Killing Mice?

[Evil Genius]

Hi Guys, i just realized that i have some mice in the basement that sometimes eat on my cacti.I dont like killing animals if its not absolutely necessary. Can someone convince me its the right thing to do on a logical level? Are there other guys with the same problem and how did you deal with them. Atm its too cold in germany to take them outside. They´d freeze to death. I know caus i just tried it and i ended up reanimating an half-frozen mouse on my heater because of my guilty conscience. I know i should have just let the mouse outside but as i know how bad cold can hurt, i just couldnt. But i dont want them in my house either so i´m only left with two options. To kill or not to kill. What do?

[FancyPants]

Get a tabby cat and let the natural causes ride end the guilt.

[Evil Genius]

Fancy Pants, i cant believe i didnt think about that earlier. You Rock! Im going to get me an adult one from the animal shelter this month. What makes me think of another problem. Do adult cats eat toxic plants? I have some toxic plants at home that could kill her easily. Are there people with cats around who can give me some tips concerning the safety? oh wait, i think we had a thread about that a few years ago. I´ll check out the search function later.

Nevertheless, i´d love to hear how other people here deal with mice. bye Eg

Edited January 12, 2010 by Evil Genius

[bℓσωηG]

i use poison unfortunatly, but i did have a bad infestation because of the compost heaps and worm farm i have were attracting them from all over ...i am now more careful of what i feed my worms ....the baits worked well but it is dangerous if you have other animals around which may accidentally eat them...i tried using traps but they were so smart would take the baits off without setting off the traps and getting a free feed everytime...we now do have a cat the kid bought it home but as cute and funny as it is , is a pain in the garden using my garden as a toilet and digging to cover it,...i already have a extensive fence network to keep out the dogs but the cat jusat jumps it and likes to lie amongst my daturas ....my last cat chewed the top off a pedro and 5 years later still has the scars , so watch your plants lol

[Chiral]

Nothing wrong with killing mice and rats or feral cats, I treat em like sport and take great pride in setting up traps and catching them by hand for swift death and disposal. They are all vermin and carry disease, mites, lice and god knows what else. A cat will stink up the place with it's piss and shit, they are notorious for digging up plants and are partial to gritty soil to shit in. If you like the smell of cat shit and piss and fur all around the house then fine a cat will solve the mice issue maybe.

I have 10- 15 feral cats next door and a colony of filthy stinking mice that run amok at night in my place so they don't always cancel each other out, cats also love to stomp through plants and lay on them plus they are little bastids at catching and killing birds...much rather have birds around than some mongrel cat.

I wish they sold cat poison next to rat/mice poison in the hardware, cause I could certainly do with some.

Edited January 12, 2010 by Chiral

[incognito]

strychnine- they die with a smile on their face

[naja naja]

Racumin made by BAYER

Will only kill rats and mice and not any secondary predators. Don't get a cat unless u never let it outside. Domestic cats in Australia are responsible for over 1 million native animal deaths every single night in Australia. Thats just domestic cats. I understand ur not in Oz, but unless ur from ireland and get a wild irish cat. They are vermin too. Rats and mice are an introduced species which displace native mice species and compete for food sources. Be sure to kill humanely. A simple mouse trap works well and u don't have to kill them urself. BB gun is fun.

Don't feel guilty, just look at it as saving a native species which has more right to be there than an introduced one.

Peace

N

[Alice]

Cats don't always work, ours it too much of a wuss and just plays with the mouse for a while before letting it go. I threaten to sell the cat to the takeaway shop but my partner gets the shits, so I back down. *sigh*

Best to take a mouse along to the animal shelter and see if it's a natural born killer or not. You don't want to be stuck with a dud.

Eg, I think freezing is not such a bad thing. Quite peaceful for them compared to warfarin or a mouse trap I imagine.

[naja naja]

Freezing is inhumane. Not used for any animals in Oz anymore except fish I believe. Even reptiles and canetoads are not killed this way anymore. Think about frost bite, before death. Instant death is best. Gun, snap neck trap, etc. After that, poison with Racumin and racumin only. But that risks them dying in an unaccessable spot and stinking. If u have a .22 and don't mind firing it inside u can get rat shot. Like a mini shotgun cartridge for a .22. Most single effective way for me to control them. Strap torch to gun and when in beam, fire! I use mainly outside, but it does minimal damage indoors, hehe ;)

[mac]

BB gun is fun

Had a bit of a mouse plague about 15 yrs ago, out of frustration & boredom we started to shoot them with a 4.10 but we would fill the cartridge shot with MJ seed & matchsticks (a touch loud indoors but much fun was had)

A simple mouse trap is the cheap quick & easy way to go

[watertrade]

I had a mouse problem in my house after I turned over a big pile of spent woodchips and card board blocks I had fruited mushrooms off. the mice had hollowed them out and made a little complex of mouse houses.

I had a catch and release program back into the garden. haven't bothered me since.

Edited January 12, 2010 by watertrade

[naja naja]

hippie

Edited January 12, 2010 by naja naja

[watertrade]

hippie

 

[Evil Genius]

Ok the mouse died due to natural causes during the night. Good night sweet prince. Just kidding. When i look at my deranged plants, i seriously consider killing them now. The cat would do the trick but you guys made me unsure. It would be a house cat only though. I Probably wont use poison as have other cute animals in garden that might be vulnerable to it. I have some edible dormice in my garden house and i dont wanna kill them either. They are cute and i try to keep balance with my ecosystem here. But my animal love is not unlimited and the mice overdid it. Last winter, i killed about 10 of them during 14 days. I was shocked how many mice can live in a small basement like mine. I dont think i can catch them all alive and set them free because they would probably find a way back in the house.

