mice

Swingman wrote:
> "robo hippy" wrote in message

>>My old cat could never figure out that he was supposed to catch and eat
>>the mice. I caught one and gave it to him. He managed to play kitty
>>hockey with it for about 20 minutes, and then lost it under the dryer.

> Damn city cats ... overweight, frenchified, watch too much TV, and probably
> gay to boot. You want a country cat, preferably barn raised.

Heh! That's my kitty, 'cept the part about TV. And I don't think she's
gay, more of a southern belle type. Her name is Oblivia Suttherly, if
that helps.

She has a deep abiding terror of strung beads ever since an alligator
lizard found its way into my place.

er
--
email not valid

This is kind of like my pest control buddy tells me about roaches. A
good rule of thumb is that if you see one, there is a hundred in the
walls you don't .

Are you sure they are actually mice, and not rats?

When we work on an old house I have seen it take months to get rid of
every last critter in an old neighborhood. My pest control guy doesn't
use the glue traps as the intended victims get away all too often. He
uses the biggest Victor trap (affectionately called "the snapper") or a
poisonous cake.

Problem with the cake is the rats/mice eat it and go die in the walls
of the house. He has told me of times when he has set his snappers up
and gone back to find them gone, no sign of anything but blood and
struggle. This is usually when the intended vic gets a leg stuck and
not his neck in the machinery.

The next best thing you can do after you get them all is find out how
they got in. They will be back, you know.

Robert

>Are you sure they are actually mice, and not rats?

Yeah, they're very small.

It's also a new house, less that 2 years old. I'm not sure how they're
getting in, but I doubt I can stop it. Mice can squeeze through a 1/4"
gap. They're only in the garage at the moment. I'm hoping I can get
them all so that they're mostly gone, maybe leave a trap out all the
time to get the new arrivals.

brian

>I know that many folks get upset about the original, organic mouse
>extermination device. It is called a cat.

We had a cat once when we lived in indiana. We never fed it in the
warm months. There was a field behind out house full of mice.

Problem is, I hate cats. Actually, I like cats, but I hate when they
spray. And I hate catboxes. They're always in *my* bathroom. And
there's always cat litter on the floor when I step out of the shower,
wet, onto the tile floor.

I may break down and get one anyway if it gets out of hand. Just have
to be sure that we don't end up with a useless cat.

brian

My old cat could never figure out that he was supposed to catch and eat
the mice. I caught one and gave it to him. He managed to play kitty
hockey with it for about 20 minutes, and then lost it under the dryer.
I tried live traps for a while, turning the varmints loose in the back
yard, but they came back into the house. Out came the old fashioned
snap traps which I didn't tell my daughter about, and now all of the
mice are gone.
robo hippy

"Damn city cats ... overweight, frenchified, watch too much TV, and
probably
gay to boot. You want a country cat, preferably barn raised. "


"Brokeback Barncats"?

We used bait in an old house we lived in. Sucker died under the
kitchen cupboards, totally inaccessible. Stunk the kitchen out for
about 3 weeks while the little bugger decomposed. Now I either snap
trap or send in the cavalry - I mean cat. Although I just LOVE it when
they eat everything but the tail.
Cat lives outside most of the time, no litter boxes, no spraying, no
mice or rats. The rat bodies generally get hiffed back up into the
bush, as the cats wont eat them.

I learned the peanut butter on a can trick at a remote lake in Ontario,
Canada last summer. The Walleye love the mice!
robo hippy

Or a piece of lightly cooked bacon tied on with cotton. Lasts for
about 5 mice or 2 weeks, whichever comes first.

Unique perspective. Breed rats.

I breed rats for various reasons and have found that a small population
that used to hang around our flat disappeared. It's to do with
terrority. But you need a male and female colony other wise when one
sex comes in season they will attract the other from the wild unless
you have what they need near by.

By the way, I'm not bothered by this thread. If you want to kill a rat
soak fresh bread in fruit juice, then spray with bleach. They love the
taste but their insides don't agree with the bleach. If they are wild
rats they will leave the premises to find water.

TR

We're in chicago. IIRC, hanta virus is a dry/western thing. Most of
the cases I've heard about have been in colorado/wyoming type places.
Still, I was worried about it here. I set the trap again last night,
no mice. I think we may have gotten all of the residents.

brian

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] says...
> Last summer, I discovered that we had a visitor in the gar^H^H^Hshop.
> Having never had mice in or around my house before, I was sort of
> amused by the furry grey visitor. esnippered for the sake of brevity////

Brian, Last summer while on a fishing expidition SWBO and I had an
encounter with a tribe of deer mice which had moved into the engine
compartment of Our ancient Sierra 1/2 ton, building a nest in the plastic
case which houses the fusibles with all the toilet rolls that had been
getting torn up ( we were blaming chipmunks). Open the hood and mice
would swarm everywhere .. seemed like about 5 generations, maybe a family
reunion or sumpfin.

