I stepped out onto my porch night before last and I observed a mouse as he ran to the corner of the porch, jumped up 8" of brick below a column, and disappeared under the siding. I remembered I had a package of two wooden mousetraps in the garage.

I turned on the garage lights and opened the door from the kitchen to the garage. To my surprise, a mouse scurried across the garage floor and disappeared behind a stack of boxes. I located the traps and decided to place one on the porch and one in the garage.

I baited the traps with peanut butter and went to place the first one on the porch. As I stepped out onto the porch I saw a mouse running from the corner of the porch and exiting down the concrete stairs into the yard. I concluded that the mouse must have entered the house at the corner of the porch, run fifty feet under the house and found it's way through some small opening into the garage. The house has four feet of concrete wall under it but the garage is at ground level. I continued as planned, placing one trap on the porch and one in the garage.

After 20 minutes, the porch trap had a mouse. I removed the mouse and reset the trap. After another 30 minutes, the porch trap had caught another mouse and had a third, live mouse, trying to get the bait from under the dead mouse. I shooed the live mouse away, removed the dead mouse, and reset the trap. This time the porch trap got the little bastard within ten minutes.

I checked both traps as soon as I got up this morning. Both traps had a mouse. I reset the traps and waited for nightfall again.

Well, it wasn't long this evening before I got another two mice on the porch and one mouse in the garage. The traps are set again. We'll see what happens.

What the heck is going on? I have heard about big mouse colonies but I've never seen one. Still, I've gotten eight mice in 24 hours using only two traps!

Tomorrow, I will get some foam in a can and seal off the entrance on the porch. I'd like to find an effective way to repel the mice if possible. Does anyone know of a good anti-mouse remedy?

I don't know if it works or not but have been told to scatter moth balls around. Try it and see if it works. Let us know if it works or not.

take 2 foot or more pieces of PVC, maybe 1.5" in diameter or so and stake them along the exterior wall of your foundation. Put rodent bait blocks in the center of each pipe and it should take care of your problem. Word of caution about pets, that is why you stake the pipes down. Not sure how many dead mice a dog or cat could eat before being sick, but it'll take care of the mice.

I have a very old house .Two story with attic .I had no idea how they got into the house but some idea how they got to the attic.One night I heard what was apparently an acorn dropping down an interior wall !! Set traps in the basement and and stayed up listening . Snap -mouse , snap- mouse etc until I had taken 9 mice !!
Then every fall as they came for the winter is was an easy regulator job !

MOD 17 S&W with rat shot = Hunting
Catching mice in traps = Trapping

You should be in the next Forum down

We use mose guards on our bee hives as they will move in the hive in the fall when the bees cluster. They then have food and warmth ideal conditions. they will also move into the pole barn and honey house decon does a great job of ridding them.

Al

quote:

Originally posted by alleyyooper:
We use mose guards on our bee hives as they will move in the hive in the fall when the bees cluster. They then have food and warmth ideal conditions. they will also move into the pole barn and honey house decon does a great job of ridding them.

Al

THANKS!

lost a stand this winter. Never heard or thought about mice!
I thought they (mice) went in AFTER the fact.
Never lost a stand before.

As a self proclaimed mouse removal expert, highest one year confirmed kill 105.

I have used Decon in the past. The new stuff is not revesible. Some kind of nerve agent replaced the warfin. Vitamin K shots no longer work on pets that ingest the stuff. EPA mandated, does not remain in the food chain so carrion eaters are not at risk. (Believe it or not)

Loose bait will get transported into the nest. If the nest is inside your home, when the mice dies he will smell. When another mice finds his runway and his nest and his stash of food, he will die and you will smell when this happens. This will repeat until all bait is consumed. The good thing is they only stink for a week.

Bait blocks are better. I bait away from the camp. Wood shed and under outbuildings. Kill them out there.

Inside the camp it is snap type traps. I have found a chocolate chip stuck in the peanut butter a good bait. My camp currently has about a dozen traps inside.

There is also an inexpensive multi catch system. I have caught an entire family at one time. Take an empty peanut butter plastic jar, run a wire through top and bottom and suspend the jar at the top of a bucket. Put some water in the bucket, a couple of inches. I like the smaller 2 gallon size. Smear peanut butter on the outside and place a scrap of wood on the side of the bucket as a ramp. The mice will smell the bait, climb the ramp and leap onto the jar. In short order he will fall in and drown, along with siblings, parents, cousins, etc. Bears and coons will render this type of trap into recyclable components.

