Getting rid of a mouse in the home?

gdb

Last season I had a couple of mice that wouldn't fall for a regular trap and since I like electronic stuff, I bought a Victor electrocution type "trap" from Amazon. This thing works great! I got the rat sized unit because we see/hear the occasional norway rat in our old farmhouse, but 99% of the time it's just mice. Damn! They've come down in price. 2 for $61.00 is a steal when I had to pay approx. $50.00 for a single one last Fall.:mad:


Got C cells ?:biggrin:

http://www.amazon.com/each-Victor-Electronic-Trap-M240/dp/B002YJJKOW/ref=sr_1_cc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288429987&sr=1-1-catcorr

gdb

Oh Yeah.....poisoning them is bad all the way around. They can kill a cat or dog that eats them when they're dying, or, after they're dead.: :frown: If they die where you can't find em'........get ready for a week of STINK !!:eek: I keep an electronic repeller in a car that isn't driven very often so that the field mice wont take up housekeeping in it. Nothing like mouse piss vapor blowing out of the old dashboard vents !!:biggrin:

jimmydep

I've used these traps in the past with great success

http://tomcatbrand.com/product/18-mouse-snap-trap

But if you can find out where they are getting in you won't have to deal with them anymore.
I had a 6-10 mouse a season problem until I went around the house and found any small hole and filled it with expandable foam........I haven't had a mouse in 2 years.


Jimmy D

gfong

jimmydep wrote: »

found any small hole and filled it with expandable foam.

You can also use steel wool to plug any holes.

cfrizz

messiah wrote: »

Cats don't catch mice because they're hunting, they catch them because they're playing with them. It really only works if they still have their claws. The mice either bleed to death, or have a heart attack, and the cats don't eat them. If you get the right size shot for your shotgun, you can actually vaporize them.

I had both of my cats front claws removed, and both of them were good mice catchers. They pretty much just exhaust them to death. Tami would hear a mouse by the stove in the morning, and when I came home in the afternoon, she would still be sitting by the stove watching for that mouse.

I lost track of how many dead mice Tami would bring to me. I used to have to fight HER to get them away from her. One of the last ones she caught, she decapitated it!:eek: I tossed the body & she barfed up the head a day later.:eek:

fossy

I have seen these on TV lately.Don't have to touch the mousey afterwards.Never used one so can;t speak from experience but looks like a sanitary way to deal with the problem.

http://www.orthohomedefense.com/smg/catalog/productTemplate.jsp;jsessionid=B448FE1067D081D87E7B87297F300D50?proId=prod10230002&itemId=cat50086

comfortablycurt

Mouse traps with peanut butter. We get mice in our house fairly consistently, and that's always worked best for us. Don't cheap out and get the cheapest traps they make though. In my experience the cheaper traps sometimes aren't as sensitive. There have been several instances with cheaper traps where I've found the peanut butter to be gone, without the trap having sprung.

Face

Traditional mouse traps are the most humane. They use sticky traps at work and I'm not fond of them. Either, you have to sit there and listen to the things cry until they starve to death, throw them away attached to the sticky pad, or place the mouse and attached sticky pad in a plastic bag and stomp on it to put the mouse out of it's misery.

cnh

TECHNOKID wrote: »

I was thinking of that, If I knew the right frequency to use I would blast the mouse away, might as well put the system to good use :biggrin:

Noted, I'll check for them tomorrow.

Never really been attracted to small barking dogs but I have to admit this dog is really cute :cool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgEOG5JVZp4

I thought dogs would be useless for chasing mouse but I guess I was wrong.This is an issue as I live alone. I was thinking of adopting another dog (had some in the past but not for a few years) but I think leaving the dog alone home is somewhat cruel.

Maybe I could get a pair of them so they could keep each other company when I'm away (However, not really looking forward to cleaning after dogs, I had my share of kids and dogs to look after )


http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/132409/jack_russell_terriers_are_great_family.html

I've had a similar problem and live right under Canada so the winters are cold.

