Mice Killing for beginners

[tubeguy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9fZlNbyLVU

[Lobster]

The mice are winning.
I don't think they like raw potato. They seem to have more refined tastes.
Maybe the potato should be made with nutmeg and butter?

The other day a trap went off and two of us heard it.
The mouse was still alive and I had to hit it over the head with
a piece of wood.
Which was very distressing for one family member
and fatal for the poor mouse.

Yesterday one was in my computer room
(probably trying to access the internet again)

I have been blocking access points but the house is 100 years
old and so the mice find ways around . . ..

I may have to do a mouse-orcism

Thanks guys,
I would like to say no mice were harmed
during this period but they were

[Sylvander]

1. "I don't think they like raw potato. They seem to have more refined tastes."
(a) Och man, thae southern Sassenach mice are totally spoiled...
Imagine them no liking raw potato!
To be serious though, it ALWAYS worked for me.

(b) Another thing they liked were broad beans that I'd dried for seed and stored in a Kilner jar with a PLASTIC screw-top lid.
Some mouse had made a beautiful job of nibbling all the way around the [thick] plastic lid, so it came off clean as you like.
Should have seen the neat, perfectly regular, teeth marks.
Took some trouble to get to those beans, so it must have had a pretty powerful desire to get to them.

[tubeguy]

Lobster, I told this guy you were coming for him...

[Lobster]

They are the sweetest things. The Tibetan Buddhists believe all creatures are 'mother beings' - your mother in other life times. This is what comes from living at high altitudes for extended periods . . .

The mice are either gone or regrouping.
3 sonic repellers and 4 different types of trap.

I would have poisoned them or gone to rent-a-cat.
Will be trying to find holes to block this weekend.

I appreciate everyones good humour.
Some animals seem to understand me, flies I can ask to leave a room and they do. I did not not really try talking to the mice, just went into 'mouse terminator' mode.

I prefer to live in harmony with other creatures (even Windows users)
Thanks guys.

[rjbrewer]

Some animals seem to understand me, flies I can ask to leave a room and they do.

They're easily repelled by both halitosis and interminable redundancy.

[Sylvander]

I once had bees make the most beautiful classical beehive in my loft hanging from a roof truss.
My loft has so much lighting [6 bulbs + 5-foot fluorescent tube], it's really bright up there, and totally floored [by me] almost right out to the eaves [HUGE storage area equal to the sem-detached floor area].

Called in the man from the council [they won't do it now, unless you pay], and he dealt with it [took it away].

More recently, I had a bee colony in the [2-inch] air-gap in the exterior wall.
They were gaining access via a small hole under the bedroom window frame.
Barratt building.
The frame was a poor fit, and they filled the gap, but some of the filler fell out.
The council say "live with it", "just ignore them".
They've left for the winter.
I should plug that hole while they're away.

[p310don]

As used in country areas during mice plagues here...

Materials, long neck beer bottle, chair or bench, duct tape, bucket, water, olive oil and peanut butter.

Method. Apply the olive oil, or peanut oil, or any food oil to the neck of the bottle, then duct tape the bottle to the edge of the chair or bench with the neck hanging over into a void. Place the bucket with a few inches of water in it under the bottle. To bait the trap, stuff the peanut butter in the neck of the bottle.

The mice try to get to the peanut butter, crawl along the neck, slip on the oil, land in the bucket and drown.

For the less murderous, you can try not using the water and hoping they don't jump out, then relocate them later..

Sylvander. I once had a beehive in the walls also. Loved the sweet smell of honey every morning. I miss that

[obxjerry]

To add to p310don's trap, I have heard if you add sawdust or some other loose material to the bucket sans water the mice can't jump near as high. I had not heard of the bottle used as the trigger. Instead the trap, I heard worked well, involved a can with peanut butter on it suspended in the bucket by a rod through the bucket and the can. The mouse walks up a wooden ramp to the top of the bucket, jumps to the can to get the peanut butter, the can rolls and the mouse falls in the bucket.

I vote for p310don's trap, simpler, less destructive to the bucket and step one is drink a bottle of beer. That's genius.

[obxjerry]

OK, p310don's trap worked on the second night and caught a mouse. The mouse is fine. The sawdust broke his/her fall. My question is what happened to the peanut butter. I didn't want it or anything. It's not like I'm a spoonful short of a sandwich. OK, no comments from the peanut gallery, we aren't discussing my mental status. No, really, the peanut butter is licked clean from the inside of the bottle. I have pictures but I don't know how to post them. The end of the bottle is close to 3 inches (7.5 cm) beyond the edge of the table.

I don't see how one mouse could eat that much peanut butter. That would be like eating a wad of peanut butter the size of your head and I provided nothing to wash it down either.

[Lobster]

My mice have regrouped.

They are now using kamikaze techniques.
Throwing themselves at unbaited traps.
I believe this is some sort of sublime teaching on
sacrifice that I have yet to fathom (my injection is on its way)

Regarding the missing peanut butter.
Mice often work in symbiosis with slugs
- A fat slug was also eating my trap peanut butter.
Our Out house is next to the garden and some slugs are getting away from the fox.

