Death to all mice

[happycamperbrat]

Ive used those humane traps too with great success....... in my house. Ive also found that putting a large bowl of water out will attract them and then they fall in and drown. Im not so sure either of these are appropriate for our buses (unless you fulltime). If you go a week leaving them in one of the live traps, they could starve/thrist to death. I havent had problems with mice (yet!) on my bus, but Im sure it is just a matter of time before I do. I want to prepare for it in the most humane way possible. Thanks for the thread

[thejumpsuitman]

When we got home I set out my humane traps.  Sorry,  I'm an animal lover.  Didn't want him to eat the water lines, so I even supplied a dish of water. Caught five the first night.  Over the course of two weeks,  I caught 22. 

Cary, I would say there is a good chance you caught the same two mice 11 times each.  Dee wanted to try the "humane" traps a couple years ago in our house, but we kept catching what I believe were the same 2 or 3 mice literally every singe night even though I released them way at the back of our property.  I began to catch on to them and said "Sorry Dee, I think they are getting one over on us."  So I put out some good old snap traps and caught them all in a couple days and they didn't come back. 

I think it's more humane to keep the humans healthy and away from mouse poop.

[artvonne]

  They are cute outside, but once inside a home they become very destructive and disease prone. Outside of a cockroach i cant think of a filthier dirtier animal to have inside your home. They need to die.

[fe2_o3]

We didn't have a mouse problem till we got the cat. She will go outside and catch them then bring them inside to play with, then let them go to catch and play with later. Hid her food hoping the catch your food instinct would kick in. She started eating my shoes. Put out sticky traps. Caught one mouse. The next night we heard the cat going nuts. She was running all over the house, knocking over lamps and yowling. I got up and hunted her down. Found a sticky trap wedged behind a table. The trap was covered with yellow hair, and the cat had a bald spot on her butt. I'm all for moving into the bus and giving the house to the cat and her playmates...Cable

[Busted Knuckle]

We didn't have a mouse problem till we got the cat. She will go outside and catch them then bring them inside to play with, then let them go to catch and play with later. Hid her food hoping the catch your food instinct would kick in. She started eating my shoes. Put out sticky traps. Caught one mouse. The next night we heard the cat going nuts. She was running all over the house, knocking over lamps and yowling. I got up and hunted her down. Found a sticky trap wedged behind a table. The trap was covered with yellow hair, and the cat had a bald spot on her butt. I'm all for moving into the bus and giving the house to the cat and her playmates...Cable

See why I have dogs? LOL!
  BK 

[Oonrahnjay]

I though you played with snakes. (snip) 

That's just in church.  You gotta get rubber snakes for protection Mon -- Saturday.

[gus]

I have a very hard time getting dewy-eyed about mice. They don't play fair and neither do I!!

I once read that Lifebouy soap would keep them away. Well, those mice really liked that soap and ate most of it.

I dislike cats almost as much as I do mice!!

However, we do have a good population of black snakes that pretty much keep our house mouse population down. Those snakes are my pets but I haven't taken them to church yet.

I finally discovered that if I leave vehicle hoods open rats will stay out. Since I have about a dozen vehicles I have a lot of hoods open, looks like a bunch of baby birds at feeding time. Baby birds - another reason I don't like cats.

[Kevin]

My buddy had a s&s 30' coach which he kept on his 10 acre mini-ranch here in the So Cal high desert. He pulled out of his driveway one day and glimpsed something in the rear view... mice falling from beneath his motorhome. They tumbled onto the asphalt, but then picked themselves up and scrambled full-tilt towards his rig. He punched it and outran 'em.

He chuckled all the way into town where he stopped at the local RV place to dump his tanks. He was chatting with another RVr who was emptying his tanks too, when, to his horror, he saw about a half-dozen mice drop from his coach onto the ground. They began jumping back up onto the chassis and then back down onto the ground again like it was a game. He was so embarrassed that he positioned himself in a way that the nice gentleman he was chatting with would hopefully not notice that his near-new home on wheels was mouse-infested! Heh, heh.

