats with 12-gauge Shot slugs before. Bit messy (like a fountain of giblets and dirt) but you're quite certain that the rat doesn't feel a Three-quarter inch wide chunk of lead smacking it in the head.

[Solumina]

Just for the record most house cats would get their asses handed to them by rats and most dogs are not nearly nimble enough to get them (even some of the smaller breeds), which is why rat terriers would be your best bet for animal defenses, that and the buggers are relentless, if there is a small mammal around they will find it.

For your sake I do hope that you just have large mice, they are much easier to deal with, even though it does sound like you have a full on infestation. Have you thought about bringing in a professional?

[draggar]

They were just large mice - the "babies" look fully grown now and haven't gotten much larger than a mouse. My wife even confirmed with the droppings that they were mice and not rats.

As for the mammal - trust me, even rats would avoid it. There are some mammals (mainly weasles) that they'll avoid (like ferrets, opossums, skunks, etc..).

The mice population has seemed to dip quite a bit since I cleaned the shed out and sealed up the whole. When I go out at night now I just see one or two, as opposed to 10+ and the traps are getting 1-2 a night now.

As for a professional - they all tend to rely on poisons which is the one thing I will not do no matter how bad it gets.

One of the traps has gone AWOL, though, I can't find it anywhere. I'm praying we don't have a repeat of "I Am Legend" brewing in my patio.

[Solumina]

Well that is good to hear and the bit about avoiding certain mammals makes sense, I never really thought about it but I never did see a single mouse growing up until the skunk that lived somewhere nearby in the woods stopped coming by.


Just for future reference there are professional exterminators that don't use chemicals, though there may not be one in your area as they aren't exactly the most common things in the world.

[draggar]

We had our first "friendly fire" / collateral damage incident last night.

A tree frog got into (and killed by) one of the traps.

Why couldn't it at least have been a bufo frog (poison toad)? Those things are nasty and I wouldn't feel bad about it.

Well that is good to hear and the bit about avoiding certain mammals makes sense, I never really thought about it but I never did see a single mouse growing up until the skunk that lived somewhere nearby in the woods stopped coming by.

Ferrets are the best when it comes to rodent repelling critters but they do not do well in the south Florida heat (even keeping the AC to 78 is a little too high for them), plus they're social animals and require a lot of cleaning / interaction. Skunks do a lot better in the heat (but I feel this upcoming summer may be too hot for them).