I do like mice (my recent murders have caused 'ghost mice' to appear in my guilty subconcious).
Mea culpa.
I may start placing some peanut butter in the hands of one of the Buddha statues in the garden. This will encourage the Buddha to feed the mice (he has just been sitting there up to now).

[obxjerry]

Rebaiting the the beer bottle is always on my to do list, unfortunately that doesn't mean I actually do it. I didn't get around to it until yesterday. I've switched to chunky peanut butter. If they don't choke to death on a wad of peanut butter the size of their head maybe they'll choke on a chunk of peanut the size of their fist. Mice have fists, right? Come to think of it, I know from cartoons they do. They're just short a digit. I don't know if it's a thumb or finger but, I know they only have four digits.

I don't think slugs got my peanut butter. As dry as it's been here I would think slugs would be very rare. The bottle is in a dry garage on top of a 4 foot (1.3 meter) tall table. If the mice have achieved that level of cooperation with another species, we need to send them to NATO. Hey, that's tempting. It would be an easy answer to how far I need to take these mice so they won't find their way back.

Edit- I checked the trap; no mouse, no peanut butter and some loose odds and ends that were on the table are in the bucket. When I set it up yesterday I set the end of the bottle 5 inches (12.7 cm) past the edge of the table, fresh cooking oil on the neck of the bottle. The garage is locked and I doubt there's a hole as big as an inch (2.5 cm) anywhere. At this point, I'm thinking about getting the pistol out of my underwear drawer and taking it with me when I go to the garage.

Edit- Edit- Today's newspaper said this happened within 5 miles (8 km) of my house;

Man charged with shooting another man 11 times

Sanders got out of the car, took a handgun from the trunk and pulled Walker out of the car with the gun against Walker’s head, the warrant said.
Sanders shot Walker 11 times, then got back in his car and drove off, leaving Walker lying in the 1300 block of Gilmore Lane, the warrant said.

Walker survived. I need to get a bigger pistol.

[WireWulf]

Best way I have found to catch mice is by hand as for getting rid of them I normal use a quick flick with a knife and put them in my ever expanding mice graveyard oddly next to where I have my cats (whom died of old age) buried and near where my dogs (also of old age god rest their souls) buried so if terrorizing mice is bad I am possibly going to HELL!

[puppyluvr]

Hello,
I once watched mice open, transport, and use spaghetti to set off my traps and steal the peanut butter...

I have a blow dart gun which threw a "monkey wrench" into their plans tho...

Then I got it...

@Ed, all rodents are allergic to oil of peppermint...not peppermint extract, that will just get them drunk...They dont dig peppermint...

Or, do as I do...let a snake loose in your house...Any snake, even a little one...its smell alone will repel mice, even long after it is gone...

For out of the way spots, Habenero extract repels nearly everything, even termites...

Fight nature with nature, I always say....(now)

[p310don]

... Habenero extract repels nearly everything.... hurts the next day too...!
Funny thing is, when I grew them, the chillis got decimated by snails. Who'd have thought, squishy snails eating chillis that make ur tongue feel like its inside a furnace?

[Lobster]

Ed, all rodents are allergic to oil of peppermint...not peppermint extract, that will just get them drunk...

Thanks everyone.
I do wonder if drunk mice are an improvement. Just as intoxicated humans become a pest to themselves and others . . . However after a heavy day of setting off traps with spaghetti perhaps the mice need to unwind with a peppermint . . .

I once saw what I assume was an intoxicated mouse. The mouse casually meandered over the floor doing a hand stand. (walking on its front legs only with its back in the air) I assumed it was trying to impress any potential predator as the intoxicant or old age had effected its balance

I like the snake idea (might see if I can get snake skin from a pet store or Santeria shop - we used to have one quite near). Actually owning a snake might be a bit much as I would have to buy dead mice or similar to feed it. Chili and peppermint oil should be easy to find.

Most people around here go for the cat option. In ancient Egypt cats were so important protecting grain stores, they eventually became Bastet, the supreme mouser . . .

I did start my 'unpleasant sounds for mice program' but I really feel I should use a cleansing mantra or similar instead.

Anyway I feel I am learning some important lessons about dealing with
bankers and terrorists. It is a case of transposing one problem to another pest infestation.

Thank you mice
You have not died in vain

Puppy Linux
Improbably Great

[sc0ttman]

Don't kill them!! If you need to kill a mouse cos you cant outsmart it, you got real problems!

You just need a demi-john (or similar) tilted up (45 degrees or so), with food at the bottom....

Leave it over night, wherever your furry friennds might find it..
Make sure it's easy for the animals (pests?) to get inside it..

Animals go in felling peckish, but *very* few animals have the right paws/feet/etc to get back out again.. They slip down to the bottom repeatedly..

If you never made your own alcohol, here's a demi john..



I always works for me, I got rid of about 3 mice that way in the last few years.. Chucked them out in a field near my place..

[hayagix]

We use moth balls in the garage to repel mice. Seems to work. They(mothballs) are pretty stinky inside a house, however.
Mothballs work well in the wife's flower garden to keep the neighbours cats from using it as their toilet.
Stuff steel wool into holes, cracks, and crannies.

[RetroTechGuy]

I did start my 'unpleasant sounds for mice program' but I really feel I should use a cleansing mantra or similar instead.

Perhaps the music formerly known as "prints"?...

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-blog ... furry-sort