Rodent Problems

[Ernie]

Mice have decided to invade our house. As of yet, I haven't seen any live ones, but I hear them scurrying in the attic and the walls and the cats have caught a few.

Poison is right out. I have small children and won't take the risk. Traps are messy, and my experience is that you never trap enough of them to make much of a dent in the population.

I'm looking at sonic rodent repellents. These are little plugin things that you set up and they cover a certain square footage, putting out a high frequency sound that drives small rodents away. Supposed to be fine for dogs and cats.

Does anyone have any experience with these? Do they work? I'd like to know more about them before I plunk down the cash.

[fishhead]

I have to wipe them out each fall. Sometimes it's more than 50 before I'm done trapping but it goes quick and isn't too messy. I use the quickset clothespin type traps and smear the peanut butter on the underside of the "roof". I have yet to find a trap with the bait missing.

[farmergirl]

The sticky tape strip traps work very well. Once you rid the house of the mice, I would look at making the house less appealing to them. What works for us is having a flock of guineas that patrols the yard each day. They have driven away the mice, bugs and snakes from under our mobile home, just by virtue of patrolling around the perimeter. The few mice that aren't deterred by the guineas get snapped up by the barn cats.

[THETOOLMAN]

I run a dog boardin kennel so POISON is OUT!! I have chipmonks & mice in the early fall. They chew & poop every where , also I am afraid they will chew a wire & burn my palace down. I have fouhgt them with traps, cats,moth balls, & every way I can think of
I SOLVED THE PROBLEM 2 winters ago.
I went to the big box store SAMS & bought red hot cyanne pepper flakes , the kind that resturants use with seeds in it big plastic bottles of it i mean HOT STUFF
I spread it all around the house and everywhere they are comming in & out.1 week I figgured there last couple escape routs & blocked it wild HOT STUFF... they are GONE!! gone!! I touch up the RING every so often . The pepper fades pale in color & dissapears But must still work!~
"TOOL"

[BillHoo]

Originally Posted by Ernie

.....I'm looking at sonic rodent repellents. These are little plugin things that you set up and they cover a certain square footage, putting out a high frequency sound that drives small rodents away. Supposed to be fine for dogs and cats.

Does anyone have any experience with these? Do they work? I'd like to know more about them before I plunk down the cash.

I've not had experience with them myself, but have seen reviews and demonstartions from Consumer Reports - THEY DO NOT WORK. Waste of your money.

I've also heard exterminators say that they work for maybe a minute or two, before the rodents figure out there is nothing that can really harm them. The promise of steady food and safe shelter negates the irritation of an annoying noise.

[fishhead]

We only have a mouse problem when the nights start cooling in August-September. Once you get past those months it's unusual to see a mouse.

[greg273]

Sounds like you've got quite an infestation going there, ernie. But since you havent seen them, are you sure its mice and not squirrels?

I had a couple of mice running around my place, one night I left a bucket full of water and drywall tools out, well, the mice went swimming and didnt come out. That was it for that episode. The squirrel in the attic is another problem, but I am going to wait till a little later in winter before i kick him out. Anyone know when squirrels start birthin babies?

[Ernie]

My wife saw a mouse in the kitchen (she swears it was 8" long and must have been a rat) but I have yet to see any mice or their droppings. But I hear them. Constantly. I'm starting to feel like that Delapore character in the famouse Lovecraft story. The cats come up with a dead mouse every couple of days.

It's been said by my neighbors and close associates that I've had squirrels in my attic for most of my life.

The instigation of the mouse problem is my fault, I'm afraid. For a short time I stored some grain for the chickens in the garage and that drew them in. Then Mrs. Frisby and her legions of little darlings just decided to stay.

So I'm seeing lots of solutions here. Traps. Cotton balls and peppermint oil. On the cotton balls and peppermint, how much of a radius can I expect the ball to control, and for how long? And for the rest of it, I guess the hi-tech method is out. Yet another way that technology has failed us. Time to go buy a lot more traps, or some more cats.

<Spoken in a Yoda voice> "Begun they have, the Mouse Wars."

[CGUARDSMAN]

i use traps in the house and poison in the attic and that takes care of them.

[Bernadette]

Originally Posted by Ernie

So I'm seeing lots of solutions here. Traps. Cotton balls and peppermint oil. On the cotton balls and peppermint, how much of a radius can I expect the ball to control, and for how long? And for the rest of it, I guess the hi-tech method is out. Yet another way that technology has failed us. Time to go buy a lot more traps, or some more cats.

Or a ferret.
We currently have a resident weasel. He has been nicely cleaning up all the mice, voles, squirrels and chipmunks. He hasn't seemed to bother the chicken coop yet, or the rabbitry. We've been watching his footprints in the snow. When the rodent population is sufficiently depleted, we'll set a trap for the weasel.
A pet ferret would achieve the same effect.

