Got a Rat/Mice Problem...

[jeffesonm]

My cat does a pretty good job of slaughtering all mice within close proximity of the house/wood pile.

 

[northwinds]

My cat does a pretty good job of slaughtering all mice within close proximity of the house/wood pile.

My woodpiles are 40 yards from the house, but my house is on the edge of about 100 acres of managed forest (not mine). There are many mice living around us.
I second the advice not to use poison in the house. We learned the hard way about a week after moving in. A mouse died behind the wall of my wife's walk-in
closet, and it stunk to high heaven, as they say. I wanted to rip a hole in the wall to remove it, but my farmer friends advised against it, and the smell eventually
did go away when the dead mouse dried up.

I highly recommend these traps.

http://www.intruderinc.com/products.asp?TopCat=Rodent&CategoryName=The Better Mousetrap

I use a little peanut butter as bait. When the weather turns cold, I catch a mouse every day or so, and then sporadically after that. They seem to limit themselves to the unfinished part of the basement (where the terrier and retriever aren't roaming). The nice thing about these traps is that even my wife can empty them out without
touching the dead mouse. And they're simple to reset and put back in place. I don't even re-bait. Just the smell of a little bit of peanut butter seems to be enough.

 

[firefighterjake]

Here's my mouse killer and other things.View attachment 89565

Well no doubt . . . do lasers shoot out of his eyes?

 

[BEConklin]

Rather than poison - make a bucket mouse trap...they're easy, cheap, very effective and they just keep killing them without any need to reset the trap. If the trap is located in an unheated space, put windshield antifreeze in it instead of water.
The can is mounted on an armature of some sort,,,I use a piece of wire coat hanger...whatever - but it must spin easily on the armature which is fitted in two holes drilled at the same height at 6 and 12 o'clock on the bucket. The mice walk up the board which is smeared with a thin streak of peanut butter, they then reach or climb over to can with the peanut butter globbed on it. The can spins and the mouse is dumped into the water. They can't climb out so they drown. This is not my picture - but you can see it's killed quite a few mice without any need to do anything. Just dump the mice out or dip them out with an aquarium net.

 

[weatherguy]

Did you know Ridgebacks can and do talk?

What do you mean by this, mine never shuts up but she barks, I guess its a dogs way of talking, never had a dog bark so much for every little thing.
My sisters Wheaten catches mice and chipmunks and eats them. Loves playing around her wood pile.

 

[rideau]

What do you mean by this, mine never shuts up but she barks, I guess its a dogs way of talking, never had a dog bark so much for every little thing.
My sisters Wheaten catches mice and chipmunks and eats them. Loves playing around her wood pile.

Ridgebacks really and truely can talk. My Mother's calls her "MA", says "No" clearly. There is a owner I saw on Ellen DeGeneris (the one day I say the show), who was apparently there for a repeat visit, and goes when she teaches her dog a new phrase. The day's phrase was "I don't want to do it" and it was clear as a bell....

Try teaching your dog a fw simply, appropriate words. You may be surprised.

My Wheaten talks with his eyes and a good stare, also his paw. And he licks his nose while staring when he wants a treat or some of what I am eating. He really gets everyone laughing. He gets more and more anxious...as the food he has his eye on dwindles...

 

[jdp1152]

Rather than poison - make a bucket mouse trap...they're easy, cheap, very effective and they just keep killing them without any need to reset the trap. If the trap is located in an unheated space, put windshield antifreeze in it instead of water.
The can is mounted on an armature of some sort,,,I use a piece of wire coat hanger...whatever - but it must spin easily on the armature which is fitted in two holes drilled at the same height at 6 and 12 o'clock on the bucket. The mice walk up the board which is smeared with a thin streak of peanut butter, they then reach or climb over to can with the peanut butter globbed on it. The can spins and the mouse is dumped into the water. They can't climb out so they drown. This is not my picture - but you can see it's killed quite a few mice without any need to do anything. Just dump the mice out or dip them out with an aquarium net.

I've done a simplified version of this for chipmunks. Instead of the rotating coke can, you just layer sunflower seeds on top of the water so it looks solid. This was for a basement infestation. Only takes killing one munk to alert the others to the danger. Mice...well they're pretty much blind and dumb.

 

[jackatc1]

I use two small cans taped together on a coat hanger,
with the bucket and wood ramps.

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[weatherguy]

I've done a simplified version of this for chipmunks. Instead of the rotating coke can, you just layer sunflower seeds on top of the water so it looks solid. This was for a basement infestation. Only takes killing one munk to alert the others to the danger. Mice...well they're pretty much blind and dumb.

And they constantly dribble pee as they run.

 

[jdp1152]

And they constantly dribble pee as they run.

Well...yes. Incontinence is actually how they mark/find their way around because they're pretty much blind. I've stated the status of the home we bought pre move in. Well, around all of the baseboards was moldy mouse piss. I could literally see their movement patterns around the house. I spent days in there disinfecting before I'd let my daughter and wife move in. I'm quite thankful that the heavy bait stations in Dec of last year followed by exclusion methods outside has eliminated the problem thus far. I'm alright with a live and let live approach until they show up uninvited in my house. Best and worst thing I ever did was completely gut the basement. The things I saw behind the wood paneling and in the insulation would make you want to rip your entire house apart and reinsulate with rodent proof cementous foam instead of these foams and fiberglass that makes such great nesting material. I'd like to have those three weeks back and just pay someone to pull all that stuff out and get covered in 30 years of mouse crap. I like doing home improvement myself, but that disgusting experience just pushed the envelope a bit too far.

