BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Gurney
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 01:49 AM

Here's a trap idea from a book. I've never tried it.

Stretch and fix/tape something like brown paper over a bucket/pail. Cut a cross slit in the middle of the paper. Put bait on one of the points of the slit, and some sort of access for your victim to get onto the paper.

If you feel particularly irritated, you could put 4" of water in the bucket.

Alternatively, arrange a see-saw/teeter-totter over the bucket. One that can't be used as a ladder to climb out again.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Genie
Date: 04 Jul 09 - 11:10 PM

As for blocking the rodents' ingress to the house, I'm afraid my current (exploding) mouse population may have made their way in via my cat, Grisabella.   I can't be sure, but I've lived in the same house for 29 years now, and I never had mice until about 18-24 months ago.   I've had at least one cat, sometimes a couple, since about 6 months after I moved in, but even though my house originally had large holes in the basement foundation, I didn't have mice during that first 5 months.   Later, even when the only cats I had were old and rather feeble, still no mice.   But although Grisabella, who is now about 11, used to catch and eat mice and still chases them, I've had a mouse problem for over a year.   I think maybe she brought me a live "present" a year or two ago, from outside, and it got away while she was playing with it, then proceeded to make more.

Thanks for warning me about the mice eating stuff like wiring. I have also had some trouble with some of the older wiring in my house in the past year or so, and it's possible the critters are to blame. I've discovered that they've not only eaten just about everything in my pantry that they could get to (jerky, cereal, pasta, packages of almonds, boxes of wine) but they've also chewed up lots of papers to make nests.

I may have to resort to the snap traps, but I have to make sure the cat can't get to them and that they're somewhere where I won't accidentally set them off with my fingers, having forgotten they were there.   I also won't use poison, for several reasons, not the least of which is not wanting mice dying inside my walls.    I'll try the makeshift coffee-can method and may buy a couple of the commercially available "humane mousetraps" such as:
Greenfeet Smart Mouse Trap

Mice Cube

Kness Tip-Trap 109-0-006 Live Capture Mouse Trap

Mouse Ketch-all

I'll get back to you if I have success.

Genie

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: GUEST,bbc at work
Date: 23 Feb 05 - 11:19 AM

I'm still quite happy w/ my Hav-a-Heart trap in the cabinet under my kitchen sink. I keep it baited w/ peanut butter (keeps well & the mice like it). I'm going several weeks between mice & don't see sign of them elsewhere in the house. When I catch one, I drive it a few miles from home & dump it. So far, so good.

Best of luck,

Barbara

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Maryrrf
Date: 23 Feb 05 - 09:09 AM

Refreshing this thread to see if anyone has any new ideas. I noticed a few signs of mouse infestation about three months ago when the weather got cold, and hoped it wouldn't get too bad and that maybe when the weather warmed up they'd leave (wishful thinking, I know). It has gotten worse, and yesterday I found they'd gotten into a cabinet where some food was kept, chewed open a few packages of noodles and shredded some napkins and paper bags like they were making a nest. I used poison years ago and it was effective, but I hate to do that, both because of the agonizing death and the fact that they die in walls and smell. Right now I think I'll get some snap traps in the hope that they'll die quickly, unless anybody has discovered anything better that is humane and effective. Anybody have useful information to add on the subject of getting rid of mice?

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: bbc
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 05:52 PM

Word from my mom is that my (non-violent) sister in Maine finally decided she needed to take a stronger approach to her mouse problem when she saw her cats stalking them in the kitchen & discovered that they'd done a lot of food damage. Remember, she was the one who simply caught them & dumped them out her back door? I tried to tell her, weeks ago.

best,

bbc

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: GUEST,bbc at work
Date: 19 Jan 05 - 11:34 AM

I've been mouse-free for sometime now, even w/ very cold temps. Yay!

bbc

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: M.Ted
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 12:09 PM

Don't forget to rodent proof your home!   Most rodents enter through gaps under doors and around windows--They'll keep coming back unless you cover them --and you need to use metal----Also, get rid of leaves and weeds around the foundation, and the stack of firewood leaning against the house--Often, the local health department has an inspector who will come out and tell you what you need to take care of--

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 05:26 AM

Anyway=Co2 is widely considered to be the most humane method of killing, it is quick and completely painless.
Most pigs slaughtered in the UK are now gassed using Co2.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 05:19 AM

Rats are evil bastards, they will eat anything, [electric cable, phone wires etc], take a shotgun to them!

