Mice! Die Mice!

[azasadny]

Joe,

I caught 17 mice in glue traps in my apartment in Southern California when I lived there. The 17 were caught over several weeks, until I found the spot where they were coming into the apartment. There was a hole in the wall for the plumbing for the dishwasher and the mice were crawling in there. I plugged up the hole and no more mice! The funny thing was that I had a few avocados near the sink and a mouse was eating the avocado and I saw him. They were tiny, grey mice, much smaller that the big, fat mice in your pictures. I was told by the exterminator that they will continue to come in as long as there is a food source. Do you have any bags of grass seed around, they seem to like that too!

[Leland Pate]

Ahem,
Gather 'round and let Leland tell you a true story of of a mouse that got away.

We need to go back.... way back to 1998. I was working as an EOD technician for the US GOv't in lovely Mountain Home, ID. We worked out of an office that had been condemned since 1977 (no kidding) and the back offices were overrun with mice. They would get into everything in sight. Our footlockers filled with expensive equipment, chemical protective gear, etc. When it was cleanup time every Friday, I would find fresh roasted mice peo peo under my desk. We went to the base Envision store and bought a whole lot of those cheapo-chinese-made-plastic-generic-not worth a crap traps.

Over the course of the next few weeks, we killed several mice and threw their corpses out in the back to decay in the high desert sun (was that too descriptive?) Soon thereafter, the tempo of dead mice every morning ground to a halt. No more bodies... but the peo peo kept showing up. To add insult to injury, on at least two occasions, we found traps that had been sprung, and the bait gone... but no mouse. Puzzled and frustrated, we once again went to the envision store and bought a pack of those sticky traps.

That day we placed several around the office in hopes of defeating our foe once and for all. The next day we come into work and find something very strange indeed. One of the traps was clear across the floor from where it was placed. There was a line of peo peo across the floor to boot. On the trap there was some hair... but no mouse.

A day or two later, I was working merrily in the equipment bay when I hear a shreik of terror so horrible, no man could control his bladder at the sound.... It was Passerotti... and something had really pissed him off. I ran into the office where Pazz was somberly looking into one of his desk drawers. He looked up at me and said... "We're gonna need a bigger trap..."

In the desk drawer was two or three packets of Pazz's Creatine packs... all munched open and eaten. Ladies and gentlemen, we are not dealing with any normal rodent here... this was serious and this little bastard was not playing games.


Annnnnnd... we never caught him.

The end.

[Mike Kast]

Leland, your gonna have to work on the ending. How about a possum the size of a Volkswagen buggy? With blood dripping from it's teeth! lol

[MichiganMat]

i had a nest on the top of my motor, under the fan shroud. It was blocking airflow through the engine oil cooler and flow over the cylinder next to it. Could have been a costly repair bill had I not found it. Next time you have your alternator out be sure to shine a light back there and make sure you don't have a nest. Ive read that similar nests have caused major damages to the heads and cylinders due to overheating. This is why I keep a one kitty and one python roped to my car at all times, lightweight insurance as far as Im concerned.

[Along4ZRide]

After killing 17 of those little crappers in our brand new house ~ not to mention the ones we got in the garage ~ we finally broke down and called the exterminator. You know they've eaten the bait because their turds turn blueish green. Then, just sit back and wait. No smell and we only ever came across two of them once they were deceased. It's been a year and no mice!

[aigel]

The things reproduce very quickly. It is a matter of math. Once you have reduced them to two or three reproducing couples, you can keep up with them and at some point you will completely eliminate them. Just keep going with the traps. The mice may look for a warm place only but on top of that make sure there is no source of food. Usually, if you have any grain, seeds etc., they will come to live with you!

Cats stay on top of the population. There would never be such growth with a cat around. Most cats I had would chew the mice open for the most tasty bits and then leave the rest. Thats why you want to make sure your cat is dewormed on a regular basis if it stays with you in the house.

Good Luck, George

[RickM]

For those of you who are allergic to cats...the best remedy I've found are those Moth Ball Discs designed to be hung in a closet...they sell them at Wally World. The mice can't live where that smell is concentrated.

