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Rodents have declared war.

Wulf

Wulf

I got home from work yesterday and found 6 seedlings chopped off at the base of the stem. That was about half of my grow for this year, and they were all of an unidentified variety that I'd saved seeds from because it both tasted good, and had a chance of being low enough heat that I could cook with it and have a small chance of anybody I know being able to tolerate it.

The mice have been around for a bit. I'd trap a few, they'd go away, then come back. This time they've declared war and things need to be stepped up a notch. What methods have you guys used that are effective? I've got 2 dogs, 2 ferrets, and a toddler, so I'd have to be careful with poison. The one time I tried it, the mice dragged it around.

They need to die, but as humanely as possible. I don't really want my son listening to a mouse's death screams for 8 hours while I'm at work because the wife can't handle finishing something off.
 
Had to get rid of the wife's cats a few years back, I'm allergic. And not the "I get the sniffles" level of allergic, but the "my lungs stop working after a while" level of allergic.

With glue traps, don't they end up tearing off flesh and chewing off limbs to escape? If it's gotta be done, it's gotta be done, but I've heard they're rather messy. Does the glue dissolve in anything practical in case of accidental contact with something I care about?
 
If you're allergic to cats, then get a hawk, or a snake ... If you brodcast hawk's call they will also go away (I did that for starlings invading my garden by hundred of thousands and it worked very well. It even attrac a couple of hawks ...).

For traps you can make some kind of a "fish pot" but for mices with a plastic bottle (cut the top, reverse it, glue it, put barley in it).

Edit : it just remind me a great vid

http://youtu.be/Plz9JxsnhH4
 
I've actually seen that pop bottle idea before. Think I might give that a try, thanks for reminding me of it.

Skinner: Ahh, but as it turns out the lizards were a godsend since they've eaten all the pigeons.
Lisa: Isn't that a little short sighted, what happens when we're up to our ears with lizards?
Skinner: Ah, well we shall simply release wave after wave of Chinese needles snakes.
Lisa: Then what about the snakes?
Skinner: We simply import gorillas who will eat all the snakes.
Lisa: Well what happens when we're up to our ears in gorillas?!
Skinner: Ah that's the beauty of the thing, come winter the gorillas will freeze to death.
Click to expand...
 
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I would say a shotgun but that might be over kill LOL.

Where are your plants at? If they are on the counter I would use traps or the pop bottle mentioned above. If on the floor, just move them onto a counter if possible and then do the traps etc..
 
Try another cat. I had an aunt with a cat that would incapacitate me withing 10 minutes of seeing it and I had a girlfriend once whose cat would make me have what I can only assume was a lot like an asthma attack... I simply couldn't be at her place for any length of time without issues.

Having said that, I had a cat for 19 years that caused me no problems and we have a cat now that doesn't bother me. Often it's what the cat gets into that causes the reaction and not the cat itself.

Also, I'll trade your mice for our ground squirrels. They're probably nasty enough to kill the cat.
 
I feel your pain.

I just discovered yesterday morning that something had been munching on three pods on my Chocolate Hand Grenade plant and another seven pods on my orange manzano plant. I have both of these plants growing in my basement in dwc buckets. I set traps with peanut butter last night only to find both traps tripped this morning with no mice. I suspect I may have something larger than a small mouse. I got two more mouse traps and two rat sized sticky traps to set tonight.

I guess I'll see what I can catch tonight.

Darn rodents.
 
I've used the adhesive traps and the mice get so ensnared that they can't even move. Never saw any flesh tearing. Just place them in a small air thight container or small plastic bag and they than asphyxiate quietly. Watch your ferrets they might get into the traps out of curiosity. Speaking of ferrets I'm surprised they don't get the mice, they're pray for wild ferrets and I hear some people feed them mice prekilled or a live. Save some money on ferret food sick them on the mice. All is fair in war use War Ferrets.
 
koskorgul said:
Where are your plants at? If they are on the counter I would use traps or the pop bottle mentioned above. If on the floor, just move them onto a counter if possible and then do the traps etc..
Click to expand...
They're up on a table near a window.


Dorkasaurus said:
Try another cat. I had an aunt with a cat that would incapacitate me withing 10 minutes of seeing it and I had a girlfriend once whose cat would make me have what I can only assume was a lot like an asthma attack... I simply couldn't be at her place for any length of time without issues.

Having said that, I had a cat for 19 years that caused me no problems and we have a cat now that doesn't bother me. Often it's what the cat gets into that causes the reaction and not the cat itself.

Also, I'll trade your mice for our ground squirrels. They're probably nasty enough to kill the cat.
Click to expand...
I don't really have much of an immediate reaction to cats unless I pet them and rub my face. It's the continuous breathing in of their dander and whatnot from the fabrics/vents that pushes me over the edge. The cats have been gone for quite a while now and I still have some mild problems from them. The doctor at one point pulled a number out of his ass and said it can take 5 years for a home to be completely free of them after they leave.

And I'll take your trade for ground squirrels. A little variety in pests never hurts, and I could amuse myself for hours by saying "moose and squirrel" to the wife in a Russian accent.
 
I would use either reg traps or glue traps since the plants are up off the floor. You dont have to worry so much about your toddler or the dogs getting them and I am guessing you keep the ferrets in a cage.
 
