Catching Mice??

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Ok. I've got a big problem. The mice have figured out that Shadow my mouser cat has gone on to heaven and have decided to move in.

Bruce is no mouser. Not by a long shot. His thing seems to be birds and flies. He watched Shadow kill mice and seemed repulsed by it. (go figure)

My normal solution would be decon. Of course I can't use that with the odd chance that Bruce might get a wild hair and ingest a mouse that had eaten it. But odds are one of the dogs would before Bruce would. Just can't take the risk.

I won't do the "humane" sticky traps cuz those things are anything BUT humane. I still shudder with the memory of the last time husband convinced me to use them. Trust me, you don't want details.

So I guess I'll have to go for the old fashioned snap traps and cheese. Not sure how well those acutally work though. I can put them in the basement and the attic. I certainly hope it works. Cuz I can hear this lil bugger while I'm at my computer. Sounds as if he's in the wall between the kitchen and bath, and that's so not good. And Bruce doesn't even seem curious when I can hear him scratching around in there. Shadow would've been dying to get at it.:tongue:

Any other suggestions would be great.
 
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flutterbee

Guest
I wouldn't do Decon just because it's such a horrible death. When I was little we had a couple of mice and we used the snap traps. I do seem to remember that it didn't kill one, just trapped it and injured it badly. *shudder* It did get the others, however. Use peanut butter as bait.

You could do live traps...not sticky traps. You just have to be sure to take it at least 5 miles away to release it or it will find it's way back.

The most important thing is to do something now while you only have one. It won't be long before you have many and then you'll have a big problem. They multiply faster than rabbits.

It only takes an opening of like 1/2 an inch for them to get in. So make sure everything is sealed up...screen over the dryer vent, etc. If they want to get in, though, they'll find a way. I'm glad I have my kitties. At least then I feel like it's nature taking it's course.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
We live in the middle of a field and always have mice and worse...rat problems. With a mobile home there is simply no way to secure it completely because they can eat their way in. We have found some really good pellets at a agriculture store that we stuff down into the walls and under the cabinets so that animals cannot get to them and it seems to kill the buggers AFTER they run from the house. So far none of my animals have ingested a sick rodent.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
I've got the same problem even though I have several outside kitties. My dogs, the Bostons, are very good at catching mice, especially Ragan, and Katy just got her first one a few weeks ago. She was soooo proud of herself! They don't eat them but they carry them around in their mouth for a while and then spit them out. But that's why I can't use any kind of poison like Decon - the mice scatter the bait and the dogs might find it, or the mouse would eat it and then the dog would catch the mouse. And the mice have smartened up - the dogs can only get the mice on the floor, so now the mice run along the counter tops and inside the cabinets! Yuk! I know it's awful, but I do use the sticky traps because that seems to be the only way to catch them before they completely take over - it's them or me!
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
Don't use rat/mice poison. They die wherevery they happen to be....behind your entertainment center, in your heating ducts, under the big pile of junk in difficult child's room. You don't know that they are dead, until you smell the most disgusting smell of your life and unless you have someone with an awesome sense of smell and able to pinpoint where it is (like me), you will live with that smell for a loooong time. My parents stopped using the poison, for just this reason. It wasn't pleasant when I cleaned my closet. I was about 12 at the time. EEEEEEWWWWW! They started using humane traps and letting them go, but they always came back and then had babies. So they started using snap traps.

I lived in a house that was over 100 years old, growing up. We had mice problems, until one day a cat had kittens under our porch and I started feeding them. Then my parents started feeding the strays. We NEVER had mice again.

You could always adopt a stray and keep it outside. Just make sure it's fixed.
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
Well,

You know I have rats as pets. And I have raised mice. Everyone thinks they are just dumb, but they really are not.

Depending on the size of the mice you have a few options. If you've ever seen a rat or field mouse die from injesting Decon? You won't do it again.

Most places sell these little round or square "live" traps. The mouse goes in, steps on the spring, the door shuts and you basically have a tupperware type container with a mouse in it. Then you can take the container and drive somewhere and let them go - more than a mile away. OR kill them.

Mouse traps are good, but they have to be in the running line of the rodent. Rodents stay close to walls, and usually another good place is where a cabinet, floor and wall meet. OR in the back of a cabinet -look where droppings are. If they are in the kitchen I feel for you because they pee on EVERYTHING....so dont' cook unless you've washed out your stuff. Then dry and put up high - don't put it back in the cabinet until the problem is gone - but once the cabinet is cleaned out - DO put a trap close to the wall - and they don't like cheese so much - But WM sells these treats called Yogis -yogurt drops blueberry flavored and they LOVE those. Bad thing about any bait - they can figure out how to spring the trap and get the treat. So we used Pnut butter. It won't move off the trigger - and while they take the extra time to get a mouthfull? Snap!

