Any Effective Ways to Eliminate Rodents?

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I use a bucket trap that I make. I take a 5 gallon plastic bucket without a lid. Heat a coat hanger up an poke two holed through the top across from one another. Then take a 16 oz plastic soda pop bottle. Heat the hanger and poke a hole through the botton and the lid. Run a straightend coat hanger through s hole in the bucket rim and then through the bottle and then through the other side of the bucket. Smear peanut butter on the bottle, run a little ramp up to the edge of the bucket. Pour in a few inches of propylene glycol antifreeze into the bucket. Its done
 
Like this, bottle needs to turn easy. Antifreeze keeps the smell down. Could catch and release and forgo the anti freeze
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I had to start using mouse traps here for the first time in 3 years. We usually don't have extended cold weather here, but thanks to @Pearl , it has driven mice indoors this year.gaah
The current version of the 'old-timey' traps still work the best. You get 4 for $3. :thumbs:
Killed 3 mice in the first day and a half.:p
Don't use peanut butter for bait, it dries out and doesn't have near the drawing power of pecans.
I learned this over the years I spent in Alabama. Mice will eat you out of house&home up there!
When you smash a piece of uncooked pecan meat into the bait tray, the oil comes out on your thumb. Smear it on the wood under the tray.
Even though we can't smell it, they can from 10 feet away.:oops:
Imagine if the oil was peppermint oil, you would have no problem smelling it from a distance. Same thing.
$3 solution:
IMG_20220206_144729.jpg
 
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Well the score is now 5-1. I spent a few extra bucks to get one "cat-safe" trap for a strategic location, the only source of water in the house - the cat water-bowl.
Yes, if mice can't find something moist to chomp on, they must seek water.
They were driving the cats crazy from under the washing machine. gaah
I know they could smell water in there, but I also know they were yelling:
"Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink!!!":mad:
I think this one self-tripped last night, but it may have had some help:
IMG_20220207_150721.jpg

Note the water bowl.
 
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Dogs & cats work good, sometime pigs do too.
But some cat & dogs have the Gen X Virus, They know everything, but do nothing.

You mean Gen Y virus.
 
Well the score is now 5-1. I spent a few extra bucks to get one "cat-safe" trap for a strategic location, the only source of water in the house - the cat water-bowl.
Yes, if mice can't find something moist to chomp on, they must seek water.
They were driving the cats crazy from under the washing machine. gaah
I know they could smell water in there, but I also know they were yelling:
"Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink!!!":mad:
I think this one self-tripped last night, but it may have had some help:
View attachment 79903
Note the water bowl.
I like and use the classic snap traps. Mice are dumb and still be trapped even if the traps have blood etc on them. I have at times had a dozen deployed. The other 132 are still new in the package. If TEOTWAWKI happens the world will beat a road to my door. ;)

Ben
 
We get mice inside our vehicles and atv's. I keep a couple Victor mouse traps in each vehicle and under the hood. I keep several metal repeater traps on the decks and porches around the house.
The rattlesnakes eat a lot of mice, but i can't have rattlers around the house. A couple years ago the wife went to move her Jeep and found a rattlesnake in it.
The coyotes, fox, hawks, weasels and owls eat a lot of mice around the house so I never bother them. I see fox and coyote track on the rear deck and in the chicken run sometimes. We've only lost 1 chicken to a fox several years ago.
 
Got some potato flakes? put out a plate full, sprinkle them with salt, the little buggers love salt. put out a big dish of water next to it. they eat the potato flakes, then drink the water, then they swell up like furry Easter eggs and die. good solution if you have dogs or cats that might gnaw on their little dead bodies. Otherwise get a few black snakes.
 
We've been working on converting one of our old sheds into a studio for my wife, and found it had mice worse than we expected (it's where the poultry feed was stored, and messy teens were the bird-feeders). Standard traps got 3/4 of the mice, but there was one who could steal the bait no matter what it was. Finally got him with a larger, enclosed glue trap with a big glob of peanut butter in the middle. Been checking for the last 3 days, and no bait missing, no traps spring - so I think we got them all!
 
We here in Australia have been over run by rodents in recent months.

The best way to deal with them is to use a home made garbage bin trap.
Get a 60 ltr/ 15 gallon rubbish bin...fill it 1/3 with water ..maybe a little more.
Put dots of peanut butter around the rim.
Put a thin line of peanut butter from the rim to the waterline with large dollops just above the water line.
I put mine next to the chicken wire so the rodents could climb up the wire to reach the rim of the bin.
The rodents eat all the peanut butter around the rim ( hence the reason why the dots have to be small)
and then they start reaching down the inside of the bin to get to the rest of the peanut butter.
They fall in and drown.
The best thing is the trap is always active and doesn't need to be reset.
Also drowned rodents don't float and they sink to the bottom of the bin so you're going to need gloves to remove them.
It won't be apparent you've caught anything if the bin is a dark color.
 
