I can't believe how fast they are, and how they manage to just disappear. I mean, one second they're right in front of you, the next second they've vanished.
I live in a nat'l forest and had mice when we moved it - but not anymore. She also brought home so many dead things she caught that we feared fines from NPS!!
Well one of our cats is a bit "special", the other I thought seemed much more of a hunter, but hasn't justified that supposition as of yet.
The landlord is meant to be calling round soon to make sure that we're all blocked up and that there aren't any ways in. Mice can, apparently, get through a space the diameter of a pencil though!
I had pet mice in college. Vicious little bastards.
One time when I was off at class, one of the three mice died when he got wedged between the running wheel and the glass of the cage. The other two mice started making a meal of him before I got home that afternoon.
@Bishop i have similar gerbil stories. pretty traumatizing to pick up your pet as an 8 year old to find him dead with half his face gone down to the bone. ugh.
Well we've seen him an awful lot now. He's been hanging out on the filing cabinet. He's now surrounded by humane mouse traps - should catch him soon enough!
Well he's safely deposited away up the road. Looked fairly healthy - I'd say the mice and rats we'd get round here will be more healthy than city rodents. It's a field mouse. Not so much disease and nastiness for them to flounder around in :)
Yay! But I would have moved up it's expiration date instead of relocating it. now in a couple of weeks, you'll have dozens of his descendants coming back to visit you. If you had a pet snake, you'd have free food for it...
Aye, good to finally catch him. It was only a matter of time. Potentially his decendants will return, although I've left him much closer to the neighbours house ;)
Yes, the mice were pretty nasty. I also had rats, though, and they were much more civilized. Quite unlike the stereotype of the nasty filthy sewer rat.
Glad to see at least some people use a humane method of rodent removal!
We occasionally get meadow voles, which are very big mice that some people mistake for rats. They tend to nest in the backyard, but our bassett/beagle mix has it out for them...
My nickname has history, of course. In junior high I was called Mouse because I was small and quiet (ha). By my senior year in high school I'd grown a few inches (not enough though) and was too noisy to be a mouse any more. So I devolved into Rat.
Out of curiosity (a cat trait I know), what are your humane traps like? Mine is a big plastic affair with 2 opposing ramps that double as trap doors. Place it in a rodent path and sooner or later you get 'em.
I checked mine one morning and saw what my coffee-deprived eyes swore were snakes. I took the trap out front to the street, opened it, and FOUR meadow voles hauled ass. Surprised the heck out of me. Turned out the "snakes" were their long tails.
Oh, and our sole remaining cat is useless with them, too. Just meows at the dishwasher on occasion (I think one runs under it). But dammit, she sure does kill my outdoor birds... grrr.
The yellow cap at one end is where we place a healthy blob of peanut butter, they go in one end, and when the reach the peanut butter their weight tips the whole thing and the door closes.
Ah, very different from ours... it requires no bait although I did put dry dogfood in it just in case (they kept raiding the dog's pan). Placing the trap between dog dish and hole in cabinet base did the trick.
I had tried sticky traps, but caught too many baby geckos (they are all over) and when I did catch a little mouse, it tore me up to see it suffer. I managed to free it from the trap and let it go (in bad shape) but my conscience (and wife) won't allow me to use such an evil thing again.
Your traps sound interesting as well. Any pictures? Just have to make sure to keep checking them or else you'll starve the poor yoke, which has to be worse than straight up death..
64 comments so far
I think there's one in my kitchen cabinet. Time to locate the trap.
I only use a humane live trap that doesn't injure them-- catch them, and let them go outside.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by Texrat
I kill the rodents. Traps poison and all.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by CaffeineJunky
We're going down the humane mouse trap method. We've caught 3 so far and taken them far away from the house...
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
(not in a Sopranos' style though)
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
they enter they die.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by atmasphere
I can't believe how fast they are, and how they manage to just disappear. I mean, one second they're right in front of you, the next second they've vanished.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
you need this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFdfoYhGJj8
11 months, 2 weeks ago by atmasphere
Wow, that's quite a high tech way of going after mice. I think I'm happy to stick with the humane traps ;)
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
My kind of mouse trap. Otherwise you should make friends with the damn thing and set out lunch for him.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by CaffeineJunky
Well I guess it's the fact that I own pet rats makes it seem a little weird to be hunting down their smaller rodent brethren :)
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
i had Gerbils as a kid. as a direct result, i can't kill mice. and i'm more of a fan of the humane sort anyway.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by nathalie531
u need mouse tracker for S60!