And the mice get in (old house). Ultrasound DOES NOT WORK. I have a few up and they don't seem to do anything? Some of my mice are SO CLEVER that the traditional trap is USELESS?

The only thing that works is a WALL to WALL barrier of HEAVY DUTY GLUE TRAPS so that the mice are forced to crawl over them. Because, believe it or not they ALSO learn to avoid those (must be some of those PSYCH-LAB mice?).

Unless the glue traps are BIG and HEAVY DUTY, I've found that mice, given an entire NIGHT can escape from the smaller ones, they can cheat traditional traps and get the food without setting the traps off and have gotten out of the Have-a-heart plastic traps, again, given enough time. My mice have Ph.D.s in avoidance?

Good Luck...same to me? Getting ready for ANOTHER ROUND! We also did not have any--that we saw when we first moved in for about 5 years. Then...?

cnh

pitdogg2

gdb wrote: »

Oh Yeah.....poisoning them is bad all the way around. They can kill a cat or dog that eats them when they're dying, or, after they're dead.: :frown: If they die where you can't find em'........get ready for a week of STINK !!:eek: I keep an electronic repeller in a car that isn't driven very often so that the field mice wont take up housekeeping in it. Nothing like mouse piss vapor blowing out of the old dashboard vents !!:biggrin:

your dog or cat will not be killed by eating a poisoned mouse.
Most all dog and cat food has Vitamin K which is the antidote for mouse and rat baits.

If you have a critter that is eating your dog or cat food you cannot poison it with baits you must use a trap

I'd garner that some folk on this forum even take the active ingredient in mouse and rat poison for blood thinner

cnh

jimmydep wrote: »

I've used these traps in the past with great success

http://tomcatbrand.com/product/18-mouse-snap-trap

But if you can find out where they are getting in you won't have to deal with them anymore.
I had a 6-10 mouse a season problem until I went around the house and found any small hole and filled it with expandable foam........I haven't had a mouse in 2 years.


Jimmy D

Say Jimmy,

Can't mice just CHEW through the expandable foam. I think they have done that in our house?

cnh

jimmydep

cnh wrote: »

Say Jimmy,

Can't mice just CHEW through the expandable foam. I think they have done that in our house?

cnh

Constantine,
I have one spot where a repair was made to a masonry set of stairs, which left a moderate size hole, I have actually seen mice going in there. I filled the hole with a polyurethane expanding foam a few years back, and I check it occasionally, there are no signs of wear.
It seems to be working............as an alternate you could use steel wool or a copper scrub pad.

My wife and daughters are glad not to see anymore mice and I'm ecstatic not having to empty traps or being awakened by a scream in the wee hours of the morning :eek:

Jimmy

cokewithvanilla

Cat.

inspiredsports

The bad news is that seeing one usually means there are many more around that you don't see.

If you do find and seal and entry point, a bit of steell wool in the caulking will work to keep them from chewing back in.

Sticky traps work well but you need to check them daily. The mice generally end up getting their nostils glued shut and they quickly suffocate.

Old school snap traps with peanut butter if you intend to toss it with a catch, or a small slice of apple if you want to reuse, work well if you don't mind the relative mess.

mrbiron

Have killed 17 in the past 2 weeks due to home remodel. sucked up the youngins and a full grown with the shop vac and let go in the dumpster.
I second, third, fourth and fifth the peanut butter and traps.....works like a charm and at 2am in the morning when you hear a *SNAP*, you rest easy knowing your have a present in the morning.

Jetmaker737

Sticky traps have been very effective for me. I have some qualms about the humaneness of them but frankly that goes out window once they start pooping and peeing all over the place.

