GOT MICE? I DO

What to do about them, they have distroyed the stove, the insulation around the stove, now I have to buy a new stove, because I can't get the insulation replaced. dh said he saw one ran across the kitchen floor just now, I have a home in the country, and mice are bad here. I have sticky traps out with peanut butter and bacon in the center, darned things know not to go near it. now what else can I bait a regular trap with to kill these suckers out. I've killed the mom and dad I think, now we're working on the babies, lord only knows how many of them there were, 7 or 8 maybe more, their tiny, no bigger than l l/2 long maybe.

kathy

EEEKKK! I hate mice! They are cute in the pet store, but not cute scuttling across the floor in the house!!! We had mice in WA before we moved and the #1 thing that we had to do was find out where they were getting in the house at. When you find the hole or the space or whatever, cram steel wool in the space, don't leave any crack at all, you would be shocked at how little of a space they can get through! They won't come through the steel wool though, they can't stand the feel of it, that will get rid of new mice coming in, and then you can work on getting the existing ones gone!
Raven

I use peanutbutter with a few pellets of dry cat food as bait for the mice
a meow pussy cat does wonders for a rodent problem....
also,we had a problem with mice getting in our snowmobile,ruined an engine in one....
got moth balls...they hate the smell....

I used steel wool once in the tack room we had the whole room sealed off with calking so nothing living could get into the room, except for one little hole that the wiring went through, and that's where they went through at, I crammed it full of steel wool, next morning, had dead mice on the floor, bleeding from the mouth, LOL ate themselves to death. Whew! what a way to go.

kathy

I have three cats. No mice. No roaches. No bugs. They get everything that moves! LOL.

well they are really bad all ready think going to be one heck of a very cold winter..... they are getting so smart to eat stuff off no snap...like chocolate.. steel wool is good....

well, I have cats too, their both sitting in the kitching watching and waiting, but those darned mice are smart little buggers, cats can't catch them yet.

kathy

Kathy, I use Snicker candy bars and they work great! Several months ago we got 7 and have been using the same method for years. After having this problem for 25 years we are pretty used to it. We have several acres and mice are just part of country living. Good luck , hope it works!
Meems

hum, that's interesting, yum, I might want to rob the trap LOL just a sick joke, wouldn't think of it he he

going to bait the traps now.

wish me luck tonight in catching the cullprets

I caught one the other night, it was too tiny for it's own good,

kathy

tis the season! it gets cold out they look for warmth! I set traps and even have decon set up in a few spots. Havent seen any inside yet. I killed one the other day in the garden! Felt like i was on survivor-saw lots of shavings in the tree and then there he was digging and gnawing, slowly reaching for my metal rake(a must on surviror) I turn it upside down and ahhhhhhhhhh I did it i killed him!!! (all this time im telling mysel I have to-he needs to die!)
Gardening has made me mean-I chase gophers and shoot woodchucks now. Being eyeing them pesky squierls that ate the wiring in the pole barn!!
I sure hope my kitten catches some this winter!! he chases everything that moves so far.
he was swinging from the birds cage this morning!! :)
I hate micezzz!!!

Reba brought a mouse in from the back yard a couple of nights ago. She showed it off and after being praised she settled down and at it. The entire mouse! Normally she brings one in and manages to let it loose. I have no idea why she decided to consume it this time.

At least your Reba ate it George, I have a cat who has caught the mice, beheaded them for me and left them in my bed for me to have "breakfast in bed"!! I woke up one morning and that crazy cat was rolling and purring all over the covers at my feet, I just rolled over thinking "What a weirdo", snuggled into my pillow and flew about 20 feet into the air when I was face to, well, non-face of the poor breakfast, but boy, was that cat proud of herself!! I hate mice!!! Ick!!!

Raven

Raven, my cats do that too, it's sick, don't ask me why, like their bringing me a present or something, one time he brought home a huge rabbit with it's head gone, dang, don't that thing know the best part was the body. good grief.

kathy

For rodents,both rats and mice I have found that the anti-coagulant baits work better than traps.D-Con or any of the others on the market should do the job.Using more than one kind helps in the event they become bait-shy after ingesting a sublethal dose.