11 months, 2 weeks ago by glenn95
Rats don't willingly eat each other - mice will. Rent a cat - a mean, relentless, big cat.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by theKeeper
@atmasphere: dang!
Cat's have been retired.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by arjw
Heh. I have two cats. Useless bastards.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
we have 4 cats ... they definitely find and destroy, but the professional pest control we applied was the best solution. Blocked entry and traps
11 months, 2 weeks ago by atmasphere
I live in a nat'l forest and had mice when we moved it - but not anymore. She also brought home so many dead things she caught that we feared fines from NPS!!
11 months, 2 weeks ago by theKeeper
Blocking entry is key - use steel wool - they hate it.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by theKeeper
Well one of our cats is a bit "special", the other I thought seemed much more of a hunter, but hasn't justified that supposition as of yet.
The landlord is meant to be calling round soon to make sure that we're all blocked up and that there aren't any ways in. Mice can, apparently, get through a space the diameter of a pencil though!
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
little furry cockroaches... ROF
11 months, 2 weeks ago by theKeeper
ROF?
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
Sorry, Rolling on Floor - as in laughing. I'm very old, you know, using these old school acronyms...
11 months, 2 weeks ago by theKeeper
@theKeeper Ah, a shortened version of ROFL. I'd have recognised that one ;)
I'm very set in my ways - I try to use proper English whenever I can...
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
I had pet mice in college. Vicious little bastards.
One time when I was off at class, one of the three mice died when he got wedged between the running wheel and the glass of the cage. The other two mice started making a meal of him before I got home that afternoon.
I still think it was mousicide on their part.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by Bishop
@Bishop Wow, that's pretty nasty. "Waste not, want not" I guess...
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
Being married to a descendant of the Donner Party, I can appreciate that. ;)
11 months, 2 weeks ago by theKeeper
I've had and cared for pet rodents before but feral ones are different. They come into my house they've forfeited their furry little lives
11 months, 2 weeks ago by FyreFiend
@theKeeper The Donner Party?
@FyreFiend Aye, well I probably would be a little more concerned if we had a load of feral rats running around the place.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
@Bishop i have similar gerbil stories. pretty traumatizing to pick up your pet as an 8 year old to find him dead with half his face gone down to the bone. ugh.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by nathalie531
[Donner] (Pass http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Pass)
11 months, 2 weeks ago by theKeeper
@theKeeper That looks absolutely incredible.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
Well we've seen him an awful lot now. He's been hanging out on the filing cabinet. He's now surrounded by humane mouse traps - should catch him soon enough!
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
He is clearly asking to die.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by CaffeineJunky
Ah, but he's so cute, with those big ears and little tiny tail (I can't believe the size comparison to our rats, they seem so giant in comparison).
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
He eats your remains and leaves mouse turds. Nothing cute about that.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by CaffeineJunky
What @CJ said. If he doesn't come peacefully soon it's time for him to die
11 months, 2 weeks ago by FyreFiend
Well no, but there's nothing cute about any animal if you look at it in a certain way (I'm certainly fairly tired of changing the cat litter!)
@Fyrefiend Ah, we'll catch him eventually. We've decided that there's no way out of this room, so we'll starve them out eventually.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
Damn, he slipped through my fingers
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
ok - I would not be psyched for that at all
11 months, 2 weeks ago by atmasphere
I really thought I was going to have him there. They're not easy to hold onto!
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
no touching ... I can't take mice
11 months, 2 weeks ago by atmasphere
I'd rather chew off my own hand than touch a mouse.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by CaffeineJunky
Oh HO! Caught him! In a humane trap :)
(unless of course there's two in the room)
I'm off up the road to the nearby derelict house to set him free.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
no way I'd touch a mouse...I cant even stand looking at the darn things......and no, I don't care about the humane traps! Kill the bastards! LOL
11 months, 2 weeks ago by angelmartinez
@angel ai ratoncillo!
