Ten at once!

[bj taylor]

I found a mouse starring at me the other night in the hoop house. the coop is in the hoop house, but is, I think, mouse proof. i'm expecting to start seeing some rat snakes in my hoop house very soon. I've got chicks, eggs, mice - what's not to like?
blast - i'm thinking i'm going to throw one of my cats in there to spend the night & see if they do any good. cats are pretty unreliable though - they have their own agenda.

 

[Nyboy]

Do not waste your money on sonic mouse repellers they do not work! Good luck

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Interesting thread. I have not been able to get out to the greenhouse and the animals as often as I used to. Saturday I discovered that my big rooster (easily 10 pounds) is a very good mouser. I had to sit down to rest and I selected a bale of alfalfa in the barn to have a cup of coffee. Big Roo is my buddy and he always comes over to me to say hello. He got half way to me and stopped perfectly still. In an instant he pecked at the straw on the floor and came up with a mouse in his mouth. He pecked it a few times and it was dead as a doornail. He must have been proud because he ran outside to show all of the girls. Maybe they had a tea party - oops I mean a mouse party.

Something that has worked very well for me is to cut a pieces of 2" PVC pipe about 16" to 18" long. Put about 10 to 20 of the little blue/green pellets of DeCon mouse poison in each pipe and lay them down on the ground or floor at the base of the wall or fence. Push the little pile of pellets toward the middle of the pipe with a hammer handle or broomstick and leave it alone for a week or so. You will make a serious dent in the mouse population this way. The other animals - dogs, cats, chickens, goats, etc. cannot get to the poison in the pipe. I sometimes put a heavy rock on the pipe if I'm concerned about the bigger animals carrying it away. I have even made some heavy duty re-bar staples to anchor the pipes to the ground. But if you find the dead mice do not feed them to your chickens as they may contain some of the poison. I used to worry that this method would harm the snakes in the barn but they don't seem to be interested in the bait.

This is just a piece of PVC that I put down for this picture. It's a little too long but it shows what I'm talking about. You can even paint the pipe some cammo color and leave it in your garden all year 'round.

 

[thistlebloom]

That's a great tip Smiles! I have never used poison, but your method would certainly cut out the worry of other animals getting into it. Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Heres my mouse trap. Its where the chickens cant get to it and next to where I store the chicken feed. Usually I have three triggers set, using chicken feed as bait. There have been times Ive caught three mice at a time.

I put a couple of inches of water in the bucket. This drowns the mice so they die pretty quickly. It also keeps them from jumping. Their feet cant touch the bottom to push off with. They cant get out of this bucket, it's too deep, but without the water they could jump out of a smaller bucket.

When I get dead mice in it, I just dump it in the chicken run and retrieve the triggers. My chickens play keep-away with the dead mice and eventually eat them. There is no poison involved so Im not worried about that. My chickens are lousy mousers. They dont even bother chasing a mouse when they see one, besides mice are most active after dark when mine are on the roost for the night. Other than providing a disposal service, my chickens are not any help with the mice.

I recently tried a different version of this but it didnt work out as well as I liked. Ill probably retry it now that I handled a certain problem. I took the same bucket and drilled small holes right near the top and put a round bar in that. I took a soft drink can and poked a hole in the bottom, then threaded that on the bar. I put peanut butter on the soft drink can and fixed a ramp so the mice could get to it. The idea is that the mice reach a bit to get to the peanut butter, put some weight on the can, and fall in the water. One problem with mine is that you have to reset the triggers each time. By spreading the peanut butter in a line around the can, you never have to reset it.

My problem was that the night I set this, something big came in and tore it up. The bucket was on its side, the bar out, and the can crushed. I thought raccoon so I set my live trap, using peanut butter for bait, of course. He next morning I had a big possum in the trap. Oh well, I take care of the possum and reset it for the raccoon. The next morning, nothing. I try it again the next night. Another different possum the next morning. Again I take care of the problem and reset it. Nothing for a week. So I guess it was not a raccoon but a possum to start with. Ill soon reset that trap with a new soft drink can and see how it works.

Thistle, is this the type of trap youre talking about, the one with the soft drink can?

 

[lesa]

When you mention "bucket" Thistle- are you using the Adirondack Mouse Trap method? With a can and peanut butter?

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

What a great job! 10 in one night.

 

[ducks4you]

IF you can keep all cats, dogs and chickens away from the mice, I would try Warfin. Farm supply stores sell them in break-apart pieces. The mice or RATS! 'O' eat it and die. It is the same chemical as used in human heart medicine.

 

[Nyboy]

Old wives tale is put out trays of coke soda. Mice and rats cant burp so they bloat and die. I have never tried it.

 

[thistlebloom]

When you mention "bucket" Thistle- are you using the Adirondack Mouse Trap method? With a can and peanut butter?

Yes Lesa and Ridge, it's the 5 gallon bucket with a few inches of water in the bottom with a can suspended with a wire running through it. I don't have any soda cans so I used a small nut can with a hole going through the plastic lid and out the bottom. The can is baited with PB.

It's strange because I had one (bucket trap ) in the feed shed and one in the chickens lean to next to the coop for at least three weeks and only caught one mouse, than all of a sudden it was a cloudburst of mice!

Nyboy I've heard of that too. I think you should try it and report back!