What do you do about mice?

[lovemyflock]

We have a bit of a mouse problem in our coop. What do you all do, if anything to keep them out of the house? I don't want them spreading any diseases to my birds...can they do that? When we go in there to lock the girls up a night, you can feel them running across your feet...i think there are a LOT of them, and i'm just not sure how to deal with it.
I was thinking I might get one of those industrial size humane traps, set that up everynight and empty it in the morning. Any ideas??

 

[heritagebirds]

One night I went out to feed the horses and the chickens woke up(I had turned the lights on). They started squawking alot and chasing something around. I peeked closer, a little later and saw a dead mouse that they were fighting over.... I guess he was sneaking in for a bite to eat and got caught.

Not that that helps you... There are live traps out there, of course, then you need to empty the trap. Good luck...

 

[Fancie]

snap traps are very humane... I never caught a "live" mouse in any live trap... they all have been died before I got to them....

When I started trapping mice here I got 5 a day (one in every trap.) Now I get one per week or so depending on the weather. You got to keep them in check or they get out of control.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
They can spread disease to you, too. I hope they are not running across your bare feet.

Sounds like you have an infestation. You need mouse-killing cats, traps, and anything else you can think of. Glue boards in shoeboxes with a small mouse-sized opening and some peanut butter should work. Awful way to kill mice, but very effective, and you may have to resort to extremes to get rid of them. Poison, of course, might kill an animal that eats the dead mouse.

 

[lovemyflock]

Oh no, def not going in the coop with bare feet. I'm just found the large multi catch traps on amazon for $10, so I'm going to go ahead and order that.

I'll talk to DH about an outdoor cat, but I doubt he will go for that.

 

[ducks4you]

I don't think that you will find the "ideal" solution. I cannot used insecticide or chemicals that kill vermin--I am highly allergic to them.

My solution to the mouse problem is my four cats--3 males, one female--ALL Fixed. When I kept my horses at what had been a chicken farm, the owner never fed them, assuming that they would feed themselves mice. ALL of his cats were malnourished, and he had a mouse and rat infestation.

I feed my cats a less than the best dry cat food from WalMart, free choice---their bowls are ALWAYS full. They've all grown up on the property so it's a "cool thing" to catch mice and bring us the extras as "presents." Seriously, though, a mouse is the perfect food for a cat.

The down side is, HOWEVER, my cats are watching my baby RIR's very carefully. So I have to monitor where they are when I'm handling the chicks or cleaning their cages. My 15 pound male, "Clever" is always catching wild birds. He won't go after a full grown chicken, though.

I NOW live on the edge of a small town with 5 acres that are partially surrounded by farmland. I NEVER find mice in my kitchen, or in my basement pantry---lived there 10 years.

Once I had to go the barn in the middle of the night and I saw a mouse running along the bottom of one of my horse's stalls. I scolded "Favorite", my female cat, because it's her barn and she should have done a better job.

There are lots of solutions out there, and I'm sure you'll find the best for you!

 

[gallusdomesticus]

Rodenticides are of two main types, anti-coagulents and neuro toxins. Anti-coagulents require multiple exposures for the rat or mouse to start internal bleeding and die.
I have used the neuro toxin poison containing Bromethalin to great affect around my chickens. Rats eating the bromethalin die after eating the bait once. Its more safe to use around cats and dogs than the anti-coagulents because bromethelin is normally sold in packets containing 0.01% bromethelin and a 5kg dog would have to consume a minimum of 5-6 entire packets or a 5kg cat would need to eat 1-2 entire packets to be exposed to a minimal fatal dose. Since the poison is sold in bags that the rat/mouse has to chew open to eat the poison, it minimizes the chance your chickens can get into it. I bought my poison at Lowe's, but any hardware store probably has it. It's sold under a variety of names, just check the ingredients. The information above came from the Purdue University Vet department :

http://www.addl.purdue.edu/newsletters/1997/spring/bromoethalin.shtml