Mouse in the house

[Tomqhill]

was doing my evening check, collect eggs, and freshwater - to my surprise, there was a little mouse running around in the coop - will that become a problem? pretty difficult to set a trap or poison.. what happens if his friends move in.? ideas?
thanks
tom

 

[Quailguy728]

My biggest concern with mice or rats in the barns/coops is the spread of illness. I would try to set a live trap for him. The kind that has the pressure plate that closes the door behind the rodent. They make very small ones for mice that shouldn't be too intrusive to the coop.

How you want to dispose of the little fella after that is up to you. And I would consider looking into preventative measures to avoid having to try and capture them in the coop next time. I believe some essential oils are good for repelling rodents. You just have to check and make sure they don't also effect your flock.

If it seems like a near impossible task to keep the rodents out of the coop area, Id try the other side of the coin. Set up a small compost pile away from your coop, and try and hope that the rodents rather hangout there than inside your flocks home.

Good luck!

 

[BlueBaby]

I seen in another thread earlier that if you can place a small bowl or container in a place that the chicken's cant get into, you can place a mixture of flour, plaster of paris, and baking soda in the bowl or container, and a small bowl of water next to it. This will kill the mouse or rat, but will not be poisonous to anything that tries to eat them after they die. This is how they said to mix it:

1 cup of all purpose flour, 1 cup of plaster of Paris & a tablespoon of baking soda.

 

[JaeG]

Unless you have quarter inch or smaller hardware cloth/mesh on your cages it's easy for mice to access them. It's amazing how small a gap they can squeeze through. They will eat the quail feed and potentially make a nest and add to their population. I too would be concerned about potential diseases they may bring with them that could affect your birds, or even yourself. They can also carry mites.

 

[Fenrisulfr]

There was a thread sometime ago, where mice eating the quail food and pooping in the feeder. The half flock were lost, by a disease (which wasn't identifyed, unfortunately).

So it is definately a concern. Of course not all mice are spredding the same diseases, but dangerous ones might be among them.

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

I have a small sized rat that hangs out by the bird cages and my cat doesn't seem overly interested in catching it. My homemade trap also hasn't worked. I think I'll give the trap below a try.

 

[Sally PB]

I used something along those lines ^^ for a mouse in the kitchen. It worked very well. I'll elaborate if someone wants to know. Yes, the mouse died. I do not live trap mice.

 

[FloorCandy]

You can buy a cheap trap, at any store basically, that’s a seesaw tube. The hole to get in is too small for quail, when the mouse goes in, the seesaw leans back and the angle, and manner the door closes locks them in. Then you just remove it and kill it away from the quail.

 

[MomFoldingLaundry]

I'm a big proponent of rat/mouse poison. Have used it for a decade whenever I've had rats. (which were a big problem when I lived in Seattle.)

Have never accidentally killed a dog, cat or bird.

The notion that rat poison accidentally kills pets and/or children is largely a myth. the most common household thing that poisons pets is antifreeze.

 

[MomFoldingLaundry]

Also, if you see one mouse, you've got plenty of others hiding somewhere.