Being camped some 35 miles off the beaten track with no one else about,
and not relishing the idea of a long hike to the highway if they should
somehow manage to short out the wiring system I set up a plastic tub,
about 12 in deep, filled 2/3 full of water. Then impaled an mt condensed
milk can through with a wire fastening the wire ends to the opposite
sides of the tub, allowing it to spin freely. Set up a flat stick as a
runway up to one end of the wire. Smeared the can generously with peanut
butter, and the first night 17 bodies were collected, 11 the next night,
and then no more. Side benefit was in the day time watching the chipmunks
doing the highdive while trying to clean off the peanut butter.
For a while there we were catching more mice than walleye! Groggins.

brianlanning wrote:
[snip]>
> I even cought two at once. We'll see how many actually die before the
> bloodbath ends.
>
> brian
>

I actually spotted on trotting across my hearth. I BOUNDED out of my
chair and grabbed him with my hand. He must have surprised as hell and
just froze. I carried him outside and let him go across the street.
And no, he hasn't come back.
kreegah!,
jo4hn
gronk!

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] says...
> I learned the peanut butter on a can trick at a remote lake in Ontario,
> Canada last summer. The Walleye love the mice!
> robo hippy
>
>
So did the seagulls!
Groggins

In article <[email protected]>,
Swingman <[email protected]> wrote:
><[email protected]> wrote in message
>
>> The next best thing you can do after you get them all is find out how
>> they got in. They will be back, you know.
>
>Shop cat ... never fails.
>
>
>
>

Sometimes referred to as a "ball-bearing mousetrap".

At least when it is the male of the species

In article <[email protected]>,
robo hippy <[email protected]> wrote:

> My old cat could never figure out that he was supposed to catch and eat
> the mice

Our cat is a bird-destroying machine, but mice are simply mildly
entertaining toys to her. The only reason she hangs around the compost
bin at all is that it's a warm place to sleep, like the laser printer.

--
Boycott Google for their support of communist censorship and repression!

Brian Henderson wrote:

> Now just wait until you get possums in your shop. Those are fun.
> They've got attitudes. :)

It's all bluster. Kick 'em in the face and they roll over.

[Their jaws aren't made for anything more strenuous than chewing bugs.]

er
--
email not valid

On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 11:22:00 -0500, "Lee Michaels"
<leemichaels*nadaspam*@comcast.net> wrote:

>They asked us for advice. We said traps or cats. But they were horrified
>that their cats would experience some kind of blood lust frenzy and lay
>waste to the countryside or something. Total whackos.

The only problem with using cats is that if the rodents are diseased
or covered with mites, fleas and ticks, the cat can, and probably will
pick it up. Vet bills are a bitch. So is replacing cats.

Get the cat, when the mice are gone, get a dog, when the cat is gone- you
still have a dog! all very organic too.

J



"brianlanning" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> >I know that many folks get upset about the original, organic mouse
>>extermination device. It is called a cat.
>
> We had a cat once when we lived in indiana. We never fed it in the
> warm months. There was a field behind out house full of mice.
>
> Problem is, I hate cats. Actually, I like cats, but I hate when they
> spray. And I hate catboxes. They're always in *my* bathroom. And
> there's always cat litter on the floor when I step out of the shower,
> wet, onto the tile floor.
>
> I may break down and get one anyway if it gets out of hand. Just have
> to be sure that we don't end up with a useless cat.
>
> brian
>

"robo hippy" wrote in message
> My old cat could never figure out that he was supposed to catch and eat
> the mice. I caught one and gave it to him. He managed to play kitty
> hockey with it for about 20 minutes, and then lost it under the dryer.

Damn city cats ... overweight, frenchified, watch too much TV, and probably
gay to boot. You want a country cat, preferably barn raised.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 12/13/05

Never a problem here. I have five cats. They'er better than moustraps, they
hunt them down.