TECHNOKID

Well bougth 8 traps (sold in pair) this afternoon and from the suggested use they should be used in pairs (back to back) for more efficiency. I've seen some electronic repeller but haven't bought yet as the concensus is that they don't work. Also seen some large metal traps but I don't want to see that in the home-kitchen. They will surely be of help outside when I have an idea of the area the mice are getting in however, it would be useless at this time of the year since we are so close to winter and this thing will only be rusting while useless buried in the snow (the rain this evening was slowly turning into snow).

I've cleaned my counter with javel this evening, discarded some things I tought the mouse may have infected (their was a fair amount of mouse **** on the counter). I have cleaned things that were worth keeping in javel and then put in the dishwasher for more cleaning.

When I've cleaned my meat slicer, I've noticed a small puddle of white dust, believe it or not this was from my meat cutter casing :eek: The mouse chewed the plastic away from the AC cable **** enlarging the hole substantially. I guess the stupid thing wanted to get inside the machine. I have not seen any damage to the AC cable but I will do further investigation taking it apart. Yesterday I was puzzled as really didn't know where this thing went as there was no way off the counter but to jump so I guess it hid in the meat cutter until it felt safe to leave the kitchen.

Now, the traps I bought are full plastic so I am concern about the mouse to be able its way out if it ever gets caught inside the trap. I have 4 set in the counter area, I didn't have peanut butter but rather almond butter so I hope mouse are as health concious as I am and will be attracted by the almond butter :biggrin:

Anyway, this is a start and will see what happens....

Sherardp

Gl with the catch and post pics.

TECHNOKID

FTGV wrote: »

Since your in the PQ an order of Poutine laced with Warfin should do the trick.

I did buy a poutine today but I decided to poison my self with it rather then feed the mouse with it


http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex594

As far as warfarin, I have some leftover prescription of coumadin which I was told to stop taking a few months ago. I don't want mouse to die in walls or elsewhere in the home where they would unreachable otherwise I could use my leftover medication. I have some dose left that are actually pretty efty :eek:

TECHNOKID

Sherardp wrote: »

Gl with the catch and post pics.

Nothing too appealing of dead mouse pics. I was thinking of taking pic of the damage done to the meat slicer, too bad I didn't take a pic of the plastic dust left on the counter, that was kind of special.

TECHNOKID

Sherardp wrote: »

Gl with the catch and post pics.

Just caught a big one but it was quite a warrior :biggrin:

cnoat

Veggie oil will get the mice off of the sticky traps

gdb

pitdogg2 wrote: »

your dog or cat will not be killed by eating a poisoned mouse.
Most all dog and cat food has Vitamin K which is the antidote for mouse and rat baits.

If you have a critter that is eating your dog or cat food you cannot poison it with baits you must use a trap

I'd garner that some folk on this forum even take the active ingredient in mouse and rat poison for blood thinner

Just tell that to my neighbor who lost his Jack Russel, Lily, after a round of IV Vitamin K :rolleyes:

pitdogg2

gdb wrote: »

Just tell that to my neighbor who lost his Jack Russel, Lily, after a round of IV Vitamin K :rolleyes:

well sorry to hear that. But in most cases that will not happen. I had one of our hunting dogs(Treeing Walkers) eat a whole block of rat bait that he got a hold of and he came through fine except for the very green ****

maybe the bait the guy had was more of a strychnine based instead of warfarin type

bobman1235

Just like to reiterate what others have said - snap traps work by FAR the best, and are far more humane than sticky traps. I bought sticky traps once. They "worked", in that they caught the mice. But then one wasn't dead when I found it, so I had to kill it myself, which was not awesome, and another one WAS dead but evidence of his torture was far too evident for me. The mouse literally gnawed (or pulled?) his leg off trying to escape.

There's nothing malicious in their occupation of your home, there's no reason to torture them. You're alreayd killing them, isn't that enough?

And poison is just stupid. If you use poison all you end up with is a house that smells like rotten dead animal for more than a week. Awesome plan.

