Mice ? Help

[kuntrychick]

If chickens eat a dead mouse that was killed by rat poison, would it kill the chickens? Are there any brands of poison that would be less likely for this to happen?

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

My chicken complex is right near drainage/storm ditches, so I get a huge number of mice in my chicken houses as a result.


I didn't realize how many I had until I went in the main henhouse one night last week, and it was just covered over with mice -- several hundred of them in a 13 foot by 7 and 1/2 foot area. I was so disgusted...



Anyway, I went on the war path after that.


Come to find out, coca-cola is an effective mouse killer!



You see, mice love the taste of coca-cola. Its sweet, and smells great to them. But the thing is, mice cannot burp or belch. So if they drink all that carbonation, it ferments further in their bellies, but they have no way to belch that excess gas out the way that you and I can.


So the gas collects in their bellies until it kills them!


It isn't an instant death, but on the other hand, it won't endanger your chooks.


For four nights now, I have removed all food from the henhouse after the kids go to sleep. I bought plastic "cookie tins" at WalMart in the after Christmas sales, so I took the plastic lids for some of these "cookie tins" to use for my mouse killing project.


Here's what I did:


1, I put a wire dog cage in the house, so that I could set up a special killing zone that the mice would have free access to, but my chickens would not.


2, I got a bunch of those glue traps -- both rat traps (even though I don't have any rats -- just mice) and mouse traps. I put two of the larger rat traps inside the wire dog cage so that the chickens could not get near them. Then I put several large bowl lids in the cage, and filled them up with freshly opened, fully carbonated coca-cola. I made sure the cage was locked up, so there was no way the chickens could get to this.


3, I emptied their feeding troughs completely, so that there was nothing for the mice to eat except that wonderful smelling, sinfully enticing, carbonated coca-cola to eat/drink. I refilled the bowl lids with coca-cola several times during the night, because they would drink the stuff up.


4, The mice went into the wire killing cage in droves. Some drank some of the coca-cola and then left when full. I had to refill the bowl lids several times during the night, because the mice would empty them. Other mice would end up walking onto one of the glue traps. If they did that, they were stuck -- literally -- because glue mouse traps really will catch mice. Those rat glue traps were large enough that on the first night, each one caught about 15 mice each.


5, Ten minutes before the lights come back on in the morning, I get out there with a garbage bag and get all the glue traps out of there, and remove the bowl lids so that they can be cleaned before they return to duty at sunset. I make sure to close the wire dog pen door to keep the chickens out of the killing cage during the day.


6, Then I fill the chickens feeding trough with food. The lights come on about that time, and for the most part, the mice will stay hidden during the time the lights are on.


The first night that henhouse was completely covered over with mice after lights out. But after 4 nights of doing this, I am noticing that I'm not seeing very many mice anymore. Nor am I capturing anywhere near as many with the glue traps. Some glue traps don't even have a single mouse on them now. Best I can tell, after four nights of doing this thus far, I have significantly cut the number of mice in the henhouse.


I don't think there is any way of ever making the henhouse completely mouse free, because of how close it is to that drainage ditch.


But I'm determined to keep the rodent ranks as thin as possible for now on, and coca-cola is definitely the way to go with that...

 

[mons02035]

Quote:
It is very possible and it does and has killed cats. Decon and other poisons are not instant kills. It takes a little time for the poison to work. So in the mean time, if a cat or other animal catch the mouse and eat it, they could die. I say could because it all depends on how much the mouse ate. That was the point to my original post. Even if you put the poison where the chickens can not get at it, if they catch a poisoned mouse it's all over.

Just to add, this is one of the big reasons that professionals will not use poisons that don't instantly kill. They don't want to kill the clients cat or other animals. They tend to not use other poisons because of the danger of people/animals getting at it and the cost. so in my experience they prefer glue traps.

 

[the-bird-man]

Quote:
thank you for this tip! i am going to do this

 

[mandelyn]

I don't have a complete infestation, but I spotted some droppings in the duck hut and decided to get proactive since I don't want to be feeding them. I took a shoe box, cut two mouse sized holes in it, on the side of the skinny edge.

