It is cold and snowy here. The mice have populated the back porch. This morning Magda cornered 4 of them. She killed three. Unbelievable speed combined with a complete lack of mercy. She just lives to kill.

LD

How about some pics?

You should increase the insurance on her and make sure she is in the family portraits.

quote:

How about some pics?

I'll get some tomorrow morning if she scores again.

quote:

You should increase the insurance on her and make sure she is in the family portraits.

Done, and done.

lawndart

It's getting cold here too and we've had a couple mouse move in with me.

So I set out a trap in the kitchen, bait it up with some nice cheddar ... middle of the day I come back and check it, and my cheese is gone.

(I've baited a few traps in my time, and I know how to screw down the cheese ... but it's GONE.)

Ok, more cheese. Come by a while later, and the trap's bare ... so I check my tension spring, it's tight, but not "overly" so ... I can tap the base of this thing hard and it'll go off.

More cheese. ... Empty.

This goes on 2 or 3 more times and I'm not believing this mouse.

Then, I put wedge the cheese UNDER the bait-rest, forcing it onto the end of the rest and underneath so it's dangling.

About 3 hours later, wife and I were in watching TV, and THWAP! Wife asked me "What was that?"

I go check and sure enough, there's the little ^&#*%*& still twitching.

We have a Cairn Terrier that's SUPPOSED to be doing that job, but so far Aila just lays in my wife's lap and watches TV.

I reset the trap and we'll go again. Maybe I'll get another one today.

Chocolate makes better bait thn cheese. It will also solidify on the spoon and is harder for the intended victim to make off with. Now that your mouse "trap line" has begun to bare fruit(so to speak) perhaps you should invest in some Rat traps and use the mice as bait. OR, now that you have Jerry, go for Tom!!! derf

The best bait i have found for mouse traps is peanut butter. the little guys cant resist it. Just dont put too much on or they will just lick off the excess before springing the trap.

I tried peanut butter once before -- the stuff was there for weeks, maybe even a couple months before I gave up on it. No mouse.

These guys go for cheese ... I don't care if they take the cheese, at least that way I know they're there.

Chocolate I dunno about. I try not to keep any of that in the house, lest it vanish and never make it to the rat trap. Cheese isn't much different, but at least it's better for me.

I saw one of the little buggers last night in the living room. I was sitting there watching TV -- with the Cairn Terrier on the couch with me, and this little slate-gray mouse comes running out from around a corner, rounds the fireplace and comes and sits right in front of the TV for about 30 seconds until I sit up, then he bolts back the way he came.

I told my wife I was gonna start watching TV with a 12 guage in my lap.

Ben,I gotta Maine Coonz I'll let ya borrow.He used to leave me mice,crickets and spiders to show me that he was doing his job.He quit for some reason. Then I come to find out that my Windy Dawg was eatting the Trophies.

I always found peanut butter works good, too. But I've seen some that will lick the trigger clean of the peanut butter. Then the little buggers will get greedy and start gnawing the trigger because of the peanut scent still on it.

I find them with their jaws wrapped 'round the trigger, and their widdle biddy backs squooshed.

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Now that your mouse "trap line" has begun to bare fruit

Ya got gay nekkid mice in the house?! I'm gonna tell Anita Bryant on you!

Dan

Pres., TYHC

http://www.AndOral.RobertsToo

We had a wet year, with very good crops and cover. Then it got cold and snowy very early. The mousies have been moving indoors like extended families of wetbacks on a bonus welfare signup day.
I wedge a piece of hard cheese under the metal tab, then add chunky peanut butter and cheerios to the traps. One of the three gets 'em. If we hear two or three traps snap during the night, Lois gets up and does the happy dance.
It all makes for a contented house.
LD

Please post pics of Lois' happy dance.

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Please post pics of Lois' happy dance.

Somehow, I never remember to reach for the camera at those times.

lawndart

I bet I know what it looks like.

Dan

Pres., TYHC

http://www.CanSheDoThe.Shingaling?

The best bait I have seen for trap shy mice is bacon. Take a piece of bacon that is meaty, about half an inch wide and an inch long, fold it so it is half by half an inch, and use the wire out of a bread tie to secure it to the pan. Something about the hickory smell drives them nuts, and it's almost impossible for them to steal it. Thick sliced bacon works best for the little bastards.

