House mice are too crafty for me :(

GrafwritahGrafwritah 4,184 Posts
edited April 2009 in Strut Central
I know we had this discussion before.Since it's a little warmer (well, ok, it was 80 a few days ago) my house mice have come out of their slumber.The other day I caught one digging in the trash in my kitchen. He split back into the wall as fast as he could.I previously had put out glue traps in the closet where their hole is.They took the whole glue trap back into the wall.I know this for a fact. There is no other way out of the closet that is big enough. Yet you would think they would get stuck in the wall and die (there is no other opening in the exterior of the house large enough to pass through with a glue trap either) if they had stuck to it, but no - no stench.I tried a humane trap and snap traps with peanut butter and processed cheese. They ignored them.I put plastic snap traps with chicken. They took the chicken off the trap and left it chillin with no bait on it.I bought the old school wooden snap traps and put leftover sloppy joe goop on it. Those are pretty sensitive, so I thought that might do.Just checked - no dice. Took the sloppy joe right off the pad without setting it off. And that shit is sticky, obviously.My last idea is getting an empty garbage can and suspending a piece of paper across the top with something on it. Surely that would be enough to make them fall in. I dunno though.I'm thinking of naming them.If they weren't gnawing on my walls and making my closet smell like mouse pee I'd nearly be inclined to give them a pass.Arrghh.
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  • Hotsauce84Hotsauce84 8,450 Posts
    Dig a whole in your kitchen and cover it with leaves.

    Either that or put some cheese on the floor and prop a cardboard box up on a stick. Tie one end of the string to the stick, hold onto the other end while hiding around the corner then when mouse is grubbin', yank the stick out!

    (Believe it or not, I tried both these tricks trying to catch rabbits in my backyard BITD. Neither of them worked.)

  • waxjunkywaxjunky 1,850 Posts
    I thought we all agreed you were supposed to get a cat?


  • GrafwritahGrafwritah 4,184 Posts
    I thought we all agreed you were supposed to get a cat?


    Yeeeeahhhh... not trying to completely round out the record collector stereotype quite yet.

  • SnappingSnapping 995 Posts

  • JimsterJimster Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,885 Posts
    As students living a similar existence to "The Young Ones" (early 80s UK TV-R), we had ample opportunity to get our mouse catching game perfected.

    Firstly: Cheese is for Tom & Jerry. The real deal is the CHOCOLATE BISCUIT. I talk of these:



    Take about 1/8 of a biscuit, and SELLOTAPE it on the wooden Tom & Jerry style trap, wrapping the sellotape over the top of the biccy and under the bait-holding arm. The goal is to make the mouse have to give the trap some stick in order to try and get the piece free. Those traps are good though, sometimes they just slammed the tip of their noses and the mouse died from shock. Othertimes, [Dirty Harry voice]Head clean awwwff.[/Dirty Harry voice]

    Stick to this and I predict less mice.

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    I've never seen a mouse around my place but my wife did call me at work yesterday to tell me we had an uninvited guest at the house......maybe this is why we have no mice.


  • jammyjammy remixing bongo rock... 813 Posts
    as the starter of the last mouse thread i am proud to report that they are no longer around. i tried many techniques but had to resort to my last choice, and hit 'em with a bit of B.B.D. POISON! POI-POI-POI-POISON!
    Found one or two dead ones around the place but they seem to be gone now. No more mouse sh*t everywhere.


  • SaracenusSaracenus 671 Posts
    I gotta agree with Jammy on this one. Bait traps will not only get the ones bold enough to hit your garbage can but will take it back to the nest (and if you see one expect tons living in the walls, they breed damn quick).

    Just make sure that if you have pets or children, that they cannot get to them.

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    as the starter of the last mouse thread i am proud to report that they are no longer around. i tried many techniques but had to resort to my last choice, and hit 'em with a bit of B.B.D. POISON! POI-POI-POI-POISON!
    Found one or two dead ones around the place but they seem to be gone now. No more mouse sh*t everywhere.


    Most rat/mice poisons work by causing them to bleed interally.

    Unfortunately they often die inside walls and attics.

    Don't be surprised if you start to smell decaying flesh within the next week.

  • GrafwritahGrafwritah 4,184 Posts
    as the starter of the last mouse thread i am proud to report that they are no longer around. i tried many techniques but had to resort to my last choice, and hit 'em with a bit of B.B.D. POISON! POI-POI-POI-POISON!
    Found one or two dead ones around the place but they seem to be gone now. No more mouse sh*t everywhere.


    Most rat/mice poisons work by causing them to bleed interally.

    Unfortunately they often die inside walls and attics.

    Don't be surprised if you start to smell decaying flesh within the next week.

    Exactly why I won't put out poison.

    Mine out pop out occasionally, otherwise the chill out in the wall and under an enclosed porch.

    Which means it's 95% likely they will be rotting where I can't get them.

    I'm trying a trash can booby trap.... we'll see if that works. Seems like it might, but who knows, maybe they can fly. Or have ladders. Or something.

  • SaracenusSaracenus 671 Posts
    Most rat/mice poisons work by causing them to bleed interally.

    Unfortunately they often die inside walls and attics.

    Don't be surprised if you start to smell decaying flesh within the next week.

    Never had that problem with the bait traps (we use a professional service for our homes and the multi-unit properties the family owns). Not only does it make them bleed out but it desiccates them as well.

    We did use live traps for the squirrels that were chewing up the insulation in my attic. I really hate campus rats, they have done more damage to my house than the actual rats.

