O.T. - Best mouse poison

[1yesca]

I forgot the name of the parasitic infection that makes mice think that cats are their friends and makes mice attracted to the smell of cats. Is a bait available with the larvae of that infection? That infection is rather remarkable as the larva are only viable if they go through the gut of a cat. A coyote, skunk, coon or any other type of animal besides a cat can eat the mouse and the larva will not be viable. Seems like an infected bait would rather helpful especially if you do not have indoor cats.

I saw what had to be an infected mouse on the others side of an A/C vent sweep his tail in front of a cat repeatedly. The mouse sure wanted to be cat food.

are you sure it was not a small red cape that the mouse was waving at the cat and what about a sombrero

 

[FredC]

are you sure it was not a small red cape that the mouse was waving at the cat and what about a sombrero

Pretty funny.

Saw it several times, it was a plain rodent's tail each time. Later trapped him and his only clothing was plain old mouse fur. :-)

Goofball cat was very excited but could do nothing about it.

 

[neilho]

The problem with the old wooden base Victor traps is they don't work very well. They can be tweaked to make them more sensitive, but anything that makes them more sensitive just makes them harder to set, then they go off randomly. Glad to be rid of those things.

Been using the better mousetrap for a few years. Mostly I trap quite a few in the fall, 1 or 2 the rest of the year. Real peanut butter (none of that hydrogenated oil crap) smeared hard onto the bait platform, then renewed every couple months, works well. No cats here at the moment.

 

[FredC]

Thermite,
Your Live Science article was mainly about the infection's effects on humans. Articles on its effects on mice will show the attraction of the infected mouse to cats. It does the ToxoP no good if the mouse just takes risks. Mice playing in the street or getting eaten by canids or any other predator does not spread the infection. I have a sneaky feeling the ToxoP makes the infected cat's poop attractive to uninfected mouse, as the infection seems to be designed to spread and keep rodents under control.
Since the infection is so widespread it appears that a bait to spread it further would be un-necessary.

Neilho, the Victor trap is effective in getting rid of small numbers of mice. I have trapped them without bait using the mentioned method of putting the trigger side against a wall. Mice run in the dark with their wiskers against a wall to keep from getting lost. Bait gives you an edge sometimes. I had already mentioned the talented mouse licking out the peanut butter. the raisin stuffed into the loop caught them. When you buy a four pack of traps some will be so sensitive they have to be placed very gently to keep from snapping them. The bucket and one way door trap have been mentioned by so many, they have there place also. So many good ways to control the pests. It may take a combination to get that last one that is adverse to the other style traps.

 

[M.B. Naegle]

We're fortunate to have never had much of a rodent problem living in Texas, other than bugs and snakes. We had gophers in northern Idaho, but our black lab Toby did a good job at keeping them in check.

In regards to the gun-fire mouse approach, I've never done it, but it used to be more common however they didn't use all the high-powered stuff that everyone defaults too today. You could buy the most wimpy .22 ball-n-cap round available as it was just enough power to do the trick, but do minimal damage to the surrounding (but this was also back before drywall and everyone had wall-paper covered tonge-n-groove boards or solid plaster on the walls).

.22 BB - Wikipedia

Now the little rounds don't seem as common. I have a little .22 breach-load pistol that was my grandfathers. About as simple a pistol as you could make but it was made for indoor living-room shooting, or "parlor" shooting, and varmint control. The weird thing is that someone in the guns past sawed about 3/16" off the end of the barrel. Now, they did make long barreled pistols that you could add a rifle stock too, but the remaining front sight mount shows that this was the short barrel variety. The only reason I could find for cutting the barrel is that the pistol now fits perfect in a little tin cigar box I found, with the appropriate "Little Tom's" Cigar company name on it.

 

[FredC]

I have killed a rat in the house with a CB cap made by CCI. This was a long time ago and was not the smartest thing I have ever done. Later badly wounded a small dog that I was just trying to scare away with a CB cap. Had to put the dog down as it broke his spine. If you could find BB caps today, they might be appropriate for indoor mouse killing. If anyone find some let us know where. They would be fun to play with after figuring out how much they could penetrate.

Pulling the slug and pouring all the powder out of a 22 short case and pushing the case down on a sheet of paraffin might create a mouse killing round that would be safe to use indoors.

 

[CarbideBob]

Guns for killing a mouse?
A good sized dictionary works just fine.
Bob

 

[CITIZEN F16]

Guns for killing a mouse?
A good sized dictionary works just fine.
Bob

Isn't that messy?

 

[CarbideBob]

Isn't that messy?

Not at all.
In my home many a mouse has fallen to the big book.
Had indoor and outdoor cats. They would leave you the head and blood.
Now indoor only for longer life span. They think the mouse a toy to corner and bat around.
So big book and wack.
Then the cat looks at you asking "Why did you kill my toy? I was having fun."

