Mice...should we start keeping score?

Reply to
bigjim
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LOL! A believer of old wives' tales, who hasn't kept up with the news.

Banty

Reply to
Banty

you almost certainly won't be able to seal up a house well enough to keep them out.

Here's whats probably going on:

in the fall, when it starts getting cold, a species of field mouse decides that it wants to stay warm, and starts looking for warm places to move (there is another species of field mouse that toughs out the winter). during the transition time, the mice will explore a wide area (up to 3 mile radius in some studies) looking for their winter home. During this time, if you are setting traps, you should get a fairly constant capture rate (this is assuming kill traps. If you're using "humane" catch and release traps, you're wasting time). typically one or two a day in a suburban area.

you have a couple of options:

1) keep emptying and rebaiting the traps. in about 2-3 weeks, the rate should taper off.

2) just wait until it gets cold (first snow is usually about right), then set out the traps, and clean out the tennants. Its unlikely more will move in, and they've already found homes... When you first set the traps, you should get a fairly high catch rate, but it should drop off fairly quickly. The advantage to #2 is that you don't run the risk (or at least there is a lower risk) of having a mouse that doesn't like your bait move in....

Bait: peanut butter is the bait of choice. cheese is a myth, and only smells bad and attracts other vermin.

some people advocate mixing somce mortar into the peanut butter, on the theory that if the mouse doesn't trip the trap, the mortar will kill it. It

*will* kill it, but do you want a little dead mouse rotting inside your walls somewhere? smells bad, at the least...

Traps: the plain old snap traps are best. Set them on the floor in corners where a mouse would have a sheltered wplace to move around. Under baseboard heaters is good. Alos, if you get on the floor and look around, you will be able to find mouse "roads" by looking for droppings.... these are also good places to put traps....

good luck

-JD

Reply to
jd

They also learn fast. Once the baby sees kitty and grabs a fist full of fur...

Reply to
krw

This is a parenting problem, not a "cat vs. baby" issue. No child should be left with any pet in an unsupervised situation until they have been taught to behave appropriately around them.

Jo Ann

krw wrote:

Reply to
jah213

Right. Once the cat gets too close it'll have been taught its lesson. From that time on, they'll admire each other from afar. BTST.

Reply to
krw

Your baby must be young. (Hence the term baby) Now is the best time to start training him to catch mice.

Reply to
mm

Don't cats have salmonellla (or do they eat salmon? It's one of those.)

Or shistosomiasis, or psoriasis?

Or some contagious disease?

Reply to
mm

Also, I don't know the details, but a dog shouldn't enter the house until the baby has some sense of territoriality. Then the dog will defer to the baby. If the dog is there first, or I would guess when the baby is really young, the dog decides that he is in charge, and expects the baby to defer. Which the baby will do for a while, but not forever. Did I get this right?

Reply to
mm

I keep track too. so far since september, 32 inside the house. Not counting the 3 the cat caught. We get mice, voles, short tale shrews, regular shrews and I believe I had a muskrat once( it was big, brown, hairless triangular tail and it did a number on the basement door trying to gnaw thru it.).

I believe mine to be coming in under the doors. The door stops just don't do that good of a job. Get somebody to go outside and shine a high power flashlight under the door. IF you see any light in the house......

My weapon of choice is the Intruder best ever mouse trap. Sold at walgreens and online. Out does any other trap 10 to 1. To prove that they come under the door, I put one on either side of the door, and pushed them up flat to the casing. As the mouse comes in they turn right or left and get caught. No bait needed.

ITs been a good year for mice. I threw out grass seed on Labor day and not one seed sprouted. A check with a magnifying glass showed each and every seed eaten thru. The grass seed in the garage has been fairly well eaten also. They also made a bag of potting soil fairly worthless by burying the grass seed in it.

Also check dryer vents. Every once in awhile I will find a dessicated mouse in it.

Reply to
jmagerl

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