I find a slice of apple in traps always works well.
John
Mice.
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The Gods do not subtract from the allotted span of men’s lives, the hours spent fishing Assyrian tablet
What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning Werner Heisenberg
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What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning Werner Heisenberg
I am a man and the world is my urinal
Hi John,
I recon the answer to "the bait" to use is just about anything 'cos the little buggers will have a go at anything.
I live in a stone house and I can hear the little buggers running up and down inside the wall fortunately they very seldom invade the interior.
I have an old Bakehouse, from which the cats are excluded, and I keep traps continuously set in there.
The cats that live here are feral and live in the barns and are never fed but have 2 pints of milk a day and they live on Mice, Rats and more often Rabbits.
All my produce is stored in one of the barns and I have cages made of angle iron and expanded metal lath, insulated with 4" expanded Polystyrene over laid with h/d Polythene because the little buggers wee over the produce. I store no loose vegetables in the house and most things are in storage jars.
The little buggers got in the other week and ate the end off all my freezer bags and made a nest in the middle of my tea towel drawer destroying 8 tea towels! I laid traps but they had scarpered.
JB.
I recon the answer to "the bait" to use is just about anything 'cos the little buggers will have a go at anything.
I live in a stone house and I can hear the little buggers running up and down inside the wall fortunately they very seldom invade the interior.
I have an old Bakehouse, from which the cats are excluded, and I keep traps continuously set in there.
The cats that live here are feral and live in the barns and are never fed but have 2 pints of milk a day and they live on Mice, Rats and more often Rabbits.
All my produce is stored in one of the barns and I have cages made of angle iron and expanded metal lath, insulated with 4" expanded Polystyrene over laid with h/d Polythene because the little buggers wee over the produce. I store no loose vegetables in the house and most things are in storage jars.
The little buggers got in the other week and ate the end off all my freezer bags and made a nest in the middle of my tea towel drawer destroying 8 tea towels! I laid traps but they had scarpered.
JB.
It might be worth lifting a floorboard or two...meeces have been known to chew on electric cabling that can be found there thereby producing a fire risk
Sorry but I have seen damage such as this
I remember seeing cabling stripped down to the bare wires in some commercial chicken huts some years ago..they must have a hell of a constitution
Sorry but I have seen damage such as this
I remember seeing cabling stripped down to the bare wires in some commercial chicken huts some years ago..they must have a hell of a constitution
I am in my own little world, ...it's OK, ...they know me there!
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oldherbaceous
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I think the worst culprits for damage are if you ever get Squirrels in your loft, they are a lot worse than rats.
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.
There's no fool like an old fool.
There's no fool like an old fool.
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Geoff
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I shouldn't say this really, especially now we have a good frost, but my stored apples are surrounded by traps (blue cheese and bacon rind) but so far we have caught nothing and had no damage.
Their favourite repast when they get in the loft, stone walls like JB, is pipe insulation.
Trouble with poison is the smell when they crawl away to die somewhere. We get rats outside but they like the bird food so they get lead poisoning along with the squirrels.
Their favourite repast when they get in the loft, stone walls like JB, is pipe insulation.
Trouble with poison is the smell when they crawl away to die somewhere. We get rats outside but they like the bird food so they get lead poisoning along with the squirrels.
When we moved into outr house there were mice running up and down inside the walls, just like Johnboy had. We got 2 kittens and haven't had any problems since. The mice moved out very quickly, well before the cats were old enough to start catching them. We did have to train them to eat rabbits etc outside as coming down to the back end of one on the living room floor was a bit startling early in the morning.
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Granny
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Granny
Hi Granny,
At the last count there were 16 cats about. They slink off and others join the happy throng from time to time. I have had as many as 30 cats and that is far too many and they get sorted out. We had an outbreak of mange a couple of years ago, brought in by a male who had visions on all the females so although you may think this is cruel he was the first to go and any cat that showed signs of mange also went to 'pussies heaven.' By dispatching them swiftly the rest were saved from this awful disease.
I reckon that over the years Mice have cost me a fortune and in one instance damn near killed me.
We froze up for some unknown reason and I went up to the loft with damp overalls off the top of the step ladder to get my bum into the loft and the mice had bitten the top of a junction box which I, of course, sat on and promptly got thrown out of the loft with the shock I received. The reason for the freeze-up was the insulation had been eaten off the pipe around the entrance to the tank. I have had the insulation bitten off electric cable so many times that the cables running across the loft floor are all now housed in metal conduit and those under the landing the same.
What really amazes me is the people who cannot set a trap to kill a mouse they set a humane trap and let the bloody thing go so that it comes back time after time. However they would soon tire of that game if they lived in an old stone house.