If your'e in the UK, local councils will get rid of rats in domestic properties for free, as they are a health hazard.

Do not put waste oil or fat down the drain, as it encourages rats.

Rentokil use bait for rats, and they use tunnel type trap boxes.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Gurney
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 05:04 AM

When blocking vermin access, make sure you don't also block egress!

I did that very successfully for one of my cutomers, and contained 2 trapshy rats in their house. It was four days, they told me, and four VERY long nights, before they starved enough to finally have to take the bait.
They were using a hedge to give them access to the roofspace. The garden was full of uncollected ripe fruit, and in that salubrious part of town, every house has a wastemaster.
To explain the plumbing route, the kitchen waste goes into the toilet waste just outside the house. As far as rats are concerned, it's a good way in. If you find your drain grille displaced, Ratty did it. If you do the man thing and leave the pan lid up and find unexplained water on the toilet floor, you've had a visitor.
I don't think they can cope with a lid-down toilet, but I don't think I would put money on a modern lightweight lid. You'd know, though, because, they wouldn't be able to get back out again. I think.
   
Rats are athletic and smart. They can climb a 6inch vertical plastic pipe by using 'chimney' technique, they can jump a couple of feet, and they can climb VERY well. They are also smart and strong enough to use a cat-door, and some have been known to back a nervous cat down. A full-grown rat is an impressive animal. and it takes a terrier to tackle one.
To 'tune' snap traps, make sure there is no 'wire edge' or other tiny snags on the part that holds the killing stirrup down, just where it passes under the trigger/baitholder. You can also lubricate it with cooking oil, but some oils go sticky after a while, so you have to keep reoiling. When loaded, they work most humanely when they're placed in a recess so that the bait is the most accessible part. This makes them pull the best way.

This should qualify me for jOhn's 'talk too much' thread. Thinking of jOhn's post above, I wonder if Rentokil do a morris-dancer trap?

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: bbc
Date: 16 Jan 05 - 08:48 PM

Bummer, Doplegager! RIP, little mousies, unless you take the warning & flee!

best,

bbc

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: GUEST,Doplegager
Date: 16 Jan 05 - 02:53 AM

I've managed to catch four of the bastards this afternoon. Not too far from my computer is an open box of saltines, with about half a package left inside of it. The mice make a lot of noise getting through the plastic, and the box is long and smooth enough that I've been able to turn it up-right and close it before they've been able to get out.

Right now, the four of them are running into the walls of an old cooler that I haven't used in years. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet. If I caught the infestation early enough, and don't find very many more, I might take them to the country. If there are many more, I'm going to kill them mercilessly and place their heads on spikes as a warning to the others...

The house next door had some mice problems awhile ago. I'm guessing that mine were refugees.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Jeri
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 10:35 PM

Regarding the rats of gargoyle, "above the headboard's of the bed last night" - flying? hovering? coming down from the ceiling on those wire things like jewel thieves use in movies? I don't know. If I had rats in here, might have to find me one o' them assault rifle things.

After the three mice mentioned above, I've had no more. I think they look for a place to hole up for the winter, and past a certain outdoor temperature, they've found it or they're frozen. I've had the bulk of my mouse allotment until spring, I think.

I posted this somewhere else, but a while ago, I'd had this plastic bag with pistachios. I looked for it one day, and it was empty. Alright, I ate them and didn't remember eating them. Some time after that, I picked up my dulcimer. It rattled. I shook out what was probably a half pound of nuts.