Good trapping.

PS. In warmer months, if you will be absent, put the traps on newsprint, cardboard or whatever you have to contain the decomposition juices.

Hmmmmm . . . a mighty and thorny problem! Have you considered contacting PeTA? They love animals! They have humane ways to deal with pest infestation.

I once posted an article on the dilemma animal rights activists face with a mouse infestation.

There is the moral issue, don-cha-no!

No surprise, by the time you discover you have a Mouse in the place , you've already got a 100.

I just D'con the whole area and it's done in short order. Takes all the fun out of trapping though.
Which is more important to you is the question.

George

When about an 8th grade kid my parents had a large bag of black walnuts by and old, abandoned house. I would often break some nuts open with a hammer and eat them. However, some of the nut meat would end up uneaten by me. Eventually the mice in the old house got trained to come out and eat the remaining stuff after hearing me break nuts and leave. I saw a mouse looking out for me to leave one time and figured this out. Then I decided to wait around a little bit hidden with a .22 using bird shot and got a few mice. It was a nice varmint hunt for a kid.

I live in the woods. We have an exterminator visit every 90 days and treat the outside of the house and outbuildings for insects. They put a bait box outside a few months ago, When the exterminator visited yesterday we looked into the bait box and all the bait was gone. So, he filled it back up and put two more full bait boxes around the house. Those boxes hold a lot of bait. Judging by a conversation I had with the exterminator, that one bait box must have killed dozens of mice. Mice don't come into the house and they never, never have but they have gotten into the garage before. There must be some big colonies outside. I wonder if they have population blooms like the rabbits do.

We have a lot of snakes, too. There are no venomous snakes in our part of the state so they are all harmless. I like seeing the snakes and I never hurt them because I know they help keep the mice in check.

One method I use and I've used it in the hen house and around the shop. I fill a bowl with DeCon and put a milk crate over it. I put a brick or some sort of weight on top of the milk crate. The mice can get in and out, the chickens and home pets can't get in. I've done this for years and years without losing any pets nor chickens. I have only found a couple of dead mice in the yard. And they were untouched. Even though our dogs and cats would eat a mouse in an instant. Apparently the poisoned ones smell different.

Here's what you need

Churchill Double Rifle - .22 LR

http://d3ia9zxjpr3039.cloudfro...4.jpg&class=YUIslide

This is one of the most effective ways to TRAP them I've found, but the pics are from the Bucket Mouse Trap site. Peanut butter and antifreeze, if you're wondering. I can't help you with a REPEL solution.

I read an article by Mike Venturino a while back. It explained hand loaded shot loads for 44 and 45 revolvers. He used a light target load of quick burning powder and along with the two needed wads filled the rest of the case with #9 shot. If I recall correctly the loads were effective at 10 feet plus and shredded a potato. You rural guys should have a lot of fun hunting mice with a handgun. Yes I'm serious.

The problem is the darn things are nocturnal and extremely timid. There are no opportunities for a shot.

A discussion at the diner this morning .What to do with a camper over the winter to keep out mice ? The agreed on solution was to use drier sheets inside and moth balls under the camper.

Our favorite way, on the farm was to leave the hose for the shop vac on on floor with the nozzle near the wall.

Depending on the vac you may need to take the filter out. Put some anti freeze in the bottom of the vac.

They can not resist crawling up the hose to the smell of the anti freeze and fall in when they reach the end of he hose.

quote:

The problem is the darn things are nocturnal and extremely timid. There are no opportunities for a shot.

More traps.

My very first paying shooting job, I was maybe 6: Mice in the winter in the kitchen. Dad paid me a nickel a mouse for my Daisy BB gun kills. He hated mice and talked Mom into the plan. I would sit up after the lights were out and wait until one stopped in the light patch coming in the window from the Yard light. Bing. dead mouse. If you don't miss, there are no ricochets. It was great fun and made my daddy very happy!

While is was in high school and college, I worked as a draftsman for a company that made machinery for grain elevators. We also had some items for resale, including Ketch All mouse traps. Mice are a huge problem around grain elevators. The trap is a small box with a "paddle wheel" inside that you would wind up. Put a little bait inside like flour or peanut butter and it was ready to go. The mouse went in a little tunnel, stepped on the trigger, and the paddle wheel flipped him into a box. Then it was set for the next one. You could catch 10-12 mice before rewinding the paddle wheel. I decided to test one and put it in our warehouse. The next day I had 5-6 mice. The second day there was one big mouse. Apparently they will eat whatever is available. There was even a drowning attachment available where the mice would crawl through a tube and fall into a jar of water. You can probably find these traps at farm stores, co-ops, or online.

