Tips to get rid of mice

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#1317119 4-Jun-2015 07:04

The little buggers can eat peanut butter off the trap without setting it off. Time for poison.

dgashby

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#1317127 4-Jun-2015 07:58

We've had a pretty good success rate with peanut butter and "The Better Mousetrap" traps. The are grey plastic traps that you can get from New World or Mitre 10.

We did have one particularly smart mouse that evaded the traps for several weeks but eventually got stuck in the bottom of the toaster. The mouse got "toasted", and my wife insisted we get a new toaster :-)

timmmay

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#1317128 4-Jun-2015 08:01

I have that same grey "better mousetrap". It's caught three of the little buggers, but there's at least one more that's smarter.

dafman

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#1317161 4-Jun-2015 08:23

timmmay: I have that same grey "better mousetrap". It's caught three of the little buggers, but there's at least one more that's smarter.

+1 for the better mousetrap - tho I suspect after my recent quick several kills, the remaining family learn to steer clear. Not sure how good the factory bait is, I just dump peanut butter on top.

GeekGuy

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#1317164 4-Jun-2015 08:27

I find getting a small piece of bread using the fingertips, press that down on where the bait goes on a mouse trap and then put a little jam on it worked for me.

eluSiveNZ

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#1317210 4-Jun-2015 09:18

timmmay: The little buggers can eat peanut butter off the trap without setting it off. Time for poison.

Try putting the peanut butter under the trigger mechanism and spread it sparingly...

Mark

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#1317229 4-Jun-2015 09:33

We've had a lot of mice this year, cats have been having a ball judging by the amount of corpses I see littering area around the house!

I've put in those cheap spring powered mouse traps with peanut butter, got 3 surprised looking (and VERY dead mice) in 2 nights, since I have cats and chickens I won't do poison bait. Interesting that the mousetrap has a mouse in it but no peanut butter, obviously the other mice take advantage of the dead ones noble sacrifice and eat the remaining butter :-)

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geoffwnz

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#1317234 4-Jun-2015 09:42

Had one small mouse decide to join us in bed at 4am a couple of weeks back. He was quick though as it took a while before we even saw it after feeling it.
Finally saw something dart under a dresser so grabbed a container to trap it thinking it was a cockroach. On my return, the other half informed me she had good news and bad news. Good news was that it wasn't a cockroach. Bad news was that it was a mouse.
Managed to trap it in a show that it climbed into then transferred into the container. At that point I discovered how well they can jump as it departed the container and shot into the hallway. Right under the nose of our cat who took immediate interest and managed to grab it. Cat, complete with mouse, was deposited outside to deal with the issue.
The only other mice I've seen inside the house have required some reassembly so I'm guessing that the cat is a good deterrent.

MotorDrive Rallying

timmmay

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#1317242 4-Jun-2015 09:58

I could trap some neighborhood cats in my shed overnight...

BlueShift

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#1317262 4-Jun-2015 10:46

Mark: We've had a lot of mice this year, cats have been having a ball judging by the amount of corpses I see littering area around the house!

I've put in those cheap spring powered mouse traps with peanut butter, got 3 surprised looking (and VERY dead mice) in 2 nights, since I have cats and chickens I won't do poison bait. Interesting that the mousetrap has a mouse in it but no peanut butter, obviously the other mice take advantage of the dead ones noble sacrifice and eat the remaining butter :-)

The early bird gets the worm. But the second mouse gets the cheese!

MikeAqua

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#1317338 4-Jun-2015 12:11

Cats: Go outside, catch mice and bring them, lizards, birds and largish insects inside, making a racket usually at 3am. We have two and in our last house that didn't stop mice getting inside at all. Our new house is vermin proof and I have never seen evidence of a mouse living in the house. If the cats were employees I could just fire them, but apparently they are 'family'.

Traps: +1 for better mouse trap (and rat version). Very effective. Not as quick/humane as the old fashioned finger breaker, but safer for humans. The mouse version also catches rats, but it doesn't harm them just stops them from seeing or climbing, so you still have to deal with them, manually.

Trap bait: The #1 rule is mix it up. Bacon, peanut butter, tinned cat-food, jam, butter ... all work, but you have to change it around as mice get bait shy. Also make it hard to get off the trap mechanism - bait elastic (fishing shop) works well for this. Wear gloves when you handle/bait the trap, so it doesn't smell like people.

Catching clever ratty: Get a 40L rubbish bin, fill 1/4 with water, use a piece of wood as ramp up from the floor to the rim. Often ratty will get thirsty and jump into the bucket but he will never get out due to the smooth sides. Put a permeable sack over the top of the bin, then take it and a cricket bat outside. Up end bin while holding sack in place. Secure ratty in a sack ... an accurate hard whack with the bat will humanely send ratty on. A cage trap may work too, but it's difficult to humanely deal with a big rat in a cage.

Mike

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#1317403 4-Jun-2015 14:11

geoffwnz:
The only other mice I've seen inside the house have required some reassembly so I'm guessing that the cat is a good deterrent.

LOL !!!

trig42

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#1317433 4-Jun-2015 15:56

We have just shifted somewhere with a lot of bush around, and with this weather have seen a few mice (not in our house, but in sheds etc.).

We brought two cats with us, one who is quite outdoorsy, and has left us evidence (outside mostly) more than once a day. The other unfortunately is a bit old and would only catch a mouse if one fell in her mouth while she was yawning (then she'd sit on it - seen it happen). However, with just the one cat, the evidence of mice has dropped off remarkably in the last 3 weeks (been there now for about 6 weeks).

Sonic repellers do not work - they have them in another part of the property, and the mice ignore them. Cats work.

fizzychicken

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#1317437 4-Jun-2015 16:00

I had a few traps in the basement where the peanut butter was taken but the trap didn't trigger...eventually figured out that lines of ants had found them and were taking the pb bit by bit.

https://keybase.io/fizzychicken

semigeek

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#1317441 4-Jun-2015 16:07

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.

Yeah they can, I had a mouse in my bedroom when I was a teen, it was continually taking the peanut butter off the trap without setting the trap off. I found the peanut butter later, on the inside of my computer. The mouse had been getting in through one of the card slots which I had taken the metal plate off and not put back on. The mouse itself, I found living in a box up on a shelving unit, three shelves up.

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