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True enough. There is no perfect way. I have whacked an injured critter with a flat shovel to end the misery faster.
My cats seem to have this idea that if I had the mouse first, then it is mine and they wouldn't dream of taking it away from me! Sometimes they will gift me one
Cats are so funny.
My Dad used to do this to train one of my cats that I had hand raised from very young. He had a somewhat wild Manx female that mothered him some so he would take the mouse and give it to the Manx, she would demonstrate in front of my cat Nigel when he was young. Then of course later he would give it to Nigel with the Manx watching over him. The other cat I had, Basil had no interest in food that didn't just lay there in his bowl. Nigel became a pretty good mouser. We had an empty field next to our house and you could see his little black head pop up every once in awhile when he would be poucing on the field mice and rats. He would play in that field and in the evening when I came home from work or school, I would call him and he would come running to me.
So, I live in the city... and we saw a mouse a few months ago. I told my land lord of the problem and requested a non lethal solution to the problem. Mainly because we heard if you poison mice, they can crawl in a unreachable place and die. Then you have a stinky, rotting mouse corps on to deal with in a place you can't even get to. Gross! I used to have a cat, and I never saw a mouse even though my cat was super lazy and de-clawed (she was already de-clawed when I rescued her.) I was told that the ammonia in the urine from a cat's litter box is enough to detour mice from entering your apartment. So, we bought "shake away"... which is crystallized lion urine and put it in little nylon balls around the house where we thought the mouse was entering. But, in the past two weeks I've spotted the mouse three times. He seems to love to hide in the bottom of our our dishwasher and stove. I even seen droppings on top of the stove and saw him on top of the dishwasher eating some crumbs... but he scurried off and hid when i saw him. So, i'm thinking we put the lion **** crystals in the wrong place and I'm now considering setting traps. I wanna try the whole DIY bucket trap. Any suggestions?
I read all the posts about mice because they come in like a flood here in the country when they get cold. There are three things I do that are working and making me less crazy. One - we noticed a baby fox and started leaving food at night to attact it, Mom and their relatives. Foxes definetly reduce the number of rodents on your property if you can get them to hang around. These are Maryland tree foxes and quite small but they do the job!!! Two- I use Peppermint ($10) from the health food store on a cotton ball; put a few drops on the ball and place it in your silverware drawer- in the back of the drawer. It works, they hate it and won't enter the drawer!!! I open the vents and put them in there too. Third - in my cupboards I put Pinesol in a very small ceramic dish and leave it there. They hate Pinesol - it also stinks up the area and they don't travel there. To me it smells clean, although strong, it's better than having mice! Whoever said they have sensitive noses was right! Some will run the gauntlet and come in the house anyway but I make sure they have no water access and no food and they leave. It'll work for you too.
About 3 months ago, we moved into a new house. Soon after we moved in, we noticed a few mice in our basement, so we set up traps. We caught a few and didn't notice any for a while, so we thought the problem was solved. A couple days ago, we found a mouse in our living room (this was the first one we found in the main living area of the house.) We set up traps and caught him. Last night we found a mouse in one of the bedrooms upstairs! So these nasty little critters are throughout my whole house now! I have to assume there are many more than the few we have found. I don't know what else to do. We set up traps through the whole house and we have two cats. Our house was new construction so I don't know if they came in while the house was under construction or how they are getting in, but I want to get rid of them a.s.a.p.! Any tips?
Hi,
Search for air/ventilation holes in wall from outside of house. The holes are about 3/8' between bricks. Tiber house has mesh windows (mice can get in here, through mesh hole: put fly mesh on or behind it). They are at ground level or just above. They are also up high if your house if double floors house. Block them with small hole mesh wire: just force/compress the wire in the hole. Also look for holes in joints (timber/brick joints) between house & garage. Put good flap under doors/security doors for no sqeesing in for small mice. When they are inside they grow fast. Also mortar around all pipes holes that enter the house: water, gas, telephone line, electricity line, etc... (no matter how big are the holes). Trade people tend to leave that for mice to come into the house.
Also put a flap (aluminum, zinc, galvanized steel) around gutter down pipes. Mice can climbe straight up walls of 2 storage house, especially between gutter down pipes & walls. I once saw a mouse doing that all the way to the ceiling of my garage.
I live on double floors house & done all of that but they still get in. But not as bad as before though. Next I'll glue aluminum L-plate under the roof gutter (between gutters/walls) to prevent them slip into the roof once they get up to the gutter line. You need only 1 pregnant female to get in to multiply in you house.
For prevention I put mice/rat bates (poison) in the ceiling & between outside/inside walls: I lift roof tile up and pour the poison down (pellet, block, cube, ect...). Under the roof I spread the poison all over (here pellet is more practcle as u can just sown them all over the insulation & onto criticle spots)
Once you have done all that I think you will be ok.
I live on a farm.
This site has the best mouse trap design. It will catch lots of mice without the need to be reset.
[url=http://www.woodtoyfun.com/zzzmousetrap.html]Awesome Homemade Repeater Bucket Mouse Trap[/url].
G
So, So, we bought "shake away"... which is crystallized lion urine and put it in little nylon balls around the house where we thought the mouse was entering.
Wait - you hung balls of crystalized lion urine all over your house? Wouldnt you rather thave mice than Lion Urine?
There are a million gimmicks and ideas. We always live in older houses and we always have mice in the fall. We tried lits of the gimmicky things. The only simple solution that actually works is traps. They cost less than a dollar each, and if you change your bait from time to time (peanut butter, cheese, bacon), you will eventually nail all of the mice.
We also found that fumigators (for bugs) will also kill mice. Sure some may die in your walls, but that happens anyway. If mice live in your walls, some are dying in your walls. However we usually find them stumbling around in a room or outside after fumigating. If you have pets, you probably want ot pick them up right away to keep the pets from eating mice that dies from poisonous fumes, but we never had any problems when our cat ate some of them.
OUr cat has a nasty habit of catching them and playing with them for hours. She even brings us some to play with once in a while. Of course the live mouse dropped in our bed immediately scampers under the covers or pillows and we are done sleeping for that morning. The cat really does nto understand why we never play with the toys that she brings us.
I have used what is called a "tin cat". It is a rectangle shaped metal box, with two compartments. It has an opening on each side. The mouse enters, crawls along the tunnel, and mid-way trips a spring that flips it into the other sealed-off compartment. It will catch up to 8 to 10 mice with one winding of the spring. It does not require bait, as a live mouse will attract others. It works best when one opening is near a wall.
They tell you to take them outside and release them......right! (the compartment has a sliding top for this purpose). What I do is lower the whole thing into a five gallon bucket of water. But you can choose. (An old farmer used to fill a 5 gallon bucket with water and cover the top with oats. The rat will climb up to eat, and fall in and drown. This worked best in a barn)
You are obviously feeding the cats too well.
Cut down on their rations and make the lazy bums get to work.
I have acreage and my cats are free fed and they are hunting machines. So that myth is just that a myth.
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For Mice - Stink them out! haha, it works though