TOAW said:
Speaking of ferrets I'm surprised they don't get the mice, they're pray for wild ferrets and I hear some people feed them mice prekilled or a live. Save some money on ferret food sick them on the mice. All is fair in war use War Ferrets.
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I got them from a pet store, and they neutered the male too early. No aggression in him, which makes him a great pet but not exactly a hunter. The female can be mean when she's hungry, but she's more likely to take it out on the male than go hunting for food. I've found some mouse droppings next to the ferret's food dish, so I'm not exactly pinning my hopes for vermin resolution on them....

koskorgul said:
I would use either reg traps or glue traps since the plants are up off the floor. You dont have to worry so much about your toddler or the dogs getting them and I am guessing you keep the ferrets in a cage.
Click to expand...
The ferrets stay in a cage when unwatched, but I still have to disarm any traps/poison I put out whenever it's time for them to come out. The baby gate is actually a better blockade than doors to the ferrets, but they'll still get into/through everything if you give them some time to think about it. The male will actually pull himself through the gap under a door if he's bored enough.

I think I'll grab some glue traps and give them a try
 
lol i know you guys are mostly kidding about letting the cats or ferrets do the job and all, but FYI its a bad idea to let your animals kill or eat wild rats and mice... they can and often do carry any number of diseases and parasites that will infect your pets, and possibly infect you as well. i understand that domesticated cats will not really eat a rat, just kill it... but still you dont have to eat the bowels and brain to get infected.

on the other hand if were talking about a feral barn cat or w/e... that your kids aren't going to be burying their faces in, and coming into contact with their shit all the time... its probably not a bad idea. wild cats are ruthless killers, i wouldn't be surprised if just a few could kill 10's of hundreds of mice a year.

as far as killing them honestly idk.
i know they are around me here in the burbs... i see them running on power lines every now and then. ive seen them jump into trees close to the power lines and i assume run down to the ground. that's the extent of i knowledge as to where they are and what they are doing...idk where they are going or where they come from... or where they are feeding.
they are mysterious...
possums. same deal, where do they sleep? what are they eating? ive seen some around here that are bigger than a cat. not exactly inconspicuous animals yet you will never find one unless its out and about doing its possumy things.
 
I wouldn't be comfortable with the ferrets actually catching and/or eating a lot of mice, but I wouldn't mind too much if they'd actually try.

If the mice believed there was a predator around they might be convinced to bugger off somewhere else, instead of hanging out and eating out of the ferrets' food dish....
 
wait so these rodents are inside? and so are your plants?

id look more strongly at how they are getting inside along with how you want to deal with them.

im not super anal about rats or anything, but pests like that that screw up your house bug the shit out of me.

idk if they are anything like squirrels with the chewing and everything... but i think you will find that wherever they are getting inside, they are doing damage to your home.
I knew someone who had a rat problem, it turned out they were going under the lap siding where there was a gap at the foundation, then getting into the wall cavity and coming out into the kitchen somewhere under the dish washer. thats the way i remember it anyway.
Apparently they chewed into the drywall where the water pipes penetrated into living space behind the dish washer or something like that. anyway he had to open up the wall to block the opening, turns out the rats had screwed up all the insulation and left crap everywhere.
w.e no big deal i guess, just aggravating. if your place is newer, its likely built with a relatively tight envelope, even small holes in the building envelope will blast out cold/warm air and waste a decent amount of energy.

anyway apparently the exterminator found the hole and blasted spray foam into it, and did something with a wire mesh. apparently they chew through the spray foam without the wire mesh.
 
Wulf said:
I got home from work yesterday and found 6 seedlings chopped off at the base of the stem. That was about half of my grow for this year, and they were all of an unidentified variety that I'd saved seeds from because it both tasted good, and had a chance of being low enough heat that I could cook with it and have a small chance of anybody I know being able to tolerate it.

The mice have been around for a bit. I'd trap a few, they'd go away, then come back. This time they've declared war and things need to be stepped up a notch. What methods have you guys used that are effective? I've got 2 dogs, 2 ferrets, and a toddler, so I'd have to be careful with poison. The one time I tried it, the mice dragged it around.

They need to die, but as humanely as possible. I don't really want my son listening to a mouse's death screams for 8 hours while I'm at work because the wife can't handle finishing something off.
Click to expand...
Im actually on war right now with them lol! since about 3 weeks ago, around 15 seedlings of mine got cut from the base of the stem. and i know right away what the culprit is. I bought a traps and baited peanut butters and on the 1st night 1 got 2 of them head crushed mwhahaha and then nothing happen for a while after 4 days got another 1 and thats it. war is over I think...
 
Well gotta trap them first before you close up the holes or else they'll just do more unseen damage; it's hit or miss whether or not cats will go after mice, but its better to assume they won't, that way if you want it and it doesn't hunt you'll still love it. There are little black one time use traps that work pretty well, I've always had the best luck with the old fashioned ones, if your wife is squeamish I wonder if she'd be able to just drop it in a bucket of water.
 
I use these one of these bad boys.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_988789_988789

It seriously works and we have caught them as soon as like 15 minutes after setting before.
Sometimes it takes a day or two, but almost always gets something.
Just toss a couple pieces of dry dog kibble in it and BAM.
I just dump in in a trash bag and them sling the bag against the wall. Done. Dead mouse/rat.
When I get squirrels in it I do take them a couple miles away and just open the cage door and dump them out free by a field. Maybe they become hawk food.. Dunno.
 
scrufy said:
I use these one of these bad boys.

http://www.northernt...t_988789_988789

It seriously works and we have caught them as soon as like 15 minutes after setting before.
Sometimes it takes a day or two, but almost always gets something.
Just toss a couple pieces of dry dog kibble in it and BAM.
I just dump in in a trash bag and them sling the bag against the wall. Done. Dead mouse/rat.
When I get squirrels in it I do take them a couple miles away and just open the cage door and dump them out free by a field. Maybe they become hawk food.. Dunno.
Click to expand...

I don't know what kind of squirrels you're dealing with but the rock squirrels here are almost as big as the hawks and I've yet to see a hawk take one down... just smaller birds and lizards. We use havahart traps as well but it's a constant struggle and in some states it's illegal to relocate them because of diseases they may carry particularly bubonic plague.
 
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