Mouse season is well underway!

[Brad_bb]

And I've been whacking them left and right!  Those dirty little buggers chew things up, and poop and pee all over.  Besides being disease carriers, I would get so mad when I'd find mouse pee on one of my classic cars, on the body or the engine compartment.  Mouse nests are discusting.
   My best weapon has been the Victor mouse trap with the 1"x1" yellow plastic tongue.  They are the most sensative.  You just take the smallest amount of Peanut butter and put it in the center hole.  You want in in there so they have to dig at it, thus setting off the trap.  Don't just wipe it on the surface.  I also try to use the smallest amount possible to reduce carried scent.  I want a passing mouse to smell it, but not waft outside and attract them in by the smell. 
   I've been trapping and will continue until I get the shop cleaned and organized enought to locate where the new entry point(s) is and foam it up. 

[TreeWinder]

CAT  but then again may do more damage to the cars then the mice.

[SwampDonkey]

Did I tell ya about the mouse this fall that left home with me under the car hood? Then when I arrived at my work block some 25 miles away he crawled out and up the spiral antenna. It hung on like an acrobat as I went across a field road. Then I finally stopped at my work area, got out of the car, and bent the antenna over and flung the little bugger into the brush, his new home for the winter.

It's a good maple seed year here and those little mice can stash a lot of seed.

[Don_Papenburg]

Use steel wool as a foam backer . mice love to chew through foam . I had a half stack of 1/2" extruded foam that the little b@$$#*^@$mined into pooping and peeing all the way . 

[SwampDonkey]

I get mice climbing up the water pipes in the walls from the hot water heater. I clean the top of that off several times of the year. Poop and sawdust as they chew.  I can't even see their trail. The holes up through the timbers for the pipes seem smaller than a mouse. But they are up there, I here a mouse once in a while and they seem active after 2:00 am for an hour or two.

[Norm]

Patty bought some dryer sheets to keep them out of my track equipment. I've caught a dozen or so in the trap next to them. 

[Magicman]

Their ability to get into places where they can't is truly amazing as well as disgusting.   

[sandhills]

Magicman, I couldn't agree more.  I have a buddy that swears by using ex-lax  never tried that approach but do use the drier sheets in our semi cab, still have mice in there  .

[Chuck White]

This thread reminds me, I've got to get out to the garage and remove the covers and shields from my mill before the critters get into it and set up house-keeping!


EDIT:  Done, it's now 11:05.  No sign of the critters.

I've had a pan of D-Con out there for a few weeks now.  Got rid of a bunch in a hurry.
I won't put the poison in the house though, I use the mouse traps instead.

[chevytaHOE5674]

Have two cats and have little to no mouse problem anymore. One full time indoor cat that takes care of any that make it inside. The other cat is indoor/outdoor and loves to hunt. Don't even have mice in my woodpile anymore.

[Chuck White]

I'd have a cat (mouser) too, except that Sheila is absolutely alergic to anything that has fur.

[zopi]

Have seven cats...four of them are sudden death...
Dolly Wog the Log Dawg is half Russel, and half whippet...and is just about to decimate the mole population in our yard...

[Magicman]

Mice and Sweetgum.  That's two things that I hates.   

[petefrombearswamp]

Park my wife's '50 GMC pickup in my pole building in the winter. Lots of Moth  Balls and keep the hood open. Takes about a week to get the smell out of the cab in the spring.
No probs so far. 2 cats at the house
Don't see many squirrels any more and fewer birds, but no rodents.
At my Adirondack cabin I keep a 5 gallon bucket with a wire strung beer can in the middle smeared with peanut butter in the center which catches lots of mice. about 2" of water in the  bottom with anti freeze.
Stinks some but is effective.

[Brad_bb]

Never liked the poison, they end up dying somewhere out of site and then start stinking to high heaven.  Hate the smell of Moth balls too.  Trap and dispose.

