Need to kill off a lot of mice...asap.

[Sir Birdaholic]

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I tried this one & didn't catch a single mouse in 2 weeks.

 

[Intheswamp]

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Well, as long as you don't have any small chicks you could cut a short length of pvc pipe...long enough so the adult chickens can't stick their head in there and get it snapped... use a 3-4 inch diameter pipe and slip the snap traps inside. Adult chickens couldn't get to it. If you have chicks, though, you could probably slip a reducer on each end and still allow mice in but chicks out. Open ended pipe would work the best, though.

Best wishes,
Ed

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

I feel your pain. I have been overrun as well. I finally resorted to poison after nothing else worked.

Tractor Supply has a black mouse poison box. It has stakes on the inside to hold the poison blocks, a locking lid so nothing can open it accidentally and mouse sized holes on the sides. The poison blocks are far enough in that there is no way for anything larger than a rat to get to them. I load mine up and put it out at night once I have locked the chickens up. I put it in the runs next to the coop, kind of along the wall that the mice follow. Each morning I move it out of reach and shovel up the dead mice. The mice don't really move around in the coops/runs during the daytime, so as long as I search thoroughly each morning, the chance of the chickens getting a dead one is minimized.

So far it seems to be working. I am no longer seeing mice run around in the coops or pens. Used to be that I would see half a dozen each night when I locked the chickens up. The number of dead mice has been dropping, so I think I must be making a dent in the population.

Poison was a last resort for me. There is a barn cat out there, but he has clearly signed peace treaties with the rodent population. The buckets weren't working either. With the useless barn cat running around I hated to put out snap traps. Poison it was. So far the poison is doing the trick.

Good luck. While the mice are kind of cute, I HATE mouse poopie on everything. Ugg.

 

[Gelky]

I have rats. So far, I caught 8 rats in 8 days. This morning I caught the mother of all rats, it was HUGE!

I am using a standard rat trap with peanut butter bait, but I fear I don't have enough traps.

Fortunately for me, I know their entry path, I just place the trap along the path. Chickens are out of harm's way.

I've also read some people mix cement with chicken feed. Place that out of reach of the chickens and let the rats have at it. Does anyone know if that is effective?

 

[jjthink]

While I totally understand not wanting a boatload of mice around, I hope that "kick a few" wasn't literal. We don't need to be cruel by maiming them.

I want to help you. You HAVE To make your food storage bins secure. I use metal bins with weights on top of the lids. Truly, this goes a long way to keeping mouse numbers low to nil. It is THE ONLY LONG TERM solution. All the death traps (whether literally a trap, poison or whatever) not only have downsides [unintended victims, grizzly deaths ...] but perhaps most importantly for folks on this site, only deal with a snapshot in time and your task will never be done.

In addition to ensuring no food around except when feeding your birds (take up food at night), you might also want to obtain MouseMagic by Bonide. It is a nontoxic mouse repellent made with spearmint and peppermint - I don't put it very close to my birds sleeping quarters as birds can be very sensitive to scents that are harmless to everybody else. Reportedly, cotton balls soaked in peppermint oil also repel mice. Again, keep a distance away from where your birds sleep.

To the extent you can, also prevent access to the building where your birds are. Hardware cloth...steel wool stuffed in any little cavities where somebody could get in....

Making an environment less appealing for a species causes that species to seek greener pastures elsewhere - I follow these practices and rarely have mice. And when I do, the numbers are so low it simply doesn't concern me. I do hav-a-hart the few I encounter and let them go. Or they just go on their own, once realizing it's not worth their time to hang out where my birds live.

JJ

 

[Max Bantam]

if you aint put out no poision, stop feedin the cats for a day are two and put em were the mice is.......lol

 

[tammyd57]

You can put snap traps inside your coop by placing them under a box that the chickens can't get into but mice can. A plastic milk crate works great for this as it already has mouse sized openings and you can see into it to see if you have anything to remove. I put a large rock or paving stone on top so it can't be easily tipped over.

 

[Mandalina]

We think we have a plan!

we are going to get a different more secure bin for the scratch since that is the only thing they can get into. Then we are going to use the current bin (since they can get into it by the little holes they chewed into it) and we are going to try placing either the snap traps or the poison block inside of it.That way the mice die, my chickies cant access the dead mice, and hopefully we can get this situation under control.

I was the one who didnt mind the mice being in the coop at first bc I actually have a huge soft spot for mice and rats and the little bittle paws and cute little noses...but then I started finding mouse bites on some of my chicks and mouse poo literally covering everything. I like my turken babies way too much to have them suffer bc of some rodents.


Thanks for the advice! You guys are great!

 

[bobbi-j]

I've also read some people mix cement with chicken feed. Place that out of reach of the chickens and let the rats have at it. Does anyone know if that is effective?

It was very effective for some friends of ours that had a major rat problem in one of their coops. The rats started dying, and the survivors moved on.

 

[chubbydog811]

I will second (or third, cant remember? lol) the poison...We have a MAJOR rat problem...Sometimes, they will get out of control, more than the dogs can handle. So we put a few blocks of poison out. Kills them within 2-5 days, then they will be back under control...This lasted for about a year with us...until we let the field next to the barn grow up

(whoops!)