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Anyone else having a surge of mice? I'm trapping one every other day on average right now.
We get lots of mice around here, plus the occasional rat. It comes with living in the country. It gets worse in the spring because of the tall grass, but in a couple of weeks when we start making our fire break, it tapers off real fast. Those little critters don't like being out in the open.
no mice here. Only a big roach. That is what I get for leaving the door open, and not putting down a towel to cover the gap between the security screen door and the door frame. Raid works wonders though.
Anyone else having a surge of mice? I'm trapping one every other day on average right now.
They probably all gave birth, and you've got the new crop out exploring, and expanding their territory.
Natural predators help. Some dogs are good at getting rid of them. Cats also keep the population in check. My dog wasn't very good at catching them. The dog doesn't have to catch them. The dog only has to chase them. They stopped coming back once they learned that there was a dog who will go after them.
My dog sleeps right through the shenanigans. I just trap them until I trap no more. I need to figure out how they're getting in the Mach-E though. It's got an "intruder alert" alarm that sets the horn honking and the lights flashing when it "sees" a mouse in the car. I've trapped 4 mice in there in the past 2 weeks. Sigh... Country living.
I bought one of these and will probably put it in this weekend. I also have some steel mesh I'm going to try and cover the cabin air filter inlet under the cowl, assuming that's where they're entering.
I have a little training and experience with pest control. A long, long, long time ago, in a decade far, far, far in the rearview...... I worked in that field. The first thing that most professionals will tell you, is that rodents are a structural issue. The best thing that you can do, is exclude them. That is easier said than done. It's not always possible to seal off every point of entry. When we found obvious mouseholes, a quick fix was steel wool and expanding foam. It gets real expensive, real fast, to find a contractor who specializes in rodent exclusion.
Those ultrasonic devices don't work. I say that because I was called out to places where they had those things plugged in. If the devices were working, they would not need to call for help. We actually found roaches living inside of them. Some of those devices had bite marks from where the rodents were chewing on them.
Glue traps are okay. But they typically catch a lot of dust, dirt, and other debris. Not so good when your dog or cat gets caught in it, or they decide to pounce on a rodent in the trap. It could result in a very expensive, emergency room vet visit.
Wooden snap traps work well. The drawback, again, is pets. And for some people, children. Once in a while, adults get caught in them also.
Wooden traps can be reused for years. Glue traps are often wasted once they are covered by dust, dirt, leaves, pollen, etc. For some people, glue traps are wasted every time they sweep and mop the floor.
We also saw plenty of birds and other small animals caught in those traps. If preserving other wildlife is important to you, then you may not want to use them.
Professionals use mechanical traps. There are two models which are favored. Both were exceptional. Mechanical traps can hold more than one rodent at a time. They can be reused for years. The rodents are caught alive. At your discretion, you can release back into their natural habitat. Otherwise, you may need to consider that it will be up to you to take their life and dispose of the remains. I had a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. If it makes you feel better, I always humanely released the rodents in the wild..... So that they can destroy another habitat which they weren't native to. You can let your imagination run wild with other possibilities.
For traps to work, they have to be placed where the rodents are. Rodents have poor vision. They typically run along baseboards, which is why you see traps along a wall. They also run on pipes. Usually, a good inspection with a flashlight will find their droppings, and sometimes you can see tracks. Supposedly, an ultraviolet light will also show their urine. When I worked in the field, we dusted with boric acid. On a return visit, we could clearly see the rodent tracks, and knew exactly where the rodents were running. Boric acid is nontoxic. And it also works as an insecticide.
All traps will work without bait. If you put a trap in their path, the rodent simply runs into it. When I caught rats, we used apples, walnuts, and peanut butter. Cheese is only used in cartoons. However, if there is a food source which the rodents already like, then they won't even touch the bait. In food processing facilities, the bait was useless.
We did use bait. If a rodent dies between the walls, are you ready to tear down a wall to remove it? But they work. And they work well.
I forgot to mention that when I was a rat catcher, we used alternative techniques. A 5 gallon bucket, with a 2 inch hole drilled in the lid, was a trap. Bait the bucket with something that they are already eating. They would fall in the hole, then not be able to climb back out. Another thing that worked was bubble gum. The rodents eat the gum, and their bodies can't digest it.
06-01-2023, 10:12 AM