  • LoopDreamsLoopDreams 1,195 Posts
    Most rat/mice poisons work by causing them to bleed interally.

    Unfortunately they often die inside walls and attics.

    Don't be surprised if you start to smell decaying flesh within the next week.

    Exactly why I won't put out poison.


    Seriously.... I never thought about it much until last year when I was gutting a place to build a kitchen. When we took the drywall off we found mouse carcasses in every stud space. Turns out the client had been using poison for years. So we found the hole in the foundation walls and filled it, end of mice.
    We have a cat, and he's a mad keen hunter...no mice. The only downside is the decapitated/dismembered/regurgitated corpses he leaves as proof. Once I woke up at three in the morning with a warm rat corpse being dropped on my pillow as an offering... put a screen in the bedroom window after that, it freaked me right out.

  • verb606verb606 2,518 Posts
    Seems like it might, but who knows, maybe they can fly. Or have ladders. Or something.


    From the way you describe it, it sounds like they have the internets. Those fuckers are informed.

  • I've never seen a mouse around my place but my wife did call me at work yesterday to tell me we had an uninvited guest at the house......maybe this is why we have no mice.

    i have a perpetual snake problem at my crib
    western fox snakes...i find 2-3 of these a week in the basement.
    i live behind a nature preserve and rock a cinderblock foundation and there has to be a crack somewhere externally where they get in through the ground, then they slither up through all the blocks and emerge at the top between the foundation and the ceiling in the unfinished laundry room. i think im going to have to quick-crete the tops of all the cinderblocks

  • My Fiance and I had the worst mice problem in our place for two years, year around. We tried everything noise replents, poison, traps,etc. none of it worked. The mice died but there were always more of them. Even when we moved out a mouse came out of the wood work to say goodbye. I feel you pain.

  • twoplytwoply Only Built 4 Manzanita Links 2,914 Posts


    Most rat/mice poisons work by causing them to bleed interally.

    Unfortunately they often die inside walls and attics.

    Don't be surprised if you start to smell decaying flesh within the next week.


    I don't remember what kind it was, but I used a type of poison at my old house that made the mice extremely thirsty as they died, which caused them to go outside in search of a water source. The mice disappeared and we never smelled anything rotting.

  • GrafwritahGrafwritah 4,184 Posts
    I've never seen a mouse around my place but my wife did call me at work yesterday to tell me we had an uninvited guest at the house......maybe this is why we have no mice.


    Another reason why the midwest is the best place in the US.

    I never have snakes, alligators, piranhas or mutants turn up in my sock drawer.

  • GrafwritahGrafwritah 4,184 Posts
    Most rat/mice poisons work by causing them to bleed interally.

    Unfortunately they often die inside walls and attics.

    Don't be surprised if you start to smell decaying flesh within the next week.

    Exactly why I won't put out poison.


    Seriously.... I never thought about it much until last year when I was gutting a place to build a kitchen. When we took the drywall off we found mouse carcasses in every stud space. Turns out the client had been using poison for years. So we found the hole in the foundation walls and filled it, end of mice.
    We have a cat, and he's a mad keen hunter...no mice. The only downside is the decapitated/dismembered/regurgitated corpses he leaves as proof. Once I woke up at three in the morning with a warm rat corpse being dropped on my pillow as an offering... put a screen in the bedroom window after that, it freaked me right out.

    That's nasty... that's another thing. I already don't want to know what is in my walls (100 years of rodents) and I don't want to add any more "artifacts".

    Rat corpse on the pillow... niiiiiice. If you had no screens didn't you have bug issues?

  • corsiccorsic oakland, ca 232 Posts
    I thought we all agreed you were supposed to get a cat?


    Yeeeeahhhh... not trying to completely round out the record collector stereotype quite yet.

    don't bother, unless you're looking for a furry friend. Most cats won't do shit with mice, maybe bat them around like toys, but unless they're taught by momma cat to catch, kill and eat mice they most likely won't. And, their presence is NOT enough to keep mice away. I worked at an animal shelter that was filled with cats and mice still roamed the halls, even found them in rooms right alongside cats.


  • djdazedjdaze 3,099 Posts
    you need 2 things,

    a bb gun

    and patience.

  • JimBeamJimBeam Seattle. 2,012 Posts
    the glue traps work-- it probably killed the mouse that dragged it back into your wall. when you set up the trap next time, nail it to the floor so they can't drag it anywhere.
    be warned though: those things can get gruesome.

  • marumaru 1,450 Posts
    Our cat caught and killed about 6 mice last year in our place in Philly. F*ck a trap, get a cat. End of story.

  • GrafwritahGrafwritah 4,184 Posts
    the glue traps work-- it probably killed the mouse that dragged it back into your wall. when you set up the trap next time, nail it to the floor so they can't drag it anywhere.
    be warned though: those things can get gruesome.

    You would think but as far as I know there is no way to get out of the house with something that large.

    And, of course, no stench.


  • tripledoubletripledouble 7,636 Posts

    That is pretty good.

    FAIL. ive seen mice jump three feet in the air...which is basically flying. believe it.

    now if you filled that trash can with acid, it should work


  • That is pretty good.

    FAIL. ive seen mice jump three feet in the air...which is basically flying. believe it.

    now if you filled that trash can with acid, it should work

    Really? here i was thinkin that was pretty ingenious and whatnot.

  • FYBSFYBS 271 Posts
    Acid? Have you not seen the first season of Breaking Bad?

  • tripledoubletripledouble 7,636 Posts
    nope

  • Acid? Have you not seen the first season of Breaking Bad?

    House mice in tie dye and pachouli?
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