[nabraxas]

I understand ur not in Oz, but unless ur from ireland and get a wild irish cat. They are vermin too.

not true. their are wildcats all over Europe. i believe EG is from germany:

Germany's last remaining wildcats could soon become permanently invisible. They have long been absent in some German states, and in others they are considered endangered or threatened with extinction. According to current estimates, there are only about 3,000 to 5,000 wildcats left in Germany today.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,506962,00.html

EG if you have a cat you may be able to avoid repeat infestation as the smell ov a cat is usually enough to deter mice & rats from setting up home.

If your cat wont kill mice the farmers trick is not feed it for a couple ov days. Hungry cats don't play w/their food ;)

[Evil Genius]

i believe EG is from germany

yes exactly. Wild cats arent that of a problem here in germany as in other european countries like Spain. I had a cat baby one year ago but i had to give it away because it went postal on my plants. An mature one might get along with my plants though. bye Eg

[Chiral]

Cats don't always work, ours it too much of a wuss and just plays with the mouse for a while before letting it go. I threaten to sell the cat to the takeaway shop but my partner gets the shits, so I back down. *sigh*

 

If your cat wont kill mice the farmers trick is not feed it for a couple ov days. Hungry cats don't play w/their food ;)

...funny as fuck but may not actually be true...the feral cats next door to me are garbage eaters from the street and sometimes get food from the neighbor and there are still rats and mice running around like they own the joint...saw one the night carry shopping bags and a cell phone calling it's little furry buddies for a night out.

Oh and if you ever want mice and rats in an instant in your yard...dump spend trays of WBS around...fuck me that's just an open invitation for the vermin...poor mycelium never got a chance.

[Chiral]

strychnine- they die with a smile on their face

 

How would one hypothetically acquire some strychnine for vermin control...?

other traps that work..

1- mouse and rat traps baited with bread

2- hang a plastic shopping bag off a hook or nail with some food in the bottom..wait till you hear the rustling of a stupid mouse caught in the bag munching away, then grab bag handles tie a tight knot and belt mouse with one swift blow to head with hammer.

3- place food scraps at various points in yard that encourage the cat to come in eat, make sure it's hard for them to get away easy, have slingshot or nice hard round shiny pebbles ready as you lay in wait...aim for head and fire, dispose of according to local council rubbish rules 1.01

is it still legal to own or possess a BB gun...?

if so I want one, as it would make my hunting a lot easier and bring all the beautiful birds back around my area that sometimes come to drink water, feed on fruits, or pollinate flowers.

[planthelper]

I treat em like sport and take great pride in setting up traps and catching them by hand for swift death and disposal.

 

hey good to hear you catch them by hand aswell chiral, as i do at times aswell.

another thing one can try is to block and seal all access routes they might take,

but often this will be pretty impossible because of the structure of your affected compound.

however, at times you might find only one or two holes and sealing them will get rid of the problem.

i sometimes set traps aswell, and some work better than others,

fixing the bait to the trigger securly is very important, as mice are smart with stealing the bait without setting the trap.

[J Smith]

I find that baiting a mice trap with peanut butter works well. Whenever I bait with something like bread/dog food etc, I find that the mice can dislodge it and not get caught.

I don't think BB guns are legal, but I don't think it would be too hard to develop a home made design if you put your mind to it.

[Smiling Cloud]

BB guns are legal but only if you have a license for one, same goes for paintball guns!

I lived in a house that was half finished a few years ago and we would have rats coming inside all the time, especially in winter. I bought a slingshot/shanghai and killed all of them except for one, he/she was way too smart. That rat would look at me from the beams, mocking me. We had a carpet snake that moved in as well, would curl up around the hot water pipes above the sink, but after a few weeks of me getting my slingshot she left, there was nothing left for her to eat.

It doesn't take long to get accurate with a slingshot and ammo is everywhere! I used to buy ball bearings that they supply with them as they are easy to aim with.

I don't like using poison as they die everywhere and a poisoned mouse does not look very happy at all. If it was instant i wouild be into it buts its not.

[planthelper]

i neither have ever used poison as this is a cruel methode of a kill, and mice like all creatures and things have some life force within them which deserves respect.

another very good reason not to use poisons is that, sometimes it's hard to find the carcasse, or worse you can't retrive the dead body at all, and you have to live with the stench of dead meat.

i wish you good hunting, hehe.

[kindness]

I have had to use all sorts of methods for keeping possums, mice and rats out this year.. see the following pics. Have had to make sure that there is not a single entry point for them into the enclosures as it's been drought conditions here and the bastards have been very hungry... here are some pics

fort knox for plants

peace

edit to say, (hmmm i just said peace didn't i I used to shoot rats with a .22 when we had heaps of injured wildlife living on our property... as these were birds the seed attracted the rats and mice... it was fun. damn, i'm trying to be a hippy here lol)

Edited January 14, 2010 by meanies

[Quill]

All you need is a stereo and track 3 from Amputechture

[dworx]

Use a corn cob smeared with peanut butter and threaded onto a wire. This is suspended over a deep bucket [something they can't climb out of] and put some water in the bucket, the mice will go across the wire and feed on the peanut butter and corn, the corn will spin on the wire and the mouse will fall into the bucket of water and drown, alternatively using a wine bottle bottom half in a sock and neck suspended out over a deep bucket of water, bait by stuffing bread into the neck of bottle. The mice will crawl out on sock then down bottle neck to get bread , it can't grip the glass and will slip into the bucket of water to drown [this is a really effective trap.

One natural method would have to be a terrier - dog, they have a long history of rodent hunting, I live on fourty five acres and my staffies kill so many rodents it is unbeleivable. Cats will bring the rodent with intestines hanging out and leave it on your door step, but a terrier will just bite the neck kill it and leave it like they know the rodent is dirty?

or Get a snake and turn the heater on..

DW