I heard a conservationist say that the house mouse is very thin on the ground now and that they should be preserved. I thought that if he wants then then he should be the person to preserve them preferably in Formaldehyde!
JB.
At the last count there were 16 cats about. They slink off and others join the happy throng from time to time. I have had as many as 30 cats and that is far too many and they get sorted out. We had an outbreak of mange a couple of years ago, brought in by a male who had visions on all the females so although you may think this is cruel he was the first to go and any cat that showed signs of mange also went to 'pussies heaven.' By dispatching them swiftly the rest were saved from this awful disease.
I reckon that over the years Mice have cost me a fortune and in one instance damn near killed me.
We froze up for some unknown reason and I went up to the loft with damp overalls off the top of the step ladder to get my bum into the loft and the mice had bitten the top of a junction box which I, of course, sat on and promptly got thrown out of the loft with the shock I received. The reason for the freeze-up was the insulation had been eaten off the pipe around the entrance to the tank. I have had the insulation bitten off electric cable so many times that the cables running across the loft floor are all now housed in metal conduit and those under the landing the same.
What really amazes me is the people who cannot set a trap to kill a mouse they set a humane trap and let the bloody thing go so that it comes back time after time. However they would soon tire of that game if they lived in an old stone house.
I heard a conservationist say that the house mouse is very thin on the ground now and that they should be preserved. I thought that if he wants then then he should be the person to preserve them preferably in Formaldehyde!
JB.
ive often wondered what the food value of plastic csbles and pipe insulation was.... why do they bother.. perhaps they are just bored... is there a market for modified hamster wheels.... sorry ive just about finished sorting the bits of paper for the accountant 
hopefully the missus will let me out now. 
hopefully the missus will let me out now. -
peter
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richard p wrote:ive often wondered what the food value of plastic csbles and pipe insulation was.... why do they bother.. perhaps they are just bored... is there a market for modified hamster wheels.... sorry ive just about finished sorting the bits of paper for the accountant
All rodents have to chew to stop their teeth growing round and back into the skull (extreme case). Rodent teeth never stop growing, so they will even chew concrete to keep them down.
Older grey electrical cable apparently emits a smell that rodents find irresistable, like some sort of food, I do not remember what though.
Don't worry newer cable does not.
Do not put off thanking people when they have helped you, as they may not be there to thank later.
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I support http://www.hearingdogs.org.uk/
Despite our feral cats and marvellous dog, this year we have resorted to industrial destruction of vermin using farmer style bait runs and 'gold star' poison. Apart from the cost, which was somewhat of a shock, it's been a real success and we're starting this winter as we mean to go on. So we've got the damage in situ in both tunnel tents, the outside barns, the house, outside loo and the workshop.
Watch out for a news report!
Watch out for a news report!
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ugly gourd
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When my boys were born my OH bought a bottle of expensive port each time to open on thier 21st birthday and laid them down in the loft last year we went to get the xmas decorations and a mouse had ate through the cork and drowned in the port what a way to go
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oldherbaceous
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Dear Ugly Gourd, firstly a very warm welcome to the forum.
What a lovely story about the happy ending for the mice, but i would have preferred it to have been dark rum.
Hope you enjoy the forum as much as i do.
What a lovely story about the happy ending for the mice, but i would have preferred it to have been dark rum.
Hope you enjoy the forum as much as i do.
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.
There's no fool like an old fool.
There's no fool like an old fool.
Hi all,
I`ve been catching a lot of mice this year by drizzling melted chocolate onto the bait plate,and allowing it to set hard before setting the trap.
Regards,and "All The Best"!
Mark.
I`ve been catching a lot of mice this year by drizzling melted chocolate onto the bait plate,and allowing it to set hard before setting the trap.
Regards,and "All The Best"!
Mark.
I`m not "young enough"to know everything!
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oldherbaceous
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Dear KMARKnr, sounds like you have some very up market mice, very much like my own.
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.
There's no fool like an old fool.
There's no fool like an old fool.
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Colin_M
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oldherbaceous wrote:Dear Colin, you should be able to tempt them out in the airing cupboard
Hi OH. Just to let you know that your tip (or course) was spot on and the mice did go into our airing cupboard.
I left a trap there, baited with peanut butter. My wife insists on "humane" traps and these have worked ok before. Well I checked each day for a couple of weeks and the trap hadn't moved. Last weekend, I had a closer look, worried that the peanut butter might be going rancid in the heat of the cupboard.
No need to worry - the peanut butter had completely gone and all that was left inside was a couple of mouse dropppings!
To quote Jaws "I need a bigger trap!".
Colin