Plague of Field Mice
 

I told my wife to set a few traps under the couters because they had
gotten into a box of macaroni.
She insisted on using glue traps and didn't bait them
This evening I killed a little mouse near the cat's bowl.
Looked outside a little bit ago and saw three apparently going for the
dog's bowl.
They ran under the mower and under the dog's house when I turned the
light on.
These are about two inches long minus the tail. there are probably a
bunch of them and their parents and grandparents.
We've never had a problem before but do now.
What's the best way to get rid of them?

Plague of Field Mice
 

Lil Abner wrote:
I told my wife to set a few traps under the couters because they had
gotten into a box of macaroni.
She insisted on using glue traps and didn't bait them
This evening I killed a little mouse near the cat's bowl.
Looked outside a little bit ago and saw three apparently going for the
dog's bowl.
They ran under the mower and under the dog's house when I turned the
light on.
These are about two inches long minus the tail. there are probably a
bunch of them and their parents and grandparents.
We've never had a problem before but do now.
What's the best way to get rid of them?

Quit feeding them?

Plague of Field Mice
 

On 2/11/2011 8:11 PM, Bob F wrote:
Lil Abner wrote:
I told my wife to set a few traps under the couters because they had
gotten into a box of macaroni.
She insisted on using glue traps and didn't bait them
This evening I killed a little mouse near the cat's bowl.
Looked outside a little bit ago and saw three apparently going for the
dog's bowl.
They ran under the mower and under the dog's house when I turned the
light on.
These are about two inches long minus the tail. there are probably a
bunch of them and their parents and grandparents.
We've never had a problem before but do now.
What's the best way to get rid of them?

Quit feeding them?



Hire a cat! Sorry, just couldn't resist...

Good luck,

--
Digger

Plague of Field Mice
 

On 2/11/2011 8:25 PM, Digger wrote:
On 2/11/2011 8:11 PM, Bob F wrote:
Lil Abner wrote:
I told my wife to set a few traps under the couters because they had
gotten into a box of macaroni.
She insisted on using glue traps and didn't bait them
This evening I killed a little mouse near the cat's bowl.
Looked outside a little bit ago and saw three apparently going for the
dog's bowl.
They ran under the mower and under the dog's house when I turned the
light on.
These are about two inches long minus the tail. there are probably a
bunch of them and their parents and grandparents.
We've never had a problem before but do now.
What's the best way to get rid of them?

Quit feeding them?
I am afraid there will be a lot of snakes come late spring in response
to all the mice.
We have two inside cats that won't even look at a mouse.
There are no outside cats around here the last year or so. Something has
taken them. The only wildlife left is deer, more deer, and squirrels.
I suspect Coyotes. I saw one, a few days ago that had colors in his
coat. I haven't heard them though.

Good luck,

Plague of Field Mice
 

Lil Abner wrote:
I told my wife to set a few traps under the couters because they had
gotten into a box of macaroni.
She insisted on using glue traps and didn't bait them
This evening I killed a little mouse near the cat's bowl.
Looked outside a little bit ago and saw three apparently going for the
dog's bowl.
They ran under the mower and under the dog's house when I turned the
light on.
These are about two inches long minus the tail. there are probably a
bunch of them and their parents and grandparents.
We've never had a problem before but do now.
What's the best way to get rid of them?

Snap traps are the quickest and most humane way of dispatching indoor mice,
you just sometimes have to adjust the sensitivity of them if the mice are
particularly smart.

Don't use glue traps or poison. Glue traps are horribly cruel, and poison
gets ingested by whatever critter eats the mouse (or the mouse dies in your
house and you get to smell dead mouse for a few weeks).

Jon

Plague of Field Mice
 

"Lil Abner" wrote in message ...
I told my wife to set a few traps under the couters because they had
gotten into a box of macaroni.
She insisted on using glue traps and didn't bait them
This evening I killed a little mouse near the cat's bowl.
Looked outside a little bit ago and saw three apparently going for the
dog's bowl.
They ran under the mower and under the dog's house when I turned the
light on.
These are about two inches long minus the tail. there are probably a
bunch of them and their parents and grandparents.
We've never had a problem before but do now.
What's the best way to get rid of them?