11 months, 2 weeks ago by silversurfer
I don't mind touching tame rodents (they're rather soft) but I ain't touching a feral disease-bag
11 months, 2 weeks ago by FyreFiend
Well he's safely deposited away up the road. Looked fairly healthy - I'd say the mice and rats we'd get round here will be more healthy than city rodents. It's a field mouse. Not so much disease and nastiness for them to flounder around in :)
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
Yay! But I would have moved up it's expiration date instead of relocating it. now in a couple of weeks, you'll have dozens of his descendants coming back to visit you. If you had a pet snake, you'd have free food for it...
11 months, 2 weeks ago by theKeeper
Aye, good to finally catch him. It was only a matter of time. Potentially his decendants will return, although I've left him much closer to the neighbours house ;)
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
LOL - nice neighbor you are!
11 months, 2 weeks ago by theKeeper
It's a mouse eat neighbour world out here in the middle of nowhere..
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
which middle of nowhere are you located in, if I can ask. now i have hiccups from laughing.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by theKeeper
It's called Ballinamuck (Irish name translates to Town of the Pig), in Longford, Ireland :)
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
awesome.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by theKeeper
Yes, the mice were pretty nasty. I also had rats, though, and they were much more civilized. Quite unlike the stereotype of the nasty filthy sewer rat.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by Bishop
Glad to see at least some people use a humane method of rodent removal!
We occasionally get meadow voles, which are very big mice that some people mistake for rats. They tend to nest in the backyard, but our bassett/beagle mix has it out for them...
11 months, 2 weeks ago by Texrat
Does your rattish "handle" have anything to do with it? Meadow voles sound impressive. I always had the impression that voles were super tiny..
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
@silversurfer no me gustan los ratoncillos :)
11 months, 2 weeks ago by angelmartinez
Well, this is Texas! naturally our voles are big!
My nickname has history, of course. In junior high I was called Mouse because I was small and quiet (ha). By my senior year in high school I'd grown a few inches (not enough though) and was too noisy to be a mouse any more. So I devolved into Rat.
Out of curiosity (a cat trait I know), what are your humane traps like? Mine is a big plastic affair with 2 opposing ramps that double as trap doors. Place it in a rodent path and sooner or later you get 'em.
I checked mine one morning and saw what my coffee-deprived eyes swore were snakes. I took the trap out front to the street, opened it, and FOUR meadow voles hauled ass. Surprised the heck out of me. Turned out the "snakes" were their long tails.
Oh, and our sole remaining cat is useless with them, too. Just meows at the dishwasher on occasion (I think one runs under it). But dammit, she sure does kill my outdoor birds... grrr.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by Texrat
Wow, great to hear the history behind a nickname :)
Our trap looks like:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/YCbeG7agryK1PgsT2wg4nw?authkey=EcCAM91GW-A&feat=directlink
The yellow cap at one end is where we place a healthy blob of peanut butter, they go in one end, and when the reach the peanut butter their weight tips the whole thing and the door closes.
I think our new cat must just be too lazy.. :)
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
Ah, very different from ours... it requires no bait although I did put dry dogfood in it just in case (they kept raiding the dog's pan). Placing the trap between dog dish and hole in cabinet base did the trick.
I had tried sticky traps, but caught too many baby geckos (they are all over) and when I did catch a little mouse, it tore me up to see it suffer. I managed to free it from the trap and let it go (in bad shape) but my conscience (and wife) won't allow me to use such an evil thing again.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by Texrat
Your traps sound interesting as well. Any pictures? Just have to make sure to keep checking them or else you'll starve the poor yoke, which has to be worse than straight up death..
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard
very similar to this one: http://www.amazon.com/Victor-Poly-Cat-Mouse-Trap/dp/B000ILIIBE/ref=tagtdpsvedppi
11 months, 2 weeks ago by Texrat
That looks pretty clever. If we knew a definite route they were taking we'd be able to get them with something like that.
11 months, 2 weeks ago by alexleonard