Tips to get rid of mice

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#1316710 3-Jun-2015 11:40

outdoorsnz: But remember if you do choose to use poisons, consider the effect on pets and other animals. Rats can pick up bait and drop outside. It is a very bad death for a pet!
Some poisons can take upto 2 years to break down!

This. A few years ago my friend's cat managed to get hold of some poison that had been left easily accessible and the vet bill ended up costing thousands.

lxsw20

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#1316722 3-Jun-2015 11:46

The bait I had you left in a paper that you could nail to a bit of wood or whatever so it couldn't easily be taken away.

billgates

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#1316785 3-Jun-2015 13:17

I purchased the below *changed our family's life* rat zapper from Amazon shipped directly to my house early last year. We have caught 5 ~ 6 mice last year. Put it back into action last month when I saw couple more and few hours later, they were dead/zapped. Easy to handle as you just tip the mice in a bag/bin and go wash your hands incase the mice licked the outside of the zapper. I just cut a biscuit into several little cubes and shove them right at the back of the zapper and watch for the 'mice is now dead' LED light to come on. Have seen few mice's walk right into this zapper making their last life decisions wanting that biscuit but never making it to the end of the it because they get zapped much earlier on a lot of times. There are few live videos of it on youtube. A+++. Recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002665ZTC?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

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Hammerer

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#1316833 3-Jun-2015 14:32

mdf:
I have seen this type of ultrasonic repeller. Anyone used them?

I've tried several different ultrasonic repellers. We got them all when other people no longer wanted them. People are attracted to them because, if they work, there is no upkeep, no mess, no poison, and nothing to handle. We "tested" one for 15 years. Mice, rats or insects did not appear to be deterred by one repeller or several repellers.

I'm not surprised that they made no difference because all those pests are often found nesting or feeding in extremely noisy industrial environments. I think that warmth wins over noise.

Lostja

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#1316839 3-Jun-2015 14:49

heylinb4nz: Peanut butter without fail has worked, it sticks to the trigger mechanism of the trap and they cant get it off without setting it off. Things like cheese and bacon the little buggers can remove without triggering.

This. Peanut butter without fail

Hammerer

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#1316840 3-Jun-2015 14:53

fizzychicken: It has figured out that it can never come down near ground level and uses the phone lines to move between property.

+1

A relative had mice and rats nest in her roof space and above the adjoining flats. The rats initially abandoned an old house next door - it was jacked up for a couple of weeks until it was removed.

We tried to stop them being able to enter the house. We cut back all trees and shrubs around the building. That made no difference. So I blocked all the downpipes with mesh as well and placed metal sheets around the power poles. The problem was that we hadn't factored in the rats' ability to climb to the ends of branches and leap over gaps of one metre or more to get onto the power and phone cables.

Some pest controllers were useless. They couldn't answer any of our questions about how they were getting in. We only made progress once we got a pest controller who could showed us how they were getting in. He also recommended using a blacklight to see where they are travelling. He used a lot of poison and took most of a year to get rid of them.

Rikkitic

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#1316853 3-Jun-2015 15:17

My vote goes to peanut butter and cats. The former really is an effective bait and the latter are an outstanding deterrent. I don't know if the rodents smell them and keep away, but I do know that we have always suffered mouse and rat invasions in our old farm house every winter except this one. The difference? This one we are up to our eyeballs in cats. And for the first time ever, I am not hearing a single rat in the walls. Also not a bunny to be seen. The birds, fortunately, have not been too badly affected. The natives, like tui and fantails, are impossible to catch and the exotics, like blackbirds, are pests anyway. But the point is not what the cats catch, but just the fact that they exist. That alone seems to be enough to persuade their prey to seek safer pastures.

So the only mice we have found indoors this year are the ones brought in by the cats. Yes, that is a downside but any survivors do not stick around. If they get away, and some do because the damned cats want to play with them, they make a beeline for the great outdoors as fast as their scurrying little paws can carry them. No rodent sees this place as a happy home anymore.

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timmmay

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#1316859 3-Jun-2015 15:33

Cats aren't an option, I'm allergic. I'm trying peanut butter.

I had to go into the big set of drawers they seem to be occupying and they reek. Once I get rid of them I'm probably going to have to wash them down and leave them days to dry before I can use them again. Just awful.

jpoc

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#1316871 3-Jun-2015 16:00

I bought some cockroach traps. They are made of cardboard and you origami them up to make little 'roach houses. The insides are sticky and they have a sachet of bait inside. The 'roach goes for the bait and gets stuck.

