How to Catch a Mouse??? (1131 views, 53 replies)
God
@ That is what I heard, so I tried the Raisinettes they are covered in chocolate, but nothing lol.
@Rescue Dog Mama It has to be pure chocolate.
Plus if you're using a trap that's dirty, they can smell what's been going on.
@ All brand new, I went into Home Depot on a mission lol..Never had this problem before. Every one in there told me peanut butter lol.
@Rescue Dog Mama Are you telling me they know the difference between real chocolate, and a hershey bar LOL....
@Rescue Dog Mama Isn't Hershey's real chocolate?
Actually, when I tried it the first time I used a sweet that was a mixture of chocolate and nuts. It didn't work, but the pure chocolate did.
I don't make the rules; I just report what worked for me.
@ No, it goes by how much actual real cocoa is in it, Hersheys is about 12%, that is why when you go into a candy store, there is some real expensive chocolate, and I will not spend $50 on chocolate to k ill a mouse LOL!!
@Rescue Dog Mama Well, I used Galaxy. It cost me about €2.
I never read that article, I just stumbled on it now.
It's probably different for everyone, and as I said, it's purely what worked for me, nothing more nothing less.
Good luck. :)
@Rescue Dog Mama Here's an actual article where they actually did a small study on which chocolate attracted them more.
www.rentokil.com/blog/mice-dont-...
LOL
Now that's funny.
At any rate, best of luck to you. :)
@ Thanks, I think I will try chocolate covered cherrys tonight in a few traps, just chocolate in others. If someone saw all my traps they would think I had a small army of them,lol.
@Rescue Dog Mama I completely understand and can identify with it.
It was insane and I didn't like doing it, but there was no other way and mine were quick and did the job.
Good luck. :)
@ they love deadly rat poison, especially with a whole family!!--We once lived near Golden Gate Park,and no way would the landlord plug up all the holes--so we got a CAT,the mice smelled the cat,and left.Once we had the cat,they never came back.
@clarachan1355 Poison of any kind should be outlawed. It is cruel and kills a lot of animals indescriminatinly.
expert
Mice tend to stay next to the walls when moving around, set your traps along the walls. Peanut butter works well for me but science says their favorite is gumdrop. Make sure the bait is firmly on the trap or it won't go off, they will just steal the bait.
@Dreamcrusher Gumdrop?
What's a gumdrop?
That's really interesting, but I've never heard of it before.
:)
@ We have them in England. Not a fan, but they are MUCH better than Pontefract cakes (Don't be fooled by the name! Mice will hate them too lol)
@DemandingFemale Ah ha! Good to know. They do not sound like a sweet I'd fancy.
I do like liquorice though. I generally like the homemade soft kind.
Yummy.
senior guru
Can't offer much in the way of advice on this one. My old family home was a few hundred years old, and had lots of tiny nooks and crannies for mice (and sometimes rats and squirrels) to get in.
We resorted to lots of different methods that worked to keep numbers down, but not eliminate them entirely. Chocolate spread (Nutella) or the spread with 50/50 chocolate and peanut butter was always a winner though. We tried the humane traps a lot, but unless they are released quite a distance away they find their way back in again.
Hope you manage to get it sorted.
@DemandingFemale Thanks, me too, lol. Never thought about the nutella, I have some too!!
@Rescue Dog Mama I think the best trap is a bucket, a rolling pin (like for dough) and whatever is working the best for you for bait. You can also use cans on a string for the pin. Here's a video.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SIlYiiC...
What I really wanted to say is that if you're doing catch and release, you need to take them as far away as you possibly can because just like birds that migrate thousands of miles a year to build their nests in the same spot, they will find their way back to you.
@PaddyWhack Have not caught 1 yet, but yes I realize they need to be taken far away, at this point I am not picky about which trap gets them,lol. I am using 3 kinds, and nothing. They are there, for sure though. So sneaky, ...
guru
senior guru
Several years ago we had to go stay back home for a few days after my mother spotted a mouse in her kitchen (she is terrified of anything smaller than a cat)
We laid traps all over the place.
