Mice

[arkydog]

MY NEIGHBORS AND I USE "JUST ONE BITE" FOR GETTING RID OF THE MICE. GET THEM AT THE FEED STORE. JUST THROW THEM IN THE CORNERS AND WHEN THE BAG GET EATEN OPEN, YOU KNOW MICE OR RATS WERE THERE. ALMOST ALL OF THE TIME THE RODENTS WILL LEAVE LOOKING FOR WATER AND EXPIRE OUTSIDE. FOR CHIPMUNKS THAT LIKE TO "RE-ARRANGE" DECON, GET A PACK OF JUICY FRUIT GUM, UNWRAP, AND TOSS IN THE AREA. FOR SOME REASON IT REALLY WORKS.

 

[buck1]

I used to work for Purina and they made a brand that had warfarin in it...yep, the same stuff they give heart patients (in smaller doses of course)/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. It makes quick work of the critters with little smell because of how it chemically reacted with the blood. If you can stand cats, that's the best alternative. My two barn cats are invaluable in pest removal, including the occasional moles that come out of the woods nearby.

 

[Soundguy]

I put a cat door in my barn, and one of my cats 'lives' out there.. we feed her in the barn, and she sleeps in the hay bale stacks, right next to the bagged livestock feed. We used to have pests, but now don't. Here's the funny part.. scouts honor that its the truth. Last year, we had to put the cat on a diet, and switch her to a 'lite cat food' We were getting concerned because of her size.. figured she might be trecking a few hundred yards to a neighbor and eating.. turns out she was eating dozens of rodents per week.. as soon as winter hit, she slimmed up immediatly... this year seems to be less of a population...

Soundguy

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Sounds like maybe you needed a couple of barn cats. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Scott_in_WVA]

There is a good mouse poison our local feed store sells...named..... Assault.... works good for my rats,they also make a rat poison....the way I feed the rat poison get a little plastic cup that u do not use to drink with etc....put some of the pellets in the cup put a little sugar on the pellets and put some hot water in the cup and stir it all up and pour it down the rat hole...and let them little fellows enjoy the nice little tasty morsel u have just prepared for them...or u can just put the pellets out...but the mixture is something I dreamed up...

 

[nicklan]

Sedgewood,
Instead of a garbage can use a 5 gal pail 1/4 filled with water.
For some reason they can't "jump up" near as well.

Nick

 

[Gfranklin]

My Rat Terrier JD and I went out to the building and he soon started his mousing routine. I then noticed that he had his nose stuck into the Harley tailpipe just as far as he could and he was doing those deep breathing type sniffs. Recognizing that behavior, I twisted the throttle several times and hit the ignition. A mouse shot out and hit the wall 6 feet away, still 6" off the ground. It layed there for a couple of seconds and then ran off with dog in persuit. Man did I laugh.

Greg

 

[BOOMHAUER]

Try this, a trick I learned from an old timer with a deer camp w/ mice. Get a 5 gal. bucket and put 2" of antifreeze in the bottom of it. Take a dowel, 3/4" or so, and slide a beer can with both ends cut off over it. Fasten can to dowel. Cut notches in the lip of the bucket for the dowel to sit in. Put a dab of peanut butter on each side of the beer can. Finally Place a stick from the floor up to the top of the bucket.

Mouse walks up stick across dowel, steps on side of beer can to get at treat, can rolls and deposits mouse in bucket...antifreeze keeps mice from smellin' Works slick!

 

[HunterdonPaul]

We had tremendous problems with mice once winter came. The mice wouldn't actually enter our home but just be in the walls. I can tell you to hear them scratching around in the walls and attic when it is time to sleep played funny games with your nerves. We have fields everywhere around our home so there are alot of them. I tried poison and traps. It sort-a worked. I caught alot of mice in the traps but it never ended.

My father tried to convince me to get a cat but I resisted. Well a friend at work was trying to get rid of three kittens. He said that the mother was a really good mouser. I took the kittens despite not liking cats too much. I gotta say since then I have had NO PROBLEMS with mice, rats or any other animals smaller than cats. These cats live outside and we feed them once a day. Their other meals they must hunt for.

So my advice to you search for a FREE KITTEN ad. They're everywhere.

Good Luck.

