Mice & Mouse traps

I'd say 20 or so - but suggest you get the Rat Man in [don't mention mice, say you suspect rats [turd size etc], and then it'll be free]. If only they'd just be nice, take the occasional scrap and keep themselves to themselves I'd love to have them - if you happen to catch them frolicing, they're soooo sweet. Continuous urination is a less attractive feature, however.

throb

I'm just worried that they might chew through all the cables under the floor........
I'll see how many I catch and when they stop, I'll report back......
Rat man might "smell a rat" if I refer to size of dropping etc. as he'll see himself that they're very small rats!

Computers are supposed to work on 1's and 0's - in other words "Yes" or "No" - why does mine frequently say "Maybe"?......

I love mice & rats. One Chistmas holiday I found a rat in the park, so I caught him & put him on my shoulder while I drove him back home. I bought him a cage & kept him for a few months until one day when he was running around the living room, he bit my finger to the bone. The little fucker left home very shortly after that! Barstard.

blythe - just say you're 'not sure, the droppings seem quite large' trust me, I've done it.

Rasher - yes, rats get a very bad press - I like them too. Did you know that Diana Mitford kept one on her shoulder called 'Ratular' - had a little collar and chain. I expect Oswald put an end to it. 'Fancy' rats are lovely, and more socially acceptable for some reason.

Anyone seen the Wolfgang Tillmans Pet Shop Boys video with mice on Tottenham Ct Rd station? MTV were horrified, but it's really good.

throb [eek eek]

Blythe,
I'm reliably informed that Chocolate is a extremely efficient bait, but whatever you do keep baiting the trap even after you think you've caught the last one[they must have come in from somewere] they can/will breed like
wellllllllll mice, gestation period being more like days rather than weeks.As Rasher said they do look "sweet" etc.but try telling that to your other half when droppings are found on food ,all the best in your endevour.
oldie.

Buy a nasty tom cat and don't feed it.

Regards

Mick

Mice are not solitary animals, so you can expect to catch more than one, if you get any at all (thus indicating that your trap position and bait are effective).

On discovering mouse crap in a kitchen cupboard last year, we set a "Tip-Trap", (which catches the mouse alive, and is incredibly simple and effective) baited with peanut butter (crunchy) and had caught one within a few hours. I took it up to the end of the garden and released it in the compost heap (full of grass cuttings). The next morning we had another. This routine went on for some time.

Now, I know what you're thinking... and no, I didn't tag the mice. However, as the days went by we started to catch older mice, and the final one seemed pretty much on its his last legs -- I couldn't find his zimmer, though. In total, we removed 32 mice from the kitchen to compost, where they presumably set up an alternative lifestyle community, with Community Action Workshops, Empowerment Awareness Seminars and Well Mouse Clinics. But crucially, from that day to this we have seen neither hide nor hair of any more mice. A ringing enforsement for the Tip Trap and peanut butter (crunchy).

Best;

Mark

If you keep catching the mice don't forget to have a good look around your house for entry points. They can get in through a gap as narrow as your finger so look for bits of mssing pointing or ventilation bricks that may be letting them in and fill them or cover with some mesh. They climb too-we finally spotted that mice were climbing a trellis, jumping onto a waste pipe and getting into an upstairs bathroom to escape the waiting farm cats!

My wife (being a kindly soul) bought some humane moustraps which included a nice swing door through to the bait, a comfy armchair, and 24hrs counselling on demand. If we caught them she would take them half way to work in her car and release them in a nice leafy hedgerow. We then went away for a holiday and returned to discover two mice inside, starved/dehydrated/bored to death. Not terribly humane.

Now we just buy poison.

Bruce

Buy a python. They love mice.

Steve B

Also make sure everything in your cupboards is in pest proof containers, and no foodstuffs are ever left lying around. This not only deters mice but insect infestations too.

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Originally posted by blythe:
Or should that be mice traps?

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I believe The correct term is meeces traps.

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DIY instructions for the perfect mouse trap:

Take one shoe box. Make a mouse-sized hole in the lid. Attach an old sock to the hole in the lid and cut off the closed end. Tape the lid to the box in such a way that you can easily remove the tape when you want to release the mouse. Place a piece of cheese in the sock. Wait. The mouse will go for the cheese and safely slide down the sock and into the box. [At least ours did].