3am, we were woken by, what can only be described as, Clarice Starling's worse nightmare. A traditional mousetrap had snapped shut on 2 huge mice, both injured, neither dead, and both screaming! I've never heard a sound like it in my life. Husband wimped out, and I ended up having to bash their tiny little screaming heads in with a shovel.
@DemandingFemale That is what I am afraid of, that they will get caught, but not die.. they have outsmarted us so far,trying again tonight with all fresh "bait" more gooey chocolate.
guru
I always used those small wooden snap traps. For bait, I took a piece of panty hose and secured it where the bait goes. Then smashed peanut butter into the small piece of stocking. Just enough to make it into the micro sized holes the panty hose normally has. Then just sit back and wait for that "SNAP!". The little buggers get their two front teeth snagged in the stocking because they tend to get greedy. If you put too much peanut butter then there's nothing for the teeth to get snagged on. Works with the large rat traps as well. Always worked for me. Good Luck.
guru
Mice like other wee furry things love food. Remove that and they will leave.
Clean your hoose, every nook and crany. Keep your food sealed in your fridge or solid pantry.
As soon as they know there is nothing they can eat, they leave. And on the way out they tell their pals "Nothing there, Don't waste your time."
@Egor17 Sorry, that's not true. I know that as a fact. Rodents will still come in & seek food. They have a keener sense of smell then we do. The way homes are built nowadays, mice will just chew thru the walls to get in. Once in, just the slightest smell of any food will cause them to chew thru boxes, plastic, wood, etc. They also will move into your home just to setup home & have babies. I honestly will say I'd rather have a problem with a few mice then roaches or water bugs. Just one last thing, this isn't, "Disney". Mice don't talk!!
@WEBHEAD🕸️ They have chewed the fringe off a blanket that was on the back of the couch, that to me says nesting, JUST GREAT!!! lol
guru
All species talk within their own. Including mice. We as humans just don't hear or care what they say. Even insects communicate within their group.
Once had a roach problem. Hunted down the egg layer (Queen) Killed that and her eggs. They never came back. Ruthless, I know.
@Egor17 how'd you follow the trail of roaches?usually they are in a building,but do ALL THE ROACHES leave a trail right from the Roach queen??not so easy to find--did you feed them "neon dye"and then follow the dyed trail?not ruthless, just smart.
top expert
top expert
having spent 15 years at a job in a store with a basement dating back to the'30s i've had a wee bit of experience with mouse maintenance. if you're using the standard Victor snap trap...
Starburst Fruit Chews, warm 'em till they're malleable, cut off just enough to mold around the trigger. First plus.. they're Clean, i know peanut butters #1 but didn't take me long to get sick of cleaning it up. which brings me too 2nd bonus, reloading, basically no need 'least bait wise. after the trap goes you dispose of the mouse, reset and ready to go, because with their sticky/chewy consistency i can't remember the bait ever being stolen, not once
master
Living in the desert, I got mice and pack-rats (not true rats but much larger than a field mouse) and those pack-rats are always looking for a new home so taking food away doesn't help, they want the space to build lol..
Two things worked,(pack-rats are way smarter than mice), one day while the door was open, a 6 foot snake came in and immediately started taking out the pack-rats in the walls,, and for a couple days it sounded like a war,, squeak bambambam and silence.. no more pack-rats,, for awhile..
It wasn't until I found the hole where they came into the house.. a tiny hole where my washing machine waste water left the house.. TINY HOLE,, but that brown stain from pack-rats squeezing through was obvious.. once the hole was filled,, NO MORE MICE OR PACK-RATS..
