Any Effective Ways to Eliminate Rodents?

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Weedygarden

Weedygarden

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After never having mice, I had some last winter and want to find ways to effectively get rid of them. I caught a few in traps, but I saw some run right past traps. I did see someone say they used electronic traps and they were very effective. I used peppermint oil on cotton balls and that didn't really work either.
 
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I finally had mice in my house a few years ago. I was using that room every few days and noticed tooth marks on card bd. I went hunting their food source first, found it. A small pkg of dry red beans (that went missing) fell behind a shelf unit in my pantry/herb rm.

With that and every possible source gone they got hungry. I used the old reliable mouse trap. I used peanut butter as bait and got all of them.

If they are walking by baited traps it's to get to something better. Try different baits til you get one that works.
 
Mice really need to be trapped. If you poison them they will go off and die somewhere, usually in your house, and they will smell. Eliminating the food source is a good way to keep them from coming back.

Traps should be set along the walls as that is their most likely path. Setting three or four together can help. They are much smarter than we give them credit. Hope they didn't do to much damage. They are a nuisance.
 
We live in an old house on a farm with lots of rodents try to get in and do in winter. Hate to say it but for us we use traps and rat poison, those large green bate chunks. I also use something that only kills rats but nothing else for around the chicken coop. I think it's called Rat X. We put it on plates in front of the coop at night when the chickens are in and it's usually gone in the morning. So far we have only had one rat die that smelled in the house. Somehow it got under a shower in the extra bathroom. We just left the door closed and didn't use that one for a month. We have a large crawlspace under the house, so I think most of them die under there or up in the attic, so it doesn't smell. Food source: rats in our house have chewed up plastic including 5 gallon bucket lids, wooden dresser draw, and clothes, so removing a food source is harder than you think
My biggest worry is that one of the dogs eats a rat that was poisoned but I don't think they eat them, they just kill them when they catch them,
 
We've only gotten mice in the house once. I put down some Tom Cat poison. Got them both and found them laying in the floor.
We get them in the basement every fall when temps change. I always put down fresh bait this time of year (thanks for the reminder) and will find most of them in the floor. Sometimes one will die behind something, but leave our door up and it airs out quickly. We park in the basement
 
This reminds me of a funny story! Cleaned for an older couple many years ago and they had rats after a feed store up the road from them closed. The husband put out poison and it was working. The wife couldn't get around too well and she was sitting on the toilet one morning when along came a dying rat. She screamed and her husband and I both ran in to find the rat died between her feet. Not funny to her, but she had quite a story to tell! So Weedy if you put out poison make sure you are always ready to hop off the fast😀.
 
Pearl said:
This reminds me of a funny story! Cleaned for an older couple many years ago and they had rats after a feed store up the road from them closed. The husband put out poison and it was working. The wife couldn't get around too well and she was sitting on the toilet one morning when along came a dying rat. She screamed and her husband and I both ran in to find the rat died between her feet. Not funny to her, but she had quite a story to tell! So Weedy if you put out poison make sure you are always ready to hop off the fast😀.
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I board dogs at my house and I am concerned about poison for that reason. It would not be good if a dog got a rat that had been poisoned, and therefore then poisoned the dog.
 
I had a thread last winter about some devious shrews that bested me for weeks while I tried using several different types of traps and electronics. This trap is the one that they could not defeat:

 
Weedygarden said:
I board dogs at my house and I am concerned about poison for that reason. It would not be good if a dog got a rat that had been poisoned, and therefore then poisoned the dog.
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No, I will only set traps in the sheds so the barn cats don't get hold of poisoned mice!! Glad you are a dog person😊🐕‍🦺
 
1/4 square wire mesh for big holes & #000 steel wool for the small holes. This will stop mice, voles & rats.

Gap fill foam insulation for all other bugs
 
Find the food source of the critters can be eogh if one has large stash of food.

But they also need water.

Make sure there aren't any leaks and then...

