Time for the Mice to Move Back Indoors
Like clockwork, the one night of colder temps we had last week brought back our unwanted housemates—the mice. So we’ll gear up for the usual one-two-three punch of steel wool, poison and traps, but aren’t feeling too optimistic. (Mrs. B is allergic to cats.) One neighbor of ours is in the process of pumping his…
Like clockwork, the one night of colder temps we had last week brought back our unwanted housemates—the mice. So we’ll gear up for the usual one-two-three punch of steel wool, poison and traps, but aren’t feeling too optimistic. (Mrs. B is allergic to cats.) One neighbor of ours is in the process of pumping his walls full of cellulose insulation, which apparently contains mouse-repelling boric acid—maybe we should try that.This got us thinking about the preferences (and ethics) of readers: Glue traps or old-school snap traps?
Photo by shadphotos
Those glue traps just aren’t sticky enough. I really hate seeing a glue trap with lots of hair on it and signs of a struggle with no mouse in sight.
Plus, the smart-ass city mice in my house now know about them and walk around them, despite the globs of peanut butter.
Most effective cat to get is a cat that has lived & survived in your hood. Bring home a stray…. They are NINJAs. The problem is they are almost too good. The get comfortable and begin to use the mice as toys. Our cat would regularly catch a mouse, and walk around the house with the live prey in his mouth. He would then go to the bathtub and dump the rascal in there and watch him run around in a circle. When the mouse would tire, the cat would swiftly give him a smack to the head, and it would commence running in a circle again, until it died of a heart attack. Now THAT was cruel.
But the best is when he’d sneak up on my wife with a mouth full of mouse, drop it at her feet and then pounce on it again as it tried to escape. My wife would wake the dead with the screams. it would also provide me with an alternative to crunches because of the work my abs would get from laughing so hard.
Oh yea, the zapper has NEVER worked for us. I even saw a critter run right past the friggin’ thing. Pissed me off beyond belief.
Glue traps are cruel? Suffering mice? You people are ridiculous! What’s next, massive protests for the rights of cockroaches?
I doubt that being eaten alive by an animal much larger than you (i.e. a cat) is so much more pleasant than being caught on a glue trap.
Silly.
What about dealing with rats in your yard? Tips and pointers??
the combination of traps and poison is the best of all
The advice from 12:41 is the best of all.
You can have all the traps in the world, the cruelest most effective traps possible, and it still won’t do a bit of good if you’re not stuffing holes and entry places closed, and keeping your home clean and food sealed up. Because the mice will just keep coming.
R A T Z A P P E R ! ! ! !
It is the BEST!! It works like a charm and you NEVER have to see the dead mouse.
I have had 3 Ratzappers in 8 years!! They are GREAT!
We’ve recently moved into a new house in PS. Didn’t realise we had so many non paying tenants ! Via a mixture of poison / glue traps and snap trpas we’ve killed over 30 of them and the numbers are now down. Peanut butter works well on the the glue traps and the snap traps. We also found that moving the traps around worked well. Say every couple of days.
Given the reaction of my better half to mice (i.e. you would think there was a rattlesnake in the room) I have no real problem disposing of them. A quick whack or drown in a bucket works well.
Another tip would be – if you think you have mice but see no obvious droppings then put talc powder donw next to a wall in question. You’ll soon see prints if they’ve been there.
I use prophylactic measures and have only seen a mouse in my home once in twelve years. No I don’t put mice in condoms or put condoms on mice. My husband stuffed all holes with steel wool and later filled them with foam insulation to prevent mice from entering our detatched home. In addition, I keep my kitchen and bathrooms clean and dry. I store all of my dry goods in sealed containers so that I don’t have open boxes or cartons on my kitchen shelves. You can get plastic storage containers from Tupperware, Rubbermaid and even Ikea. Ikea also sells glass storage containers if you have an aversion to plastic. I don’t keep to many old papers, magazines and other clutter. We try not to eat outside of designated eating zones – kitchen dining room and basement rec room. This last practice also helps me stick to a healthier eating schedule. These measures with the strategic placement of roach bait disks will also help eliminate roaches.