Ken Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 At the risk of sounding too much like a treehugger Why? Every now and then I see a mouse crawling about the foundation. He just came in from the cold ( Minnesnowta ) He dosnt bother the kitchen or leave droppings so I leave him be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 A few millenia of plagues and other disease caused deaths has taught us basic hygene such as not living with vermin is a good way to stay alive longer? Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheftjcook Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 I would have to second what frosty said as to the learning curve. Problem is Mice other vermin, do not have any control over waste product evacuation. They kind of go where ever as the are walking/running. Their waste, both forms are dangerous to humans (even Toxic in some cases). The dried waste if not cleaned up correctly can form a dust which is deadly in a humans lungs. That does not take into account they're fleas/mites and Illness they can carry. All of these are even more harmful to the really young, immune impaired or with child. Not to be cruel, But you have to make a choice to keep them out in the wild or dead when they do start to invade human domain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Gee Chef, when I saw your reply I was hoping for a recipe! Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlotte Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 One thing that will help discourage with out actualy posioning out right is to distribute a mixture of diatomacious earth and boric acid around the perimiter of your shop and in the various hidey holes and crevices. The boric acid is "roach powder" and is also used in some welding compounds and fluxes, and diatons are sharp little spherical or semig spherical particles used as filter media in swimming pool systems. (Note: may be difficult to find at some latitudes ) But the combination of the two discourages spiders, roaches, silverfish, numerous other wandering pests and mice. The mice are not actually injured by it but it is irritating to feet, and nose as they move around. Diatons by them selves will actively kill some varieties of roaches. The combination of the two is a double strike that keeps stuff away because the don't like it. Rats will ignore it but probably leave unless there is a source of food around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orgtwister Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 i just go to tractor supply and buy the green bite blocks and toss them around my out bulidings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasaron Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Hmn. My cat is more of a deterrent-by-presence than anything, and I find that the mice hole up in my detached garage quite often. Luckily, we have a few outdoor cats (read the aforementioned word as "vicious killing machines"). Still I have problems with all kinds of smaller vermin. Well, I -did-. Then I got offa my butt and started making habitats for the bigger guys. Ferret hovels, owl roosts, even bat shelters and ladybug boxes to get rid of the ever-pervasive mosquitoes. The long strip of real estate known as the train tracks is a great place, since detritus already gathers there, which means that most times nobody notices. Sadly, suburban people are scared more of ferrets and owls and bats than the disease carrying, massivly reproducing, in-house-living vermin that they eat, so animal control likes making a fuss. Still, they never catch all of my toothed saviors. Guess when's the last time I had to buy a mouse trap? Also, citrus and eucalyptus oils work for spiders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheftjcook Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Frosty I am sure we could whip up a little some thing special:p Maybe a Tempura rodent bites with a soy ginger & scallion dipping sauce or a Vermin Scallopini with Bow tie Pasta and Roasted Vegetables in an Alfredo Sauce, "Mouse pate de foie gras" served on Carr's petite social crackers usually made from fattened goose liver, this works well with uptown city rats were the rich folks have better garbage. Everyone's Italian favorite Ratatouille with aged Pecorino Romano and crusty Italian Bread Of course for dessert we have Deep fried Critter Crunchies tossed in Cinnamon & Sugar served with a scoop of French Vanilla Ice cream and a spritz of whip cream. BON APPETIT Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 I knew you'd raise to the challenge Tim. I thought Ratatouille was French but then I just apply heat to various edibles and have decent luck with the results. Maybe it was all the extra vowels in the word? It is of course THE proper mouse dish, perhaps a petit Ratatouille side with a nice Pestus Pasta main dish? Of course fire roasted with butter and a garlic dipping sauce is traditional. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheftjcook Posted May 1, 2009 Share Posted May 1, 2009 Yeah Frosty, you are right on the money, Ratatouille is French, full name is/was "Ratatouille ni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBrann Posted May 1, 2009 Share Posted May 1, 2009 I feel bad but I use Victor traps, and a poison bait under the brand name Hawk, I buy it at feed stores. I have allergeys, and don't need my house/kitchen destroyed by mice. moth balls are good to deter mice/rats/snakes, but the mice still invade... and must be dealt with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 I don't like poison bait because it does not kill quick and then predators higher on the food chain eat the mouse that is wandering around like a drunk. So now we have killed the mouse and maybe a hawk, owl or a snake or two. my neighbor was all hot to use poison bait for pack rats, he sicken one pack rat, sicken one snake that ate the rat and killed the Great Horned Owl that ate the snake, WOW! a three for one. He no longer uses poison bait. I found the owl struggling in my driveway when I went to get the paper so I took it to the owl rescue folk and they euthanized it and did a necropsy on it where the found a Gopher snake inside and inside the snake a pack rat with green poison bait. Owls kill two or three rats a night when feeding their young, snakes eat two a week in the summer, my neighbor killed one all year. I bought him a box of sticky traps, that way if a snake gets stuck to it I can pry him off, unless it a rattler, and let it go, rats get drowned and thrown on the road for Turkey Vultures to eat. I live capture about twenty pack rats a season and drown them, about forty mice during the winter months in a Have-a-Heart trap that catches ten or so at time and then drown them and give them to a friend that has pet snakes. Waste not want not, no use wasting a good rat or mouse, right? I have not found that moth balls work at keeping snakes, mice, rats or anything else at bay. I think that they are better left on the moth.