I have mice in my cabinets. I took all of the food out, took a live trap and put apple and cinnamon oatmeal in it (since they ate the fuck out of the little packages) and I haven't caught one. I have been trying to catch them for a while and for some reason, they won't go in the trap. Then the garage was cleaned out today and they had gotten into boxes and chewed up papers. Luckily, all of the shit they chewed up was my husbands... heh and they didn't bother anything of mine. But... I can't have them running amok in the house and I don't know what to do. I hate killing things. I won't even kill spiders, so I don't know what to do. So, would you guys continue to try to trap them or kill all of them? I was going to trap them and take them about a mile away and let them go in a field. I'm kinda freaked out that there are like hundreds of them. On a side note, I am very proud of myself for getting rid of a ton of shit in the garage. I gave stuff away to me yardsaled and through the rest out. The only things I kept fit into a little store n tote container. I only cried a few times. I'm all hormonal which might have been good because it was hot and I was sick of dealing with shit so it was easier to just get rid of it. Besides, it's just stuff and you can't take it with you.
We have been having mouse problems too, I'm worried they might chew into my comic boxes (I have them off the ground though). The damn bastards won't go for the snaptraps though... Nauseous, let me know if you have any progress with this. Damn mice.
Oh and put water in the middle of the room so they don't go into a damp corner for a drink and die. This way they die in the middle of the room so you can dispose of them.
What do you have them in? Those big thick store n tote containers will keep them safe. If you can find where they are coming in, use steel wool to close the opening. They are all kinds of pissed off right now trying to come down from the attic into the cabinet. Right now I moved the live trap to the garage along the wall. I got one and almost two the other day in a bag but one jumped out and ran into the living room and I think went down the hole that the cable comes in and down in the crawlspace. Hell they can go into the floor vents. They suck. Joe, I cannot poison them. A person with a gastrointestinal disease cannot poison anything because I know first hand the pain that poisoning must feel like and I would not inflict that on a cute little shithead mouse. My big paranoia is hantavirus. It's not very common, but it freaks me out.
Ok I cannot argue with that except a cat tortures them to death and trying to be humane and putting them outside seals their fate usually. Maybe Schmed's snap trap is actually the most humane way.
When they bush hogged the land beside me, I had mice. little bitty cute ones. I did the humane traps... I used peanut butter. I think the reason I got mice in the first place was because of the cats. They were always bringing them in....then chasing it - One brought in an injured bird a few weeks back. Cat bites are very germy and hardly any small creature survives. So I put the bird to sleep. try peanut butter. And poison sucks... When I lived in a NICE high rise in down town Atlanta I had a RAT... not a mouse ... a RAT the size of a cat (with short legs) They put out poison... It chewed the dishwasher water line... and died in a wall. They could not get it, without tearing down walls... and it was stinkin,, so they put a chemical powder in the wall... WTF?
Hence the water in the middle of the room so they don't chew through a dishwasher line and crawl up in the wall.
well when mine was done, I had a huge bowl of water out... for my cats... huge as in it was large dog water bowl. another reason you should not do poison... your dogs. Even if they cant reach it... the mouse eats it... is running around fucked up... your dogs eats the mouse... BAM we have had to induce vomiting on a few of those and still have treat the dogs with vitamin K. But if they eat it... and you dont know about it (did not witness it) that is a BIG risk. I have seen on TV and at stores those plug in electronic things that CLAIME to drive mice out... I am sure they dont work... but who knows .. I wanna google it and see if any real reviews are out
I agree with bigmama, peanut butter is a good lure for catching mice. I have had good luck by putting a piece of cheese in one of those live catch traps with the swinging door. Once caught the problem becomes what to do with them. I would drive about five miles and let them go on the side of a rural road and hope they couldn't find their way back. I also have had good luck with p-butter and snap traps, saves the drive what with gas prices going up.
I used peanut butter and oatmeal with apples and cinnamon and I caught two this morning in the garage. I think I didn't catch them in the cabinet because they couldn't get through the steel wool. I took them down the road and let them go in the woods. It made me sad. They were so cute but I was glad that there were two of them and they had each other to rely on. So two down 590 more to go. (Man I hope not)
Oh, I am going to let them all go in the same spot so hopefully they can reunite. I am such a 5 year-old when it comes to stuff like that.
My problem with the poison is that they might die..well anywhere, I don't want a dead rotting mouse tucked away somewhere that I can't see. I'm assuming that is something that could very well happen.
Poison just seems like a slow terrible death and they don't deserve to die that way. I just picture a poor little dead mouse with its little paw on it's belly and a little tear running out of it's eye. :frown: Only certain humans are worthy of deaths like that.
Oh, and I wasn't serious about the cat really. Just seemed like a more natural death but I decided that I CAN NOT kill them. I will catch and release and be late for work every morning.
I figured that it would annoy the dogs and cats also that hear sounds at much higher frequencies than we do.
If they have babies, they will come back. I think the neighbor's house is too scummy, even for rodents. I'm worried about getting rid of all of the adults and the babies not having anyone to take care of them. I just want them to be happy in the woods somewhere.
