My brother had a rat that was eating the oranges on his orange tree. The rat would just hollow them out. The rat is no longer with us as my brother got that rat bassturd.
Had a mouse for a while. Nothing worked. Then it just went away. Later found a little nest in a bag of packing peanuts. They were the biodegradable kind, made out of corn starch. I think he died from starvation even though he ate his fill. Sorta like the tribbles in the grain storage.
Edit: Why am I typing like I'm channeling Rorschach?
Last edited by RichVR; 05-09-2012 at 03:17 PM.
You are not the first person to have this problem.
There exists a form of spring trap which comes in a plastic enclosure. They work by coming with bait inside and a hole in which the mouse enters to spring the trap, at which point the trap is just thrown away. Unless some one or something is small enough to get into that hole, they won't be able to get caught in the spring.
Or, just go to a Home Depot type store and just ask for children and pet safe traps. They should have several options available.
PS) Having a rat problem is very different than a mouse problem. Rats are a lot bigger and thus a lot more dangerous. A rat would probably just eat a typical mouse trap.
Or use them as sandals as it strolls across your living room.Originally Posted by Greatatlantic
Rats are much, much worse than mice. There is no cute factor with rats.
There are also various brands of electrocution traps:
http://www.amazon.com/Agri-Zap-RZCOO...bxgy_lg_text_c
There are Youtube vids of it working, if you don't mind seeing rats electrocuted.
Last edited by John Many Jars; 05-09-2012 at 05:18 PM.
And a rat trap will easily break fingers or toes.
This.
We used these when we had a little mouse problem (found the entry point, patched that, problem solved). They worked like a charm. Little peanut butter in the bait hole, wind them up, come back the next day and sprung, and a little heavier with a dead mouse inside. Great trap. No danger of kids springing it, no need to see the dead mouse.
Use peanut butter and the new clamp traps. Worked great.
Damn cat was useless.
Cat 200 bucks.
Trap 1.99.
I just tried these traps out a few weeks ago. They are pretty crap all in all. Really hard to get set and they are definitely one use traps. It did catch the mouse but there is no way in hell you're getting it back out. The traps Major Mal linked are really great though. I've had one down in the basement for years at this point and it has never failed me, plus its easy to dump the carcass and reset.You are not the first person to have this problem.
There exists a form of spring trap which comes in a plastic enclosure. They work by coming with bait inside and a hole in which the mouse enters to spring the trap, at which point the trap is just thrown away. Unless some one or something is small enough to get into that hole, they won't be able to get caught in the spring.
Or, just go to a Home Depot type store and just ask for children and pet safe traps. They should have several options available.
PS) Having a rat problem is very different than a mouse problem. Rats are a lot bigger and thus a lot more dangerous. A rat would probably just eat a typical mouse trap.
We had a mice infestation a few years ago. I used a glue trap once. I don't like them. I had to dispatch the mouse the next day with a shovel. It's impossible to save it from this sort of trap and I didn't want to let it die of hunger / suffocation in a garbage bin or something like that.
After that I always used these traps:
They are cheap, safe, non lethal and are multi-use. I'd hear them snap in the middle of the night and knew I'll have a surprise the next morning. Then me and my little girl would take it to a field somewhere and let it go.
All in all a much better outcome for everyone involved :)
Applying vegetable oil and slowly working it free can remove a mouse from a glue trap without killing it.
But I guess a shovel works too...
But the you have to explain to your spouse why you have an oiled up rodent in your hands.
...:)
On the off-chance anyone cares, opted for standard hardware-store variety glue traps (there's a brand that comes already scented like "mantequilla de cacahuate" and baited with peanut-looking chunks).
Traps were placed near possible points of entry last night and our little visitor was apprehended this morning and escorted off the premises.
Fairly certain little fellow was scrabbling around behind wall-joined kitchen cabinets (might have come through hole under the sink through which dishwasher hoses attach to pipes, which is where he was caught this AM), so ingress likely inaccessible. Plugging up hole, if there is one, definitely not a DIY project. Will be taking this up with apartment building management.
Jeez, look at the ridges on those. They ought to brand them as "The Crusher."
YAY1111!!!!ONEONE
OOPS! Didn't see you captured him already. Nice job! EHre's my long-winded post I'd written before I knew you'd got him.
Some good and not-so-good advice in this thread.
First and foremost try to determine where it is coming from and how many you might have. The old mouse-hole thing is not how micer typically get in a house/apartment. They can squeeze through any opening as small as their head.. which is tiny. So a great way to go is look for droppings and pee trails. If you can't "see" pee trails along your walls you can something like this to more easily see.
If you poison before knowing where they might be living you're setting yourself up for something nasty. Imagine a whole family of mice or rats rotting in a small area you didn't see leaking bacteria/mold/fungus into living area. I'm sure the smell might not be pleasant either.
If you're terribly worried about decapitation, then the plastic Tomcats or those T-rex ones. They work good and I pick up Tomcats at Lowe's. I've killed 10+ mice with them and never seen mutilation. If you use glue traps, don't drown them. You can get euthanizing solution from your vet (or make your own) and easily give the mouse a nice send-off.
If the mice are coming from outside and anyone has an outdoor pet, do NOT use poison. A sick mouse is an easy target and then the cat/dog has poison in their system It may not kill them, but they can still transfer it around via vomiting, urine, or stool.
One thing not mentioned is how nasty a mouse is where you prepare food. They pee all the time and poop a lot too. Sometimes its hard to see if they've been on your counters. Especially with a baby in the house it is terribly unsanitary.
I've used a mixture of peanut butter and sunflower seed on the plastic traps. The oily aroma from cracked sunflower seeds is irresistible couple with peanut butter. If they prefer to lick peanut butter, they will still get trapped as they'll want to drag sunflower seeds back to their nest. A few unshelled and shelled sunflower seeds stuck into smooth peanut butter on the trigger will work great.
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