I'm in California and this video is specific for my area but it's the vid that got me to search for the hole they come in through and the best info for me.. maybe it will help you too..
youtu.be/HCDWCKZGB24
master
and I never found a chocolate that any of them liked,, I think the desert variety doesn't like chocolate or sugar but they LOVE whole grains... like whole grain bread,, but that's too easy for them to steal.... but tahini (crushed sesame seeds)sticks like peanut butter=which they didn't like and why I switched to tahini because it's their favorite..
senior guru
First off thanks for everyones input I appreciate it! We got 1 mouse this morning, but not in a trap, it was in the bathroom, and one of the dogs, killed it(by mistake) I think he was playing with it lol) Other than that no a one has been caught in a trap, it is a complete mystery why.. since I have tried everything else I will try theStarburst , that solbane suggested.....
@Rescue Dog Mama Wow, let your dog at them. Sounds like he knows what he's doing.
My cats have always been terrific mousers.
When I was in the cottage where I trapped 127, I didn't have a cat.
Mine were super hungry, too, because the cottage was not "finished" yet, so I am betting that they have a source of food and don't need what you're offering in the traps. :(
God
You've fed them so well, that they probably won't eat ANYTHING any more! What I do is set any kind of bait..peanut butter, or even a cheeto....anywhere. [ Somewhere your animals can't mess it up.] Then I SURROUND the bait with STICKY traps. They HAVE to try to cross the traps. You will hear them in the night flopping the trap around, trying to get loose. Works every time...when they get hungry again. Put your other food in glass containers, or somewhere that they can't get to it.
God
Mice ARE a lotsmarter than they used to be. I imagine some of them have escaped from laboratories. Have you seen one with an ear on it's back? LOL! 
master
oh dear, i have seen very painful ways to get them;my landlord years ago,got a "gluetrap"put under ny bed,cause a roof rat had crawled into my window. 
Well, at night time,sure enough, the rat got into the gluetrap,(it nust have an attraction to it)and tried to get out of it,ugh!!--it was "glued in,but it killed itself trying to get out and I heard it, it was horrible.yuck. 
Only a couple years ago,before we plugged up old holes(from entrances into my old house which used to have"bottled gas"to power the stove,,but I now have an old elecric stove)some small mice got into the house.I don't think I had my cat yet,or she ignored it,but a pest guy(I have regular"bio-chemical solutions"put all over the casement outside,,or else we get ACRES OF ANTS.LIKE INVADING HOARDS,STRAIGHT INTO THE HOUSE,LIKE A HORROR MOVIE,and we got termites here,and Carpenter ants,which chew up your walls inside,so I HAVE TO HAVE A PEST GUY.or they would eat up my house.)
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.two castor bean seeds will kill an adult human--they used to grow wild everywhere.If a child eats a lotta apples,and swallows all the seedS,you might have to get it to an ER.CHERRY STONES HAVE A TYPE of arsenic inside the cherry stone.if you brits still have "Yew trees"they're awful poisonous.--those can kill large mammals by accident.
senior guru
Well, good news is altogether have caught 3, by putting chocolate covered raisins in the Have a Heart traps, but I will not touch them,lol. My son inlaw got rid of them for me, far away, next town over. I know there is at least 1 more, I have seen it. Hopefully it gets caught tonight. I guess they like Chocolate covered raisins, who knew, lol..
@Rescue Dog Mama Discriminating... lol
Whatever works, is what works, no matter what anyone says!
I'm glad you found something. :)
member
@Rescue Dog Mama Lol the ones I had ate better then me....lol...I am sorry you are going through this, they are hard to catch and well I let them go...
@HellHounds45 I let them go as well, these were very tiny mice, I almost felt bad,(almost)..hope to get the other one tonight ..also hope that is the end of them...
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senior guru
I have what I think is a whole family of field mice, running around, I have caught 1 last night, but I have been trying to catch these little critters for about 10 days. I just now saw one in the kitchen, and he ran under or behind the stove. I have tried peanut butter,raisins, raisinettes(because they love sweet) grapes, corn kernels,pieces of watermelon,apples, 3 different kind of traps, I literally have a trap, every where I have seen them. I prefer the Have a Heart traps to catch them, but now I don't care I just need them gone...anyone have any ideas.....