We have rats in the feed shed and stable, and rats that come out from somewhere to eat the feed pellets in the chicken coops.
Big, Norway rats.
So big, that a solid hit with CCI 22LR shot shells at less that ten feet will not kill them. I had to step up to CCI 22 magnum shells.
We have a couple of resident black snakes to help out, and we supplement them with the old fashioned LARGE wood rat traps.
Having dogs, poison is a big no-no.
 
Go to youtube and search: "bucket water rodent killer"

Here is one:


There are other designs, but the same principle applies.

My brother-in-law swears by this. He uses it to kill chipmunks...which horrifies the rest of the family. He has been barred from discussing it at the dinner table during family gatherings.

His improvement: He covers the water with sunflower seeds so that no water shows. Then, if the chipmunk/mouse looks over the edge, it doesn't see water, but it sees what appears to be solid ground. Not sure that is necessary with this particular model (with the wide cardboard lever), but others might need it.
 
Go to youtube and search: "bucket water rodent killer"

Here is one:


There are other designs, but the same principle applies.

My brother-in-law swears by this. He uses it to kill chipmunks...which horrifies the rest of the family. He has been barred from discussing it at the dinner table during family gatherings.

His improvement: He covers the water with sunflower seeds so that no water shows. Then, if the chipmunk/mouse looks over the edge, it doesn't see water, but it sees what appears to be solid ground. Not sure that is necessary with this particular model (with the wide cardboard lever), but others might need it.

Shawn Woods

https://youtube.com/c/ShawnWoodsprimitive-archer
recommends the flip n slide



Ben
 
And the ratting with terriers...



Ben
I love watching the rat-terriers work!
People forget that once-upon-a-time, every dog had a "job".
If you had a pointer, he showed you where the bird was when you were hunting.
If you had a retriever, he swam out and got the duck you just shot.
If you had a deer-hound, he would track it down, jump it up, and run it right by you :oops:.
Of course, if you were overrun with raccoons, you had a coon-hound that would tree them so you could take them out.
I used every one of those in the past.:)
I don't know what happened, but it has evolved into some lady with too much makeup on, pointing to a little yappy fuzzball sitting on her lap, talking about how 'registered' it is. :mad:
Sorry, I got off topic. Now back to killin' rats:
 
I love watching the rat-terriers work!
People forget that once-upon-a-time, every dog had a "job".
If you had a pointer, he showed you where the bird was when you were hunting.
If you had a retriever, he swam out and got the duck you just shot.
If you had a deer-hound, he would track it down, jump it up, and run it right by you :oops:.
Of course, if you were overrun with raccoons, you had a coon-hound that would tree them so you could take them out.
I used every one of those in the past.:)
I don't know what happened, but it has evolved into some lady with too much makeup on, pointing to a little yappy fuzzball sitting on her lap, talking about how 'registered' it is. :mad:
Sorry, I got off topic. Now back to killin' rats:

Yup.

The missus doesn't like the ratting videos but I enjoy watching the dogs chase catch and kill the rats. Like you said, dogs doing what they are designed/ bred to do.

Ben
 
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Yup.

The missus doesn't like the ratting videos but I enjoy watching the dogs chase catch and kill the rats. Like you said, dogs doing what they are designed/ bred to do.

Ben
There are a lot of creatures on earth that we don't ANY of.
I'm as good an animal-lover as the next person, but some just simply cannot stay here. :waiting:
If you happen to find a 'mosquito-rights activist', that is against killing mosquitos, send them to me!
In 5 minutes, I will introduce them to their 'loved ones' in a place called the-swamp.o_O
When they emerge, they will sound just like me: "Kill them! Kill them all!!!"
machine-gun.gif

The same goes for rodents. We don't need a single one of those.
Exterminate! Exterminate!
DrWho.gif
 
My best was a dozen

Feel free to smile and wave as you pass.

Ben
I'm getting there! :thumbs:
I wanted to get a pic of them before the carrion-eaters find them.
They will be like tacos for the raccoon.:p (hope I didn't make anybody barf, but I am a nature-lover)

I believe this thread is important because most people here are preppers and keep 2+ months of food in storage.
If the temps drop below freezing for very long, the fuzzy moochers will come visit you.
It only takes a few to reduce your hard work into garbage. Don't play nice! :waiting:
 
Shawn woods posted this video.



Nice trap design but if you watch closely in each capture scene there are Chinese characters over laid. Turn out it translates as "steamed buns" which is baned in China. It is a way to keep Chinese knock off companies from stealing his videos.

Steamed buns

Just for good measure.

Ben
 

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