"brianlanning" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Last summer, I discovered that we had a visitor in the gar^H^H^Hshop.
> Having never had mice in or around my house before, I was sort of
> amused by the furry grey visitor. It brought back fond memories of
> hamsters while growing up while carefully hiding all of the bad
> mice-related things that people often associate with them. My kids
> also thought it was cute and had lots of fun mouse-spotting while I was
> out there doing what we do.
>
> Then one day, my 10 year old daughter was in the garage getting some
> bottled water for her lunch. While in the box, she disturbed the
> mouse, who freaked out, and flew out of the box. Mighty-mouse brushed
> by my daughter's cheek as it made its escape. That was the first nail
> in the coffin. My very intellegent, articulate, and rational daughter
> would no longer go into the garage without an adult. As a sensitive
> and caring father, I thought it was hilarious.
>
> Then I made a horrible discovery of gargantuan proportions.
>
> It's winter, and the heating situation in my garage isn't exactly ideal
> at the moment, leading me to limit my time out there. Also, I had been
> focusing on some other projects around the house as well as some
> unplanned auto maintenance. In short, I didn't realize that the mouse
> had somehow found its way up the dust collection hose and onto the
> surface of the table saw.
>
> Did you know that mouse urine will etch a cast iron top? I now had
> dozens of little black spots scattered across the cast iron. The
> little f&*$@r had been using my table saw as an outhouse. I got out
> the 0000 steel wool, wd40, and johnson's paste wax, but to no avail.
> The rat has permanently autographed my table saw.
>
> He had to die.
>
> I went to the local borg to peruse the insecticide isle (about the only
> thing it's good for) in the hopes that they also had devices that could
> be used to rid my gar^H^H^Hshop of it's now unwelcome guest. They had
> all kinds of better-mousetrap type inventions. One could electrocute a
> mouse with 2 AA batteries. Yet another was designed to glue the mouse
> to a pad (yuk) where it would surely have the slow, painful death by
> starvation it deserves. Having never taken the life of any sort of
> mammal before, I consulted my coworkers before this moment. Being
> sensitive and caring coworkers, they thought it was hilarious. But
> suggested that the 98c pair of old fashioned victor mousetraps would be
> most effective.
>
> On the way home from the borg, my 7 year old son, laughing, now
> obsessed with new and unique ways to kill mice, was suggesting all
> kinds of gruesome deaths. The most creative involved a frenchfry
> slicer and a vat of boiling grease. For a moment I considered his
> proposal. But I decided against it since it would ruin a perfectly
> good frenchfy slicer and frier.
>
> Upon arriving home, I set the trap, baited with peanut butter. The
> next day, I returned to find, much to my horror, that the trap had been
> fired, but no dead mouse. Of course, all the peanut butter was gone.
> I felt robbed. So I reset the trap and tried a different location.
>
> While talking with my coworkers, one of them made a truly frightening
> comment, "There's probably more than one of them." Could it be true?
> Did I indeed have multiple mice masquerading as one? We'll find out
> soon enough.
>
> That night, around 9:30, the 6 and 7 year old boys snuck out of bed to
> check on the mousetrap. Success! But I didn't know it yet. My first
> indication that we had caught a mouse was the screams from my 14 year
> old daughter who suddenly found herself face-to-face with a dead mouse
> in a mousetrap. The boys thought she should have a close-up look at
> the remains and thoughtfully brought it to her. Being a sincere and
> caring father, I thought it was hilarious. My wife disagreed.
>
> By this time, my three year old was showing some aprehension about
> walking through the garage. He can't say "Mickey Mouse", instead
> opting for the more humorous and oddly appropriate "Icky Mouse". A
> passing sarcastic comment by one of the older children caused him to
> associate the mouse in the garage with the Rat-King from Florida.
> "Icky Mouse all gone?" he would ask in a concerned tone. If only he
> new the reality.
>
> Since that night, the bodycount had steadily increased:
>
> Nasty mice with poor bathroom habits: 1
> Pissed-off woodworker: 5
>
> I even cought two at once. We'll see how many actually die before the
> bloodbath ends.
>
> brian
>

In article <[email protected]>, "brianlanning" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>Upon arriving home, I set the trap, baited with peanut butter. The
>next day, I returned to find, much to my horror, that the trap had been
>fired, but no dead mouse. Of course, all the peanut butter was gone.
>I felt robbed. So I reset the trap and tried a different location.

Use a raisin instead. Press it down onto the bait pan, good and hard. They
can't possibly get it off without springing the trap -- and IME the trap works
100% when baited with a raisin.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

"brianlanning" told a tall "tail" about shop mice.

And it was funny.

I know that many folks get upset about the original, organic mouse
extermination device. It is called a cat.

We used to live across the street from some heavy duty organic types. The
had four house cats that never went outside. And they stored grain in the
basement for "emergencies".