Some mice get into the shop. The dog goes into full hunt mode and will lay down motionless waiting for hours which is sort of cute to watch.
Luckily she does not eat them. It is just kill the intruder.
Much to my wife's dismay rabbits are not so welcome in the yard as the dog is a Greyhound so sort of a speed contest.

I do worry about using any poisons on mice or even coons. Who may eat the leftovers?
Who may eat the poison itself? A cat, a little kid? When you were very young did you taste things that looked like food?
Chemical warfare kills indiscriminately. Ever gas your house or cabin to get rid of bugs?
Bob

 

[Bluechipx]

Put a radio in the area where the mice are, tune to Sean Hannity. This is an extreme last resort measure if you are heartless and cruel.

 

[FredC]

Guns for killing a mouse?

Bob

You are right to question the need. Only in some extreme circumstances would it ever be needed. Then you would have to jump through a couple hoops to be safe. Killing rats and mice with a 22 at the garbage dumps used to be good sport but those days are long gone.

The last 3 mice I killed came in on a piece of ag equipment I had on the vice in the garage. Killed the 3 by stepping on them. The cat caught one in mid air when I threw them out the door. Funny how he knew to be there and to be ready to catch them. It was a little messy as there are some spots on the floor by the vice. That was certainly better than letting them live in the garage with grass seeds that costs $700.00 a bag.

 

[eKretz]

I used to shoot mice in my parents' basement with one of those little airsoft pistols that shoot plastic BBs. Doesn't take much to kill a mouse, they're pretty fragile. These days I set out a "walk the log" bucket trap - one in the attic and one in the garage. That works a treat. Haven't seen a mouse or any evidence of one in the house or garage since then except for the occasional corpse in the bottoms of the buckets.

 

[Booze Daily]

I worked with a guy who was sort of a hillbilly. His wife found a bat in the house and it went behind a curtain to hide.
He got his shotgun, pulled back the curtain and blam. Blew a hole in the wall but got the bat.

 

[JoeE.]

Why so few comments about the use of sticky traps?

I've got a few chickens. I feed them hen scratch in feeders, and I also feed them loose grain that falls out of railroad cars here..

I've got a barrel full of either flax or canola seed, a barrel full of lentils, barrel full of corn and a multiple barrels of what I think is soybean meal. All of it has come from piles leaked out of cars in the yard here.
I wasn't sure on the flax/canola.. .so I took it to the grain elevator here and showed the man there, and that's what he told me. The cars came through here from Canada, headed to Mexico.

Anyhow, I toss that stuff around liberally, and I'm sure the mice have a heyday over there.

I put out some sticky traps to catch the mice inside the coop... they work good, but the chickens kick up so dust and straw and crap that the traps get clogged up with that stuff and ruined.

This is the first year I've ever detected a mouse in my own house. I saw it up on a kitchen counter, and immediately put out sticky traps.

I caught the thing an hour later. Haven't caught any more since.

 

[eKretz]

How about spring traps? I massaged this one a bit to give it a much more sensitive trigger. Was originally after what I thought was a chipmunk. Got this unlucky bastard instead.

 

[Tony Quiring]

Sometimes you get lucky....

Not 2 birds with one stone but...

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

 

[CarbideBob]

I worked with a guy who was sort of a hillbilly. His wife found a bat in the house and it went behind a curtain to hide.
He got his shotgun, pulled back the curtain and blam. Blew a hole in the wall but got the bat.

LOL
I've seen the same thing for a bat but with a 22.
I'd guess there were 20-40 holes in the living room walls and ceiling.
I suspect there was excessive alcohol involved.

What is that stuff farmers use to control flies that in a pan of water kills raccoons fast? I believe Ox posted about it here once.
Bob

 

[52 Ford]

Been using Tom Cat place packs, it seems like mouse vitamins not killer as fast as they go through it! What do you use?

#12 lead shot works pretty good if you can hit em.

Sent using Morse code on - .- .--. .- - .- .-.. -.-

 

[3t3d]

I don't want to type this for the BAD Karma/JuJu for doing this...

My brother moved to MT. Talking to a rancher he had Thousands of rats all over the sheds.
Had NO way to get rid of them.

Brother bets him$200.00 he can kill them ALL in a week.
One week later, no more rats....
Collects $200.00
Rancher DEMANDS to know how he did it.
Nope. That's another $300.00 for the secret.
Collects $300.00 more.

Five pound bag of sugar. Box of Plaster of Paris, mix well....

No more Rats...

 

[eKretz]

I don't want to type this for the BAD Karma/JuJu for doing this...

My brother moved to MT. Talking to a rancher he had Thousands of rats all over the sheds.
Had NO way to get rid of them.

Brother bets him$200.00 he can kill them ALL in a week.
One week later, no more rats....
Collects $200.00
Rancher DEMANDS to know how he did it.
Nope. That's another $300.00 for the secret.
Collects $300.00 more.

Five pound bag of sugar. Box of Plaster of Paris, mix well....

No more Rats...

As long as you can keep the animals you want away from it...