Mice tend to be active most at Dusk also - but check your traps often.

You need to get a handle on this ASAP mice mature for mating at about 3 weeks old and can have litters as large as 13 than can also have sex at 3 weeks old. You do the math.

Hugs
Star

Had to laugh at "THE" Bruce being repulsed by eating mice - so beneath him.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Star I knew they reproduced fast, but I didn't know it was that fast. OMG!:faint:

Guess I'll have to put extra cat food outside and see if I can attract some of the neighborhood strays. Willie, my outside cat hasn't been coming home as often lately since Nichole attempted to bathe him several times. (he was covered in fleas)

And I'll be investing in snap traps and peanut butter. I'd use the live traps except Nichole would attempt to keep it as a pet. (she has before) And I happen to think if they're the little field mice that they're cute, so I'd have a tough time of it myself. Easier to just let the trap do the dirty work, and feel guilty while I toss them out.

Loth I know that smell. And I've got a nose like radar. Decon has always been my first choice cuz it works fast. But I have too many pets around here now to keep a watch over to make sure they don't pick up a sick or dead mouse that's eaten it. And heck, we have too many stray cats in the neighborhood that could wind up with one too.

That's the way Shadow died. She got hold of a poisoned mouse. (someone else evidently was using decon) I just won't risk going thru that again. Unless this problem spirals out of control.

And this weekend husband is gonna be cementing in those tiny holes in the foundation/basement walls that he keeps "meaning to".

Thanks for the peanut butter advice. I knew cheese didn't work well with snap traps, but I'd have never thought to use peanut butter.
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
If you were closer to me, I'd let you borrow our Cobra cat. He is most efficient at clearing out the unwelcome rodent population.
 

Fran

Former desparate mom
My mom's house was infested with mice. The house next door was empty for a long time and evidently bred there and came next door to visit. Mom is a pack rat and has pounds and pounds of flour, sugar, crackers, cookies,pasta etc. Both in storage in the basement and on the main living area. In the end I had the house exterminated. They used those sticky boxes and some spray. No way was mom living with mouse excrement on her sink and in her cupboards. Mom didn't tell anyone but just cleaned it all the time. When Baby brother went to check on the house while mom was visiting me, he made me aware of the situation. Yuck, yuck,yuck. The rugs got scrubbed because of the amount of droppings after mom was away for a month.

When I was at mom's after her stroke, I locked everything up in air proof containers, cleaned everything and threw anything out that looked like it had been opened for any length of time. (had to throw things away when she wasn't looking).

Anyhow, the mice problems seem to have disappeared. We hope. I'll find out when I return with mom at the beginning of July. The house will have been closed up.

So good luck. Regardless of their death, I don't go in their houses and they aren't allowed in mine. :bigsmile: I worry about transmittable diseases. Yuck,yuck,yuck.

I don't know what a cobra cat is but I like the sound of it.
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
This is an alternative idea.

Get a string,
Get a "toy" mouse, preferably one looks like fur.

Tie the toy mouse to a long string. Stick that string into your back pants pocket. Walk through your local animal shelter.

Have someone walk behind you to see which cat attacks first.
Adopt that cat!!

Benefits: You get a new cat, HE gets a stay of execution. Reduces the mouse population very quickly. Bruce doesn't have to puke.

Also - Don't know if this is accurate - but my Mom had squirrels in her attic. The pest control man told her to keep a radio on with rock and roll music playing. When she told me I got a chuckle and she wanted to know why? I said - I listen to Ozzy all the time in my office and the rats sleep right thought it - and we be jammin ;)

NEW CAT!!! NEW CAT!!! NEW CAT!!!
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
Don't forget, cat food will attract mice, as well. If you are going to use the traps, peanut butter is the best, and put them along walls in the garage and behind furniture where the cat can't get (not likely, I know). They won't travel along an open floor if there is food along a wall. We had them in our hall coat closet for a while as that was behind the kitchen and a nice warm safe place to hide.
 

Abbey

Spork Queen
We had a bad problem with them last year. After months of using live traps, and making sure there was NOOOOO food laying around, then driving miles away to release them, we're finally done. We put those darn traps everywhere in our house, but the kitchen seemed to be their favorite. We just had to get very vigilant about keeping it spotless.

