So what do you do when you got the pot full? My old neighbor had a similar setup for squirrels except it was a 55 gallon drum.
My dad had squirrels in his bird feeder. They would climb the 2" pipe so I made a skirt for it. Then they would jump over from a tree so we put a steep sheet metal roof on it. They learned to jump on, slide down and catch the perch. He wanted to shoot them but he lives in the city and you can't even use a pellet gun. I put a piece of sheet metal on the surface where the food lays and a wire on the perch. We ran wires out to it connected to a button to send 220 volts to it. Dad would sit at the kitchen table watching for the squirrels and hit the button then go out and make sure the squirrel was dead.
The mice around here love D con and it doesn't seem to kill them. A few years back we had a bad mouse problem at work and used some Just One Bite poison. Put it out on a Friday night and Monday morning there were dead mice everywhere. The rules were changed a couple of years ago so many formulas changed and aren't as effective.
I put cyan pepper in with the bird seed, the birds pay it no never mind but the squirrels never come back for a second helping.
I used to use those Hartz traps that were a box with a weighted door that caught them live. I'd come down to the kitchen in the morning and take them to work with me and set them free along the way. Then the traps started going off at like 10-11 at night... can't have that flapping around the kitchen while we're up. So I grabbed one, jumped into my wife's nice car and went down the road a mile with the trap sitting in the console next to me. I look down and the door is partly opened, so I reach down, slam it shut, all I need is a mouse loose in her car. I get to my drop-off spot, open the car door, look at the trap and it seems I've slammed the mouse's head in the trap. It looked like a mouse Pez dispenser. Bob
Mice have been really bad this year, I think I've caught 13 around the place since labor day. My best two traps are both HAMB friendly-50s/60s era traps from Victor and McGill. Both of those have caught multiple mice this fall. I've had my best luck with peanut butter, except the roaches like it too. So now I've spread a little ring of Roach Pruf around each trap. A few weeks ago we kept hearing this mouse up in the attic...I go up there and one of my traps (one of the new all-plastic Victors) was gone. Took me a long time, down on my hands and knees, to find the rascal, poor fellow stuck in the trap by his front paws and dragging that trap all around. Had to toss him onto another old trap to put him out of his misery. I have caught several mice by accident by leaving my bucket of car wash soap/water in the shed overnight. I've been using this Meguire's stuff that suds a lot and has a sweet smell. They'll be floating in the bucket, drowned. Oh, we have 3 cats in the house...never caught a single mouse.
I like to tie my cat to a stick over a bucket of water with chunky peanut butter smeared on a raisin stuck to it's forehead. It works a little better if you paint the cat mossy oak.
On the subject of killin' varmints, I had a rather odd situation happen in my garage a few years ago. After doing a couple of oil changes, I had a 5 gallon bucket 1/2 full of waste oil. It sat in the garage about a month, then when I went to dump it in my waste oil barrel there were half a dozen toads in the bottom. Toads hop around, but I've never seen one jump high enough to get in a 5 gallon pail.
My 63 BelAir has a brand new interior and I don't need any rodent damage over the winter. Placed De-con pellets and a few new Victor plastic traps (yeah I know they are non-traditional) baited with peanut butter around the garage. Looks as if the mice are eating the De-con pellets as they are disappearing and found a dead mouse on the floor. The Victor traps never tripped but all traces of the peanut butter was gone. As someone posted the mice will lick the peanut butter without tripping the traps. I now have two Victors and four old fashioned spring traps baited with peanut butter and a piece of dry dog food spread around the garage. I think the dry dog food will do the trick. We'll see.
little OT....finally set the trap last night to catch a possum that's been hanging around....then it was off to the nature park where we use to ride our sting rays like Bultaco's...to release him.... now back to the mice catching....
My .02c Yellow Plastic cheap mouse traps work great if you use them properly. No bait is needed. Just put them against any wall yellow trigger against the wall. Mice cannot see well so they hug walls as a guide when they move around. I found alot of action about 6" from inside corners. I cleared at least a dozen in my storage shed using them. Many of the other traps on here will work great as well... Good Luck!
