Mouse in the House

[Lazy Gardener]

Did you lift Gerald's tail to see if it was Geraldine? If a male, you can be assured that it was Bubba, one of Geraldine's suitors. By now, Geraldine has a whole new brood of babies suckling, while her teenage progeny are running to and fro, entering the dating scene. Most likely, by the time this new batch of pinkies are weaned, Geraldine will be in the family way again. New Daddy. Rinse and repeat.

 

[CrealCritter]

Not for me, @Mini Horses! But if there's a demand for something, people will supply it!

@Lazy Gardener, I'm coming up with 59,048 a year there JUST for Gerald and Geraldine. I certainly could be wrong...(Actually, If I count their first batch as litter 1, it would be 177, 146 a year...)

Each batch triples the one before it. You start with 2, then, 6, then, 18; 54; 162, ... for 10 litters in one year. Then add them all together, and you've got a whole lot of money going out every year for birthday presents!!

All that's assuming none fall for my traps

 

[CrealCritter]

Um... @CrealCritter I'm sure you won't miss Gerald. I give it 3 days before you are visited by Geraldine, and all of her children. They will stare at you with those beady little eyes, pleading with you to tell them where their daddy has gone. Of course, suffice it to say, Geraldine has never been at a loss for appropriate suitors, and will hardly miss Gerald. B/C, the courtship will commence immediately. They will dine on delectable little pantry morsels before retiring to the boudoir for a bit of romance.

And... You are right again - LG.

Gerald was just the beginning of our mouse problem. Last week my wife said "you" have got to do something about the mice in the house (voluntold). So I went to the farm store and got a bunch of mouse traps and two bait boxes. I put a bait box in the shop and one in the chicken coop and one trap baited with peanut butter in every room of the house.

The next morning we had trapped several mice but the other traps were clean of peanut butter. So I took a pair of pliers and bend the tab back a little that holds the trigger bar, to make them all hair triggers (made in China, fixed by American). The next morning there were several baby mice dead in the hair trigger traps. One trap even had two baby mice in it.

Its been several days now and we haven't seen, nor heard a mouse in the house. I can tell mice have been eating out of the bait boxes also. So i believe i got the mouse problem under control for now. I just need to keep up with making sure the traps are baited and set every day and the bait boxes are full and we should be OK... Fingers crossed anyways...

 

[Lazy Gardener]

We had a "chewie" inside the wall downstairs. Drove the dog absolutely ape. Every night, and some during the day, we'd hear it thrashing around inside that wall, a lot of jumping. I waited until "the wall" got quiet for more than 24 hours. Then, we drilled holes where we thought it was, had to drill 3 holes with a 2" hole saw before we found the body. I extracted a tiny little ermine. A piece of baseboard covered the holes very nicely, and hubby stapled a sheet of cardboard over the vent hole where it had entered.

 

[flowerbug]

set more traps outside along the mouse highway where i usually catch them. raining and cruddy weather, but i did it anyways. been banging on the wall with a hammer and a piece of wood all day so that if there are any mice in there they haven't gotten much sleep... maybe they'll leave and get caught in the traps...

 

[CrealCritter]

I'll probably be hated for this but I set bait boxes up in the wood shop and in the chicken building. After about 2 weeks no more mice. I still have at least 1 trap set in every room of the house and have not had any mice in them since setting the bait boxes.

For some reason I recalled a sermon I once heard. Where this contrast was made on speaking truth vs lie - rat poison is 99% grain and 1% poison, but that 1% poison is 100% effective. It's a excellent metaphor.

I also stopped free choice feed for my chickens and turkeys, now I feed them daily and only as much as they eat so there is no left over for mice.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Oh how I hate mice.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Interesting thread! (now on the new homepage)

I don't think I've ever had mice in my house, but I've always had a problem with rats. I wonder if they don't co-exist?

... what I do know is that controlling them has been a nightmare and it seems they are winning!

Yesterday in fact, I setup a bunch of traps in my attic and crawl space under my house. I also setup a few of the super cheap (and AWESOME) wyze cameras to capture any movement. We'll see what happens...

As far as I know, rats and mice DO NOT share the same space. If there's a rat, he'll drive out the mice. I think that's what happened in my high tunnel. I had mouse infestation, they tunneled in, decimated almost all of the plants in one bed, and had started on the other bed. I was catching 2 - 3 mice/night, Saw one live mouse, but not fast enough to stomp him. One trapped mouse had his belly eaten out. I presume that was done by a rat. The next night, all 5 snap traps had been sprung, but no bodies. That is more like rat MO than mouse. So... chickens are getting the remaining greens.
When HT is void of food, I'll re-set traps, and set out some Vitamin D based rodenticide blocks in bait stations. FYI, D-Con is changing their formulation to the Vit. D formula, which is the ONLY product that is approved for use on organic farms.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

My Westies were better mousers than any cat! Gracie, the English Shepherd, is awesome too - but a 50lb dog tearing after a mouse in the house doesn't let much stand in her way. She's better left to outside critters. She also doesn't stop at mice - she' get rats, snakes, and the occasional possum. Love that dog!!

 

[flowerbug]

it took three nights with the refreshed peanut butter on the trap to have a confirmed miscreant trapped. the same trap was set off two nights ago but i didn't know if it caught anything (sometimes the raccoons will get the mouse before i do). this morning when i checked there was frozen mouse. reset trap. not too likely i got the mouse from the wall i want to get but at least one down means if they are a family i've made a dent in their kingdom.

still not enough snow to do any tracking.

no other traps are being disturbed or having any peanut butter removed from them.

i have continued my knocking on the walls at various times to disturb the mouses slumbers and to encourage them to move out.

x-ray glasses would make this so much easier... *sigh*