[MattD23]

Can't help but share this, this is our #1 killer out at our hunting shack where the little buggers are rampant Get yourself a 5 gallon bucket, drill 2 holes on the top edge and run a wire. In the middle of the wire, put a soda bottle lathered in peanut butter. Put a little ramp up to the top, just a little board and fill the pale up with about 3 inches of anti-freeze. The little furballs will come running up the ramp, jump onto the pop bottle, and spin off down into the anti-freeze! Give it a shot, it'll work!!

[SwampDonkey]

It always worked at the logging camp, would have 2 or 3 in the bucket by morning. 

[fuzzybear]

  At the wood lot I use a live trap baited with peanut butter. I have found that PB is the best bait, they cannot resist it. I have set the bait gone out to the truck and returned to a mouse already in the trap. Live traps work great when you have multiple mice. I have had 5 in the trap at once. Winter time they freeze to death in the trap, summer, well they get a chance at survival. If they make it out of the dog yard alive. Yes dogs will catch and eat mice also.
FB

[Mooseherder]

Can't help but share this, this is our #1 killer out at our hunting shack where the little buggers are rampant Get yourself a 5 gallon bucket, drill 2 holes on the top edge and run a wire. In the middle of the wire, put a soda bottle lathered in peanut butter. Put a little ramp up to the top, just a little board and fill the pale up with about 3 inches of anti-freeze. The little furballs will come running up the ramp, jump onto the pop bottle, and spin off down into the anti-freeze! Give it a shot, it'll work!!

This method works extremely well.
Just make sure no animals have access to the bucket.
In a related thread.
http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,50812.0.html

[mrcaptainbob]

I spray a STRONG mixture of hot sauce and water all over the wiring shroud and engine tins. All around the sparkplug holes, every where I can. No problems. The hotter the sauce the better.

[Riggs]

We have 3 barn cats that LOVE to hunt. The only time they ever want in the house is when they have caught something. It never fails when we have some sort of get together at the house, (kids birthday party cookouts ect) one of 'em will come strolling up with a still squirming rat. They are hard on the rabbits though.

[SwampDonkey]

If the rabbits are them tree girdling, seedling devouring kind, they can have them to.

[Dale Hatfield]

I had to start trapping about 2 weeks ago .  Im afraid im going to tag out here pretty quick . The rain has drove them in. Could use a barn cat. Seams we either have a bunch  or none.
DanG field mouse put the end to the schools LT15 coil wire one year.
They make a mouse wall to place on the ground around stored cars.

[Al_Smith]

Here's the cure ,golden feret .You don't even have to turn it loose,the mice will leave .However you have to deal with the feret which is rather aromatic .Some can be rather fiesty too .Souped up  weasel on steroids .

[SwampDonkey]

Actually we did use wild weasels. They would come into the potato shed from the nearby creek. You talk about keeping a place clean of mice. They're quicker than the hand. Nice to live where such animals aren't all shot and trapped off the place.

Ever tell ya about the pine martin in the sandwich bag in the back seat of the truck?

[JD350Cmark]

I spray a STRONG mixture of hot sauce and water all over the wiring shroud and engine tins. All around the sparkplug holes, every where I can. No problems. The hotter the sauce the better.

Have you noticed any rust issues?  How does it smell after it warms up or is this on a vehicle / equipment that sits for long periods of time?

Anyone else tried this?

I found a nest and poop all over the enginge compartment of my F-450 yesterday.  It's been sitting for about a month, tarped.  Chewed the rubber battery post cover a bit, I think thats all, but I also noticed a set of parking / clearance lights not working on the bed...

My dad has been trapping mice, rats & pack rats for well over 10 years.  He keeps count, somewhere in 400 + range to date.  They just keep coming out of the woods.

I starting thinking last night about something to place under the wheels to detour them.  Maybe a ring of hot sauce around the tires?