I've tried several of those POS "Ultrasonic" pest repellers. Don't waste your money.

As for traps, Sears Hardware sell the Victor traps with the yellow plastic "platter" trigger that is superior to the little metal tongue.

[RickM]

Does this location look familiar?

[joehahn]

UPDATE! 1 more yesterday. then, ran out this morning...one more dead and one trap missing!!! either they sent in a special ops team who absconded with the trap or there is a big thing walking around with a trap as an ornament. either way i got problems. good news is that i now realize they are in there for not only the warmth but the 50 lb bag of dog food (i should have figured this out long ago...dunce). cat has been fast tracked...stay tuned and thanks for replies and help. Rick is that OEM mouse proof brake fluid cover?

joe 68 L

[RickM]

Joe...That's an OEM Porsche Mouse proof cap...part Number 930.887.909.11


I sometimes tie a string to the trap so the suckers can't drag it to a hidden spot.

Also, since I've uses the Moth ball disc I haven't caught one mouse....and it's been there for a while. I do catch them around the car though.

[grant lyon]

Another way, cleaner, here: http://www.ratzapper.com/

Got tired of that snap sound of a victor trap. With this, just a short muffled rustle and it's over.

[vash]

you gotta change the bait too. i think snickers bars are almost unbeatable. cheeze whiz is second.

[goat43]

Just for the record, a very common way mice get inside the car is up the fresh air plenum drain hose, which hangs an inch or so underneath the car, right in the middle, just aft of where the smuggler's box is. They climb right up inside and the through the rest of the car via the ventilation system. If you shove some wire mesh into the end of the hose, you should keep them out of the car's insides; leave the heat exchanger flaps open, also. Don't completely plug the drain hose unless you want to get a face full of water the next time you turn on a fan. Of course, this will not prevent them from building a nest on the cooling fins, which can burn out a cyclinder very quickly. Moth balls definitely help with that.

[naparsei]

Originally posted by MichiganMat
This is why I keep a one kitty and one python roped to my car at all times, lightweight insurance as far as Im concerned.

Pics?

[Rick Lee]

I have a 6' Boa as a pet, but I don't let him run loose, as he'd could handle a small child. I did feed him the birds that I caught in my kitchen exhaust fan duct. He loved them and it saved me a trip to the pet store and $8.

Leland's tale reminds me of the Kangaroo that Sylvester always mistakes for a giant mouse.

While living in zip code E-I-E-I-O as a young child, I awoke one night to get some water. When I turned the light on, there was a scorpion on the ceiling about 2' above my nose. I was sleeping on the top bunk. I carefully crawled down to get a cup to catch him, came back and could not find him - never did. Imagine sleeping in that bed again.

[Joe Bob]

Believe it or not....old fata$$ Floyd has quite a mouse catching rep....

[Jdub]

Save a cat from death row. It is the right thing to do.

Three cats in my home plus a Black lab. We never, ever, see mice but for the ones the cats proudly place on our front doorstep. The mice know from the smell -- they don't dare get close to the house.

Cats love to get those mice...hungry or not any cat will stalk and kill a mouse just because it is a basic genetic disposition.

You can't fight nature and I guarantee those mice are going to come at you fourfold when the weather improves. Don't wait for your vinyl/leather and cardboard to go up in tatters...

John

[Adam]

Those mice are huge! I've never seen them that big.

We don't have a mouse problem (infact I haven't seen one for years) thanks to this guy...

[joehahn]

Geez Adam, when does satan expect you to return his cat to hell?? and it looks like the tentacles from a portugese (sp?) man-o-war are hanging off his face, no wonder you don't have mice! and mike those aren't mice your cat brought home, they appear to be remnants from a 914 it must have eaten.

joe 68 L

[pwd72s]

I've posted this before, but it's true....MICE TREMBLE AT THE MERE MENTION OF HER NAME!



Think about it...the ancient Egyptians revered the cats that protected their grain supply. Killing a cat was a death sentence.
When it comes to mice & the problems they create....cats work.