So. I think we have an uninvited house guest and he ain't paying any rent. The little bastard has been coming up through the walls and into our kitchen cabinets. Not really doing much other than leaving a small dropping or two.
I set a couple of traps a few days ago. The kind where the mouse enters through an opening and then is killed and locked inside. I baited them with peanut butter. None of the traps had been activated, but I still saw a dropping, so I tried a more traditional snap trap, again using peanut butter as bait. This morning, I wake up to find that the god damn bait is gone, but the trap wasn't activated! How is that even possible? What kind of mouse am I dealing with here?
Anybody have experience hunting these things? I feel like Arnold in the final scene of Predator.
They're cunning little buggers. Have had them nibble the peanut butter off a trap, too.
Using mashed up gumdrops worked somewhat better. Use enough of the gooey material to get some on the top and bottom of the trigger.
Works sometimes.
I have trouble with putting out the rodent poison. Doesn't really bother me to poison the vermin, but rats will go back to their home to die. Then you have their decaying bodies in the walls smelling like death for a week or two.
Get a cat. No, really! I live in DC where mice are everywhere. We have two cats in the house and in the 18+ years I've lived here there's been a grand total of two mice that got in and zero that got out. ^-^
Quote from: bbmike on August 15, 2018, 06:43:50 AM
Get a cat. No, really! I live in DC where mice are everywhere. We have two cats in the house and in the 18+ years I've lived here there's been a grand total of two mice that got in and zero that got out. ^-^
I have three! Don't ask, long story. Unfortunately, my wife is extremely allergic and we keep them downstairs in one part of the House.
I did some searching and I'm thinking I used too much bait. I scaled it back and only put a little dab. I also put the trap inside of a cup so the sides are blocked and the only way in is from the front over the spring pad. Hopefully, this will lead to a kill!
Over here we use cheese as bait.
But that could be because nobody I know eats peanut butter ... (the Dutch do but they call it peanut cheese because it was illegal to call something butter unless it is butter).
Prevailing wisdom is that cheese is not very effective. Peanut butter is the top recommended bait. I've also heard gum drops, as noted by besilarious, are effective.
I've been fighting the little bastards for a while myself.
I heard if you put a little bit of PB and then a small nut or birdseed in it that could help, but haven't tried that myself.
Quote from: jamus34 on August 15, 2018, 07:34:29 AM
I've been fighting the little bastards for a while myself.
I heard if you put a little bit of PB and then a small nut or birdseed in it that could help, but haven't tried that myself.
I've heard that adding a bit of oatmeal also works.
I got lucky and spotted a mouse as it was exiting the room. I put a mouse trap
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baited with cheese directly in front of the opening and caught a mouse in minutes. In this case the location of the trap was more important than the type of bait used--I could probably have caught the little bugger without any bait at all as it entered or exited the hole.
Most others I know use peanut butter as bait. One acquaintance of mine tied a small piece of bacon to the trap he set to prevent any mice from stealing the bait.
I hope that helped. Good luck!
make sure you rearrange things in the area where you set the trap. Mice are naturally curious and will explore "new" surroundings, even if its just re-arranging existing ones. We had to do that with a trap we set under the sink in our kitchen where the little bugger was coming up from the crawlspace under the house and wriggling through the dishwasher hose hole in the cabinet wall under the sink.
Caught him the day after we moved htings around under there
^good idea. I took most everything out of the drawer, which was mostly silverware. I'll put some other crap back in there!
Do you guys think there is any difference in whether I use smooth or crunchy PB? Seems like a silly question, but who knows... :crazy2:
As Mike said above, get a cat! Or three!
I'd say crunchy or anything that makes them jostle the trigger.
Hi Jarhead.
I'm constantly battling mice invaders in my home every fall and winter. Last winter I found a small gap where my central air conditioning units wires connect to my house. I filled it with tons of steel wool then caulked it all closed. Look for small gaps around your garage door. If the door is not touching the ground fully the mice can actually squeeze through.
Now how do mice eat the bait but don't set the trap off you ask? Make sure you don't over fill the trap with too much peanut butter. The mice are skilled at delicately nibbling just the food and avoiding the material surrounding the food cavity. The trick is use a toothpick and get a dab of peanut butter about the size of a sharpened wood pencil lead. Smoosh the bait down so that the mouse is forced to crawl on top of the trigger in order to get at the food. If the bait is overflowing the food cavity all the mice has to do is lick it off without climbing onto the trap itself. You may have to vary the amount of bait depending upon the size and type of the food cavity of the trap.
If even after doing all of that if the trap still fails to trigger try another mousetrap with a different trigger and food cavity setup. When setting the trap try to elevate the trigger flapper as near vertical as possible so you force the mouse to grapple with it to get to the bait.
Years ago we had mice in the attic. At night it sounded like they were playing football up there, which got my wife on my ass big-time. Poison only worked briefly so I hunted down the little bastards. I found their nest in a palm outside by the pool. I got my ladder and my hatchet and went to work on them. But the little shits wouldn't even run from me, they just sat there in their nest looking at me with their little mice-eyes while I wacked them to pieces. After only a couple of hits, I couldn't take it anymore. I caught them all, put them in a box and took them far away where they could play football at night in somebody else's attic. I am too soft for mice eradication so I call the professionals who get paid to be unmerciful.