If you have mouse problems, you could always get a cat!

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More cheese. ... Empty.

This goes on 2 or 3 more times and I'm not believing this mouse

Had this happen to me a couple of times.
Lived behind a 40acre Hay feild and when the "Old Guy" would cut, within a couple days we got mice. (I R A Lil' Sloo sometimes it took a while to figure the timing of this out)
So when I would see the field cut, out come the traps. Yes "traapppsss!" I would usually get at least 6 if not 8 set out. Some with cheese some with peanut butter and some with chocolate.
When I started I would find a couple cleaned, ya cleaned, how could this be??
Well the machinist, gunsmith, mechanic and just plain ol tinkerer in me got an idea. (oh ya and the fact I was gonna get these little buggers had something to do with it also)
So I grabs the traps and head out to the garage! After all was said and done, they was almost sensitive enough that once they put thier feet on it and a wisker on the bait, WHACK!!!
Lets just say, I was the one that cleaned the traps after that!
On a side note, I had me a couple of dogs, (just mutts), and if they could see the mice weaseling through the grass, they were goners! "Good doogggs, GOODDD Doggies!"

Smedley

"If you have mouse problems, you could always get a cat!"
Good idea but, I make sure my dogs hate crats more than I hate mice!

Yeah, I feel the same as they do. I just thought I'd get a rise out of some of my fellow cat NOTlovers. Hee Hee
For mouse bait, try mixing one part each chocolate syrup, peanut butter, and bacon grease. Put in a piece of twine and work it around until the twine is thoroughly soaked. Push the twine through the hole in the bait tab and tie it. This is a mess to deal with, but it took care of some bait thieves for me.
Here's a tidbit, while we're on the subject of mouse traps:
Get some of the glue traps that are flat 4x5" rectangles of heavy paper with stickum on 'em. Check them often, so you will find them while the mouse is still warm. When you have a mouse, nail the trap securely to a sturdy wooden object in a crat hangout. I put mine on the opposite side of my wood shed from the scumbag cratlovers' house. I've only caught one crat out of 4 attempts, but HOT DAMN, it was funny enough to be worth all the trouble. Actually, 2 of the traps disappeared entirely. You can just imagine what happened to the targets.

We have lots of mice in our hunting cabin (old hay barn) and I use either Starburst candy or Gummi Bears. The mice don't seem to have a preference for either, and the stuff sticks to the trigger very well.

I had a female ferret when I was living at home, she was the best mouser you have ever seen. That and she would eat them on the spot.

We let her run wild, until my mom found too many ferret poopys in the living room.

Ferrets get excited and forget where the poopy box is. (imagine if you were 2 feet long and had to run a marathon to make it to the bathroom).

I know people that have ferrets that wouldn't kill a fly let a lone something they are supposed to want to kill.

I have found dry dog food works great .
I take a piece and drill a hole thru it and tie it on the trap .

Only problem I have had is my lab got his nose smacked by traps 2 or 3 times when he tryed to steal the bait .
He learned the traps hurt his nose and I hurt his butt for it .

Johnch

I've been using the pellet gun inside the house a lot lately. Since I get thrown out in five weeks I'm not too worried about the dry wall. I'll plug all the holes with colgate toothpaste.

That'll work on the walls, but if you ever toss an M80 down the commode toothpaste won't work when you try to put it together again. Don't ask how I know that.

Dan

POTYHC

www.SomeThings.LeftUnsaid

quote:

Originally posted by flutedchamber:
The best bait I have seen for trap shy mice is bacon. ... Thick sliced bacon works best for the little bastards.

Burn it a little with a lighter before use, works even better.

Hows this for inventiveness?
I have a black lab that drowns em in his waterbowl. First couple of times we thought it was a coincidence then after that we got suspicious. If theres mice in the kennel they all meet a watery end. Otherwise the dogs a complete gentlemen but just sometimes theres a glimmer in his eye.....

Z

quote:

Originally posted by DUK:

quote:

Originally posted by flutedchamber:
The best bait I have seen for trap shy mice is bacon. ... Thick sliced bacon works best for the little bastards.

Burn it a little with a lighter before use, works even better.

Was out of bacon yesterday, some salami did the trick as well, even though that critter stole the bait once from two traps, then once more from one before it got whacked for good.

The children loved our little domestic hunting challenge.