Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.


timmmay

20580 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

#173716 3-Jun-2015 08:07
Send private message

I went into my shed drawers last weekend, I expected to find drills, drill bits, and such, and as well as finding that I found a fairly large amount of mouse droppings. I broke out the old mouse trap, the slightly more humane kind that crushes their entire head not just maiming them, and I've caught three but I know there are more. I use a bait that's a sugary gel, I got it from the hardware store a few years back.

Some of the little buggers have gotten smart - they eat the bait without setting the trap off. Either they're very delicate, or they're working as a team, one holding the trap open while the other eats. It's probably the former though, eating delicately.

Does anyone have any good tips on getting rid of mice?

View this topic in a long page with up to 500 replies per page Create new topic

This is a filtered page: currently showing replies marked as answers. Click here to see full discussion.

MikeAqua
7780 posts

Uber Geek


  #1317338 4-Jun-2015 12:11
Send private message

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


View this topic in a long page with up to 500 replies per page Create new topic





News and reviews »

Air New Zealand Starts AI adoption with OpenAI
Posted 24-Jul-2025 16:00


eero Pro 7 Review
Posted 23-Jul-2025 12:07


BeeStation Plus Review
Posted 21-Jul-2025 14:21


eero Unveils New Wi-Fi 7 Products in New Zealand
Posted 21-Jul-2025 00:01


WiZ Introduces HDMI Sync Box and other Light Devices
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:32


RedShield Enhances DDoS and Bot Attack Protection
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:26


Seagate Ships 30TB Drives
Posted 17-Jul-2025 11:24


Oclean AirPump A10 Water Flosser Review
Posted 13-Jul-2025 11:05


Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7: Raising the Bar for Smartphones
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Brings New Edge-To-Edge FlexWindow
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Epson Launches New AM-C550Z WorkForce Enterprise printer
Posted 9-Jul-2025 18:22


Samsung Releases Smart Monitor M9
Posted 9-Jul-2025 17:46


Nearly Half of Older Kiwis Still Write their Passwords on Paper
Posted 9-Jul-2025 08:42


D-Link 4G+ Cat6 Wi-Fi 6 DWR-933M Mobile Hotspot Review
Posted 1-Jul-2025 11:34


Oppo A5 Series Launches With New Levels of Durability
Posted 30-Jun-2025 10:15



Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.



Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.