Howdy Abner. Peanut butter on traps works best for me. Fasten a piece of paper around the trip and mash the peanut butter into it real good. Otherwise sometimes they will eat the peanut butter without tripping it.

Plug up all the places they can get into the house. Get a bunch of steel wool copper scouring pads and go all around the outside of your house, shoving them into any hole over 1/4-inch diameter. Cooper won't rust.

Clean up anything outside they eat, like fruit, compost fixings, standing water, etc.

No matter what they always find a way into the walls of my house from time to time.

I'm not a fan of poison, but it does the job here quickly. Vector control folks set out bait traps. They don't recommend using them if you have children scurrying around or small animals that can get inside them. They told me if the rat eats it and then a cat or bird eats the rat, the poison will already be neutralized and not affect them, but can't swear that personally. As for smell, dying rats tend to go to some remote place before the die, not near the house.

Plague of Field Mice
 

Lil Abner wrote:

I told my wife to set a few traps under the couters because they had
gotten into a box of macaroni.
She insisted on using glue traps and didn't bait them
This evening I killed a little mouse near the cat's bowl.
Looked outside a little bit ago and saw three apparently going for the
dog's bowl.
They ran under the mower and under the dog's house when I turned the
light on.
These are about two inches long minus the tail. there are probably a
bunch of them and their parents and grandparents.
We've never had a problem before but do now.
What's the best way to get rid of them?

i prefer snap traps over poison (then i don't
have any worries about poisons getting into the
rest of the yard if i bury the mice or feed them
to the crows) i don't buy any traps with the
big plastic trip pan they break even more easily
than the others.

peanut butter put on the trip pan works
fairly well, i always put just a little on
top and then put most of it on the bottom
so that the mouse has to push up the trip
pan to get at the rest of it. seems to
get them.

my first winter here i trapped over 30 mice in
just a few weeks. they had gotten in the walls.
after trapping them we sealed up what we could
find to make it harder for them. now i have a
few each year that leave tracks in the snow. i
put out traps when i see the tracks and that
usually gets them. then i plug up whatever new
holes they've made.

to encourage owls we have a nice flat layer
of limestone mulch around most of the house out
a ways. and they do get some of them as i can
hear them hunt sometimes. we also encourage
snakes during the warmer months. removing
any piles of dead grass and burying them deep
so that the mice won't nest near the house helps
a lot too. oh, and we don't have outdoor pets
so no extra food is out there and we don't feed
the birds (we do have bird baths to encourage
them being around and that does work, but for
food they have to forage and help out getting
the bugs in the gardens).


songbird

Plague of Field Mice
 

Lil Abner said:

I told my wife to set a few traps under the couters because they had
gotten into a box of macaroni.
She insisted on using glue traps and didn't bait them
This evening I killed a little mouse near the cat's bowl.
Looked outside a little bit ago and saw three apparently going for the
dog's bowl.
They ran under the mower and under the dog's house when I turned the
light on.
These are about two inches long minus the tail. there are probably a
bunch of them and their parents and grandparents.
We've never had a problem before but do now.
What's the best way to get rid of them?

This.

http://www.rodenator.com/

Accept no substitute.

Watch the vid! =)
--
Eggs

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

Plague of Field Mice
 

Eggs Zachtly wrote in news:194pzng8btfdz
:

I told my wife to set a few traps under the couters because they had
gotten into a box of macaroni.
She insisted on using glue traps and didn't bait them
This evening I killed a little mouse near the cat's bowl.
Looked outside a little bit ago and saw three apparently going for the
dog's bowl.
They ran under the mower and under the dog's house when I turned the
light on.
These are about two inches long minus the tail. there are probably a
bunch of them and their parents and grandparents.
We've never had a problem before but do now.
What's the best way to get rid of them?

A hungry cat.