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What I like about rats is that they look so happy and optimistic. Why can't we all be like rats?

I agree with Mark, buy a tip-trap and catch them alive. Release them in a field and let them have a life. I've done this countless times.

It's too easy killing animals because they're in your way.

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Originally posted by count.d:
I agree with Mark, buy a tip-trap and catch them alive. Release them in a field and let them have a life. I've done this countless times.

It's too easy killing animals because they're in your way.

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I originally looked for a live trap but at all my local DIY stores (B&Q etc.) the only traps they had were the old fashioned spring style ones or a new variation on the same theme.
I would prefer to catch them alive and release, but had to opt for a spring trap :-(
Two down, none this morning.......... Crunchy peanut butter seems to work well.
There are loads of airbricks around the house, all of them with large holes, so it's going to be quite a job to mouse proof them all.
The mice have only shown evidence under the stairs, never in the "house proper" - under the stairs is two steps down from the downstairs floor level and the door seems to be a tight fit, so I'd guess that's as far as they can get.
Under the floors where I crawled to get my speaker cables in, there was evidence of mice having chewed at insulation on pipes, so I was concerned about damage to mains cables and of course, my six 7 metre runs of NACA5!

Computers are supposed to work on 1's and 0's - in other words "Yes" or "No" - why does mine frequently say "Maybe"?......

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Originally posted by Patrick Dixon:
Mark EJ, I'm disappointed in your cats. IIRC, one pestered me remorselessly when he was hungry, although (from what you say) there was clearly plenty of food he could have gone and fetched for himself.

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Absolutely Patrick, but the cats consistently maintain that mice just aren't in their job description, thanks all the same. We have in the past run the gamut of live blackbirds flapping around under the bed, forcibly imported frogs hopping around behind the HiCaps, and sundry other Geneva-busting atrocities admittedly on a relatively minor scale compared with Nick Lees' experiences (JESUS CHRIST!). However, our cats are now 16 & 17 respectively, and consequently limit their blood sports to shredding defenceless soft furnishings (occasionally) and surrepticiously switching off power amps by leaning hard on the green buttons (regularly). They also consistently walk into the room when vinyl is playing (as you noticed) and leave when a CD goes on... interesting.

Oh, and I have client who has a very fine brown rat called, er, Tim.

Best;

Mark

Fuck um, they are mice.

"I don't want to hurt them'

What a load of crap. Stop eating wheat then a whole lot of mice get killed at harvest time.

Fuck you Gary, you're just a chef with no brain, manners or taste. You're no big loss.

Perhaps someone will set a trap for you one day.

No more caught since the two original ones.......

Computers are supposed to work on 1's and 0's - in other words "Yes" or "No" - why does mine frequently say "Maybe"?......

Now at 4 mice......... I do hope it doesn't go on much longer.......

Computers are supposed to work on 1's and 0's - in other words "Yes" or "No" - why does mine frequently say "Maybe"?......

Blythe,

Sounds like you need to go for more extreme measures. You might want to try blending up a mixture of aniseed, macadamia nuts, cranberries, kibble wheat and some really stinky French cheese. Add a few squirts of moosey pheromones, pour the lot into baking tray and set the trap in the middle with a fan behind it to "broadcast" the aroma. This should pull the enemy in from a 5 mile radius so make sure you hire a skip before you start.

P.S. Be careful. Last time I did this I bagged a grizzly, 2 mountain lions and a wilderbeast.

What a ridicuolous idea Minky, where on earth is Blythe goung to get macadamia nuts from in the UK?

Bosh,
Any good health food shop will sell macadamia
nuts, then Blythe should have the healthiest
mice around , Ohhhhhhhhhh sorry that wasn't
quite the idea ,was it????
oldie.

i caught and killed 37 mice once skinned 'em and stiched the fur together made a nice rug.
i have placed it in between my speakers soaks up that boomy bottom end.
also makes a nice throwover for the couch,
but that's another tail or should i say 37 of them.