Later he had problems and an engine light w/code. He took his coach (still under warranty) in and the tech discovered that the stinkin' mice had chewed away some wires to a sensor or something. Since the warranty didn't cover it - it was going to cost over a hundred bucks. My buddy soldered it back and it was okay.

I've learned alot of preventative measures on this thread today. I will share with him.

Thanks!

Kevin

[Pete359EX]

Funny timing. Took my Cadi in for warranty work recently. Picked up a mouse at their shop. They said they could not differentiate whether it was from their shop or my house. I told them the car had just been totally detailed before arrival, and that I keep it in an air-conditoned garage. Needless to say I got nowher with them. They gave me a deodorizer and told me to bait the car. The little buger got in my back seat and nested, and found droppings at the drivers side front mat. Basically they said that if the problem continued, to contact my insurance company and file a claim. Can you believe that! The car is a 2007. Fortunately the mouse left the house. But there shop was a real dump. I would not recommend them at all. So if in Ocala, Fl. Do not go to Sullivan Cadillac!

[Hi yo silver]

I had a mouse problem the first year I had the bus. Made the mistake of leaving the food and paper products in the bus between trips. Since then, anything like napkins, T-paper, etc. goes in plastic containers when I get home. Also, I bought "Fresh Cab" things at Tractor Supply. They are little pillow-looking things that come four to a box. They smell like mint, but they're expensive, so I picked up some spearmint oil at the drugstore so I can rejuvinate them every couple of months rather than buy new ones. Using those and peanut butter baited traps around the outside of the bus has worked well. No more mice. Not as much fun as watching Barn Owl's system, though. He has a Jack Russell Terrier that is DEADLY on mice!
Dennis   

[artvonne]

  Maybe some could share the more entertaining ways of "dispatching" them. I happen to like those round wind up traps, they go in and its like a bad ride at the fair. ZOOOOmmmmmmmwhapwhap whap  whap   whap    whap.  

 

[boxcarOkie]

We didn't have a mouse problem till we got the cat. She will go outside and catch them then bring them inside to play with, then let them go to catch and play with later. Hid her food hoping the catch your food instinct would kick in. She started eating my shoes. Put out sticky traps. Caught one mouse. The next night we heard the cat going nuts. She was running all over the house, knocking over lamps and yowling. I got up and hunted her down. Found a sticky trap wedged behind a table. The trap was covered with yellow hair, and the cat had a bald spot on her butt. I'm all for moving into the bus and giving the house to the cat and her playmates...Cable

Not THAT was funny, worth reading.  Kudo's!

BCO

[gus]

The plain old fashion kind of mouse trap is as good as any. To get rid of the mouse you just lift the spring loaded wire and Mr Mouse falls right off!

I forgot to mention, I've found acorns to be the best bait of all for country mice. City mice may not like them as much though. I turn up one corner of the bait holder, stick that into the acorn good and solid so the acorn stays put even when the mouse takes a big bite.

I've used the traps with yellow bait flap already installed and have never caught a mouse with one.

I use the wire cage traps for rats, the plain snap type rat traps aren't strong enough to kill the monsters we have out here. After the trap door closes I shoot them in the head with an air rifle then feed them to the buzzards.

[JohnEd]

It takes a Terrier to handle rats.  I got one.....a terrier, not a rat.

For mice you can't beat a pair of Seal Point Siamese cats.  I had one long ago and she was "insane" ly smart and had a sense of humor.  Problem with a pair is they will kill rattlesnakes so if you are ranching snakes they are a bad thing.  For the rest of us they are superb rodent control.  Not to mention pets extraordinaire.  Get a kitten from a breeder with good credentials as it is less hit and miss that way.  The Siamese is not a cat but something closer to a dog in behavior.

Granny used to poison the mice once a year.  She used a poison that mad them mad with thirst and along with the poison she put out a nice dish of water.  We picked up scads of floaters but never once in all those years did we smell a dead mouse.  I thought everybody did it that way.

John

[Lin]

Out here cats are affectionately called coyote food.