Rodents: diurnal or nocturnal and trapping the little buggers

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With your basic, North American, wild mouse, do they sleep during the day and scamper at night or the other way around? Or does it sleep and run around whenever it gets the chance?

The mouse in my house (ha ha) really scratches the walls at night - I think it's scrabbling around in a spare bathtub.

Oh, and since I need to stock up on traps, should I go with the classic PB on the old fashioned wire-snapping trap (like this) ? How well do those glue traps work? My dad swears by duct tape.

 

Mostly at night, though I've caught them in the daytime.

Glue traps work - but only if you don't mind dealing with a live rodent stuck spread-eagled on sticky paper. The instructions I've read for the glue traps suggest drowning the critter in a bucket of water - ick, IMHO.

I prefer the dead-in-a-snap old-fashioned snap trap. They're cheap so you can just throw the whole thing away.

Peanut butter spread on a bit of Tootsie roll candy which is molded to the trap trigger works well for our Tennessee mice. I'm told that really sneaky ones can get to the peanut butter without triggering the trap sometimes, but the Tootsie roll makes them tug and - snap!

Put the traps near the wall, behind something if possible, where you've seen the mouse or droppings. And check the trap every day. If you don't catch anything in a few days, try moving the trap.

You can also put out mouse bait but in my experience that leads to dead mice in inaccessible places. Stinky.

Good luck.

 

Yeah, I had a mouse (Edwin, named for the former secretary of state and not the BG NPC) who snaffled the peanut butter off 5 traps. I'll buy some Tootsie Rolls as well.

 

Get yourself an enterprising, hungry cat.

 

Take some cheese and mush it around the trigger of the trap making sure it goes through the opening at the end then use a match to melt it good. When it cools it is one hard chunk something like hard candy to the mouse. Works every time and can be used more than once if you empty the trap.

A cat is best but moms cat is over 20 and has to be helped up on the chairs sometimes, she couldn't catch a dead mouse anymore.

 

Over 20? I really like those veterans. They are by then even more incorrigible in their character as cats are anyway, and very serene.

So yes, you'd certainly need some fresh blood for hunting, and I know about the difficulty of finding a youngster that is tolerated by or gets along with your resident Methusalem. Cats are status and territory conscious. My old cat never tolerated youngsters around her. With a cat around I would avoid poison, for the risk of accidentally harming the cat. Cats like cheese or bacon or other baits just as much as mice do.

Kuemper, if you feel like adventuring, you could give the Rodenator a try I take it your house is build of stone, and solidly, too

 

Well, this being an old house, we have mice and rat problems all the time. We got this really wicked mouse trap, like a cage, but when the mouse reached inside to get the bait, it would set off the jaws that spring up with enough force to break a finger. There were lots of the little buggers then, I remember emptying the trap five times a day at least.

Mice really aren't that cautious in nature (unlike rats, those critters are clever), you can just leave the trap somewhere you know it visits. For example, we used it in the kitchen, since there was a hole somewhere and it came to eat crumbs and stuff like that. As soon as they notice that there's food waiting, they will try to snatch it, no matter how suspicious it might look like.
Just remember that if you have pets, put it somewhere they can't reach it.

Or, alternatively, get a ferret and let it run in the structures

 

Depends on how sophisticated the mice are. We found in New York City they just ignored the old fashion snap trap and avoided the little mouse glue traps. Ended up buying the big rat glue traps and literally laying them end to end and even in double and triple rows were the favored path was.

Yep, best thing is a cat. Even a non-mouser cat will help. The smell scares them. Right now I have a real hunter but you can't have her. Too cold in Canada for her. Besides Cameron would be lonely.

Ps: they mostly come out at night.

 

Ragusa, I think mums cat would like your post if she could read. Most people seem to dislike cats because of their independent nature. Glad to see so many cat people here.

Wanted to ask, is the rodenator a WMD item? Talk about overkill! Don't let Bush see the add. ;-D

 

We bought glue traps and caught the mouse (hopefully just 1). The path it was running was under the floor radiators, which didn't have enough height for the Victor snap traps. Once it was caught, hubby didn't have the heart to drown it in the toilet. I pulled out my stock "I'm a girl" card. We called in the marines (literally; hubby's dad is a former one) and had him drown it.