Susan, you can dump the corpses in a jar of undiluted chlorine bleach. Works a lot faster. You can make little mouse skeleton puppets for halloween. (Martha Stewart's not around, or she might have come up with that...in a nightmare, maybe.)

Oh gosh - check out the Google ads!

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: bbc
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 10:02 PM

Susan, remind me to not come to your house for appetizers. :) I prefer cheese in my cheese dome, thank you very much!

Barbara

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 07:00 PM

...a healthy-looking mouse corpse in the flower bed behind my house...

I'd bet it was sick/died of old age/froze to death, and that you don't have anything on the property desperate enough to risk taking a bite-- it might have an odor of sickness repelling scavengers. Eventually the bugs will eat it, or it will turn to mush and be washed into the ground leaving a nice tiny skeleton you can display as a trophy of your mouse hunt! :~).   A little glass cheese-dome-display case might make an interesting knick-knack!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: bbc
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 06:53 PM

Just for the record, I've been mouse-free for some weeks now. I bait my hav-a-heart trap w/ peanut butter & put it in the cabinet under my kitchen sink. After the initial mice--3 days in a row--I've just had one recurrence. I drove him (her?) to a scenic overlook on the way to work & dumped him (her?) gently down the recline into the sub-freezing weather. No new visitors. I was a little confused recently, however, to see a healthy-looking mouse corpse in the flower bed behind my house. I've kind of hoped something would eat it/drag it away. So far, no luck, just mousesicle. My sister, who continues to release the beasties out the back door continues to have mice. Duh.

bbc

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 02:40 PM

Mice are NOTHING ! When I was a lad we lived in a town with a LOT Of furniture industry , hence LOTS of stacks of wood seasoning , making
an ideal home for Eight Legged beasties . In the Autumn , the Provo Arm of the British House Spider Movement would spread the word that those houses would be more comfortable for the cold weather . The out
come of this would be my Mother having Hysterics in the hall while a spider with a leg diameter of three inches or so was sat on the stairs daring her to go to bed !

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: RangerSteve
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 02:24 PM

I had six packs of Ramen noodles in a kitchen drawer. I went to get one, only to find that all six were empty, with little holes eaten away to tell me that a mouse had gotten to them. When winter came, and dumped 2 feet of snow on us, I got out my old firefighter boots to go out and shovel. I stepped into one, felt something strange, and found that it was 6 packs worth of Ramen noodles, stored in my boots.

I then bought some poison - little blue pellets of something that, in a perfect world, the mice eat, then get really thirsty and leave the house looking for a source of water, and dehydrate outside of your house. The poison dissappeared, but not the mice. The following summer I was packing to move and was checking my winter coat pockets for any spare change that I might have left in them, only to find the poison pellets. They were also stored in a badger-fur hat hanging on a coat rack.

My new house came with a cat, who killed mice for a while, but now is too lazy. SHe just plays with them. I don't let her in my bedroom, as I'm slightly allergic to her. The mice discovered this, and moved into my bedroom. One winter I caught eleven of them. The 12th one got in my laundry bag and was later washed to death. One night one of them ran over my face while I was half asleep.

Last night I was getting ready to go play a gig, and as I was putting on my cowboy boots, I heard a rattle in one. I looked inside and found Purina Cat Chow. The mouse is actually taking it from my cat's dish and carrying it upstairs to the opposite end of the house and storing it in my boots. There have to be places in between the kitchen and my bedroom to store that stuff. Clearly, the mice are spiting me.

What I'm getting at here is: the heck with humane methods. Kill them. They clearly are intelligent beings and nothing short of death is going to stop them from tormenting you.

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 11:46 AM

To stop them finding their way back, you should confiscate their maps.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: GUEST,Terry K
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 03:33 AM

I'm for the humane mousetraps, baited with rice krispies they work a treat. Then you take them more than half a mile away and gently release them into their new habitat.

