Mouse problems........of the rodent kind.

[Kev]

It would appear i have acquired a new friend......or maybe its friends. I was rummaging through the bottom of my kitchen cabinets and noticed little brown specks of...something about 1/8" of an inch long. Unsure of what it was i did a google search on household pests and realized they were mouse droppings. Sure enough the next day when i was in my kitchen i even saw the little sucker, and to add insult to injury mouse droppings on my counter top. How the hell they managed to climb up there beats the hell out of me. They or he even helped themselves to some of my homemade bread which was stored safely (NOT!!!) in a plastic bag.

Today i'm going to plug all holes so they can't get into my kitchen, and take away all sources of potential food, but my google reading has told me once mice have found food they can usually find their way back to the source.

Now i don't want them dead i just want them outdoors where they belong. So does anyone know how without resorting to traps, or poisons that kill (Squirrel should be so proud.) a safe humane way of trapping them without resorting to butchery? I feel all animals even rodents have their place on earth..........just not at my place. --- Kev

 

[hitrack]

I agree with the others. They are rodents, they live and breed in filth, hence the amount in the Vancouver alleys downtown.

Get some traps and poison or whatever to kill them.

 

[tunatacoeater]

Hate to say it, but you've probably got more than just one or two.

 

[JustAGuy]

Fleas on their close cousin, the rat, spread bubonic plague in the Middle Ages and the Black Death decimated the earth's population by as much as one-third, according to some estimates. I'm in Winnipeg or I'd lend you my cat for a week or two. You'd have no more mouse problem, I can assure you. Mind you, the bill for feeding him for two weeks would probably mean no pooning for at least a month.

 

[muffdiver]

Kev, if your'e not into killing the little basturds you can get a live trap, I recently caught one in the more traditional way , the poor little fucker with it's neck squished under the bar and it's buggy eyes looking up at me , i was a proud hunter.

 

[dirtydan]

Hardware stores or pest control companies should have box traps for catching mice. But really don't worry about keeping the little buggers alive, as they will only try to find their way back into your place. Several good old fashioned spring loaded mouse traps with peanut butter as bait is pretty effective.

 

[tom25]

Kev, if your'e not into killing the little basturds you can get a live trap, I recently caught one in the more traditional way , the poor little fucker with it's neck squished under the bar and it's buggy eyes looking up at me , i was a proud hunter.

Live trapping mice, OMG!!!! Kev, if you've got one mouse, you've got more than one. Do some research on their rate of reproduction. Killing a few mice is not going to endager the population. They will never make it onto an endangered animal list.

Get the traps, and get a cat! End of mice problem. (have some lysol as well, b/c if the cat gets one there's likely going to be some clean up).

Tom

 

[tom25]

If you can see one, you probably have lots more. Get a cat or call an exterminator, and don't bother trying to catch-and-release. They are not cute,they are vermin and disease vectors! Also make sure that your house is sealed at ground level-my friend had them coming in her dryer vent. She ended up moving out.

Call the exterminator ... then get the cat!!! Its really hard to block up your house and keep them out. And your food will not be safe on top of counters. They can climb straight up the side. You will need to put virtually every dry food item into plastice containers with lids. You'll find mouse droppings everywhere. We once had them making a next in bottom of a wicker laundry hamper! Chewed a hole right through it and set up home. Big suprise on laundry day. But of course I very carefully live caught them all, and the released them to a safe and secure environment

Tom

 

[JustAGuy]

Good point with the Hanta Virus caution, WhOiSyOuRdAdDy. I recall reading a couple of years ago about field mice in Arizona being infected with that VERY deadly disease and several people dying as a result of contracting it.

 

[tom25]

Definitely wear rubber gloves when cleaning up the turds, and I'd wash your counter-tops down with bleach or a very strong anti-bacterial cleaner.

I'm sorry, but mice have been winning the battle with humans for a long time. Live trapping and organic solutions will not work. And besides, I have to tell you, having a cat that hunts is a very good environmental solution. Totally natural.

There was a study done in a small village in the u.k. where they asked everyone to record the number of vermin their cats brought home: mice, rats, etc. and then the scientists did a statistical analysis of the impact on the countryside if the cats hadn't been there. Essentailly everyone would have been covered over their head with mouse dung if all little suckers had been allowed to live and breed.

Cats are our friends!!!! Kill the mice!!!

Tom

 

[tom25]

great advise... thanks WhOiSyOuRdAdDy

Tom

 

[LonelyGhost]

I would skip the poison ... mouse dies in the wrong place and you got dead mouse smells for ages! (ask me how i know).

Cat is good if you like goodies in your shoes, bed, and blood everywhere ... better as a preventative than as a solution.

