A mouse pisses me off!!!!!!

TMHunt

TMHunt

Knifemaker/Moderator
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I guess it's that time of the year, probably a little overdue. When all the leaves have fallen and frost starts to form in the mornings, its easy for us higher species to just turn on the heat in the house, throw the flannel sheets on the bed and be nice and cozy all winter long. Not so for our furry friends out in the wild, and this time of year is a good time to see some of them try to make there way inside. Last night while working in my shop addition, putting up some trim pieces, I saw him. A mouse.

Its not that mice strike fear into my heart or anything, but I hate to see them. We have a small pond in our back yard, and its not uncommon to find wild beasts make there way into my shop doors, more than once I've been greeted by snapping and box turtles, chased out a couple of snakes a time or two, had several spiders take up residence and there's always birds that seem to enjoy flying through to buzz the tower all taken with a grain of salt and alway try to help them back out without injuring them. But a mouse I will declare war on.

I remember at my old house, we never had a single mouse in the house until the year I had a Halloween party. I brought in several bales of hay for decoration in the garage and I'm pretty convinced that mice had nests in them because that whole winter we killed over 30-mice in the house. Little bastards shit, and chew there way through everything you own. They are despicable creatures and must be stopped.

So, before mice begin to hold family reunions in my underwear drawer. I intend on nipping this one in the bud..... Anyone have any good tatics as far as eliminating these furry little terrorist? I remember I used the regular style mouse traps at my old home, but is there better methods? Any concerns for any household pets I should know of?
 
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I feel your pain. I despise the the smell they leave when they have infested an area also. Using mouse poison can work well, but you have to deal with the dead mouse smell afterwards. I think the best and cleanest option is get a cat. I'm not a cat person, and I'm slightly allergic to them, but they kill them and you don't have to worry about corpses. Last option is a good chicken snake, but I'd just have to deal with the mice. I'm scared to death of snakes. I know people who have consciously let one live in their barn for that reason. Not something I could do, but not everyone is as terrified of them as I am. Good luck with your rodents. Let us know what works for you.
 
I've used regular snap traps with peanut butter with good results.
 
I like the glue traps. You can catch mice with the small ones, but I usually go with the big ones for mice. And with glue traps you also catch any other pests that happen by too. Just try to place them where your pets won't bother them.
 
Put vinegar on your bate. It works every time. Had one at one time. He is no more. My bate was peanut better. He didn't touch it. Then cheese. He didn't touch it. I put vinegar on the cheese. He was dead the next mourning. I noticed he favored my salt and vinegar chips.
 
I have no experience with mice, only rats. We used to live close to train tracks and get them from time to time in my garage. 4 years ago in the winter one decided to take up residence in my GSXR's trunk. Did about $300 worth of electrical damage chewing wires. Only reason we found his house was because there was a turkey leg bone wedged in my suspension. I got one with a trap, shot the other with an airsoft.

I'd suggest poison, but you have pets so that's a no no. Traps of the sticky or snapping kind would work, or as mentioned above maybe thin out the cat food a little ;)
 
Interesting about the vinegar Rick, never heard of that..... We do have a cat yes, however Leo is a house cat, he doesn't go out to the shop and he is pretty old to boot, he's what we call retired......

I kinda like the idea of getting another outside cat. A vicious tom im sure would take care of any unwanted pests. But we also have a female golden retriever that spends some time outside, she's scared of her own shadow and I have no dought would get her ass kicked by a cat with some additude. Think I may break out the old snap traps with a glue trap backer, see what happens.
 
Spearmint and Peppermint essential oil will repel them-I've been working a combination o snap traps w/peanut butter (where the dog can't get his nose in 'em), greengas airsoft (400+fps...) and in the shop ratshot in my .22 s&w because it's very satisfying.
Setting baited snap traps right in their lanes of travel along walls works really well too-even if they're not hungry they still will get got.
So far the essential oil thing is actually working pretty well.
 
J W Bensinger said:
Spearmint and Peppermint essential oil will repel them-I've been working a combination o snap traps w/peanut butter (where the dog can't get his nose in 'em), greengas airsoft (400+fps...) and in the shop ratshot in my .22 s&w because it's very satisfying.
Setting baited snap traps right in their lanes of travel along walls works really well too-even if they're not hungry they still will get got.
So far the essential oil thing is actually working pretty well.
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How do you place it and how big of any area will it cover? Do you soak cotton balls? I've got a 40x16 covered patio with furniture including cupboards that collect mice in the winter. Looking for another solution to traps.
 
Place snap traps around the perimeter of the house with the baited side up against the house wall. Mice follow along adjacent to the wall and doing it this way will make the bait easier to find, check the traps daily.
Secondly get a house cat or two, nothing is more effective than a good mouser.
 