At least some people have cats that actually pursue the filthy little rodents. Mine think they are there to amuse them and none of the five would stoop to actually killing one. Slothful beasties. I must feed them too well. We're out in the country too, and this time of year I'm keeping my eyes peeled to see if any are getting in. Last time it was a mother and babies. Scampered in the bathroom, escaped to the living room and all those lazy felines just sat there and watched them run around. I swatted mama with the broom, (that got the cats moving..........AWAY!) and caught the babies and tossed them outside to fend for themselves. Can't use sticky traps in the house, or bait, so just watch and swat ...%#$@% useless cats!

I do not think that feeding too well is the answer. Reba who is the current hunter in our family has three different dry foods and roast chicken each evening. She still diligently hunts. Maybe it is just in the genes. Hunting is not an attribute that helps a line of cats survive anymore, and in fact there is a fair amount of pressure to keep most from hunting.

I have mice, I HATE mice,

I had a cat, Peanut, she had no claws, but that didn't stop her,
but there were too many of them for her,

So now I have TWO cats, one upstairs, Peanut and one downstairs, Lily.
Lily has ALL her claws, Lily used to be a barn cat, in the two weeks I've had her she caught one baby mouse.

Peanut ALWAYS brings her catches to us, but not in our bed. Usually she just brings them into the living room to us.

Went to get the lab a dog treat, One brand new bag had a hole in it, was empty, the other bag had a hole in it, half gone......guess what I baited my traps with? LOL You dang right........dog treats, those ones that are like rubber bacon strips.......

caught 5 big mice in less than 48 hours, went 4 days and no mice, thought we had them all, then yesterday Peanut brought me another one, trap and all, I guess she heard him squeeling in trap, opened cabinet door and put him out of his misery!

Hubby went to pick it up to dispose of and Peanut growled at him like a rabid dog, she was po!

I read that you should never get on to your cat when they bring you their catch. It's instinct that they do this.

Anyway, USE THEM BEGGIN BACON STRIPS! A tiny bit mashed as hard as you can down in bait pit area will get them for you! THEY'LL BE BEGGIN FOR MORE! LOL!! :+)

This message was edited Nov 2, 2004 10:46 PM

My dad has been having trouble with HUGE rats under the house, they were eating the dog food in the garage. He's found that using chocolate bars really does a number on them. They love the chocolate and their systems just can't handle it. I think he's thinned the population down quite a bit in that manner.

raven_locks wrote - "At least your Reba ate it George, I have a cat who has caught the mice, beheaded them for me and left them in my bed for me to have "breakfast in bed"!! I woke up one morning and that crazy cat was rolling and purring all over the covers at my feet, I just rolled over thinking "What a weirdo", snuggled into my pillow and flew about 20 feet into the air when I was face to, well, non-face of the poor breakfast, but boy, was that cat proud of herself!! I hate mice!!! Ick!!!"

raven_locks - I know it wasn't funny to you but the way you tell it sure makes it funny to me. lol lol

Judy

Here is a photo from a couple of years ago. Reba is having salmon for lunch.

Peanut butter is great bait in traps. Not easy to rob. Cats are great, but you need a professional cat... a mouser! A good mouser will hunt them down and kill them one by one. They kill and eat, toying a bit, but not letting them go. You don't need a kitty... you need a cat!

My daughter has a Jack Russell that keeps the house, barn, etc. "de-ratted" Maybe you need a dog to help out the cats! The only problem she has is that if the mouse/rat hides in something in the house, Angus will just destroy it to get to his prey. Her cats seem to enjoy the show from the comfort of the couch *grin*
Pati

Been dealing with roof rats here. I bought some d-con,but after reading the cautions called their 800#. I knew if the dogs got into the poison it would harm them,but I wasn't sure what would happen if they were dumb enough to eat a dead/poisoned rat. The medical dept said the dogs would have to consume 2 adult rats per 10lbs.of body weight or 10 mice for there to be a "possible" problem. My dogs range in weight from 70+ lbs. to 151 lbs. We put the d-con in the crawl space and 4 days later I found the small beastie dead on the patio...haven't seen the larger one since I let rip with the .22 mag. Maybe I didn't miss after all..or scared it off...OR I'm gonna need a bunch more clothes pins. phewy

Our lovely Oscar is a GREAT mouser, birder, rabbiter, squirreler, gogherer, ratter, etc. I have cleaned out parts of all the above from his designated corner in the garage. GROSS!! I just wish he would leave them outside! Eventually he finishes everything. He was a stray so I'm sure tht's how he survived before he found us and was adopted.