I know a cat is the best way for catch and prevention. Unfortunately, none of my friends and neighbors would let me "borrow" their feline companion for a few days. I was even thinking of getting urine samples from the neighborhood cats and sprinkling the liquid around the house.

I'm just praying the mouse we caught was the only one; single, male and no pregnant girlfriend(s).

 

You're fooling yourself. Rats/mice never invade a house one at a time...they come in droves, companies, and fleets.

Here in Utah, the entire state is basically one big mouse field. Once my brother had his basement room finished (the only part of the basement that was finished), he stared hearing them in the middle of the night in the walls and ceiling. He used 4 glue traps and 6 snap traps to kill 13 mice over 1 week. The glue traps also caught about 60 spiders of various types.

 

Well, my past experience with mice catching came down to 1 culprit who, after being broken in half by a trap or a cat, was the only 1. With a single agent captured, it's possible the agent was a scout or a "lone wolf".

Last night, hubby saw another mouse (dark colored). We set our last glue trap in the closet where there was a nice choke point. I went to bed, checking the trap beforehand and there was a smallish grey fluff on it. I asked hubby to confirm the catch as a rodent and not a dust ball. As hubby, soft-hearted mug, was getting the gloves to drown the mouse (no more than 1 minute passing), another joined his friend. Of course, the humor would not leave: Dumb and Dumber.

We're getting snap traps today and delving into our theoretical military histories to create more choke points and bottlenecks.

And getting a cat would be our best bet, but a continuing expense.

*rips up red undies and ties around head*

DARKTAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Me and my fiancee got four Gerbils, two minature Hamsters, and two Cavys, and I can say that it differ with each type of rodent. The Gerbils have quick schedules, having their 24-hour schedule in six hours, giving them three hours awake and three asleep. The minature Hamsters however have a strict sleep-twenty-hours-be-awake-four-hours-in-the-early-morning schedule. The Cavys? ****, I hear them 24/7, I am starting to doubt that they sleep at all.

 

Humane Method

Alternatively, use something like this and release the little buggers elsewhere. (Do you have an really annoying neighbour?)

 

Indeed, Kitrax. Last year we had so damn many mice that I almost started to think that it was one and same bugger, somehow getting resurrected and returning.

 

If you're squeamish about the glue traps the various humane traps will also give you the willies. And I'm not sure how helpful it is to catch a pest and release it elsewhere. These things aren't pets, but pests.

Sorry you're still having trouble, Kuemper. That happens lots of times. If you can figure out how they're getting in you might be able to block the hole with steel wool and caulking (they'll chew through the caulking by itself) but since they can wiggle through a hole less than an inch across it will be hard to block all the access points if you're in an older house.

I lived in a very old house in TN for several years and just kept traps out all the time. I'd catch a couple of mice a month in that house. Once I moved into a newer house I have had only a couple of mice, which apparently got in through the garage when I left the door open overnight by accident.

 

Latest death count:

Mice 4

Yes, while I was out buying more traps, another bugger hopped on the glue. Hubby managed to get them in the toilet and they drown. I feel weird putting the double-bagged corpses in the regular trash. I'd like something like the hazardous waste containers from a hospital.

We've figured out where they are coming in - the water main in the basement.

 

Now that you know how they're getting in....expanding foam will be your best friend. Go to a home improvement/hardware store to get a $5 bottle of pest salvation!

While your at it, seal up any other small openings you find.

 

Mice: 7

A couple of questions now. What's the average litter for a mouse? We've caught 1 big mouse and 6 little grey furballs so far. I was thinking 10 sounded right, but that may be for hamsters.

How do I get rid of the odor of pee and poo? AFAIK, the buggers have been living inside a wall and using the floor as a highway.

 

Well, about 10 or perhaps even more.
And about the smell, I can't say I'm sure, but trohough wash might help.