Mouse in the house confusing our musing

[fjblair]

I don't see the point of a no kill mouse trap. Release it to become someone else's problem or it's just going to get eaten or die one way or the other.

 

[Marc Morfei]

It’s living in the chair.

When we moved a few years ago, about a thousand pieces of fossilized cat food fell out of the recliner when we went to pick it up and carry it. Pretty sure it was not the cat hiding them in there.

 

[Short on cash]

C4

 

[RoscoeElegante]

Thanks for all the feedback, folks! Appreciated, and amusing.

No sign of any mouse last night, and I was in that damn chair until about 3 a.m. again. (Oh, those frosh papers!) I should've also noted that dog sleeps in that same chair nightly, once I'm out of it. And she's so feral (a rescue dog found in the woods) that a moth on the window screen gets her barking sometimes. Yet she's never gone sniffing or growling around the chair. The chair comes apart, and I've indeed taken it apart recently, without finding a mouse sign. So my guess is that he/they scamper under it on their way to some point under the baseboard radiator, where they disappear, probably into the basement. I've probably missed that since I either burst out laughing when the mouse does his through-the-minefield mad dash or am jumping up in a brain-stem's "INTRUDER!" yell.

Anyway, I'm going ultra on the buggers. I truly hate to kill mammals--though, hypocritically, I'm no vegetarian--but I can't have fleas, disease, etc., in this house. I'd go the cat route long-term, but I'm allergic to them (and can't stand how they murder birds and chipmunks). So it's off to Lowes today for a full slate of kill traps. I'll go with the traditional neck-snappers, experimenting with bait, and with a drown bucket in the basement. In the past, we had exactly one mouse in here. Caught him in a no-kill, released him a 1/4 mile away in a field, never saw sign of another, until now. Had a daughter's mouse-nemesis cat visiting here, and he never alerted to anything, either. But enough. The hanta virus that I had years ago (from spending a couple of nights in a remote Ontario trapper's cabin) was no picnic, and actually did some lasting lung damage.

I'll atone for murdering lil' mammals who just want to live, too, by eating a veggie burger, or not inwardly puking when assaulted by passing patchouli.

Thanks again for the advice.

 

[Greg70]

They have other kill traps that are like a giant chip-clip. They're easier to set without risking smashing your own fingers. The best part is after the kill you just grab the trap by the non-mouse end and squeeze it to drop the body wherever you want.

I understand your concerns about killing. I feel bad too but they are very destructive and persistent little creatures. Throw the body out in the open and something will enjoy the protein-rich meal it has to offer.

 

[tery]

 

[jimd]

We had a bad mouse problem. Peanut butter worked for awhile, but they stopped going for it. I could never find something that worked after that. It's like they learned to stay away from the traps. We have a cat, but he's useless. I stayed away from the bait boxes because of said cat, but finally gave in figuring that there is minimal risk since the cat isn't catching any mice. I put one in our shed, which is pretty far from the house. I put another in my garage. That has solved the problem. I probably cleared out at least 15 dead mice from the shed. I've only seen one dead on in the garage. But I think I got them before they moved into the house for the winter.

 

[billy logan]

I heard "toast the peanut butter bait a bit with the flame of a match" before you arm the trap.
I don't eat mammals or birds [edit edit edit] but I put a hatchet near the traps [edit edit edit]

Rat snakes. <---personally recommended. Snakes won last year
They oughtta film a predator-prey documentary here.
"Get rid of the snakes, complain about the mice"

Rattlesnakes not recommended.

If mice were only visual I wouldn't mind them. Unfortunately they also involve smells and unpredictable, un-ignorable rustling.

 

[Sparky472]

I don’t have any experience with mice. Only with rats. Don’t know if that makes a difference but I’ve found the best course of action in that regard has been to a hire a professional to find out how they’re getting into the house to begin with and seal off that access point. I’d rather keep them out than try and figure out how to deal with them once they’re in.

 

[Sparky472]

I heard "toast the peanut butter bait a bit with the flame of a match" before you arm the trap.
I don't eat mammals or birds [edit edit edit] but I put a hatchet near the traps [edit edit edit]

Rat snakes. <---personally recommended. Snakes won last year
They oughtta film a predator-prey documentary here.
"Get rid of the snakes, complain about the mice"

Rattlesnakes not recommended.

Yep. Our area has quite a lot of wildlife, including snakes. I often see posts on Nextdoor from neighbors who find a snake and kill it indiscriminately. Rattlesnakes and copperheads, ok, I get it. But many of the snakes we see are harmless to humans and deadly for the rodent population. I want those around. An unchecked rodent population is not pleasant.

I lived in a rental house in a diffferent neighborhood that backed up to a creek. As a result there was an abundance of varied wildlife, but especially rodents. Some nights you’d go outside and see so many rodents - on fences, rooflines, etc, you’d think you were being invaded by a rodent army. Scary stuff. Guess what we didn’t have a lot of in that area? Snakes.

 

[Happy Enchilada]

We had an off grid home in western CO. Same thing mice everywhere. They are destructive little demons. I was at war with the little buggers , snap traps,glue boards, poison in the little boxes. After a year of this I adopted 2 cats and within a month or two the mice were gone. The cats always left a trophy from each kill, tail, internal organs and the like just to let me know the were on the job. I never liked cats before, but I do now.

About 3 days after we moved into the house in Colorado, our cat woke us up at 3 a.m. yowling. She dropped her first rodent kill and we rewarded her with a nice star-shaped tag for her collar.
Sorta like getting a medal ...

 

[Guitarzan]

They get into out buildings and cause problems that are not easy to solve. You can use a combination of kill traps, glue traps, and water in containers.

Handle the traps with gloves to avoid putting scent on them and use a small piece of meat (from a hotdog, balogna, ham, etc.).

Create a lane with a big funnel opening on one end and gradually narrow it down. You can make it on an ad hoc basis with boards, boxes, boots, containers, buckets, etc. and put glue traps inside the lane (against one another with no safe passage).

They will drown in vessels filled about halfway with water with edges too high for them to climb over. (The water death traps are really better for bigger rats than little mouse).

Poison pellets should generally be a last resort because you may end up with smell problem.

 

[Flaneur]

I pay this guy a retainer......