These are the best mousetraps on the market - don't even need any bait, but I do put a bit of peanut butter on them. You never hurt yourself with them either! 800-553-5129 Intruder, Inc., Rice Lake, WI.

Had mice, Got Cats, indoors - still had mice (eating the cat food) put cats outdoors no more mice. Cats have to compete w/the neighbors hunting dogs for the cat food. no mice in a long time.

We had mice but I bought those catch and release traps b/c I couldn't stand to kill them. I let them go in the woods and the little guys know not to come back. We've been mouse free for over 2 years now. I guess I've been very lucky.

We got rid of the mice, never thought about putting the cats out LOL

kathy

We had mice. They were also too clever to get near those sticky paper traps. They sat around the house for months and never got a single mouse with them. We've got the rat poison behind the kitchen cabinets though (where kids absolutely cannot get to it). And it has killed every mouse that has entered out house. But ever since 2 stray cats adopted our garden several months ago, we haven't had a single mouse....I haven't even seen one skipping around on the patio like we used to if we sat out there in the evenings. They are history so long as those stray cats are here (the strays like us, they don't get fed by us .... although I used to feed them a teeny bit to keep them around until one of them hissed at me - and that ended my handouts to them, although I may soften up to them and give them a bit of catfood as a treat now and again eventually). I like that they keep the mice at bay. But I don't like them hissing at me as it worries me what they'd do to one of my kids if I weren't around to be mean and ferocious right back at them. So for the time being, the cats get to eat all the mice they want here, but they now know to stay clear of us humans AND my plants. If they start digging in my pots, they know I'll get the hose after them LOL.

-Julie

I didn't read the whole site , so I might be repeating something.
All our cats died off a few years ago. (Distemper.) In a short time we had mice all over the place!
My wife came home with a kitten or 2 in July 2003. Not sure how they increased, but now we have 2-2 year old cats & 3 year-old ones. No mice anwhere this winter. That includes wood shop, greenhouses, antique shop & house. These are just plain old barn cats, none are allowed in the house or any other building. My son says the mice can smell the cats & choose to live elsewhere.
Bernie

I has sticky trap that got it 17 mices this month so far that I put extra peanut butter with cheese in the middle on top it work for me so not see anywhere. I am suprised that last year no mice here now this year.

my cat is to stuck up to catch mouse she likes to be served. i have a small mouse coming out in living room all around me i have 4 traps in here ate peanut butter off no snap!!! so tiny i guess..i hate them... but will not allow kitty in house.. shes a pain in butt... lazy.. she would think its a pet to... so will try stickys now next..

This is gonna sound really bizarre...but it works. I do field work in the summer and stay in an old ranch house. Got tired of fighting the mice for my food, my shoes, my clothes (found a mouse in my sweatshirt and she had started to build a nest in the arm-GROSS!!!)

I call it the mouse trappin' bucket and a friend made it for me.

Take a 5 gallon paint bucket and punch a hole opposite and just below each side of the handle. Take a length of jute or rope and a toilet paper role. Tie one end thr the hole, put the tp role on the string and then tie the other end thru the hole tightly but leave enough to relase the knot (you will have to rep[lace the tp role at some point). You can fasten some 1/4" hardware cloth from the floor to the top of the bucket on one or both sides too but it isn't really necessary. Now put about 6" of water in the bottom of the bucket. Smear peanut butter on the TP role. Set it anywhere but where you think they are coming in-near the back door, in a closet, etc...
It will take 2-3 days for them to find it but they *will* climb up on the bucket, across the string and onto the TP role. The role flips and dumps them in the water where they drown.

Go ahead an laugh. I sure did!! Real funny, lol-the darn thing works like a charm! Just empty it out in the corner of the yard every day or so.
Took a few days but caught 10 the first night they found it. After the first week I was down to just a few each week. You don't need to put Peanut Butter on the role either. They are after the water I'm told.


This message was edited Mar 20, 2005 4:18 PM

I'm using those more expensive but easier to set plastic snap traps now, with a little peanut butter, but here's a great tip I learned for baiting those cheap wood & wire snap traps:

Melt the base of a chocolate chip slightly with a match or lighter, then stick the chip right onto the little bait platform.

The mice will go for the chocolate but be unable to "rob" the trap without getting caught, and the bait won't fall off the trap while you're putting it in position.