Ten at once!

[thistlebloom]

When the slobs, er....neighbors across the street abandoned their house they left more than trash behind.

This winter I noticed a lot of droppings in the feed shed, then the coop started smelling like a mouse hole and I saw droppings in the feeder. I set some snap traps and caught about 8 mice. The droppings continued, only slightly less volume, and the mice were not getting trapped anymore so I made a couple of 5 gallon bucket traps.

Nothing for a week, then I caught one in the feed shed, but they weren't going to the bucket in the chicken pen.

The coop starts smelling worse even after I strip and clean the whole thing. I had been leaving the pop door open until I went to bed and could sense the mice bailing out the door and off the ramp when I went out in the dark to close it. Grrrr..that made me so mad!

I also saw where they had gnawed the wood around the outside of the pop door trying to get in. Yesterday I looked up box traps and made plans to get one this week. But I really hate spending money because of vermin!

So I moved the bucket trap around a bit to make it easier/ more welcoming to mice last night when I locked the girls in. This a.m. when I let them out I glanced in the bucket as usual, not expecting anything...I saw a blob, looked closer...holy cow! There were 10
blobs in there! I was so excited! ( yeah, I don't lead a real stimulating life ) I'm sure that's not the end of them, but I hope that made a dent.

Do any of you have tips or surefire ways of dealing with mice?

 

[majorcatfish]

snap traps are not worth their weight.
decon poison works good as well but you need to keep it out of reach of other animals
glue traps with peanut butter works really good, again keep out of reach of animals.

we had 3 mice here at the house that destoryed over 30 dollars worth of food.
tried the snaps 0 for 3
went to glue 3 for 3

 

[seedcorn]

I vote for poison. Cats are of limited value and crap everywhere.

 

[Jared77]

I've had good luck with glue traps also. I place something like a sunflower seed or cheerio in the middle of the trap standing up on its edge or bottom to entice them to walk across it. I figure if I can encourage them to take the path I want rather than hope I'm on the right path its a more successful trap. I've caught a few mice on the same glue trap using that trick. I'm not a big fan of having to do it but they do work.

Problem with poison is its indiscriminate it will kill whatever eats it. If you know only vermin will get into it then go for it. But that's my reluctance with that stuff.

 

[vfem]

Yeah, I was thinking something like those sticky traps. They walk on it and their paws get stuck. You'd have to dispose of them after though

 

[thistlebloom]

Yeah, I was thinking something like those sticky traps. They walk on it and their paws get stuck. You'd have to dispose of them after though

And that's the nasty bit because they aren't dead, and they struggle and look at you *shudder*.

 

[vfem]

Well you can feed them poison after you have them and then let them die stuck there and poisoned?!

 

[thistlebloom]

That would be awful IMO. When I have used the sticky traps I use a bucket of water to put them down. But it's kind of terrible to see them struggling. That's the advantage of snap traps, they kill them instantly.

 

[canesisters]

Hummm.. you could always give them to your chickens. I don't know if your girls would eat them. I've heard of folks who have chickens that will catch and eat mice (wouldn't that be good?). I know that I have at least 1 in my coop and the hens seem completely unaware. What do you do with the mice from your bucket traps?

 

[thistlebloom]

Hummm.. you could always give them to your chickens. I don't know if your girls would eat them. I've heard of folks who have chickens that will catch and eat mice (wouldn't that be good?). I know that I have at least 1 in my coop and the hens seem completely unaware. What do you do with the mice from your bucket traps?

My chickens don't seem to be very good mousers, and they definitely are too refined to eat a DEAD mouse! I did find one in the coop one morning that they had pecked to death, but stopped at actually eating it. I dig a hole back in the trees and bury the bucket mice in it.