Of course, to prevent them finding their way back, it's best if you pull their legs off before you release them.

cheeers, Terry

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 09:59 PM

Co2 is far more humane than poison, they die almost instantly.
poison can take days to work.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 09:22 PM

Ms. Croucher,
Do you have a source for the hair trigger metal snap trap?

I like the carbon-dioxyde idea......but I fear the little minions-of-satin will sckeaddle once the bathroom-drawer is opened and the fire-extinguisher is exueeded into their faces.

I will buy a Twixt Bar and give it a try.

Good Hunting,
Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: GUEST,Anne Croucher
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 08:51 PM

Carbon Dioxide is not poisonous, it just does not suport life - the poor beasties suffocate. Cruel Rentokill!!

I still advocate the hair trigger metal snap trap. Baited with a chunk of Twix bar wired in place one trap has been known to get seven or eight mice in one evening. They can be washed off, unlike the wooden ones which absorb bloodstains.

For the last few months we have not seen any mice, but a neighbour reported seeing a rat in their garden, so maybe they have eaten the mice. I just hope there is nowhere the rats can get into the house.

Anne

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 08:27 PM

Spring - when the fruits are flush - always problems....with rats.

HOWEVER, Never, has there been a year like the one just past.....WELL Over 20 carcuses in the month of December alone!

Moving on to poison, after the current catch of "five-frolicksom" (hopefully, not females) above the headboard's of the bed last night. The first returned about 3:00 a.m. and the last before day-break.....One rotting dead, decaying carcus in the dry walls I can stand....five??????

Tonight's traps are baited with...P-butter/vanilla, and Ham-rind, and chocolate.....(yes, chocolate is for mice....but these babies could be mistaken for the latter on steroids.)

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: bbc
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 09:27 PM

Trackball--bah, humbug! (Like laser mouse!)

bbc

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 07:37 PM

Eliminate Mice!

Use a Trackball!

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: GUEST,bbc at work
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 11:22 AM

Leo, you're silly! I *love* my computer mouse (It has that pretty red light on its bottom)!

bbc

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: MAG
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 11:02 AM

No cockroaches here, thank goodness. I lived with them long enough in Chi-town to get a bad case of heebie-jeebies from them. And then Miami, where they were 3 inches long and flew.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: MMario
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 08:48 AM

Have you tried just unplugging it from the computer?

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Cluin
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 08:46 AM

...if you do a thorough job, it helps keep out the cockies too


You've got a problem with mice getting in THERE?

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 07:17 AM

While blocking up tiny holes to keep vermin out - if you do a thorough job, it helps keep out the cockies too.

You can get foam door and window seal tape and a brush like thing you attach to the bottom of the door too.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: MAG
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 06:21 PM

I like the plastic trap kind where you do not have to touch the dead critter.

My last kitty is 17 and half-blind so she is relieved of mouse duty -- she sure does notice when I head out to the trash with one dangling from a trap, however.

I picked up some steel wool today; too late for this year but I plan to be in my house awhile yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 01:31 PM

yum!

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Cluin
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 12:20 PM

Or to amateur herpatologists.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 12:00 PM

or sell them to sientists to do experiments on.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 11:56 AM

I reckon a good thing about catching them alive, is that you could sell them to the mouse shop, or give them to kids as pets, for presents ie xmas and birthdays, save you buying stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 10:25 PM

I feel like the pied-piper-of-Hamlin.

In less that a week...twelve more of the blighters are dead!!

"Secret Weapon....not the peper-mint oil mentioned by my lover-de-Saxon-Gatita......but:

Natural pea-nut butter with a drop of pure vanilla extract!!!
< b>WHAMMO - Power-Bait for rats!!

Tonight's traps were not even fully set - and the critters came, and came and came.

