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

[mikehaugen]

Is there some sort of food source for them? There's gotta be something that they are eating.

whatever he is baiting the traps with

[sixdogs]

Caught four more yesterday. I feel like the Pied Piper calling them in.

Odd point here---I'm old enough to remember the mohair car interiors of years ago and, after this mouse trapping extravaganza i'm engaged in, wonder if "mohair" is an inside joke that really means "mousehair". The two look strikingly similar.

Food supply, sure...there's hundreds of thousands of acres of corm and soybean fields around me but I keep the fields tillaged up and there is almost no other places for them to hide. Yeah, they're eating something all right. For now, it seems to be peanut butter in a trap. I have seen some snakes last year so maybe?

[Dagoof]

Around my place in Idaho it's mostly voles, but like you, I can kill as many as I want to.

My kid brother went out in my pasture with a garden hose last year and killed 42 one afternoon.

I hate those suckers for chewing up my lawn and trees, but I can't get too carried away with poison because I'm sure the neighbors dogs and local hawks would pay the price.

[Dagoof]

Around my place in Idaho it's mostly voles, but like you, I can kill as many as I want to.

My kid brother went out in my pasture with a garden hose last year and killed 42 one afternoon.

I hate those suckers for chewing up my lawn and trees, but I can't get too carried away with poison because I'm sure the neighbors dogs and local hawks would pay the price.

[sixdogs]

Five more...and I only have 11 or 12 traps set out.

[mikehaugen]

This makes me laugh, I was in the garage the other night and saw a mouse and thought of this thread. He must have been new because I haven't seen any evidence of mice in quite a while, so I set 2 traps right away. 2 hours later when I went back out there, I had already caught him. Have had the traps still set for a few days now and haven't gotten anything so I am pretty sure he was the only one... and I am surrounded by corn fields. I don't see a lot of predators, so maybe it's the 2 cats in the house. They catch more mice in the house than I get in the garage. Glad it hasn't been a big problem so far- surprising since I heat my garage all winter.

[Dagoof]

Had to take drastic measures today.

As the snow melted this spring, I was left with a big snowdrift in front and back of my house. Voles were living underneath the drifts. You could see holes all around, and watch them come out and in from the house windows. I knew that if I didn't do something quick, there would be no yard left when the drifts finally melted in a couple weeks.

So I called up the neighbors kids and got out the snow blower. Once I started cleaing the drift, those suckers started pouring out, and the kids stomped them. A few voles chose a quicker death, but the snow blower didn't mind.

All in all we killed thirty of the little suckers.

LOL too much fun.

[sixdogs]

Four more. One of them must have been on the spring part of the trap when it went off and got thrown quite a distance. DOA for whatever reason since they seem to die from being scared to death.

[sixdogs]

OK, six more and I have a new theory. I wonder if they might travel great distances in search of food? Maybe 1/8th or 1/4 of a mile. Does this seem possible?
Sure would explain a lot and maybe they are merely carpetbaggers when they pass by my place?.

[Soundguy]

house mice can have a territory around 10-30' with resources extending or limiting that number. I imagine a deer mouse has a bit more territory.. but I wouldn't think in the 'miles' or fractions therof region.