Last month I checked the one in the garage.

Turns out it works for mice too.

In general I have found that traditional mouse traps work just fine. For rats you can get bigger versions of those traps but rats can often escape from them.

I have also found that scattering bars of soap all over the affected area works well. The rats seem to just eat them and then go away.

Niel

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#1316932 3-Jun-2015 18:31

I have not read all of this, was too much.

We used to get lots of mice come into our old house when rain starts, as we have a reserve across the road. Adult mice can get through a hole the size of a pencil. Peanut butter works amazing on a mouse trap, I prefer eating bacon myself.

At Bunnings you get small boxes with pellets of poison, you tear off the cover and leave the box anywhere out of reach of pets/kids, like in the ceiling (or in your case in a locked shed).

Works great, but last time I needed poison and did not want to drive to Bunnings I got some from Countdown which worked extremely well. They had 2 types, I got the more expensive one which gave the impression it was stronger and within a day the mice that were in the ceiling for a week were gone. The one I got had either 4 or 6 cubes of poison, I think the other one was also pellets.

Mice eat the poison over a few days supposedly and they will then die within a week, but mine were gone in 24h. I just chucked all the block into the ceiling through the hatch wherever they would fall/land, and in the middle of the night I woke up from mice nibbling on the cubes. BTW this was the first time in 3 winters that we got mice in the new house, so they finally found somewhere to get in (to the ceiling).

You can never have enough Volvos!

Niel

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#1316934 3-Jun-2015 18:34

With peanut butter my wife would set the trap, turn her back and immediately the trap would go off with catching a mouse about 9 out of 10 times. It worked that well (and that time we had that many mice). But then you have to deal with a mouse with a popped-out eye etc. I'd just get the poison.

You can never have enough Volvos!

Fred99

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#1316952 3-Jun-2015 19:31

We had a plague of the little bastards on our boat xmas/new year before last. We tend to load up with supplies for a fortnight. Mice have no respect - they won't open one packet of crackers and consume it, then move on to the next one. They'll nibble holes in every packet - so it all goes stale. They have no respect for people sleeping - many interrupted nights - either woken up by a mouse crawling in your hair - or someone else waking up screaming that a mouse is in their hair. You can't find them - too many nooks and crannies on boats where they can hide. interior of hull and cabin-top lined with "frontrunner" fabric - so they can crawl up vertical surfaces. I caught one sneaking out from the cabin into the cockpit - it made a run for cockpit drain. Flushed it out with a bucket of water - and caught it in another bucket us it sluiced out of the drain in the transom. Despite a few inches of water in the bottom of the bucket, it jumped right over the top and into the sea. Damned fast swimmers. Mouse gone I thought - nope - crew member woke up with mouse in hair at 2AM. Radioed general store and got them to send mouse traps to us by water taxi. Most expensive mouse-traps ever, but worth every cent. This xmas past, caught about 1/2 dozen of them. Pretty sure they'll swim if needed to climb anchor lines or stern lines - there's really no other way for them to get on board.

froob

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#1317087 3-Jun-2015 22:59

Haven't tried one of these, but looks pretty awesome --> http://www.goodnature.co.nz

I just use peanut butter as others have suggested with a regular trap in a tunnel outside. Seems to work well, although they do occasionally get the food without setting it off.

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Hammerer

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#1317098 4-Jun-2015 00:38

Mouse trap placement guide has several easy to follow pictures for spring-loaded traps. We also use peanut butter but if the traps are placed where the mice travel then they do run over them as the guide states. It can be as simple as placing a tray of book leaning against a wall with the trap behind it.

We've also used the tip trap which catches them alive by tipping up and closing the door when the mouse gets far enough inside. Unlike the spring traps these work better placed in the direction mice travel such as parallel to walls.

If there are more than a few mice we've found that poison is much easier although the cheapest method long-term is using lots of reusable traps.

kiwitrc

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#1317099 4-Jun-2015 04:47

froob: Haven't tried one of these, but looks pretty awesome --> http://www.goodnature.co.nz

I just use peanut butter as others have suggested with a regular trap in a tunnel outside. Seems to work well, although they do occasionally get the food without setting it off.

Guy at work has one of those and says they are basically crap. Must ask why.

Have to say, BillGates' option looks pretty good.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002665ZTC?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

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