[sparky1]

I too use the mouse traps with the little yellow square pad, and i also just smear a little PB on it. I have caught over 20 within the last year on the same trap and the same PB. I dont use the poision because of my dog, shes a lab and she will chew on what ever she can find. It ticks me off, but I dont wanna find her lying in a pool of antifreeze some morning either.  Having to deal with mice, bats, moles and what ever other critters you can imagine is just one of the dis advantage of living in the sticks!  Still beats the heck outa city life though!!

[Brad_bb]

JD350Cmark,
The first thing to do, I try to find out where they are coming in at and eliminate that entry point.  I am catching more lately because I haven't been able to do my bi-annual sweep.  But soon I'll have every thing put away and be able to do that, and that reduces the number that enter greatly.  Last winter I caught only two mice.  I have trapped 10 so far in the last 6 weeks, so that is some entry point or points I haven't located yet.

[Al_Smith]

  My favorite feret story . My daughter raised the little rascals which would have 4 kits per litter ,Cute little rascals .Her male by the name of "stinky " was almost tame .I'd go get him and let him hop around the house then have a time catching him .

Well one day me and old Stinky were watching TV .Stinky inside my shirt .The damned cat got a tad too close old Stink nailed him right through the ear .The cat froze  and I had to pry that little peckerwoods jaws off that cat .The cat would never get that close  to old Stinky again .

[SwampDonkey]

New way to get ear piercing anyway.

[mrcaptainbob]

I have not seen any evidence, JD350Cmark, of rust or corrosion on the tin. And have not detected any smell from it when running, either. I don't spray the used stuff, as the mice keep away from that. But the not used, or rarely used, do get their dosage.

[captain_crunch]

economy bad enough here we been skinning and butchering em

[D._Frederick]

I have had good luck with the automative box trap that you wind up. It is a sheet metal box approx. 7 inch wide x 10 long and 5 tall. It has about an 1 1/2 hole going  across the  width of the trap. It has a pressure trigger in the middle the hole that releases flap that sweeps the mouse into a storage space. It will catch 6, 7 mice before needing to be emptied, although they will start to smell bad if not remove.

The trap is place next to a wall or where they travel. Cost about $15.

 

[Holmes]

economy bad enough here we been skinning and butchering em

 

[reride82]

I've never used ferrets, but lately we have been using peacocks and they are the best mouse hunters I've ever seen. We used to get mice in the outbuildings and the bulk grain storage buildings. The round metal grain bins weren't ever really affected by the mice. We always had barn cats and a house cat, but like you say, once they caught a mouse they would bring it to the house to show it off even if it wasn't all the way dead. Since we got peacocks they have totally eliminated the mice. We used to catch a few dozen mice a month in the traps and now I don't think we have caught a mouse a year since we got the birds. Although the birds themselves can be pests, pooping everywhere and the one male used to like to sit on top of our quonset and buzz ya when you walked across the yard. I swear he made a laughing sound everytime...

[chain]

We use gluboards, gluboards and more gluboards, not only mice but many other little critters...small snakes, lizards, spiders, beetles, little bitty bugs, centipedes, even mosquitoes have we caught. Really good for isolating entrances of critters, such as inner edge of patio doors, around floor vents, pipes, etc.

[Lambee10]

got a barn cat that sure earns her keep.  she gets up on the boards in the top of the barn and holds court. (picture Lion King) Its kinda wierd walking out to feed and all the Horses and goats are looking up at her.


Came in the other morning to the feed room and just after I turned the light on in the feed room a raccoon jumped out of the feed container.  It is a big plastic tote with a lid on it.  My cattle dog, Oakley, thought it was interesting but just stood there by the door as it climbed up the 2x4 to get out.  Just then, a second one popped out of the bin.  I looked at Oakley and he was looking at me for direction with a face like "what the...)  Well, when the lid bumped up again and a third one came out Oakley figures it is getting too crowded now and jumps out the door but still is peeking in.  I kid you not, the fourth one came out and I swear it was yawning.  I looked back out the door and Oakley and my barn car were just sitting there starring.  I think he really wanted to herd them out of there but he did not know how to get them becasue they were all over the place!   

me thinks I may have a raccoon problem.