Saturday, September 17, 2011

HOW TO CATCH MICE FAST!

OK, I have a mouse problem. I am now at the point where I have stopped them from getting in, but have to deal with those that are already here - and have multiplied.

POISON
I won't use poison.  Why?  Because
1) I do not want them to die in the walls where they are living - and stink!!!
2) I do not want them to eat it, die, and then have a predator like a hawk eat them and die.  When you poison a population, you also poison its predators, which is cement-headed, or bad business, if you like.
3) It's cruel.  Poor things.

SPRING TRAPS, MINT, TABASCO, CAT, DOG
The spring traps work OK, but slowly, and it seems that once I catch one mouse in one of those, the rest won't go near them.  They probably hear the mouse screaming and agony, or they see the horrific result.  I do have a cat and a dog who used to catch them, but who have lost interest.  I also tried mint oil, which I put on cotton and put in the walls.  It doesn't seem to have made a bit of difference.  I tried tabasco, too, which smelled up my house and also made no difference in the mouse population.

WELL, I FOUND A MAGICAL SOLUTION!

First of all, it helps that there is one place where they come out of hiding and are accessible to me: in the trash area under my kitchen sink.

We had pizza in a box, and after we had finished it, we wedged the box in next to the trash can, like so (see pic).  

*KEY: there was unfinished pizza in the box.

*RESULT: the mice gnawed their way into the box (see pic), and now I can CLEARLY HEAR them in the box, gnawing away at the pizza!

*KEY: the pizza box is, of course, largish and hollow, and therefore, sound resonates through it!

*KEY: the pizza pieces are too big for them to drag through the holes they gnawed.

*KEY: if they gnaw more than one hole, seal up the rest so they only have one escape route when you seize the box.  Or, just cut a hole for them in the box, so they can get right to work getting trapped.

I have now caught 6 mice in 2 days in the pizza box!  The mice wander around in the dark trash cabinet and go happily into the box to stuff their little cheeks.  I hear the feverish gnawing and just sneak up to the cabinet and open the doors.  Now the mouse is scared and hides silently in the box.  I use a rag to quickly cover the hole, life the box out, and go set it outside.  (Where they will not come back in, because I have already sealed the house.)  (There is good info online about how to do this.  For me, it was a matter of sealing the one place they could get inside the walls - not too difficult to find in a townhome.)

*NOTE: don't leave the box outside too long - you don't want a dog or the wind to come up and blow it away.  I lost my bait (the old, dried-up pizza slice) that way.  *HINT: I made more bait by melting cheese onto bread and it seems to be working just as well!

The weather is getting cooler and the mice I put outside are probably getting eaten by predators, but that's nature's way.  I still feel I'm giving them a decent end to their little mouse lives.

AND SIX MICE IN TWO DAYS?
THOSE, my friends, ARE RESULTS!!!