 

[mywaynow]

Mice will always live in wood piles. Just don't tell her that the snakes will soon follow to feed on the mice!

 

[BEConklin]

.... The things I saw behind the wood paneling and in the insulation would make you want to rip your entire house apart and reinsulate with rodent proof cementous foam instead of these foams and fiberglass that makes such great nesting material. I'd like to have those three weeks back and just pay someone to pull all that stuff out and get covered in 30 years of mouse crap. I like doing home improvement myself, but that disgusting experience just pushed the envelope a bit too far.

I did some interior work in an upstairs room on a house back in the 90s. The ceiling was made from something like drop ceiling tiles - but which was installed in sheets. When I pulled it down to replace it with sheetrock, it was covered with mouse droppings and old nests - like to make me gag...good thing I was wearing a dust mask. The owner of the house told me they'd been living there going on 40 years and had never seen a mouse.

 

[perry]

I have a jack russel and st.bernard that roam the yard hunting mice. my ST.bernard is very good at telling me where the mice are. the mice love getting into my old garden tractors. have to inspect all the time before starting them up

 

[bag of hammers]

Bucket trap is a bush camp favorite with most of the folks I know.

I recall pulling the air breather lid off my old GM one day (idling rough) to find a mouse nest backed over 3/4 of the way around the tray, outside the filter. Just enough room left for them to come and go.

Had to tear the ceiling apart once to get rid of them. Coming in through the ridge vent.

Lots of nests in the wvood stacks, I don't freak out too much, but I got the traps in the house. I seal up everything tight as I can, use h/w cloth, etc. so far so good.

 

[Hearth Mistress]

Well with the amount of rat poison I put out I am hoping there isn't much left to eat for wild animals. I guess I'll monitor the green granules and replenish when need be.

Kicker is, the dog runs around in the fenced off back yard.... can't have him downing any of the poison so I'll have to be careful where I put the stuff.

Or if he eats a dead mouse, that could be fatal too. If you have a dog in the same yard, I wouldn't be using poison, that is an accident waiting to happen.

 

[Hearth Mistress]

We don't have a MOUSE problem....and i'm 30-1 with these guys. Hand pic taken after 3 days of swelling went down. Yard was landscaped with railroad ties in 1970.as they rotted, it turned into a den site!View attachment 89555View attachment 89556
View attachment 89555

If I saw that, I'd be on the phone to get oil delivered! Holy Crap!

 

[BEConklin]

I recall pulling the air breather lid off my old GM one day (idling rough) to find a mouse nest backed over 3/4 of the way around the tray, outside the filter. Just enough room left for them to come and go.

.

I worked in a Honda service dept for a few years. One winter day a lady came in saying she smelled something cooking when she drove her car - a 1985 Honda Accord. We brought it in and checked her air filter assembly - found it completely filled with Eukanuba dry dog food. I went back out to the waiting area and said, "let me guess, you feed your dog Eukanuba - right?" She said, "Yes - but what has that got to do with my car?" and I handed her a bag full of the dog kibble that was taken from her air filter assembly - probably upwards of 2 pounds of it.

They are amazing little critters. I watched one once, in the dead of winter, climb right up the smooth painted arm of a backhoe, probably a 65° incline or steeper - yet he ran right up it.

 

[bag of hammers]

I worked in a Honda service dept for a few years. One winter day a lady came in saying she smelled something cooking when she drove her car - a 1985 Honda Accord. We brought it in and checked her air filter assembly - found it completely filled with Eukanuba dry dog food. I went back out to the waiting area and said, "let me guess, you feed your dog Eukanuba - right?" She said, "Yes - but what has that got to do with my car?" and I handed her a bag full of the dog kibble that was taken from her air filter assembly - probably upwards of 2 pounds of it.

They are amazing little critters. I watched one once, in the dead of winter, climb right up the smooth painted arm of a backhoe, probably a 65° incline or steeper - yet he ran right up it.

Great story. When they got into the rafters in my ceiling, I found a pile of popcorn kernels in one rafter bay. I wet nuts trying to figure out where this stuff came from (no popcorn at my camp). Turns out the neighbors were the source (I suspect they were feeding the squirrels, and ultimately the mice too).

 

[BEConklin]

Great story. When they got into the rafters in my ceiling, I found a pile of popcorn kernels in one rafter bay. I wet nuts trying to figure out where this stuff came from (no popcorn at my camp). Turns out the neighbors were the source (I suspect they were feeding the squirrels, and ultimately the mice too).

For sure - we used to have lots of mice in our detached garage - until I stopped feeding the birds in winter. One thing we still have though is the freaking moths that hatched out of a bag of black oil sunflower seeds in our basement...
No more bird feeders for us!

 

[rideau]

For sure - we used to have lots of mice in our detached garage - until I stopped feeding the birds in winter. One thing we still have though is the freaking moths that hatched out of a bag of black oil sunflower seeds in our basement...
No more bird feeders for us!

Better to plant the appropriate food plants for the birds...