A big rat dicovered this food warehouse and started shopping there
regularly. They were super vegetarians and non violent. They kept trying to
come up with ways to "humanely" convince the rat to shop elsewhere.

They asked us for advice. We said traps or cats. But they were horrified
that their cats would experience some kind of blood lust frenzy and lay
waste to the countryside or something. Total whackos.

Then one day, our cat was strolling by their house. The rat ran out and
Buddy instantly killed it. He was very good at this sort of thing. He would
often "contribute" to the family food stores by leaving various corpses on
the back porch. Including the rat that was fattened with our neighbor's
grain stores.

Our granola neighbors were so astounded that a "natuaral" solution was
delivered to them by Momma Nature. They no longer had to deal with this
pesky problem. And we got organic vegetables delivered to our house on a
regular basis from then on. And the veggies were quite tasty too.

Anyhow, cats are good at this sort of thing. And have been for a long time.
Kind of a traditional approach.

<[email protected]> wrote in message

> The next best thing you can do after you get them all is find out how
> they got in. They will be back, you know.

Shop cat ... never fails.

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] wrote:

> The next best thing you can do after you get them all is find out how
> they got in. They will be back, you know.

I feed them little cubes of grain with an added flavour enhancer.
Any farm supply store sells them and they are very effective.
I saw ONE mouse turd in the house, and put out some cubes (I used them
in the shop out in the country), and all that happened is that one of
the cubes had a little corner gnawed off and that was the end of it. Me
thinks it may have been a lone mouse, looking for his lost relatives or
sumptin'.

Plugging any and all holes is the most effective way to stop them from
coming in.

In article <[email protected]>,
jo4hn <[email protected]> wrote:

> kreegah!,
> jo4hn
> gronk!

Lemme guess... Buckley's?

The brianlanning entity posted thusly:
>Then one day, my 10 year old daughter was in the garage getting some
>bottled water for her lunch. While in the box, she disturbed the
>mouse, who freaked out, and flew out of the box. Mighty-mouse brushed
>by my daughter's cheek as it made its escape. That was the first nail
>in the coffin. My very intellegent, articulate, and rational daughter
>would no longer go into the garage without an adult. As a sensitive
>and caring father, I thought it was hilarious.

Sounds funny, but be aware that some mice carry Hanta Virus, a not
altogether pleasant thing to die of. I don't know where you live, and
it may not be a problem for you, but it sure is around here (western
Canada).

I treat all mouse infestations very seriously, and avoid contact with
their droppings and urine, which will both carry the virus to you.

>Did you know that mouse urine will etch a cast iron top?

Yes, and as above, be very careful how you handle it.

The bucket of water/broom handle/coffee can/peanut butter trick is
excellent and cheap.

The Groggins entity posted thusly:

>In article <[email protected]>,
>[email protected] says...
>> Last summer, I discovered that we had a visitor in the gar^H^H^Hshop.
>> Having never had mice in or around my house before, I was sort of
>> amused by the furry grey visitor. esnippered for the sake of brevity////
>
>Being camped some 35 miles off the beaten track with no one else about,
>and not relishing the idea of a long hike to the highway if they should
>somehow manage to short out the wiring system I set up a plastic tub,
>about 12 in deep, filled 2/3 full of water. Then impaled an mt condensed
>milk can through with a wire fastening the wire ends to the opposite
>sides of the tub, allowing it to spin freely. Set up a flat stick as a
>runway up to one end of the wire. Smeared the can generously with peanut
>butter, and the first night 17 bodies were collected, 11 the next night,
>and then no more. Side benefit was in the day time watching the chipmunks
>doing the highdive while trying to clean off the peanut butter.
>For a while there we were catching more mice than walleye! Groggins.

That's the absolute best mouse trap if you don't have a good cat.

Second best are the little wind-up multiple-catch traps. You do have
to check them often though, otherwise they eat each other in the
holding part, and stink the place up.

Larry

brianlanning wrote:

> Did you know that mouse urine will etch a cast iron top? I now had
> dozens of little black spots scattered across the cast iron. The
> little f&*$@r had been using my table saw as an outhouse. I got out
> the 0000 steel wool, wd40, and johnson's paste wax, but to no avail.
> The rat has permanently autographed my table saw.
>
> He had to die.

Always had complete success with the little packets of poison, more
certain than traps. They must love to tear them open... and you can
drop them in discrete places where pets won't get to them.

Sometimes one will die in a wall or somewhere, that's a problem if it is
damp there, otherwise it'll desiccate.

