Is there a limit to the number of mice you can trap in a barn?

   / Is there a limit to the number of mice you can trap in a barn?
  • Thread Starter
#91  
Updates on this. First, for a moment it all ended. No mice for maybe a week and I thought it was all over. That Spring had given them cover and food outside.

But then, it started again and I'm trapping as normal. Got maybe 20 over the past 10 days and the ones I look at seem to be all male. Only one female. Now, remember I'm on bare flat farm ground with corn and soybean stubble from last year. Almost zero in the way of rubble and there aren't all thse mice in the barn. They have to be traveling at least 1/8th of a mile. So, I figure the male mice are carpetbaggers in search of some strange mouse tail and wound up going for the peanut butter in my traps. It could happen.
 
   / Is there a limit to the number of mice you can trap in a barn? #92  
Anything is possible.

You must be in the midst of a mouse population boom, that's all I can figure. There could be numerous mouse holes/dens in the stubble fields around you that wouldn't be very noticeable. I wonder if the problem will lessen when those fields are worked up for planting?
 
   / Is there a limit to the number of mice you can trap in a barn?
  • Thread Starter
#93  
Just an update.
I stopped counting last spring at around 285 and while I caught a few more after that I didn't keep score. I figure maybe 300 for the year. So I started up again last week, hoping to drive them all back to the Mayflower but caught only one. I figured there would be a plenty to catch after the summer but no. I wonder if I decimated them so badly last year I took out the breeding stock, or at least damaged it, and they are trying to regroup? I'm going to set another five traps today in the back barn and see what happens.
 
   / Is there a limit to the number of mice you can trap in a barn? #94  
Mouse populations are cyclical. Maybe you'll get a couple years off. :laughing:
 
   / Is there a limit to the number of mice you can trap in a barn? #95  
I just caught a big rat in my barn last week. I was surprised as the trap had been set 3-4 weeks ago, and I finally had quit checking it, since had caught nothing. Opened the door to the feedroom one morning, and knew from the odor "something died". Checked the trap, and there is was. I dumped him outside and a turkey vulture/buzzard carried him off!

Last Fall/Winter, I caught several in the traps, but no where near 100, but less 300! :shocked:
 
   / Is there a limit to the number of mice you can trap in a barn?
  • Thread Starter
#96  
And I live on flat ground with crop ground all around. Not many places to hide. I just kept setting traps and they kept getting trapped.
 
   / Is there a limit to the number of mice you can trap in a barn?
  • Thread Starter
#97  
All of a sudden..no mice. Last year finished out with about 300 mice. I just lost count.
This year, despite my best efforts, I only caught two...and this is the time you catch them. So who knows? Probably mice populations are cyclical plus I caught a lot of the breeding stock last year. So the answer is, I full press eradication followed by a maintenance program of trapping and the mouse problem can probably be solved.
 
   / Is there a limit to the number of mice you can trap in a barn? #98  
Maybe you had more snakes around this summer. They eat rats and keep the population down.
 
   / Is there a limit to the number of mice you can trap in a barn?
  • Thread Starter
#99  
   / Is there a limit to the number of mice you can trap in a barn? #100  
The Secret of Nihm
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
 

Footer Links 1

Top