Darn Mice

[CrappieAttitude]

Ok guys...in the past few months my outdoor cat has been missing. I think something a little bigger than he nabbed him. I am not losing any sleep over that matter, but now I have been seeing evidence of mice in my garage. Including one that fell into my garbage can and couldn't get traction to get out. Anyways, I am worried about all the "non mice proof" things in my garage and was looking for the best tips to get rid of them. I can honestly say I have never been mouse hunting before, and am looking forward to getting rid of the little B#$%@#$%. I am not looking to "relocate" them by using the live traps, I just want them gone. Help!!

[Eric Wettschreck]

I hate cats, but I hate mice also. My guess would be get a farm cat. If something takes it to heaven, get another farm cat. I had mice in the garage problems also and the only real cure I came up with was Fluffy.

[BLACKJACK]

I just run a trapline, get about 3-4 mouse traps, bait them with peanut butter, and before you know it, you have the mice. Once they start eating the bait, they're as good as yours, just keep rebaiting and eventually you'll get them.

Hint: really run the trapline in the fall, that when they mice are looking for warmer digs.

Cats will do the job, but they're bird killers, they'll be sitting under your bird feeder all day while you're at work. I used to have a cat until I caught him with a cardinal. The worst part is that they're subsidized killers, you give them catfood, but they'll be out all day killing and not eating what they catch, they'll just stack them up, especially when young birds are coming off the nest.

[Meat-Run]

Hey CA,

Myself and my father-n-law use that tomahawk cubes that make the mice dehydrate and run looking for water. They usually end up dying right in the middle of the garage or near an entrance. Over thanksgiving my FnLaw purchased a big pale of this stuff and by that weekend I counted over a dozen dead mice in his small garage. Unfortunetly his little garage is the "ghetto" of the mice city. I put it out every where in my garage and don't notice that many this year but I heard there was a serious out break of the pest this year for some reason.

See you at 12:10

mr

[mean green]

I use peanut butter mixed into bread. I've found that those smart devils can lick the peanut butter without tripping the trap. When its mixed into bread, they have to bite it off & I seem to get more mice that way.

[CrappieAttitude]

MR,

Where did you get that stuff? If they truly die in the middle of the floor, I guess I need to make sure that I am the first one to open the garage door in the morning. I am not sure my wife would be too excited about "seeing that" first thing in the morning. Let's say they don't die in a noticeable place, does that mean I need to go on a search and find mission and tear apart my garage. If that is the case, I'll give you a call and we can go "mousin"

sounds like a good reason to get together!

CA

[hanson]

My grandpa was telling me about his bucket of water & peanut butter trick. I'm not exactly sure how it worked but the idea was the mice would fall into the water while eating the peanut butter and couldn't get out of the bucket. The result was a bunch of dead mice floating in the water.

I just did a search for "mice bucket trap" and there are a number of links that come up which describe this trap a little better.

We had a little mouse problem at deer camp in the woods and grandpa's trap must have caught 80 mice in 3 nights.

[83walleye]

We call it the "Pertpetual Trap". Here's how you make it:

You'll need a 5 gallon pail, with about 3"-4" of water in it. Straighten out out a normal coathanger, and puncture an empty pop or beer can right through the middle of each end - you now have a rolling can on the coathanger. Put the can in the middle of the hanger, set it up so the can is halfways across the mouth of the 5 gallon bucket, bend the ends of the hanger down and duct tape them in place.

Smear some peanut butter on all sides of the can, and slide it to one side of the hanger, near one of the sidesof the 5 gallon bucket. Set up a piece of wood for the mice to climb to get to the can - kind of like a ramp - and the mice will walk right on up to eat the peanut butter - put a ramp on each side of the bucket, by the way.

Mouse climbs up to eat the PB, pop can spins, mouse falls into water, drowns. Trap automatically sets itself for the next victim. And I believe the 80 in three days - it's amazing how quickly they add up. The mice will start stinking pretty quickly in warm weather - it helps to dump it regularly.

[CrappieAttitude]

Thanks for the quick responses!

That sounds like a fun little experiment!! I think i might have an empty beer can somewhere around my house, and I know I have the peanut butter. The only thing I am worried about with this method is having one big "mouseicle" at the bottem of my pail. I suppose all the splashing around would keep the water from freezing.

I'm totally going to try this!!

CA

[IFallsRon]

P & P - peanutbutter and Prestone.

[fishing is hot]

Unless your garage is heated you might want to substitute RV antifreeze for the water.

[CrappieAttitude]

Garage isn't heated. I thought about the antifreeze, but where would a guy need to go to dump that stuff?