[MaggieJ]

Originally Posted by Bernadette

Or a ferret.
We currently have a resident weasel. He has been nicely cleaning up all the mice, voles, squirrels and chipmunks. He hasn't seemed to bother the chicken coop yet, or the rabbitry. We've been watching his footprints in the snow. When the rodent population is sufficiently depleted, we'll set a trap for the weasel.
A pet ferret would achieve the same effect.

We had a resident weasel for awhile this winter too... They are terrific. No problem with it bothering our rabbits, geese or hens and the rat population has declined dramatically. I think the weasel has moved on though... or met with a rat it couldn't handle. No tracks in the snow lately and we're seeing the odd rat again. Drat! Tell you what, Bernadette... send me your weasel when you're finished with it. I'll give it a good home!

A few years ago we had a mink. He was even more effective.

[jen74145]

Re; pet ferrets; well, sometimes. We've had one that was just tenacious about getting hold of small animals (had to even watch little kittens around her) and another two who would just yawn and go back to sleep.

I hate to use anything that isn't instant death, since apart from being cruel, sometimes a mouse will drag itself off somewhere to die and stink up the whole house. Peanut butter baited snap traps work great. Don't know if they'd work for squirrels, though, so I'd probably pick up a few live traps from the feed store and see what happens.

[nubiansinny]

I have a battery powered one. I think it is a victor. got it on clearence at lowes.It worked great for mice. caught a mole once too. Turns out the running around in my celing was a rat! he was too smart for them. My jackrussel on the other hand was smarter and quicker than the rat

[cchapman84]

We used a sonic pest repeller in our old apartment and it worked great. We had a problem with mice in the kitchen (finding "presents" in with your silverware is not pleasant...), and so we plugged one of them in right in that room and never had another problem. It didn't bother our cat at all and it's easier than dealing with traps, poison, etc. (plus, the whole sticky strip thing just seems cruel to me, and when you poison them they crawl into your walls to die and sometimes they smell, and then when you remodel you find HUNDREDS of rat and mouse skeletons in your walls I would know this from experience at my best friends house and the piles of old dehydrated rat skeletons we pulled out of the walls upstairs in their house after they bought it).

[DW]

We've only had them once and that was enough! But the cat sure did have fun!

[Horse Fork Farm]

Jack Russell terriers are literally death on 4 feet when it comes to rats. Mine reminds me of the JRT on that Jim Carrey movie- "The Mask". You know.... when the dog puts on the mask and hes all teeth and eyeballs? Thats how Poot acts when he gets a rat...insane!!!!

[turtlehead]

We toss moth balls in the attic. Mice dont' like the smell (rats don't seem to care though). I wouldn't use them in the living quarters - did that and they smell STRONG for a long time!

The battery operated zap trappers work pretty well (better for us than snap traps or glue traps).

Our indoor cats are helpful, and in the summer we always leave black rat snakes alone.

We had to put all our "desirable" foods (bread, pasta, oatmeal) in thick plastic buckets, glass jars, or in the kitchen where the dogs sleep at night.

If they're getting into your kitchen drawers, leave them open so they're not a comfy hidey-hole.

[Pops2]

the smell of a ferret (even descented) will drive most rodents from the house. just like any thing else find out what the parents were like & train the beast to do it's job. when it's half grown wean it off ferrret chow & feed it fresh trapped mice (cut it open to let it smell blood). after a couple of weeks, fast it for two days & give it live mice in an enclosed area.

[annabella1]

The sonic things are trash. I tried them the mice loved them. Here's what did work:
The 5 gallon bucket mouse trap. Take a 5 gallon bucket fill it 1/3 with water pour on 1/4 cup vegetable oil. Put Brown wrapping paper over the top, tape it firmly to the sides. In the middle of the wrapping paper smear peanut butter. In the middle of the peanut butter cut an X about 2" wide. Put the bucket where mice can get on it (next to a table, lay a broom or something against it etc) The mice will climb to the top go for the peanut butter fall through and drown. Just dump it every couple days. Oh pigs, chickens or muscovy ducks love the dead mice.

[meanwhile]

We do use the poison in the attic but only put it out when necessary. We check it every few days and when they (rats probably or mice) stop eating it, we take it up and throw it out. We also have put the poison in the basement, under a plastic milk crate (just in case the cats get in there) but same as the attic, we check it every few days and take it up as soon as possible. We have cats and dogs that patrol the outside areas and barn so we only seem to have a few rats/mice that get through them every now and then. Usually it is early winter or early spring - like now. Good luck - not easy to deal with whatever you try to do.

One more thing - do try and figure out where they are getting in. We found a hole dug under our front porch near where it meets the house. Wire did not help, cement blocks did not help, so finally we dumped about 1/2 a bag of mixed-up-wet cement into the place they were digging. That has, so far (knock on wood) , kept them from getting back to the attic.

Good luck