 

[Soundguy]

Thats what we do. We used to have rodent problems in our barn. Rats in the feed, rats in the grass seed. rats in the hay loft, etc. I have a bunch of indoor cats.. but nothing outdoors.. i know i know.. wifes idea.... Anyway, we picked up (-another-) stray from work, last year, got it all doctored up and vaccinated and altered. She is like a big game hunter. She lives in the barn, and hunts our property, and adjacent fields. At one point this year, I actually had to start buying her that lite-diet- dry cat food, as she was catching soo much prey, she was getting fat. I leave a small bown of food for her in the barn, and she eats whenever. I check it every night when doing the horse stalls. We call her the terminator.... as there is always some sort of dismembered creature drug up by the front of the barn..... This morning she left me a half eaten 6" ( 10" w/ tail ) rat.... lovely.

Needless to say, we don't have rodent / squirrel /bird problems in the barn anymore... nor do I think the neighbors do either. There is only one other cat in our entire neighborhood, but there are 2 fox that we see occasionally.

soundguy

 

[Solo]

Well I have about four boxes of moth balls in the shed and they seem to work very well, so I'm going to keep this up for awhile. Thanks for all the adivce.
Solo

 

[g42guy]

Here's one from a classic car guy. Instead of moth balls (which can stink up your garage or car) use Oil of Peppermint on a cotton ball. NOT peppermint extract, "peppermint oil" or "oil of peppermint". You can find it in SOME grocery stores or a candy making supply store. Use just like moth balls. I have used it for two winters now in my '63 Falcon Convert, a few on the floor, trunk and under the hood. Repeat every month or so, so they stay good and strong. Plus your garage smells minty fresh!

 

[Anonymous Poster]

coke works pretty good. Have to put fresh out every day tho.

ducky

 

[tiltbed]

Ya know..that`s one thing that really has me buffaloed...I place d con,ya know the lil green packs,and i`ll find the stuff in my boots...hidden in lil nooks and crannys.even found a nice little nest...d con and toilet papper under the dash of the 3000...grrrr was that ever a nasty mess...thought if the lil critters picked the stuff up they would croak...guess not.the idea with the moth balls does work..threw a few handsfull where the case and ford are parked...so far so good ...happy mouse hunting..lol...Sid

 

[Rus91]

I have 2 barn/garage cats as well. The problem I have is not with the mice anymore but the racoons that are attracted to the cat food. I can't seem to win. I kill off the small ones and then their big brothers move in.

 

[Soundguy]

We used to have raccoons come in fo rhte cat food, but now that we let the dogs out in the pasture, no more raccoon invaders.

Well I had a mouse live long enough in the barn to make a nest in the engine compartment of my NH 1920 before the cat got it.

I noticed my cheapo disposable orange flagman vest ( I wear it when roading the tractor.... figure the extra visibility can't hurt...) Anyway, the vest was drug from behind the seat, and under the hood and chewed up good, and rolled into a nest with some leaves under the air cleaner canister. Luckilly nothing else seems to be chewed on. The nest was vacant.. so I assume the cat got it.. as the cat likes to sleep on the tractor seat often... ( cat gets more 'seat time' than I do.. )

Soundguy

 

[DaleW]

I just bought a six pack of the electronic pest repellers at Sam's Club for $24.00 with a 2 year guaranteed to work money back offer that was hard to resist

 

[beenthere]

What I have found with mouse poison pellets, is to let them have at it for a few days or a week. Then remove the remaining poison. Seems they pack it away like there is no tomorrow. When it is gone, they eat what they have stored. Seems to do the trick for about 25 years now.

Also found the poison works best if used regularly. I try not to wait until the mice are already settled inside to put out the poison, or they will die inside. Smells bad. Feed them when they come inside to look around the first time, and they will die outside (works for me). I use traps as well to keep them out in the woods and not in the garage or the shed.

 

[neilw]

Around here I get kangaroo rats and common field mice. I have been successful with the bar style rat poison suspended in the engine compartment ( have to remember to remove before start up) and moth balls tied into one leg of a panty hose hanging between the diesel tank and instrument panel.

Rarely I still see a rat or nesting material in the engine compartment. So I'm alway beating a path to the next great rat killing idea. I've seen two new one that I was wondering if anyone else had tried.

A: The rat zapper. Looks like Flordia style capital punishment for the dirty rats.

B: Liquid rat poisons. Seems like it might work here very well since my place is very dry many months of the year.

 

[rps]

I don't know about the rat zapper, but I don't think the liquid poison would work for kangaroo rats. They have adapted to dry habitats so well that some species do not drink water. They get all the water they need from metabolizing their food.

I never thought I would need that bit of trivia I learned in my mammalogy class.

Robert