I have MOUSEGUESTS again!

[janx]

Time to load the traps! I use humane traps and load them with crackers and peanut butter. They're great because you can observe the mouse (alive) in the trap after it's caught. Then I take the mouse to the nature center and let it go.

[janx]

1. Here is a pic I took a couple of years ago after I caught

a mouse:

[marzipanni]

2. They are cute, but such little stinkers

On morning a few years ago we found one mouse in our kitchen and he must've pooped every few minutes! I used a humane trap, too, but it's just a little transparent box with a sliding lid and the mouse was able to nibble around the entrance/exit. I like the one you have. What brand is it? If I ever need another I'd like to get that kind.

[janx]

3. HERE:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YFA7HW

I had two of them but accidentally broke one and might have to get another. It seems to work best when there are two. ;-)

The mice are starting to come in because it's getting cold at night. One of my neighbors has noticed this as well.

[AsahinaKimi]

4. As a suggestion

When I lived in the Haight Ashburry part of San Francisco my apartment had both cockroaches and mice. Fortunately, I have moved out, but before I left..I found this great device that chases both of them out of the place.. It was made by
Lentek and called PestContro II.

The mice left immediately after I plugged it in. The cockroaches took longer because of hatching larva...but eventually I was pest free. It doesn't work on spiders..but It works great on all bugs and pests. I have a cat and it doesn't bother him in the least bit.


You simply plug it into the wall..and it not only sends out a screeching sound that we can not hear, but uses the electrical wires to send the same sound out thought the whole place. You can probably buy them on on line or in a drugstore or perhaps at a hardware store. In my tiny apartment, I just needed one.. but in larger apartments using several helps.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=lentek+pest+control&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=2754367855&ref=pd_sl_2ocijyjn2u_b

[janx]

6. Those sound interesting--a friend of mine is using them, but

she has a large house and still has some mice in her kitchen. I think that's because for some weird reason she didn't install one there!

It would be nice not to have to worry about the little critters at all.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. I forgot to empty the trap and it was a very inhumane death for that wee guy. :^( We use the sonic

thingies now that the kittehs are retired.

[janx]

7. Have they worked for you? n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. So far, but we started using them just in late spring when the mice would have been headed out for

the summer anyway. Now that the weather is getting colder the cats are digging around the cupboards in the rooms that don't have them, so I am suspicious we need to get more of them. I will have to get under the kitchen sink and see if there is any evidence of little visitors there. :)

[janx]

9. That's where my mouseguests like to nest--in the cabinets under

the sink! This is near the cupboards where I keep my baking supplies and condiments, so I guess it's perfect for them. I've already seen a few wood flakes near the front of the cabinet under the sink but have not yet taken all of the cleaning supplies out of there for a good check...

...OK, I just checked. YEP, they've been gnawing! :rofl: There's no nest yet, but somebody has been busy chewing the wood under there again. :rofl:

I think I need to get another one of those green traps to replace the one I broke.


The reason I knew there was a mouse in here again was that one of my dogs, Daisy,



is obsessed with them. She stations herself at the corner of the cabinets, staring, and won't budge. Today she actually nosed one of the cabinets open and stuck her head in there!

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Ayuh, Our boy cat Pretzel stares at the cabinets too. He will also scritch at them and pull them

open so he can go in there. But he keeps getting himself shut in, the little goober. LOL

[janx]

14. Do you have to open the door and get him out?

:rofl:

Also, do you have a pic of him?

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. Yes, and Yes. :^) They are baby pics, though.

[janx]

20. Love these pics--the first one in particular!

;-)

[TheCentepedeShoes]

12. We hava a dog

Would the sonic thing bother him?
It's getting cooler weather which brings on mousie season
My house was built in the 20's and there are more mouse ways in than Carter's has Little Liver Pills

[GreenPartyVoter]

19. They say on the packaging that they are pet safe. I guess the sound is only in rodent range? The

kittehs here have never complained. :)

[Bombero1956]

10. we had some too

This past spring I bought some have a heart traps. I thought we had 1 or 2 but in one night we caught 10. After that I bought the sonic device and I haven't seen any evidence of them.

[janx]

11. Is it cooling off there yet?

The reason I ask is that the mice tend to come in the house here (in NM) only when it starts to get colder at night. I'm interested in the sonic technology but wonder how effective it is in a house and also how it's best implemented. (See my post above about my friend who has some mice in her kitchen.)

My friend laughs that I like to catch the mice in the traps and drive them to the woods some miles away to let them go, but it's actually pure entertainment. It's funny as hell. I love the way the mouse JUMPS out of the trap when I let it go! :rofl:

[Bombero1956]

22. we had them all year round

I was seeing evidence (droppings) of them from last fall on through to this summer. My brother put out poison for them down cellar and right after that one of his cats died. I figure it killed and ate a poisoned mouse so he stopped. As for the sonic devices I put 1 in the living room and the other in the kitchen. So far so good.

[janx]

29. So sorry to hear about the cat!

Poison hardly seems like a good idea, especially when there are other animals around. I appreciate the tale of your success with the sonic device and am keeping track of my friend's experience with it.

The Smart Traps are labor intensive since you have to relocate the mice. For instance, I have to get up at 5:00 tomorrow to make my long commute and won't be able to release any mouse at the nature center, but in that case I'll put the trap away--it wouldn't be good to leave a mouse contained in the trap for over 13 hours, and there's no telling what would happen to the mouse/trap should the dogs nose open the cabinet.