My understanding is they seek water after having eaten it, and it seems
they mostly do leave the building before they die.

er
--
email not valid

On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 11:36:55 -0800, Enoch Root <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Always had complete success with the little packets of poison, more
>certain than traps. They must love to tear them open... and you can
>drop them in discrete places where pets won't get to them.
>
>Sometimes one will die in a wall or somewhere, that's a problem if it is
>damp there, otherwise it'll desiccate.
>
>My understanding is they seek water after having eaten it, and it seems
>they mostly do leave the building before they die.

That is true. I got this really bad odor in my laundry room a couple
months back, went down into the basement and found four dead rats that
had been trying to get under the water heater, presumably for the
above reason, and had cooked. I also found a small dead possum that
had gotten down there and was stuffed behind the heater.

On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 20:16:32 -0700, dgadams <[email protected]>
wrote:

>We had a nest of mice in the back yard a few years ago. Cats were too
>old, but the dogs liked those tasty little snacks. Cleared the whole
>herd, pride, pack out of there.

We've got an akita that keeps the backyard completely clear of
anything that comes in. Mice, rats, possums, rabbits, stray cats, you
name it. He's not really trying to kill them and eat them, he's just
"playing". You know... grabbing it and shaking it vigiously until it
don't move no more.

On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 10:11:31 -0600, Swingman wrote:

> <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
>> The next best thing you can do after you get them all is find out how
>> they got in. They will be back, you know.
>
> Shop cat ... never fails.

We had a nest of mice in the back yard a few years ago. Cats were too
old, but the dogs liked those tasty little snacks. Cleared the whole
herd, pride, pack out of there.

DGA

On 30 Jan 2006 07:47:48 -0800, "brianlanning" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Last summer, I discovered that we had a visitor in the gar^H^H^Hshop.
>Having never had mice in or around my house before, I was sort of
>amused by the furry grey visitor. It brought back fond memories of
>hamsters while growing up while carefully hiding all of the bad
>mice-related things that people often associate with them. My kids
>also thought it was cute and had lots of fun mouse-spotting while I was
>out there doing what we do.

Rodents are a complete pain in the rear in the shop. Unfortunately, I
have a lot of these fuzzy visitors, since I own 10 acres of orange
groves and my shop butts right up against the groves. I can't tell
you how many times I've walked into the shop and turned on the lights,
only to have a huge rat run across the floor, trying to find a way
out.

Unfortunately, rodents gnaw and if left unchecked, can and will eat
your woodpile, chew on your electrical cords, etc. I had one of the
seats from my van stored in the garage for a couple weeks and when I
put it back, I found that half the seat-belts had been chewed on.
That's going to cost a bit to replace.

I've got poison traps out and they usually only last a couple days.
Very rarely do I ever find a body, they probably die out in the fields
and are eaten by other vermin, which hopefully pick up on the poison
and likewise die.

Now just wait until you get possums in your shop. Those are fun.
They've got attitudes. :)

Last week a squirrel got into my garage. I still do not know how.
Chewed up some window trim, knocked some things over. Tried the live
trap with peanutbutter, no dice. Tried the poison. Nope. Then when
I was cleaning up a mess with the shopvac, I opened a door and there
is was. You know, the little shits really hate getting caught by a
shopvac. It sucks in the tails and part of the body. They go ape for a
while until a good boot stomp. I suppose it would work better with
mice, sucking them completely in. Then think of the neat things you
could suck up next to make their now shorter life even more miserable.

As far as rodents in my house...Not with my 2 cats, both mousers,
neither plays with rodents, they just KILL them and bring to my feet
for a treat. Last year when I was a away for the weekend a bat got
inot the house. Needles to say my wife fipped out. Called the
exteminator at 3:00AM. By the time he got here my furball. MrPaws, a
20lb cat, not fat, just a big fellow. He had the flying rodent pinned
to the floor and dead. Easy job for the guy now. Next day took Paws
and the flying mouse carcuss to the vet for testing. No issues. I
love my cats, Little furry angels of death for anything smaller then
they are.



On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 19:51:11 -0800, jo4hn <[email protected]>
wrote:

>brianlanning wrote:
>[snip]>
>> I even cought two at once. We'll see how many actually die before the
>> bloodbath ends.
>>
>> brian
>>
>
>I actually spotted on trotting across my hearth. I BOUNDED out of my
>chair and grabbed him with my hand. He must have surprised as hell and
>just froze. I carried him outside and let him go across the street.
>And no, he hasn't come back.
> kreegah!,
> jo4hn
>gronk!