Baited 2 traps with peanutbutter, put them in the shoe box, duct taped the lid of the shoe box on to the box, to be sure the ducks wouldn't get it off. Set the box down with the holes along the wall... when the mouse runs along the wall, they encounter this box, smell the peanut butter, enter the box... viola.

Caught 3! I removed the droppings and left some food... no more droppings and food was still there. So.. they must have found a winter hiding spot and I got them out of there before they reproduced like crazy... didn't have to trap through 5 generations of an infestation.

Found a nest in the garage... near the feed bags. Contained all the feed, into plastic totes. Set traps. Got 4 more. No action since. Seems to be adults coming in out of the cold looking for easy food and a warm spot. Haven't seen any little ones at all, they were all full sized mice.

 

[so lucky]

A lot of mouse poisons are made of Warfarin, which reduces the blood's ability to clot. The mouse will hemmorhage and bleed to death internally. Warfarin (Coumadin) is also used for humans, to thin their blood, for treatment in preventing heart attacks, blood clots, and stroke. The dosage is critical, naturally. I don't know if this type of poison is transmittable from the mouse, at death, to the chicken. The Warfarin would have to be still active......any biochemists out there?

 

[mons02035]

This is from the D-Con website:

Q:If my pet eats a dead rodent that may have eaten d-CON, will it die?
A:The potential of any secondary poisoning depends on what type of pet it is, how big it is, what type of bait it has consumed, as well as how much bait was consumed. If you are concerned about a possible exposure, you may wish to contact your veterinarian or the toll free number located on the package to be directed to appropriate personnel who can address your concerns. Occurrences of this type of poisoning are extremely rare.


Note that they don't deny it does and please note that they say the orrurances are extremely rare but let's be honest, who gets a necropsy done on their cat or other animal to prove and document that it did happen. I agree that with large animals, the dose they would get probably would not be enough to kill it but with a small animal like a chicken or cat it can be enough. It also depends on how well their liver can process the poison.

 

[dadthebaker]

I used to be a licensed pest control guy in New Jersey, then California.

The reason baits kill slow, especially for rats (because mice are dumb) is if a rat eats something and dies right away, none of the other rats will ever touch what the dead rat ate. Yes, they are pretty smart.

All holes or cracks that are 1/2 or wider must be sealed off.

For larger holes and cracks use steel wool, they cant stand the stuff.

Vents must be screened.

You have to make access in difficult.

The reason they are there are for the exact reason the chickens are...comfort, food and water.

I used to use liquid baits that were clear and odorless....tho I dont believe unlicensed can get it...try friending a pest control tech in your area... lol

Sealing access is key.

As far as being near a drainage ditch/area....yes, you will always have problems, but try to make it as hard for rodents to get into your place. Complain to the City about it, they may spend some energy and money into helping you out...maybe creating barriers or concrete "paths" away from your property.... rodents follow linear paths along walls, very rarely running out in the open... you could possibly "guide" them away; at least it would be a form of control.

The coke thing is brilliant....didnt ever hear about that one... and the way pest control guys think, I can see them poo pooing that if for only being a way they cant make money.... will definately keep that one in mind.

One more thing. Most Rat/mice baits work as anitcoagulants. They eat the proper dosage, and it thins out their blood to the point that they bleed internally and have a heart attack <good riddance>. Given the same reason as that goes for the coke, they cant throw up so once in thier system, asta la vista!

 

[readjulie]

We've used mouse traps in the corners. We switched from shavings to sand in part of the coop. We also moved the water onto the cement floor. It was in the bedding area and the mice were nesting under the container. We also had an old stump for the chickens to hang out on. We had to remove that and anything made of wood because the mice nested underneath as well. Finally, we let our neighbor's cat hang out in our coop for a couple hours at night a few times per week. He's very friendly and never harms the hens. He hunts for a few hours and then we close the coop.

 

[drumstick diva]

I would think there is one problem with the coke, especially in a wide lid - the carbonation escapes rapidly and you are left with flat coke. They would still enjoy the taste but, they won't get gas.