Not if you use a 5-gallon plastic bucket. You find them on the bottom in the morning where you can safely release them at your best friend's house ;-)
That's my issue, can't chance poisoning the cat. Got them in my finished basement and gas burner room but can't have yet to bag one this year. I have the snap traps, some newer style traps, non-poisonous glue traps. They don't even take the bait out of them. Even the water trap came up untouched. I'll just let the cat have the run of the basement as well. She did catch 3 on the main floor over the summer. Bob
mice and rats will hoard the pellets, rats will carry off the bars as well. wire them down or it all will be found later under the back seat of your car. placement of traps is at least as important as bait.
I had a rat problem maybe 15 years ago from my neighbor's yard that was over grown, which has been fixed since. I used those big Victor traps in my garage and under my gas grill. They'd wander off with the entire trap. So I attached them to scrap pieces of 2" x 8" pressure treated wood using roofing nails. I did well with a water trap in the garage. I got 4 of them with that. I used an old kitchen-type garbage pail so there would be no climbing out. Bob
Sorry if this has already been covered...I have some property that I get to once or twice a week. Got a small tool shed and an old truck there a with snap trap inside each. I often have one dead mouse waiting for me when I get out there. The question is will one dead mouse sitting there serve as a warning to the others or will the others still start chewing stuff up in the same location?
I found I had mice in my car a few years ago, so I set a trap in the trunk with peanut butter for bait. Went back out to check on it before bed and found a dead mouse with it's head chewed off. That one freaked me out! Must have been the hungriest mice I ever encountered. I was a little scared to put my hands in there to get him out and reset the trap. Figured I'd get chewed on! Ended up catching 5 total.
Belair is right about mice hoarding the De-con pellets. I had some of those folding chairs that have their own bag in my garage last winter, when I went to use one I found a bunch of De-con pellets inside the bag. Now I'm worried about them hoarding the pellets in a car because the De-con trays show the pellets disappearing. Regarding my previous post about baiting the snap traps with peanut butter and dry dog food has come up empty. They haven't been touched. So far the mice are winning.
With the coke bottle type: Instead of antifreeze use waste oil No chance of a pet drinking the antifreeze.
I think I hurt myself I laughed at this one so frickin hard!!! Scott Posted using two Dixie cups and a medium length piece of string.
Forget limited intelligence cats, they run on instinct and like to torture mice to death, very time wasting. The most efficient, ruthless and deadly rodent eliminator known to mankind is.................the Jack Russel terrier!
Jack Russells will go after anything, rabbits, squirrels, etc. A great varmint dog, even on birds. The cat I have, I think she scares the mice to death. Just plays with them until they have heart attacks. I caught her with 1 live one, the other 2 were dead, saliva soaked but intact. Bob
As long as you put it where pets and/or other animals you don't want to kill can't get to it, ethylene glycol antifreeze placed in a shallow bowl will take care of most any pest that walks. It is said to taste sorta sweet to them. Woman here in GA killed 2 or 3 husbands with it before they caught her!
This truck is going to sit all winter outside away from humans for the most part. I have traps inside but what about the engine compartment? It's under a carport, I could leave the hood open, would that help? Also it has the original cloth wiring, anything I could put on it, grease, spray silicone?
I've been at battle with one bastard mouse for about 3 weeks now and finally bagged the little fart today. I had this place trapped up like a mine field. Glue traps, plastic snap traps, ol' school Victors, bucket trap. All the usual baits covered, peanut butter, dog food, raisins, pecans, tootsies, etc. The bucket was baited with peanut butter with raisins and tootsie bits (tempted to bite that one myself). He stole bait from the plastic snap traps several times. He tripped a Victor without getting caught once. The winning trap was a Victor with dry dog food wedged in it. I had just walked into the room where the trap was set and heard the snap. I immediately looked and he wasn't in the trap, but was staggering away, so it must have spanked him pretty good. There was a short 2x4 within quick reach that finished the job. So, I'm feeling quite the mighty macho hunter now. Thought about having him mounted. I'm thinkin' he was probably about a 10 pounder.....
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