Abbey
 

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
My cats will only get the outside mice! So we have to set the inside traps with peanut butter. We had them running across living room floor while we were watching TV late at night a few times, or across the kitchen floor a few times. We found the poop, set a ton along the walls... caught a lot for weeks on end! Now we will catch a few here and there, more when it rains. But it has definately slowed down. Reminds me I need to check them.
I am a mouse and rat lover... but I didn't know what else to do, it was freaking the girls out and there were so many.
 
Lisa,

I hope one of the solutions the others mentioned works ASAP!!!

My difficult child cat is an indoor cat because of all the coyotes we have around here. However, there are lots of feral cats in my neighborhood. Thankfully, we haven't had a problem...yet... I hope I'm not jinxing myself!!!

Thinking of you and wishing you a mouse free house!!! WFEN
 
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flutterbee

Guest
I could loan you one of my cats for a few days. :D I know that any one of them would take care of it. Except maybe Baby Kitty. Afterall, she is one that was sharing her food with a mouse. :faint: But, Abbey or Hydro wouldn't mess around. Puddles normally wouldn't, but he's fat and gets tired easily. LOL

You just have to promise to give them back. I'm rather attached to them.

Probably the snap traps are the way to go. We had luck with them when I was little. If you're a light sleeper, though, the *snap* will probably wake you up.

Or buy a toy mouse and teach Bruce what he's supposed to do? Kinda like the guy taught his dog, Skidboot. Get down on the floor and pounce on the mouse and then put it in your mouth. Just make sure you put the video up so we can make sure you did it right. You know, for training purposes, of course. :winks: :rofl:

Ok. You can return to your regularly scheduled programming now. I'll be good.
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
Fran, Cobra is the cat's name. We had planned to name him Rainy or Foggy (to go with Stormy, who was there first), but when he saw her, he started hissing and striking, so we called him Cobra.

The radio worked to get rid of the skunk that moved in under my house. True story. Animal Control offered to loan me a trap (but what do I do after it's IN the trap?), Fish and Game thought I was nuts, and since I had cats I didn't want to put poison out, plus he smelled bad alive, and I figured he'd smell worse dead. I put radios in each room, turned them all to different stations and cranked up the tunes, and the skunk left and never came back.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
:rofl: Heather, uh, while Aubrey and Darrin would testify that their Nana is game for alot of crazy stuff....... I think I'll pass on the Bruce training session.

Turns out one of Nichole's old school chums had 3 Momma cats all decide to have litters at exactly the same time. (she lives on a farm) And of course she's desperate to find homes for like 15-20 kittens. (mamma cats are getting fixed asap) School chum is all but begging me to take one. She swears Mamma cats have been teaching the little ones to mouse and that all seem pretty darn good at it. Mammas are excellent mousers.

I'm still on the fence. Last thing I need is another animal. I think I'm gonna give the snap traps a shot first. If that doesn't work a new mouser may be necessary.

Oh, and now since Shadow is no longer around...........We have snakes in the :censored2: back yard!! Scared the daylights outta Nichole and dog Betsy this morning. Both Nichole and dog screamed. Then silly Nichole wouldn't let Molly go after it and kill it. ugh

The snakes come from the fact that the city has let our back alley go to pot. They won't repave it and it's become overgrown. It's not behind my yard, but the neighbors then goes down the block. Wonderful breeding ground for the darn things. And they love to hang out there. (garden snakes)
 

susiestar

Roll With It
My husband just learned online that mice don't like peppermint. There was a mouse on the porch who was trying to come in. We sprayed with a solution of peppermint oil and water. The mouse left quick, fast, and in a hurry. He comes back, but only if husband forgets to spray that week.

We actually used the LorAnn brand peppermint oil that you find in the candy/cake section of Micheals or Hobby Lobby. This brand was recently bought out by Wilton, and has a rep of making good food-quality oils.

husband used 1 little bottle of oil and 1 cup of water. We have sprayed at least 4 times, and still have quite a bit left.

this is a natural repellant, won't hurt any of the animals, and will help in your battle.

Your other option is to go on freecycle or craigslist for another mouser.

oh, I worked in a grocery/used bookstore as a teen and we used borax. I am not sure what it does to the mice, but I only saw 1 mouse in the almost 3 years I worked there. The owner had me put it in jar lids under the shelves and we put it in a thin line over the thresholds.

Good Luck!!
 
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