TECHNOKID

bobman1235 wrote: »

Just like to reiterate what others have said - snap traps work by FAR the best, and are far more humane than sticky traps. I bought sticky traps once. They "worked", in that they caught the mice. But then one wasn't dead when I found it, so I had to kill it myself, which was not awesome, and another one WAS dead but evidence of his torture was far too evident for me. The mouse literally gnawed (or pulled?) his leg off trying to escape.

There's nothing malicious in their occupation of your home, there's no reason to torture them. You're alreayd killing them, isn't that enough?

And poison is just stupid. If you use poison all you end up with is a house that smells like rotten dead animal for more than a week. Awesome plan.

Thank you for pointing the abovebobman1235.

Poison has yet been out of question for the reasons you have stated above. Yet I have avoided the snap traps to avoid the killing and thus the reason for selecting that type of trap; http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogSearchResultView?D=909579&Ntt=909579&catalogId=10051&langId=-15&storeId=10051&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntx=mode+matchall&N=0&Ntk=P_PartNumber . This step 7; http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Mice-Naturally seemed to be the best option at the time. Now, after peoples comments and personal research it seem that releasing the mouse / mice(:eek:) away from home is not so humane afterall as they would more likely die anyway after being released since they've lost their natural territory.

Now, what is malicious about them is that they bring desease in your home. I can not prove anything here but it just seems ackward that only a few months after I found one in my home last year, I wound-up in hospital and what is disturbing is doctors were puzzled as they found uncommon bacteria in my blood and intestine, doctors couldn't figure where this was coming from :eek:

Yet, the 2 times I've seen mouse in my home was on my kitchen counter which is gross, **** on the counter and digging through stuff that I use to cook :eek: When it comes to eating and sleeping I don't need pests that brings deseases, that alone justifies killing (not torture of course).

I dind't realise step 1 as an option; http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Mice-Naturally. That is good news to me as I already use it for my health and also like the scent. If that were enough to keep them away from my territory that would be the most humane way to deal with them :cool:

bobman1235

TECHNOKID wrote: »

Now, what is malicious about them is that they bring desease in your home. I can not prove anything here but it just seems ackward that only a few months after I found one in my home last year, I wound-up in hospital and what is disturbing is doctors were puzzled as they found uncommon bacteria in my blood and intestine, doctors couldn't figure where this was coming from :eek:

Malicious implies intent. I'm not saying having mice in your house is healthy or pleasant - I hate it just as much as the next guy, and every fall I have to set up traps and kill the buggers. But they're not there trying to get you sick or ruin your house (I doubt they have the mental capacity to even think that way), they're just trying to survive. And while "morally" i have no problem squelching that very survival by snapping their necks, I'd prefer not to torture them if at all possible.

Thanks for the Wiki on natural methods though. I'll certainly TRY some of those, but the old fallback of snap traps is definitely my preferred way to go.

cstmar01

rat traps and peanut butter or cheese wiz works wonders...


we get them around my parents house and get into our garage. Also 13 line ground squirrel. This is what we have done since I was a kid and always worked, but yeah they died and that was the point so they stop coming back into the garage and chew holes into it and blah blah blah.

indyhawg

I had a mouse a few years back. I bought a sticky trap and it did the trick.

TECHNOKID

bobman1235 wrote: »

Malicious implies intent. I'm not saying having mice in your house is healthy or pleasant - I hate it just as much as the next guy, and every fall I have to set up traps and kill the buggers. But they're not there trying to get you sick or ruin your house (I doubt they have the mental capacity to even think that way), they're just trying to survive. And while "morally" i have no problem squelching that very survival by snapping their necks, I'd prefer not to torture them if at all possible.

Thanks for the Wiki on natural methods though. I'll certainly TRY some of those, but the old fallback of snap traps is definitely my preferred way to go.

We are on the same page Do what you got to do but don't over do it, right? :cool: Simply cleaning with javex seemed to keep it/them away so I am eager to try the peppermint oil scent to keep them away.

Cheers!
TK