MICE MICE MICE MICE

[mdbucks]

Quote:
Sort of like hickory chips for the grill they add that special flavor that everyone likes YUM YUM

I would try the snap traps, get a better cat, AND put all food into containers that the mice can not get into. If they are getting an easy meal they will stay. Try to block as much access to the house as possible. My parents used D-con religiously, I dont think there was ever a time that there wasn't a box in attic and in garage. I doubt that your lazy cat would get enough poisoned mice to kill it, but then again it wasn't doing a very good job at getting rid of mice anyway. Then again DDT was an effective pesticide, but that is another story.

I would not recommend releaseing the cuties across the street or across town for all that matters. If you dont want them what makes you think it is OK to make them someone elses problem? How would you feel if you saw someone dumping a box of rats at your front door? Deal with them in whichever way you feel appropriate, but dont put the burden of dealling with them on your neighbor.

if you use the have a hart style the best place to release them is after they have soaked in a bucket of water straight into the trash can.

PC do you still love these cuties after they have NESTED in the wiring harness of one of those generators?? the plastic wire coating makes great nesting material.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Chickengirlnm - Sounds like you have a plan. Keep us posted. Bounce dryer sheets
work much better than moth balls. The moth balls are good too. Even if they don't
work you'll have that nostalgic Grandma's house smell.

MD - When I was writing my "painful post" I mentioned DDT but then deleted it. I know
a lot of people who use D-con. I just don't agree with it, except in certain cases. We
all know the people who will throw down a ton of poison at the sign of 1 mouse or
an ant or a bee.

However, if mice were in my kids bedroom or contaminating my food I would use whatever
means neccesary to stop it. Mice are cute but also very dirty, disease carrying varmints.
I'd nuke them if I needed to.

As for mice in generators, you wouldn't believe the hundreds of thousands of dollars
of mouse damage I have personally repaired. They get into the control boxes and
deficate on $1200 control boards. They chew through wires and insulation causing
bad shorts. They chew up hoses and insulation(fiberglass).
Sometimes it is so bad I will wear my respirator because it smell so bad.
I've also had the pleasure of having them caught in fans and genset back ends
spewing mouse parts everwhere, including my face. Yum.

And for all you cat people CATS ARE USELESS!!! Haven't you ever seen Tom & Jerry???

 

[Cara]

We have mice bad as our house is old and way out in the middle of a pasture. In the summer we had a terrible rattlesnake problem as a result. One came into the yard and bit two of my dogs, and my husband ended up stepping on it a few days later. Luckily it was too cold to bite. We shot three snakes on our porch that week. We got 6 cats, and haven't seen a snake since, but we still have mice

Decon is a bad idea if you have dogs. My husband's dog ate a mouse that someone had poisoned, and got poisoned himself. Luckily he survived. The only thing that's somewhat working for us is the snappy old-fashioned traps, put in a cupboard or under the fridge.

 

[hoosierhen]

I have a cat that adopted us 2 years ago, and I haven't seen any mice since. She catches mice, moles, rabbits, etc. Plus, she is so homely- one look at her and they just scatter! (I think she's beautiful though.) So far she hasn't shown any interest in the chicks (9 Weeks) Maybe she's just waiting for them to get bigger?? Hmmmm...

 

[picklespickles]

my cat brings me a field mouse several times a week. she lays it at my feet, i approve, and then she scarfs it down. she has never touched the chcikens ever. i think she gets the idea they are "mine." she will eat wild birds, though, who would be much harder to catch, i imagine.

 

[jjthink]

I have just learned about a product called Mouse Magic made by Bonide. It's an all natural peppermint and spearmint repellent and from what I hear so far, works very well (I haven't personally tried it yet so can only relay second hand info at this point). Ace Hardware in my area carries it but it's also on line if you google "Mouse Magic".

Personally, I can't justify causing slow painful deaths - in those poor little beings or anything else - and would never use poison.

I have a friend using Mouse Magic right now and am eager to hear how it works - mice were nesting in her car engine all the time. So far, so good. The store she got it at said they can barely keep the stuff on the shelves it's so popular, so we'll see.....

When I had a rat problem in a coop, I did try a rodent repellent called Shake Away - it was supposedly comprised of predator urine. It did not work at all. I wasted my money. The only solution that worked was rat proofing the coop with hardware cloth and once we finally faced doing that, never a problem again.

JJ

 

[chickengirlnm]

We Have a few stray cats here and there , but as far as having a cat in the house thats not going to happen - I cant be around cat hair so very long it really bothers my eyes.
So far the mice are leaving the food in the cabinets alone they are eating the bird feed in my lovebird cage ( was wondering why I was feeding her more often ).
So as much as I hate the tought about picking up dead mice - we are using the snappy traps I have already blocked the holes I could see, placed the mothballs under house ( yea smells kinda like grandma's house ) so I will wait till morning and see what happens with the traps.

Julie

everything we placed is either where dogs will not get it or will not hurt them if they do - might get a nose caught in a snappy trap if they are dumb enough to sniff it LOL but I bet they will only sniff it once !

 

[WoodlandWoman]

You could also try picking up a baby gate to block off any room you want to put more traps in, to keep your dogs out. I guess that works the best if your dogs are trained and will respect a gate. Double stacking them for a rude dog can also work.

Have you thought about taking your bird's food out at night and replacing it in the morning, while you're trying to reduce the mouse population? That might help with your trapping, too, as the bait should look more appetizing without the other food sources around. It's hard to go wrong with peanut butter, though.

 

[silkiechicken]

Cat's are pretty smart, mine doesn't even look at any small animal I play with. I was playing with my pet mice outside when I had them years ago, and they were walking over the cat and she refused to give them or me any eye contact. Same with the hamsters and chicks. Yet she has taken down a rabbit and kills mice regularly.

For my coop though, I have resorted to poison but determined that there are just too many to keep trying to poison as they ate a large bucket of it in less than a week.... Oh, 50 some cubes? I haven't had to step on any or shoot any since I did it though. Nor has the rat holes been re dug. So maybe it did work, but it is expensive, and more so than just letting them eat spilled grains.

For me snap traps did not work.

 

[chickengirlnm]

I think I will remove the birds food at night and keep her cage clean( I do this every other week but I think I will do it more often now ).
I have not noticed them anywhere near my parrots cage but will remove her food anyway. Thank you for the idea.

Also I use baby gates for the rooms that I dont want the dogs in and even though they can jump them - they know they better not !

Julie