12 volt killing question

[MN Mom]

Will a 12 volt shock from a deep cycle battery kill a mouse or a rat?

Want to make a shock trap. We are being over run now that the farmer has took the corn down.

Jon

[Jim-mi]

No
To low of voltage

[Cabin Fever]

I doubt it unless the mouse is wet.

Why don't you make a 5-gallon pail trap? Drill two 1-inch holes near the top of a 5-gallon pail on opposite end of the pail. Then cut off both ends of a soup can so all that you're left with is a metal tube. Buy a 1-inch wooden dowel rod and put it thru the can and then thru the holes in the 5-gallon pail. Now stack some wood on one side of the pail where one of the dowel ends are. Put some peatnut butter on the metal soup can. Lastly, fill the bucket half full with water. Are you following me here?

The mouse will climb up the wood and over to the wooden dowel. He'll crawl on the dowel to the soup can. When he gets on the soup can, the can will spin and the mouse will fall off into the water and drown. You can catch and kill dozens of mice a night using this method.

[SmartAZ]

In the evening, half fill a can with water. Put a paper over the top with a rubber band to hold it on. Cut an X in the center of the paper. Suspend a bit of smelly bait such as peanut butter above the X and provide a stick or something so the mouse can get on top of the can. In the morning, dump the drowned critter.

I've never tried this for rats. I hear they are strong swimmers.

[giffy]

A while back I picked up a Victor electronic mouse trap (I think they also make one for rats). The trap uses four AA batteries. At first I thought it was a joke, then I began getting a steady stream of mice getting zapped. So far it has worked good. Now I am not sure on this, but I thought AA batteries put out 1.5 volts each which seems enough for mice.

giffy

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GiffsFarm

[MN Mom]

I have 2 of the 5 gallon pail traps set up right now. 5 spring mouse traps and a live trap. All set with peanut butter, cheese or butter and have only caught 2. The walls are alive at night. I am starting to like the bats in the summer - they at least do some good.

Jon

[Ken Scharabok]

Personally I prefer raw bacon over peanut butter at a mouse/rat. On the can idea, put some holes in the can and then put say two strips of raw bacon in the can - after smearing it well with bacon fat.

I also prefer the rat poison baits to traps.

[foxtrapper]

No. Even soaking wet it wouldn't do anything to them. You can try it yourself to see what I mean, wet your hands and grasp the posts of a car battery. Nothing happens. You and a mouse both have too much internal resistance to get any appreciable current flow.

[Magickhart]

Great idea Cabin Fever!
We have a barn with some pesky mice. I had seen one mouse running on a rafter then jump into the hay up in the hayloft after DH was hammering against one of the stalls. We have 5 cats and any poison is out of the question. I want to try your method, but there is one problem… it gets below freezing and water wont work here right now. Do you think a large plastic barrel with Spray Pam on the sides would work to trap them in there??

[Cabin Fever]

Magichart: I’m sure your idea would work….but, the trap that I described will work all winter. Just put some antifreeze in the water so it doesn’t freeze (make sure pets don’t drink the water tho.)

[Magickhart]

I don't trust the cats LOL they get into everything! I'll see if I can find some of the earth friendly antifreeze that wont hurt animals.

[WisJim]

We use the 5 gallon pail of antifreeze method that Cabin Fever mentions, but we put a fence of chicken wire around it so that the cats can't get to the antifreeze. Make sort of a cone of 4 ft wide chicken wire to fit over the pail, and it will keep cats etc out but won't bother the mice at all. We do this in the hay loft of the barn and don't even have to check it very often. Just make sure the chicken wire can't get dislodged by cats or dogs.

[Thoughthound]

Voltage, whether it be 1 volt or 110 volts, doesn't mean anything alone. It is the amps that matter.

Think of voltage as water volume and amps as water pressure. You can easily stand beneath a waterfall of thousands of gallons, but you could die (albeit slowly) if you are shot in the head with a pressure washer.

A car battery puts out 12 volts but when cranking, sends out 500+ amps, which is very very deadly. (They considered using batteries for the first electric chair.)

Most 110 volt house circuits are 15-30 amps and they can easily kill as well by causing the heart to stop beating.

Electronics makes it possible to take 1 volt and create higher amps for a mouse trap.

Also, a short circuit from a battery is enough to start a fire. Be careful and store loose batteries with tape over the negative pole.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

Just replace the water with a liquid that wont freeze like used cooking oil

i once had a gallon of cooking oil in a camping trailer they ate the cap off and dove in had 5 in that gallon

i have had some luck with the plain old traps but that was in the house after all thier food sources where sealed in tubs buckets and cans

ok this is the theory behind eletocution from the electical engineer
and no they don't cover spelling in electronics school

if you measure you resestance from finger to finger it will be very high and varies between around around 8 and 30 meg ohms depending on how dry your skin is excetra
so to over come this very high resistance you need voltage
voltage is the potential and obviosly a 12 volt batery is 12 volts
but what deep cycle batteries do have is amprage
so with a transformer you can change current into voltage
this is how electric fence units work very high voltage to get though the tuff hide of lage animals but because it is realy the current measured in amps that kill they are very low current it technicaly only takes a mili amp to kill but this would have to be placed very near the heart

I am here to tell you i have taken many hits from 120 volt 60 hz AC curcuits
and i am still alive

so i saw one guy metion his zapper used 1.5 volt bateries

so does a cattle prod doesent make it hurt any less
they use a thansformer and ocilator to deliver a high voltage very low current
shock just increase the amprage some and you have a device that can kill you and mice

so the answer to your 12 volt battery is not without a tranformer an ocilator and a delivery method

i would try oil in the 5 galon trap before i spent the time reseaching and building to make my own zap trap or if you have a bug zapper with some modifications you would have it

just don't kill your self trying it .

[Bearfootfarm]

If you put enough salt in the water it wont freeze

[Cabin Fever]

Originally Posted by Bearfootfarm

If you put enough salt in the water it wont freeze

Putting enough whiskey in it and it won’t freeze either. Of course, you might find the ol’ man laying out there all passed out.

[Magickhart]

LOL! You guys are great! I love this forum! Whoot!

[Ozarkguy]

.

Here's how to make one of those bucket traps Cabin Fever was talking about: EEK! There's a Mouse in the House!

gotta love those hills.....

Ozarkguy

.

[Pony]

I keep thinking of a short ditty DH memorized during his undergrad days: "It's volts that jolts, but mils that kills."

I think the bucket idea is the best way to go. Thanks be to God I don't have to deal with that at this point in time, but I may with all the spoiled hay and straw I have stored in the garden this year! (Remembering squishing those mouselings from the compost pile -- shudder!)

Oh,well, it's all part of the circle of stuff...

Good luck gettin' those mice!

Pony!

[Mr.Hoppes]

Originally Posted by Magickhart

Great idea Cabin Fever!
We have a barn with some pesky mice. I had seen one mouse running on a rafter then jump into the hay up in the hayloft after DH was hammering against one of the stalls. We have 5 cats and any poison is out of the question. I want to try your method, but there is one problem… it gets below freezing and water wont work here right now. Do you think a large plastic barrel with Spray Pam on the sides would work to trap them in there??

Just throw a small amount of old antifreeze in the water . If farming equipment is home maintained, save the old fluid for this use..