Catching only six inch rascals - the breeding pair have not appeared.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: bbc
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 10:29 PM

I had been advised to stuff steel wool into the areas around pipes & had done so. Plaster & broken glass sure sounds more durable. Thanks for the suggestion, Murray!

bbc

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 04:46 PM

Not once in this thread has anybody suggested taking precautions to prevent the little buggers getting into your house in the first place.

I had to take steps to eliminate the ingress of mice in every house I occupied in the States, and it didn't leave me with a very high opinion of the general standard of house-building in the US.

The most effective way to prevent them from coming in in the first place is to make a mixture of bonding plaster and finely crushed broken glass, and trowel it into any gaps which are visible around pipes, electrical conduits etc. This is particularly necessary in bathrooms and kitchens. It is fiddly and time-consuming, but it does work.

Other steps which can be taken include fixing mouldings between skirtings (US baseboards) and floorboards, if necessary.

Basically, just observe where they are getting in, and take steps to prevent their entry.

K I S S.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 07:28 AM

Rentokill have new humane rodent killers, they are an electronic box, with a tunnel in it, mouse runs into tunnel, is detected by electronis in box, box snaps shut, and mouse is gassed by Co2, dies instantly and painlessy.
amazing piece of kit, very cleverley desigend, the local Rentokil bloke demonstrated them to me a couple of weeks ago,
not sure if they are available to the general public to buy, but worth checking.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: bbc
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 12:58 PM

Well, I am still mouse-free. Happy Thanksgiving to all U.S. folks.

best,

bbc

Wow, gargoyle. Good rat harvest!

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Cluin
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 06:43 PM

well, you asked...

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 06:39 PM

VERY nice, indeed!

That's the kind of thing we need more of around here -- true creativity!

(You kiss your mother with that mouth?)

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Cluin
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 06:33 PM

Yes, Poppa. It was glorious!... A poop to be proud of; a veritable work of fart; a magnum opus of offal; a formidable flourish in fecal form; in short, a commodious composition for the connoisseur of caca.

Thanks for asking. Perhaps the rats in the sewers are worshipping it as we type.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 05:57 PM

Gurney, that must have been a big strong sucker if he could climb all the way up out of your terlet. Or, maybe British porcelain isn't as slippery and shiny as what American sewer rats have to deal with.

Cluin, everything come out all right? You could always emulate the constipated mathematician and work it out with a pencil...

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 12:14 PM

It is deffinately the year of the rat.

Caught five small rats in spring/peanutbutter traps in two days. Unfortunately, also caught four sparrows - two simultaneiously.

Using six traps. Beginning to consider poison, also.

This year's rat horde appear to be attracted by the 'premium National Geographic approved - no waste bird seed - and the heads of last year's sun-flowers.

Sincerely,

Gargoyle

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: GUEST,bbc at work
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 11:30 AM

Well, I think I'm safe; I have a septic system, rather than sewer.

bbc

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Cluin
Date: 22 Nov 04 - 11:26 PM

Thanks for the nightmare fodder, Gurney. With my riggin' dangling free over the pan, I doubt I'll be able to relax enough to poop next time.

Well, here I go... wish me luck.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: bbc
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 09:21 PM

Yuck!

Subject: RE: BS: Non-violent anti-mouse techniques?
From: Gurney
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 08:11 PM

Poppagator, we had a rat come up through our toilet, too. This one was quite large and managed to get out of the pan, and straight into the 'fire' of our three cats. S/he couldn't get back into the pan, but the cats weren't game to tackle it, so they bailed it up until I got there. I killed it with a brush. That's when the term 'fights like a cornered rat' was brought home to me.
A 'Vermin Operative' told me later that it is fairly common for rats to come up through your toilet. They have no trouble in climbing pipes and swimming the U-trap, and some sewer-rats seem to specialise in the technique as a means of gaining entry into houses, until they get caught. Nice thought, just when you are peacefully contemplating nature, isn't it.
Every time you put something edible through the Wastemaster, you are feeding sewer-rats. "Hey, guys, let's go and see where all this good stuff is coming from!"