Vermin control in a garage er shop

How many cats can be stuffed in a USPS flat rate box?

Gunner, Got Cats!

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

Hey Wes,

I have one of those "electronic" pest control speakers/emitters plugged in, one in each shop. Seems to work OK. I say "seems to" because they operate outside the human audio range, so other than the little light is on, I can only say that I see no "trackings" of any rodents.

On the other hand, I think the damn things attract crickets and maybe the "Daddy-Long-Legs" type of innocuous spiders. I have plenty of chirps that are not caused by chatter, and the spiders leave the chirp-chorus skeletons behind!

Take care.

Brian Laws>What strategies do you use to deal with mice and such that infiltrate one's

On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 04:15:27 -0400, with neither quill nor qualm, Wes quickly quoth:

For mice, you can reuse traps. For rats, once one dies in a trap or by poisoning, the other rats smell the trap or bait and will never again go near it.

Mice: Put the trap against the wall in a known run. Smear peanut butter on the trigger and sprinkle with garlic. Works every time, even after the bait is gone. They'll trip over it and set it off because it's in their normal runway. Cool, wot? I figured this out by accident

2 decades ago and have gotten dozens of mice since then with just half a dozen traps. You'll generally get the whole family within 3 days.

Rats: wear gloves and use traps only once. Check daily and remove as soon as you see a rat in one.

Vermin in general: I haven't tried this but there were posts in RCM and RWW regarding electrified booby-trapped buckets. Google for them. Sounds quite cool. ;)

- Metaphors Be With You -

If they're kittens, I'd say about 10. Might even be legal too, they ship chicks USPS...

Pete C.

I've found the plastic quick set Victor mouse traps work pretty well baited with peanut butter. No risk of secondary kills either as with poison. Even killed one where it only got it by the tail, found it up against the gap under the garage door, with a chewed up corner. Pulled on it and found dead mouse still attached. Guess eating all that plastic wasn't healthy for it.

Pete C.

I seal up my house so well, even ants don't get in. A few days under the house with that spray foam getting very single nook and cranny worked at my last house, and is working at my new house.

The shop is not sealed nearly so well. A few "mechanical cat" traps in the shop get the buggers that get in. Look up "mechanical cat" very effective.

And like Gunner said, real cats are useful. Mine recently get ate by a coyote...

I had a mouse infestation of my "emergency food store". and basement in general where it was.

I am not sure if I got rid of all thge mice, yet, but it seems like it.

Here's how I did it:

1) threw away everything that was actually eaten by mice

2) gave away all undamaged food that might be accessible to mice

3) kept only stuff in sealed jars, and such

4) vacuumed the area

5) set numerous and different mouse traps (mouse cube, old style, new style plastic ones etc) in various places

6) I caught about 4 mice, no more seem to be around any more.

I think that if they do not have a reason for being there, they will leave eventually.

i

Step one - reduce the ability to infiltrate. Seal all cracks and gaps - a combination of 1/8" mesh hardware cloth and polyurethane foam works fairly well for static gaps. Garage doors may need adjustment and new seal strips. If you don't stop the traffic, you can never affect the population significantly.

Step two, trap & kill. For mice I use the snap traps with a large plastic fake cheese trigger, no bait at all, just set them against the wall, sometimes with a board to channel traffic towards them. If I have a known spot (as when the little beasts chewed the garage door seal) I'll set 3-5 closely spaced traps around it - rarely does one mouse get two traps, but frequently you'll get 2-3 mice a night with such a setup if the infestation is severe. Check traps daily, kill the merely maimed, reset.

There's a trap variant which has never worked well for me, but which some folks swear by - bucket of water, ramp to get to the top of the bucket, various ways of dumping peanut-butter-seeking-mice into the water to drown.

I like those little plastic mouse traps that look like a spring clothes pin. As others have said, I bait them with peanut butter, but they work even after the peanut butter is gone, when they are place with theirs "mouths" open toward a wall. Mice are "edge runners", so set the trap so the have to run over the trigger as they go by. As one other poster also said, I often have two or three side by side. I do sometimes catch both ends of the same mouse. Glue boards work well, too. I use them particuarly for bugs. There is a brand at our farm store the comes in pairs of glue boards, aboout 2 X 4 inches. It's in a yellow and black plastic bag. These are great for voles (tiny mouse looking creature with real pointy nose). But BUGS of ALL kinds just can't stay away from them. I get spiders, flys, crickets, etc. When the Asian beetles (look like lady bugs)attack, they pile onto the glue boards two or thre deep! I again mention crickets, because they used to drive me nuts in the fall, but now, every cricket that makes it inside jumps right into the glue.

Pete Stanaitis

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Wes wrote:

Around here (New England), mice problems are seasonal. You don't have many in the house until Fall, and then they all try to come inside where it's warm. I use wind up mechanical traps in the attic, which is their favorite hangout. They are galvanized boxes with a spring loaded rotor that tosses them into a compartment. That way I can catch several mice without having to check & reset the trap every day.

Doug White

Found the first mouse after many years of swamp coolers last week. I took one of the sides off to put a pinch of chlorine in to get rid of the occasional fishy smells out of the water and saw it floating next to the pump screen, ick.

I do love cats. I have had them on and off or many years and all lived to their natural life span (house cats).

Unfortunately they are hard on leather furniture, have a habit of shoving things off of shelves (not good if it is my indicator or micrometer) so I don't think one is in my future any time soon.

Besides, I couldn't make a cat stay in the shop. It gets cold up here.

Wes

I have never caught a mouse with a trap baited with peanut butter even though others think highly of it. Garlic? I'm willing to give that one a try though.

I shall report results.

Wes

Did you use a quality peanut butter? If it's super processed crap that's

95% sugar or HFCS I don't think mice will touch it. I use a quality "all natural" peanut butter and the mice here go after it.

Pete C.

Gunner, you need a Tabby-Tote for moving those cats around. Bet you could make one up with scrap stuff around the shop.

Our cat "Lard Ass" is so fat he has to set traps in order to catch mice...

Jeff

I LIKE that one

Gunner, who is fascinated by cats. They seem to sense things beyond the ken of mere humans. Or is it simply the behavior of an animal with the brain the size of a walnut?

Shrug

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 13:06:32 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, "Pete C." quickly quoth:

Yeah, avoid Jif, the Yugo of peanut butters.

- Metaphors Be With You -

They now sell an electric mouse trap at places like Lowes. It's a little black box with a little bit of baffling inside and a couple of metal plates. You put bait at one end, and the mouse has to step on both plates to get to it. When I had an infestation I put out a couple of them, and was emptying them every day for the better part of a week. They were certainly effective, and near as I could tell humane (never found a stunned but alive mouse, never heard a squeak). They've even got an LED on top that flashes to alert you to a mouse "interaction" (one of the weirdest euphemisms I've *ever* come across).

By contrast, you can also buy little trays of glue with bait in them. I tried one without considering how they worked carefully enough, and found myself putting a screaming mouse out of its misery with my foot. Effective the one time I tried it, but must have been invented by a truly sick bastard.