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meancoyote Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 I had a big mouse problem, glue traps and peanut butter worked well, still looking for a cat to keep them away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 How big were the mice? Are we talking pit roast? Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
element Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 Sure cats work but they kill all the birds.Cat kill 4-5 million small pretty birds in the states alone and that from reports each year. So figure 15 million dead birds a year in the states. Who likes cats now? I would try snakes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 Poisoned rats and mice keep on killing after death so stay away from such baits, snakes and birds of prey are better options if you hate cats. Passive death traps like water buckets, sticky traps, small spring traps, Have-a-Hearts and other brands are much preferred to poison. There are enough toxins in the soil and air already without adding more. If the rat is big enough and grain feed I have an understanding from a friend, who spent a year in China teaching English, that they are not bad tasting when BBQ'ed, much like Guinea Pig.;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meancoyote Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 I dont want to try poison, a dead mouse in the wall will stink I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stardvd555 Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 Since my shop is located in a heavily wooded area, I keep the D-con bait packets out year around. The bait packets pretty well keep the mouse population under control for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grafvitnir Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 (edited) I hope no one will do this, I post it because it was fun to read but don't think, as the author does, it will be fun to watch. (And I don't think it really works) From a book of the year 1734, it is old spanish where the "f" and "s" where used as the same. Para juntar ^ y matar muchos Ratones en un barrio con facilidad. "To get together and kill a lot of mice in a neighborhood easily". Procura tener tres , 6 quatro Ratones vivos, ponlos en una holla con una tapadera agugerada : efta holla pon Edited May 4, 2009 by Grafvitnir Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRAFTBENDER Posted May 6, 2009 Share Posted May 6, 2009 hungry cats or a friendly black snake are solutions for a mouse free workplace. Food and water are the two main reasons mice congragate, farmers come up with some ingenious methods of rodent control, due to the large amount of food around the farm. A 5 gallon bucket with a few inches of water in the bottom and a pop or beer can suspended at the top on a wire so it can revolve and with some peanut butter smeared on it and a piece of wood laid against the side for easy access works quite well, as the mice jump on the can it revolves and drops the mice into the water and they drown. Another version is a bucket about 3/4 full of water with popcorn floating on top, and a ramp for access. Mouse smells popcorn, jumps in to what looks like a solid area of food, mouse drowns. These are simple methods and easy to make, but buy a cat litter scoop to remove the victims daily or the smell is overpowering. Do you have a picture of your contraption? Sounds pretty simple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grafvitnir Posted May 6, 2009 Share Posted May 6, 2009 I think its something like this:Bucket rat trap - Appropriate technology: Journey to Forever Rub Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 Well I use a variation of the last post. A 5 gallon bucket with a piece of 2 inch tubing from the ground then bent over into the bucket sticking down a couple of inches. In the bottom of the bucket is poisoned corn. The rat or mouse is caught and killed and not allowed to get out and poison other predators in the area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootnampa Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 I've used a trap like irnsrgn describes... we had so many mice that 6 boxes of poison dissappeared the first night... I don't think that any individual mice got enough to kill them either! The trap worked well killing up to a dozen a night (woulda got more but it leaked and when the water got too low to drown em they just jumped out). Don't set it till you leave for the night... listening to the little buggers scratching on the sides, first fast, then slower... ssslllloooowwweerrr still haunts me! You gotta put a ramp up to the edge so they'll find it and jump on that roller! I gotta admit cats are more pleasant quite proud of their work they are! They'll often line em up for display so you can see what great hunters they are! They always want me to take pictures... but I refuse. Where we used the trap was wilderness though, cats were NOT an option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argent Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 Cats are the only solution, everything else pales in comparison, no poison, no carbon off-sets!! HA HA!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cross Pein Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 We had a pretty bad infestation here. I can tell if they get in my barn, they love to chew up the paper towels. I decided to stop filling the bird feeders and the problem stopped. There may have been some other reason - snakes, owls what have you, I don't know. But I won't ever have bird feeders again. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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