Steel wool has worked in my house as well, good call.
I've had some good luck in my garage with peanut butter scented glue traps (https://catchmaster.com/product/mouse-insect-glue-boards/). You can either lay them flat or if you have kids/cats about, fold them up into a little box. Just keep yer fingers off the glue when you are folding them up. Put the box/trap along a wall or edge. The mice follow the wall.
I had mice in my house a long time ago. I used the humanitarian traps where they walk in and the door closes behind them. I had no problem killing them, but they were in my bedroom, and my kids were young at the time, and I didn't want one of us to step on the trap in the middle of the night.
More recently I've had them in my shed. I used the regular snap traps, but had a poor success rate because they kept licking the cheese off the trap. I then switched to poison, which worked well. But that was outdoors, and I didn't care if they died and stunk up my shed.
We had a mouse last year. Got into my wife's protein bars. We had to trap it fast before that rodent buffed up and mugged us in our sleep. Used the snap traps (look like massive I will f you up clips". Got the bastard in time.
I prefer poison. They eat it. They die. Yeah, they smell for around a week, but, it's usually local to where they are rotting. If you go snap trap, make sure it's perpendicular to the wall. Tie a chip to the trigger. Potato, Dorito, whatever.
I love the smell of mouse bait in the morning...it smells like...victory.
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Nicely done, JH! You have a promising future in pest control if the whole lawyer thing doesn't work out O0
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on August 15, 2018, 09:46:38 PM
I love the smell of mouse bait in the morning...it smells like...victory.
(https://scontent.fewr1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/37148041_10156211648387702_8034354884063002624_o.jpg?_nc_cat=0&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&oh=5013f0ac149eba058c3973ffc1a08de1&oe=5C075C9F)
One...
As our Mad Russian says: "Good hunting!"
Great! Four more and you're an Ace. O0 That looks like the mouse 'New Guy' the rest of the mice send out to check for new devices. Next will come the real scouts followed by the Combat Engineers.
i used a live capture trap, its like a cage, with good success
(i don't like to clear up the mess. and fleas, miles and such leave the dead body when its gets cold and seek a new warm one ...nearby :o )
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41iIBl-%2BZOL.jpg)
as a lure i used a natural hazelnut with a drop of Nutella smeared on , the hazelnut-shell has a hole and is stuck firm to the trigger.
the mouse actually pulls 'the lever' to grab the fragrant hazelnut
i then release the mouse in furthest corner of the garden.
when i had a mice invasion on the balcony i went for a special poisen. it leads to inner bleeding over days, so the mice feels week, seeks a save spot, its nest, ...feels even more weak (possibly outside the building) ...and falls asleep.
no mess also.
Quote from: Sir Slash on August 16, 2018, 09:31:53 AM
Great! Four more and you're an Ace. O0 That looks like the mouse 'New Guy' the rest of the mice send out to check for new devices. Next will come the real scouts followed by the Combat Engineers.
You mean I took out an FNG!? I'm starting to feel remorseful.
I thought remorse was removed from your programming years ago...
Quote from: Gusington on August 16, 2018, 09:41:54 AM
I thought remorse was removed from your programming years ago...
Definitely not. You know I'm really soft deep down in my soul.
Soft like the warm, dead body of a tiny mouse? :hide:
Quote from: bbmike on August 16, 2018, 09:45:42 AM
Soft like the warm, dead body of a tiny mouse? :hide:
My stages of grief: \m/ ;D ??? :-\ :-[ :( :'(
Soul?? Pfft now I know you're BSing.
I'll tell you honestly, if I were married to MikeGER, and he suddenly took out a large insurance policy on me..... I'd be VERY worried. :coolsmiley:
Quote from: Sir Slash on August 16, 2018, 10:00:58 AM
I'll tell you honestly, if I were married to MikeGER, and he suddenly took out a large insurance policy on me..... I'd be VERY worried. :coolsmiley:
...only if you like your muesli with some blue grains strewn over regulary ^-^
...or you find this devise stuffed with a cooled bottle of Veuve Clicquot ^-^
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DON'T TOUCH THAT!!!
If it bourbon or scotch I would. :buck2:
Then it would be worth it. <:-)
You don't have to have a cat to control rodents. Terriers were also bred to kill rats.
Try that today and you'll get in trouble with their Union. And you don't want Terrier Union thugs showing up at your door. :knuppel2:
I once killed a mouse with a swing of my PR-24. Usually my aim isn't that good. :notworthy:
Our dog loves hunting mice in the field.
I'd say that it is a very good thing that you caught that particular mouse. It looks like it was pregnant and its teats (for a mouse) are very pronounced. You could have had 6-10 of the little bastards running around eating your civy MREs.
And yes it sucks to kill cute little innocent critters ... unless they are grouse, or quail, or partridge.