Suggestions for capturing mice in the pantry (or not)

[Danny D.]

Mice traps in the pantry:

In the last week, every day we've seen mouse droppings, which is new for us inside the house in the kitchen pantry.

Each day I vacuum up the mouse droppings, and the next day, there are more.

I put out the yellow chunk of warfarin poison, and they've been eating it like crazy, but still, each day there have been mouse droppings.

I put out mice traps, with peanut butter and pine nuts with thread wrapped around them, and still, the mouse droppings.

The wife even designed a humane reverse-camber mouse-trap out of a jar of Costco olives, with a ramp from Trader Joe's eggs, and a delicacy inside.

All to no avail.

Still mice droppings.

Suggestions?

[FrozenNorth]

Call pro, we had mice about ten years ago, called a pro when we realized we could not handle it. Never seen them since.

[Dan Espen]

I like those small spring traps like shown in your picture. I put a piece of cheese in and have a mouse in an hour or 2.

There should not be edible stuff in the house where the mouse can get it. Just in the trap.

Got one a while back in 5 minutes.

[Danny D.]

I've had the big deer mice (which are the size of rats) outside by the pool and in the pump house for the wells, but a rat trap always catches them.

These little mice are tricky...

My next step is to get a sticky trap since they seem to come out every night. I don't like the sticky traps but if this reverse-camber olive jar idea of the wife doesn't work - I'm going to have to escalate the war.

[Danny D.]

I have the huge rat traps in the crawl space, and they always work. I put them in the well pump house, and they worked there too. I put them in the crawl space, and they worked.

But these tiny mice just aren't going for the mice traps that I just bought.

I first put mozzarella (the wife makes the stuff so I figured the mice would eat it) but they hardened. Then I put peanut butter, and they licked it off (I don't know how they got away with it). So now I have peanut butter and pine nuts (they ate through a bag of pine nuts so I used the spares) all wrapped together with thread.

Last night they didn't touch the 8 traps but they chewed the edges off the yellow warfarin chunk at the top of the original photo. The warfarin chunk is about 3 years old since you can't buy it anymore in California.

I wonder if that poison stuff goes stale?

We just now put everything that was bagged in see-through containers.

Even the very many bags of spices had to be packaged better it seems:

That's been my experience. Until now.

These little guys are crafty in that the poison isn't killing them and the traps aren't catching them. I don't know why.

[Dan Espen]

I've had shrews, and tiny field mice.

Something wrong with the trap?

They should not be able to breathe on the catch.

:)

[Danny D.]

The flour idea may work. The wife always has flour (she calls it "farina") and leivito in the house!

Interesting. Complex. But interesting.

The big deer mice (cute but huge, at about 1 foot long nose to tip of tail) are gone from the pool area (so far) since the traps get them every time.

The rattlers come and go, where I catch them (when I can) and dump them at a spot I call the Rattlesnake Pit. If the wife's reverse-camber olive jar trick works, guess where I'll drop off the mice?

[Danny D.]

I was surprised that they ate the peanut butter. The mozzarella was different because it hardened overnight.

This is the first night (coming up) with both peanut butter and pine nuts wrapped together with thread.

They're all brand new traps, the main name brand, standard no-frills type (copper catch pad) - nothing out of the ordinary.

Maybe my antagonists are not mice? I'll snap a picture of the poop tomorrow (I cleaned it all up already).

[rbowman]

12 gauge...

[dadiOH]

Good thought. Your mice might be roaches.

[My 2 Cents]

Damn mice, I've made some simple home made live traps, there are various ones on youtube. I also got one of these and it's caught a few.

I let it soak in soapy water then dry after getting rid of the dead mouse and use it again. Honey nut cheerios work pretty good for bait. Find where they are getting in and cram old plastic shopping bags rock tight into the hole using a screw driver. Nothing though beats a good cat when it comes to getting rid of mice. My cat died a few months ago and I've been fighting the mice every since.

[Wade Garrett]

Cat.

[Frank]

Snap traps work best for me. I bait with peanut butter. You want a fairly sensitive trap as mice can lick off bait without tripping. Think my traps are also Victor but have a big Swiss cheese appearing trigger and are very sensitive. Also put along walls or areas that might be used as runways. Don't think rodents have the best of sight.

I don't like glue traps as they don't work that well and torturous for mice to die there and they may even gnaw off their own leg to escape.

Would not poison them anywhere but attic. Dead mice usually just desiccate and don't stink but if flies get to them you might have to put up with odor for weeks if you cannot find the body.

Make sure to close any potential entrance to house and cabinets.

[songbird]

...

put just a little peanut butter on the top of the trip pan for the trap (to attract them and give them a taste) and put even more under neath so the mouse has to work for it.

very rarely will they get away from this.

don't bother with pine-nuts and thread, just gets in the way and distracts them or puts them off.

when i got tired of using the wooden/metal ones (falling apart, rotting, rusting, warping) i've tried the jawz black plastic traps and they've been working fine. so far though they've winged a few enough that they've been able to chew the traps. they need a metal version of these and they'd be worth $10 each.

songbird

[TimR]

We had mice in my church.

We caught them in a small Havahart live trap, baptized them, confirmed them, and have never seen them again.

We watch for them on Christmas and Easter but so far nothing.

[HerHusband]

We haven't had any mice in our new house, but used to have problems with them in our old mobile. Like you, we had good results with the snap traps that have the large plastic paddle on them.

I never put any bait on our traps. I just set the trap perpendicular to the wall, with the yellow paddle up against the wall. Mice tend to run along the edge of a wall, so if you set up one or two traps like this they'll eventually step on the paddle as they navigate along the wall. No bait needed. I never failed to catch a mouse with this approach.

The only place I use glue traps is in our cars. We live in a forested area and tend to get mice in the cars. Snap traps won't work in a our cars due to the vibration and bumps while driving, but the glue traps work well.

Anthony Watson

[Goffer]

Around 2 am, with the lights off in the house, simply toss a Hand Grenade into that pantry. I can guarantee 100% that you will get rid of the mouse or mice. (A lot more fun than using traps too).

[Danny D.]

Just my luck ... or maybe it's the fact I asked you guys for help and the mice got scared ... but this morning ... looking about ... I saw nothing.

They didn't even move the yellow d-Con warfarin chunk, which they had moved the previous two nights, with turds around it.

The wife thinks the new addition of the olive-jar-offering-with-ramp scared them away, but I'm just holding my breath to see if they come back.

There's no doubt whatever it is chewed away at the warfarin for a couple of days straight (how long does that stuff take to work anyway?)

Needless to say the 8 Victor traps with peanut button and pine nuts wrapped with string have been seemingly untouched.

[Danny D.]

I was just telling my wife, since the wooden Victor ones didn't catch the mice even though thy had clearly chewed away at the warfarin, that they should make a better mousetrap.

BTW, I call it "warfarin", but it's one of the recently banned anticoagulants brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difenacoum or difethialone.

[Danny D.]

I don't know why we all of a sudden got them, just like your church did.

My plan, had the live trap that the wife built out of an olive jar worked, would have been to dump them at the same spot I dump my live rattlers.

It would have been poetically just, just as your baptizing was. :)