Get a large tub. Fill it half full of water. Put a small hole in the center of each end of a 46 oz. tomato juice can. Suspend the can over the water with a wire. Split shot will keep it centered. Wrap a strip of bacon around can and secure with fishing line. Put a little vinegar on the bacon. When a mouse jumps to the can, it will log roll into the water and drown. Some sort of ledge near the edge of the tub helps. You can cover the whole thing with a dog cage to keep pets out.
 
tiguy7 said:
Get a large tub. Fill it half full of water. Put a small hole in the center of each end of a 46 oz. tomato juice can. Suspend the can over the water with a wire. Split shot will keep it centered. Wrap a strip of bacon around can and secure with fishing line. Put a little vinegar on the bacon. When a mouse jumps to the can, it will log roll into the water and drown. Some sort of ledge near the edge of the tub helps. You can cover the whole thing with a dog cage to keep pets out.
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Video here,
[video=youtube;l4PaGvAhV9I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4PaGvAhV9I[/video]
http://gizmodo.com/ruthlessly-efficient-trap-proves-mice-are-dumb-1746578462
 
mbay1455 said:
How do you place it and how big of any area will it cover? Do you soak cotton balls? I've got a 40x16 covered patio with furniture including cupboards that collect mice in the winter. Looking for another solution to traps.
Click to expand...
The first time I did it I bought a commercial preparation.
It was some sort of soaked filler in little muslin bags-seems like cotton balls or somesuch would also work
 
Same problem in my shop, Todd. Bastards are running along my main workbench, pooping on everything. I left them a big chunk of bait from my home exterminator, and it DISAPPEARED. They replaced it with a generous pile of poops. Hopefully that will decline over this week...
 
I'll suggest the "Maine Mousah". Though I can't find the link to the web page, they were essentially a big bucket filled with anti-freeze. The mouse goes in, tries to get the bait, and the thing spins and dumps it into the anti-freeze, drowning and pickling them at the same time. The original one would catch a couple dozen of the critters before it had to be emptied out, perfect for leaving at camp. Dunno where you can get one now, as the patent must have run out, but there are a few YT vids showing how to make a "5-gallon bucket mouse trap) that are very similar in concept. Good luck. At least it ain't squirrels. If you think mice are destructive rodents (which they no doubt are) you should see the amount of destruction a squirrel can visit upon your premises.....I had a friend who had one fall down his chimney and it did over a $1000 worth of damage in one weekend trying to get out of the house.
 
Plan B: Put 8 " of water in a 5 gal. pail. Take a large paper grocery bag and fashion a drumhead for the pail using a bungee or two. With a sharp knife, cut a 3" cross hatch in the center of the head. Now suspend a cube of cheese over the cross hatch using a stick and some string. The stick can hang over the edge of a kitchen counter. Turn out the lights and listen for the splashes.
 
You have TURTLES sneaking in, but are pissed off that a mouse does the same?

Either way, I hate the little bastards too.
When they manage to sneak in (through my attic, of all palces), a simple plastic snap trap with peanut butter is irresistible and gets them within a day or two.
Another thing I've been told might help is to put fabric softener sheets at the point of entrance to discourgage them. I've been told by some fellow RV'ers that they put them on the tire after parking the RV and the mice won't climb up to try and get in.
 
I hate mice. I am in a constant battle against mice. The damn little destructors are ALWAYS chewing up stuff, pooping in closets and pantries, and in general just making me mad. The worst case in the shop was when the bastards made a nest in a roll of leather. Two half sides of 8-9 leather - got inside the roll and made a nest, chewed holes in the leather and peed/pooped all in the roll. They did $3700 damage to my mother's Toyota Camry chewing on wiring under the dash.

I use MANY, MANY, MANY of the Tomcat brand glue traps by Scotts. Not the black plastic trays, but the glue covered cardboard ones. I have one to either side of both doors in my shop, as well as extras scattered around the periphery of the shop. Probably 8 total at a time. I bait each one with a vanilla wafer in the middle.

I also use snap traps. Best bait I've ever found is beef jerky. I use dental floss to tie a small piece to the trap trip tongue.

I also have about 18 glue traps spread around the house along the walls and run a "mouse patrol" every morning. The glue traps are also good at catching roaches, crickets, spiders, etc that wander around the edges at night. Caught a couple of small rattlesnakes and a few small rat snakes out in the shop as well.

Because of the Camry incident, I started putting a couple of glue traps under the hood of each vehicle as well on flat spots. I check under the hood 2x per week and usually catch 1 or 2 a month per vehicle. I also leave a couple under the front seats of my Prius - I've caught over a dozen mice INSIDE my Prius using glue traps. I was driving down the road one day when a damn mouse crawled up through the center console and ran across my arm. At 60 MPH. Damn near totaled the Prius on that one.
 
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