I set up a dozen or so traps around the kitchen sink with peanut butter or maple syrup on the trigger with chocolate chip cookie chunks.

Keep rebating the traps as the mice are caught until there are new droppings found. I may catch up to a dozen over winter.

The electric trap only caught one.

Shawn Woods likes this trap for a large infestation.



Ben
 
I just reread this thread and noticed... You feed the dogs you board in your house.

Betting that is the food source. Some dogs are sloppy eaters, especially when they are well fed. They drop kibble from their mouths. It rolls underneath everything in the room, every nook and cranny. More than enough to feed a few hungry mice.

Anywho, that's the first the first room I'd start trapping in.

Also, I'd come up with a way to feed dogs in a vacant area, where bits of kibble can't hide. Maybe an enclosed porch or outside... out of the main house is the important point.

I sometimes use empty feed sacks for household trash, there is always a little feed left in the bags that a mouse could eat. They are the first to go directly into outside trash cans...

I use plastic barrels for livestock feed, dog food, chicken feed etc. I get them at TSC. They hold about 100lbs of chicken feed, dog food is bulkier, about 70lbs is about the limit. They are very thick, I've not had a mouse chew into one.

2. For the immediate future I would feed them in the yard, I'd store the feed barrel outside as well.

I know this can be a pain in the butt during winter but I'd do it for 30 days. By then your house should be mouse free from trapping. The only way anything works is by removing their food source. Until you remove it mice will continue to be a problem.

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Weedygarden said:
I board dogs at my house and I am concerned about poison for that reason. It would not be good if a dog got a rat that had been poisoned, and therefore then poisoned the dog.
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This is a real possibility.
Alaskajohn said:
I had a thread last winter about some devious shrews that bested me for weeks while I tried using several different types of traps and electronics. This trap is the one that they could not defeat:

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I have bought those very traps. They work beautifully. Never once has a rodent taken the bait and not get caught.
 
Moles, mice and rats have kinda vanished. Not mine, "Community cats", I just put some dry food out during the day and have a water dish out. Cats are "Obligate Carnivores" so they hunt even with dry food available.
Obligate Carnivore Link

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Rodents are the biggest problem that I have to deal with on our ranch. Gophers, mice, voles, chipmunks, ground squirrels and pine squirrels are a big nuisance. I keep poisoned bait inside every building, poisoned peanuts and gas in every gopher hole that I find in the garden. On the porches I use the Victor Tin Cat repeater traps. I shoot every chipmunk and I squirrel that I see around the house, garden and orchard. Out in the pastures I use foot traps and conibears to control the ground squirrels.
Many of these rodents I'll grind, age and preserve to be used for trapping fox and coyotes.
Controlling rodents and rattlesnakes are almost a full time job here in spring and summer.
 
Owls, snakes, coyotes, bobcats, hawks, and a few other natural enemies.
 
There's a reason mouse traps have been around for a long time. They work and are simple to use.
I use this type and if there is a mouse in the house I get it within a day or 2. I leave 2 in the pantry and 1 under the sink.
I bait them with peanut butter.
The good part is I never have to touch any part of the trap that might have mouse blood or guts on it.
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When my wife yells there's a dead mouse I just say "the mighty hunter strikes again."
She is not amused but she hates the live ones even more than the dead ones.
 
backlash said:
There's a reason mouse traps have been around for a long time. They work and are simple to use.
I use this type and if there is a mouse in the house I get it within a day or 2. I leave 2 in the pantry and 1 under the sink.
I bait them with peanut butter.
The good part is I never have to touch any part of the trap that might have mouse blood or guts on it.
SVS00006-2.jpg

When my wife yells there's a dead mouse I just say "the mighty hunter strikes again."
She is not amused but she hates the live ones even more than the dead ones.
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What is that thing called? I hate mice, they are dirty disgusting little critters that pee and poop all over everything and they all must die. If that trap works, I'm in...
 
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