[VMS]

Same basic idea as the pop can trick, but what we have done is take the 5 gallon pail and fill it 2/3 full of water...then get a bunch of sunflower seeds and sprinkle them on top of the water until it looks like the pail is full of seeds. they jump right in.

Steve

[CrappieAttitude]

That sounds way easier! Is it as effective of an attractant as let's say peanut butter?

[Black_Bay]

Dissolve as much rock salt as you can in the water. It will take a lot lower temps to freeze salt water than regular freshwater.

[Mueller]

Antifreeze works the best...kind of pickles 'em. Anything else and the mice will STINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mueller

[BLACKJACK]

I'd be careful with both the poison and the anti-freeze if you have dogs (or small kids) running around.

Just get some Victor wooden traps, they're cheap, and you don't have to worry about killing something you don't want to kill. Sometimes old fashioned is the way to go.

[CrappieAttitude]

Quote:

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I'd be careful with both the poison and the anti-freeze if you have dogs (or small kids) running around.

Just get some Victor wooden traps, they're cheap, and you don't have to worry about killing something you don't want to kill. Sometimes old fashioned is the way to go.

---

Good advice!

I don't have a dog, and my daughter took her first steps the other day, so I think I should be safe for a little while.

[Valv]

Victor traps (the original) are the best ones. There are imitations out there but don't work as well as the Victors, which now makes a new version with a plastic bait holder but it's junk, get the old style. It's like going hunting, I tweak the trap to be very sensitive, put then in strategic places and wait for the... "SNAP---flop-flop-flop-flop"

Although I have to admit the pail trick is very tempting....

My experience is DO NOT poison them in any way, if they die in an unreacheable place they will stink bad.

[Cruizin for Fish]

Well - I can say I have some recent experience with this. Them little buggers were getting into our new vehicle so I set traps and BAM had 4 mice in 5 traps. So I decided to get a few more traps to see how many there were. I kid you not - we have caught 65 mice outside our house in the past 2 months - quite a few in the beginning now they have tapered off. What I use is a trap called Snap-E and it seems to work very well - the reason is the bar that holds the mice is 50% closer to where it ultimately ends up when tripped (i.e. when you look at a set trap there are 2 bars rather than the typical 1 bar you see - for the 2 bars - one is pointing towards the sky while the other is setting the trap). Why has this been so effective - simply stated - IT RARELY MISSES - it only has half the distance to travel than what a standard trap has - so as far as traps go - my vote goes to the Snap-E brand trap - I just put peanut butter in it then every morning empty them little dudes out of the trap (they also have a plastic coating on the bar so the mouse does not stick on the bar - we all have witnessed that!)

On another note - I feel that is the best trap, however I have always been interested in the 5 gallon bucket trap as mentioned earlier - I know some guys that have done that with great success - I have not tried it but I hear it really catches mice quickly and obvioulsy there would not be great expense with that set-up.

Cruizin

[Cruizin for Fish]

Maybe this is well known - maybe not - so I will mention it anyhow - keep in mind that mice travel along edges so if you go with traps - set them right up against the edges of the room, structure, garage, etc. and you will have good success.

Cruizin

[cold one sd]

Quote:

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Garage isn't heated. I thought about the antifreeze, but where would a guy need to go to dump that stuff?

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You can pour RV antifreeze down your sink or toilet in your house. It is non-toxic and bio-degradable otherwise you couldn't winterize the fresh water system in a camper. It's about 3 bucks a gallon at wally world or Menards.

[MIKE IN lINO III]

I have used the bucket trap with great success out in the shed in the back yard. RV antifreeze is the way to go during the winter. No mice in the boat or motorcycle last year.

Mike

[Phred52]

Another one is to put out piles of dry oatmeal mixed with dry portland cement, then, as a "chaser", an anti-freeze cocktail on the side. They eat the mix, drink the cocktail and activate the cement. That sets-up in their digestive tract and gives them an overload that they can't download! Hey... They started it!!! Phred52

[83walleye]

Phred, that's a classic! I'd skip the anti-freeze, but my yellow lab might end up with a bit of indigestion, and it would certainly stiffen up her stool!

[BigWadeS]

boxes of dcon, no problems in two years, you can also get the plastic boxes comes with bait blocks and is similar product to d-con, you place them strategically around the house, garage, cabin, and they eat that and go and die and you don't have to clean them up and the poison bait is proctected so kids and pets can't get to it.

If I wasn't so terrified of mice I would try the bucket trick but would need someone to come over and dump it out for me.....