One of the sage flats where we camped hunting antelope had mice. We had mice in the cook tent every night. We'd come back a little after dark and chase them around the campsite with the vehicle, then tried to get them with a single-shot Stevens 22 loaded with #12 rat shot. We didn't get a single one of them, and they had a real party since the coyotes didn't want to come too close. Oh well.

I had a similar problem with ice in my garage. between my bucket trap and pellet gun i have them all figured out

I like the glue boards better than the snap traps...

I get the rat sized glue boards... they don't need to be reset, and you can get many mice on a single board without having to re-set it..

You do need to remember to check on them and dispose of them in a day or two though, rotting mice STINK.

For years and years I always used Decon in the yellow wedge shaped boxes but apparently it's been discontinued.....the scalper price on Amazon is over $40.00 for one small box.

I've always kept a box or two set out in the garage and shed just for insurance and I don't have to worry about kids or pets, is there a good replacement available ?

Google 'walk the plank' mouse and rat trap. Very innovative and very effective with multiple catches.

Next I'll need a little help with digger squirrels; I knew we had one in the rocks on the other side of the fence and this morning there were multiple little ones in the yard.

On the ranch we put a short board to a bucket like that and just put used engine oil in it.
Plain water will work just as well. You don't need any bait or rolling can. just the the board, they'll see their reflection and think it's more mice and will jump in.

George

All you need is a box, ruler for a ramp, a razor blade and some bait.

Place bait in the far side of the box with the ramp going up the opposite side. Keep replacing bait as its taken for three days. On the fourth day DON'T put any bait in the box and place the razor blade at the top of the ramp.

When the mouse comes up to the top of the ramp he will turn his head side to side looking for the cheese and cut his own head off.

True story

Best thing for mice is a cat or two.

MIce come in from the outside, that's your problem..I had a exterminater come out and be 4 0r 5 boxes outside my house, toughing the outside foundation, and overnight I had no mice and have not seen one for two years now..Guess he knew what he was doing and those plastic boxes are still out there..done deal, no more mice..

Do the sticky traps work? When I camp mice get in my car. I got a sticky trap in the glove box but haven't caught any yet, or seen signs of mice in the car since putting in the trap.

Those glue pads work, at least for me. I place a very small dab of peanut butter in the center of the glue pad and place it along a wall. I use them on my back porch and have catch mice, chipmunks, lizards and even sparrows.

This was a couple winters ago.
I woke up to that scratch,scratch sound of a mouse. Went into the kitchen, looked all around, nothing. Just about to shut the light off and go back to bed. I saw the big bag of knock off honeynut cheerios on the stove. I would grab a handful as a snack going by during the day.
I peeked in, as the bag was open. Sure enough, little beedy eyes looking back. I zipped the mostly empty, bag closed, and went to throw it in the wood stove. Thought, no, thats not nice. Set it on the stair landing, and grabbed the ash shovel from beside the stove. Gave a big smack on the bag to squash the mouse. POW, the end of the bag blew open, the mouse was blown half way across the living room floor, tumbled a couple times and ran under the couch.
I shut the light off and went back to bed.

If you have mice in your shed or workshop they tend to get into cupboards and such, rip everything up and make nests, to help solve this part of the problem the best thing to do is leave all your doors and drawers etc. open... they don't like the light and they wont nest....then put your assorted traps round the floor... I've found peanut butter and pumpkin seeds work the best. If you're using the old spring style traps, wrap some cotton thread or floss around the bait...it stops them stealing the bait as they get their teeth caught in it and set off the trap.

Roger

quote:

Originally posted by yumastepside:
If you have mice……………………. If you're using the old spring style traps, wrap some cotton thread or floss around the bait...it stops them stealing the bait as they get their teeth caught in it and set off the trap.

Roger

That sounds like an excellent idea Roger. Makes sense.

Back in the college days, there were a few of us who lived off campus in an older Victorian house with rooms to let. We had a rat problem in the attic, so Doug would go up there at night with his 44 cap + ball + wait. During the night, we would hear this horrendous boom + flash of light, while thinking, "Dear God, don't burn the house down!" Hell, the things we did!

collect a bunch of threm load em all up in a potato gun seee hor they acn fly over a lake etc

quote:

collect a bunch of threm load em all up in a potato gun seee hor they acn fly over a lake etc

Looks like you made it to the bottom of the bottle? :-)