[Brigid]

15. Wanna borrow a cat?

My younger one should be a fairly good mouser, since she was a stray before I got her.

[janx]

16. I'd love to, but my dogs aren't used to cats and they both

have a very high prey drive--like your cat. Huck came within two inches of nailing a cat once, and that was outside.

Cats are wonderful. Someday I'll have a cat while a dog is a pup. That seems to even the score. ;-)

[realisticphish]

18. My mousetrap is fuzzy, affectionate, and insane

but he gets the job done.

Well, he's not affectionate to the MICE. Unless you define affection in a rather disturbing way.

Seriously, though, he's caught 5 mice in his life (that we've seen). All in a 2 week period. We think a nest grew up, and started to explore. Other than those, none of our old, crappy rental houses have ever had a single bit of mouse evidence.

[janx]

30. There is a reason that farmers keep cats--

mousers--in barns. They're working cats. ;-)

[janx]

21. GOT ONE!

I'm off now to drive it to the nature center...

[Capn Sunshine]

23. I think they like peanut butter and long rides

fall gets pretty boring around there

[janx]

24. It didn't seem freaked out at all!

Some guy at the nature center saw me walking up to the woods with the trap. He wanted to know if I worked there! :rofl:

Back to grading papers. The trap is set and waiting for the next mouse. :hi:

[janx]

25. MOUSE #2 just tripped the trap!

It's time for another ride to the nature center. :rofl:

[janx]

26. MOUSE #3:

Back to the nature center!

[applegrove]

27. Mice are the bain of my existance at the cottage. Went up there last weekend and

the mice are getting ready for winter and were tearing apart kleenex to make their nests. They attacked two boxes of kleenex. We have no idea where the nests are but I bet they have a great winter ruling the roost.

[janx]

28. That is so funny! Really, they are destructive varmints, but they're

so damned cute. The ones that get in here tend to nest under the kitchen sink, so I'm assuming that their entry point is underneath the house in that vicinity. I read all kinds of things online about how to find their pathways and points of interest--everything from using a black light to look for mouse urine to putting flour around their haunts (in your case it would be the Kleenex boxes) and then tracking their footprints. :rofl:

You are so lucky to have a cottage getaway. You obviously can't use the Smart Traps there since you're not around much of the time. But if you are there in winter, try the Smart Traps for a few days. I'm amazed at how well they work! The field mice here in NM are very adept at stealing from the kill traps for some reason. I used them for awhile, and occasionally I'd find a dead mouse, but often I'd find the trap sprung with the bait and mouse gone.

I gave a friend of mine a ride to the store today and explained that I had to drop off Mouse #2 at the nature center as long as we were out. God but it was funny! She was delighted when we released the mouse from the trap and it leaped out with a squeal/squeak. It was a beautiful day, and we laughed endlessly.

The released mice on on their own now. They must be self-sufficient; in their new home, they will be faced with the following creatures that populate the Rio Grande Nature Center (which is actually a state park):

UH-OH...


Oh, shit!


NOoooo!



NO-NO-NOooo!








On the upside, there's always the protection and the scenery:

[madeline_con]

34. At least you can drive away b4 the hawk swoops in. n/t

[janx]

38. That depends entirely upon the predatory acumen of the raptors and

the survival skills of the mice. :shrug:

[applegrove]

42. Yup. We don't go up in winter. We will have to deal with all their poo in the spring.

That is when I wash ALL of the dishes in the kitchen and wipe down the shelves. Seems like this fall the mice are in the larder too. One more place I'll have to wipe down come spring. Smart traps? Never heard of them I'll go take a look on the internet right now.

[janx]

44. Mice in larder?

Not good!

[applegrove]

46. There was just a few containors of nuts there. Mice found them.

[buzzard]

31. Graphic image, I tried all alternatives but they wouldn't be caught.

[janx]

32. Wow, you must have shot that shortly after the SNAP! n/t

[Jack Sprat]

33. Can you smell them? I can.

I can smell them when they're present and not smell them when they're gone.

[janx]

35. YES. They smell like a gerbil cage. The traps smell of rodent!

:rofl:

I haven't had an infestation that makes the kitchen smell like mice--at least not yet!

I have to clean my traps. The mouse smell in the traps is overwhelming, and I think that's what drives the dogs crazy.

[Jack Sprat]

36. The little critters have a distinctive odor.

Darndest thing that something so small emits an odor like that. If you have pets, then you need to place traps where they can't get to them.

[janx]

40. Huck, Daisy, and I have this under control, Jack.

We work together, and we have this covered! :hi: They alert me to mice. I place the trap. When I hear the trap spring, I pull the trap from the cabinet, show them the mouse, and thank them. Then I take the trap to the nature center and let the mouse go.

[Jack Sprat]

41. Sounds like a team working in concert. nt

[janx]

45. Yep.

We're all into the mouse thang.

[Skittles]

37. THANKS JANX

:thumbsup:

[pokerfan]

39. I'm sorry, because I claim kinship with mice

and other mammals, certainly more so than with insects, but for me it's ...

[janx]

43. MOUSE #4

tripped the trap just shy of 6:00 a.m. this morning as I was hurriedly getting ready for work! There was no way to take it to the nature center, and I didn't want to leave it in the trap for 13 hours, so I dumped it in the wisteria vines in the front yard. No doubt it was back in the house before I caught the train.