Mice in the House, not in the coop...

[rosieabby]

Hi everyone,
We have mice in the house. They chewed through the electrical wires and the fan mount on our oven. Jerks. We tried some sticky traps to no avail. Poison stations have been purchased but I worry a bit about our chickens finding a poisoned dead mouse in the yard. Any advice?
Thanks!

 

[wamtazlady]

If mice were doing that much damage in the house I would call in some professional exterminators. They would have the knowledge to place traps and bait in the best places to get the mice and to keep other animals as safe as possible. I was seriously considering doing just that this year as I live in a 100 year old house. However, during the summer I had the old hot tub that was against the house removed. Since then we haven't had a single mouse that we know of in the house. Traps and baits are all unused.

 

[rosieabby]

If mice were doing that much damage in the house I would call in some professional exterminators. They would have the knowledge to place traps and bait in the best places to get the mice and to keep other animals as safe as possible. I was seriously considering doing just that this year as I live in a 100 year old house. However, during the summer I had the old hot tub that was against the house removed. Since then we haven't had a single mouse that we know of in the house. Traps and baits are all unused.

We're definitely considering calling in the pros but thought we would try it ourselves first to save money. We had mice in our old place and paid the exterminators, but we saw where he put all the poison and steel wool and thought, "Hey we can do that." Famous last words, probably. Glad you solved your mouse problem, wamtazlady!

 

[GC-Raptor]

Hi everyone,
We have mice in the house. They chewed through the electrical wires and the fan mount on our oven. Jerks. We tried some sticky traps to no avail. Poison stations have been purchased but I worry a bit about our chickens finding a poisoned dead mouse in the yard. Any advice?
Thanks!

I've been using the d-CON bait stations for a couple of years in my house. . I have 3 setup in my basement.
I've had chickens for 2.5 years. GC

 

[Kasilofchrisn]

I keep a Victor "tin cat" multi catch mouse trap around my coop.
I've only caught a handful of mice in it but I guess that means I don't have a lot of mice around.
The nice thing about this style of trap is it catches multiple mice and is easy to use.
Open the top throw in a little bit of grain close it and place the entrance along a wall. works great!
I just bought a different model that has a clear section on the top that way you can tell when the mice get in it without having to open it up or even pick up the trap.
When you get some mice you just have to dispatch them. For me it's as simple as throwing the trap in a bucket of water for a few minutes.
I then feed them to the chickens.
I personally prefer this style of trap to a snap trap or the glue boards.

 

[rosieabby]

Thanks, everyone!

 

[Redhead Rae]

One thing to consider when using poison, how close is your coop to your house?

My chickens eat mice. If I poison the mice, I poison my birds. We had a bad problem with mice the first year we lived in our old farm house, but we were adopted by a lovely kitty cat whom we keep outdoors and we haven't had hardly any mice in the house since. The ones we do have are quickly taken care of by snap traps baited with peanut butter.

If you want good ideas for mouse traps and what works and what doesn't, look up Shawn Woods on YouTube. He has a series called mouse trap Mondays. He's found that sticky traps and poison are not the best way to go about killing mice.

 

[Urbanduckfarmer]

Did you bait the sticky traps? If not, add a bit of peanut butter on the trap, and place it along the baseboards or corners where the most activity is. They follow scent trails, and use their whiskers as a guide, and follow the walls. Place the trap with bait along the wall where you have the most activity and you should catch them.

 

[aart]

If you want good ideas for mouse traps and what works and what doesn't, look up Shawn Woods on YouTube. He has a series called mouse trap Mondays.

I love that guy!! Some of the best videos made... no bull chatter, just the facts and beautiful visual proof of them.

Haven't had many mice in the house, despite many, many, many in the attached/under-house garage....and habitat in an old deck on front of house removed a few years ago.
Some snap-trap tips:
-Cram a piece of crunchy pnut butter into trigger, better yet (and less messy) a sunflower seed. Since I got chickens I only use scratch grains for bait, cram the seed and sprinkle a few other pieces near trigger.
-Place bait end of trap against a wall or flat vertical surface(like a box over 6" tall),
my catch rate went sky higher when I started doing that.
-Put the traps where you see the poops, cause that's where they 'go'...haha!

 

[Folly's place]

Snap traps are safer than bait, and will work fine for mice. I prefer the old style wood with wire traps as they kill faster most often.
Glue traps are evil inhumane things, IMO, and I won't ever use them!
One issue with poison in the house is that the sick mice will go to their den and die there, and it will smell very very bad!!!
A good hunting house kitty does good work too!
Try to find their entry points and fix them!!! Otherwise, mice will arrive and be a problem every year.
Mary