Letters to the Editor
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Mouse traps with peanut butter for bait
Cheap, simple wooden mousetraps work like a charm. Don't use cheese, use peanut butter. It's hard for the mouse to dislodge, so the trap will spring. It also has an odor that travels farther than other bait. Mice love it....to death!
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getting rid of mice
I've lived in several places with mice and I always use the same solution: Get a cat. The cat moves in, the mice move out, the problem gets solved and you have the bonus of a nice pet.
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Mice
Not another crazy LW with problems none of us can relate to! Get a life. Oh, and before feminism, women would scream "eeek" and jump on chairs, and let men kill mice for them. Now you look at men like you want them to kill mice, but if they offer you act offended.
And Cary just buys into it!
;-)
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Lame
This was lame.
Not a problem requiring advice. A problem requiring Google.
(Or, really, a problem requiring an exterminator. I understand Tom DeLay doesn't have a regular job these days.)
Why was this published? Have all the personal/spiritual/emotional/relationship/etc. problems been solved?
OK, I have written a letter that disrespected a Salon columnist. Did this letter cross the deletion line?
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Get some good cheese.
You must choose what cheese to use. Purchase Gouda cheese?
The United States is the country of mammoth chucks of cheese to catch a mouse. Are you talking about a real cute house or a mouse that's a computer mouse? I use to have a morning mouse run across my computer table while I typed to the Salon.
You could buy a Cheshire cat. A one eyed cat at our farm called "One Eyed Goat Peoples Cat," eats mice and ground moles. He leaves the gizzards, intestinal guts, liver, kidney's and heart and eyeballs on the back porch to share with me.
To catch field mice, get a huge hoop. Make the hope about 18 inches across the diameter and ask a local blacksmith to hang the lump of cheese in a iron band above your bed when you and your wife sleep. The mice dropping make good potting soil and mice pets are excellent pets that require little grooming or attention.
I believe if one gets hard up for cash, the mice breed pet industry is the way to go to compete with the dog breed cat and kennel pedigree punditry business. I am not sure what a pet mouse goes for on the Mouse Pet Breed Cheese Eatery Industry, but how else is a Salon writer supposed to pay for their eve glass of wine and cheese?
Cary Tennis, did you 'cut' the cheese? You are quite a tease.
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Cary has a book?
Since when? What is it about? How can we get a copy in order to write a testimonial?
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Please no glue traps!
They are just heinous.
Much better to just thwack them with the traditional trap. Yes, peanut butter is better than cheese. But not chunky, because they just pull off the protruding nuts very carefully. (Yes I had some darn careful mice.)
But please, no glue traps! Terrible cruel things, imho.
p.s. Kinda odd that Cary is getting questions an exterminator should be getting asked. I wonder what other weird ones have gone unanswered that we remain unaware of. (ie, My cat pees on the Oriental rug without fail... My car's left rear tire makes a rumbling noise... I hear radio stations from my fillings...)
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Eek!
two suggestions:
1. Get rid of the bird feeders.
2. Call Pete Murphy, exterminator extraordinaire.
BTW, cats don't usually help all that much so don't burden them with the problem unless you love cats and don't mind if they turn out to be useless layabouts.
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If you use Hav-A-Hart traps...
The mice come back, period. Use the traditional spring-arm traps with peanut butter as bait: they're faster than a cat would be (for the mouse, that is). You may not even have to kill all of them--the remainder will move somewhere else, so set lots of traps around your house. Try setting out a few baited but unset traps at first, then set them and enjoy your soon-to-be mouse-free home.
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my favorite method -- closed traps
Are they country mice or city mice?
I live in the country. I trap/kill mice in one of those closed spring traps, with peanut butter as bait. I like the closed traps because I don't have to look at the dead mouse. I then release the dead mouse in the woods for local critters to feed on, and I re-use the trap.
Mouse poison pellets are another option -- they eat them and then go away and die. But sometimes they might die inside a wall or a floorboard and you will notice a smell.
Don't use glue traps. They are awful -- a slow death for the mouse. You will have to listen to plaintive squeaks. One of the local pest control businesses uses glue traps, which I think is horrible.
The closed traps I use are fast and efficient. Peanut butter is the best bait.
Another tried and true method: get a cat.
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Hit the road, starve the buggers, take off your belt
We had this problem last fall as the mice moved indoors looking for food. Remember, that's what they're looking for: food, so take it away from them.I haven't seen a mouse since December and I think it's a combination of persistence and luck. We were persistent in our approach and lucky because we went out of town for a month. Here is how it worked:
1) Figure out where they're frolicking. In our case it was the trash can beneath the sink: food would invariably fall outside the bin and create a mousey smorgasbord (sp)? We got rid of that open bin and replaced it with a tall trash can with a swinging lid that's out in the open. Clean out your cupboards and put things in mice-proof containers. This will get them hungry--for peanut butter (see below).
2) Kill, kill, kill! The old-fashioned wooden traps are most effective. Bait them with extra-chunky peanut butter. Place them along the edges of walls, because mice scurry along them. You can often re-bait a trap in the same spot. Try to think like a mouse, but do not pity them. They are a health hazard and a pest and reproduce like nothing else--kill, kill, kill!
3) Have fun. Here's where we got lucky--we went out of town for a month (ahh the student life). The cleaning and trapping and trash-can replacement made life a lot less cush for the mice. Since we weren't home making crumbs or getting careless with the cracker box, there was nothing for the mice, so they packed up and left. Presumably they're hassling other tenants, but they haven't come back here.
We still have our traps just in case.
So, I'm not sure why this is in "Since you asked", but it's a welcome break from people guilting each other about parenthood and whatnot. If you live out in the country or in a very old house you're probably screwed. Investing in high quality food cannisters and a breadbox will likely be a better investment than an exterminator. Maybe these ideas can be of use to you. Good luck!
P.S. (funny story)...At the height of the infestation, my boyfriend and I were watching TV one night and one of those cheeky little vermin was ambling--ambling! across the floor, bold as brass. My BF's brother had been this very situation a few months before, with no weapon at hand, so he knew exactly what to do. He slowly removed his belt and WHIPPED the mouse with the buckle end of it and the wretched thing croaked on the spot. I'm laughing evilly as I type this--macabre, I know, but once you have a mouse infestation you will be laughing too.