Unfortunately, traps are it ... you know my stance on cruelty towards animals but there isn't really a totally humane way to kill them so this is the best solution.

Just buy lots of them, and put mouse and trap in double plastic bags and dispose of them ... don't try re-using the traps its just a mess. they aren't that expensive.

The only other thing to try is deer repellent ... it is a mix of wolf and lion urine and supposedly works on deer but might work on mice ... you would just spray it outside your house as a barrier.

Oh yeah, get rid of grasses and plants growing against the house ... it just attracts all kinds of critters.

 

[vancouverman]

I would skip the poison ... .

me too ....

 

[Kev]

Thanx guys. I realize if theres one, chances are theres many. I'm on my way to Home Depot to see what they have in the Extermination Department. Cats are out of the question, i don't like cats.

One things for sure i'm not living with them so if i can't get rid of them humanely then i'll resort to other measures. Who remembers Caddy Shack with Bill Murry? Licence to kill by the US goverment. Hahahah --- Kev

 

[JustAGuy]

The only other thing to try is deer repellent ... it is a mix of wolf and lion urine

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm ..... wolf and lion urine. *best Homer Simpson impression you've ever heard in your life*

 

[Dakota Wood]

How to trap mice and rats

Remove all food sources (go to the dollar store, get a bunch of cookie tins and put your food in them)

Smear the feeding area of the trap with peanut butter

Place the traps, unset, along the 'runs' the mice use to get to the food sources (beside the kick plate under cuboards, along the baseboards, etc

Leave the traps out, unset, until the mice start feeding from it, wait another day or two, then set the trap (only set the traps that have been eaten from)

As you catch them, use the cautions noted above to remove the corpse

Re apply the peanut butter as needed and reuse the traps to catch more.

Mice and rats are way, way smarter than you would think. If you just set the trap, they will cautiously test it, once it's sprung, they won't go near it. If you leave it unset, they test it and test it. Once it's confirmed a safe food source, one of them will piss on it to mark it as such. The smell of the piss and peanut butter is more tempting and overpowering then the scent of the blood.

Good Luck!

 

[photographer88]

Wanted alive

So you want the mice alive and not killed.

Mice are great climbers, provided they have some traction.

- A clear glass jar, wide brimmed, such as a large fruit "canning" jar works the best.
- Insert the bait: cheese, female rat, SP, etc.
- Some type of angled ladderlike device, such as a 12 inch ruler, or chopsticks, or a few strands of thick knotted rope dangling over the jar lip, or a wooden ladle, leading up from the counter (or kitchen floor) to the mouth of the jar for the mice to "climb" onto, and into the jar.
- Once inside the glass jar, the mice are trapped. Some catchers even go overboard and vaseline (KY Jelly) the insides of the jars, because this technique is also known to capture spiders and cockroaches who can climb out of glass jars. Mice can't climb out of vaselined or unvaselined jars.

- you've found a way to get them in, but won't let them out
- you want them alive, probably for the public execution

It is quite comical watching the mice paw away, while inside, trying to climb out. Some of the mice just ended up eating the spiders and cockroaches that were already trapped.

Mice climb like goats, but they don't jump like Jordan.

 

[Kev]

Remove all food sources (go to the dollar store, get a bunch of cookie tins and put your food in them)

Smear the feeding area of the trap with peanut butter

Place the traps, unset, along the 'runs' the mice use to get to the food sources (beside the kick plate under cuboards, along the baseboards, etc

Leave the traps out, unset, until the mice start feeding from it, wait another day or two, then set the trap (only set the traps that have been eaten from)

As you catch them, use the cautions noted above to remove the corpse

Re apply the peanut butter as needed and reuse the traps to catch more.

Mice and rats are way, way smarter than you would think. If you just set the trap, they will cautiously test it, once it's sprung, they won't go near it. If you leave it unset, they test it and test it. Once it's confirmed a safe food source, one of them will piss on it to mark it as such. The smell of the piss and peanut butter is more tempting and overpowering then the scent of the blood.

Good Luck!

I might try this thanx. --- Kev

found a way to get them in, but won't let them out
- you want them alive, probably for the public execution

No not public execution. But i just spoke with my brother and hes trying to convince me that any mice i catch alive i should give to him. He would feed them to his hawks (he uses them for hunting) and my nephew would feed the mice to his snake and other reptiles. --- Kev

 

[vancouverman]

I He would feed them to his hawks (he uses them for hunting) and my nephew would feed the mice to his snake and other reptiles. --- Kev

and that IS an exacution

 

[BlueBells]

Ugh!! I've lived with mice and hate them!! filthy little critters! If you don't care for cats then maybe keep in mind that most small dog breeds were originally intended to hunt rats, mice and other assorted small vermin. Get rid of the mice AND make a new little friend!!