Dog and Kitty safe mouse killer?

[pinkpony321]

Other than the dogs and kitties themselves?? :lol:

The mice are driving me nuts this year!! Apparently, I’ve got smart ones, as the traps i’ve put out (of all varieties) are coming up empty, but there is always evidence of the little buggars climbing all over everything. :mad:
I’d like to put out poisons and stuff, but one dog and of course the barn cats are known to consume mice at every opportunity. I don’t want one of the pets eating a poisoned mouse and getting sick themselves.
Are there any rat/mouse poisons out there that won’t hurt my house critters?
TIA!

[Belg]

I like the ratzapper. Couple peices of dog or cat food and 4 D batteries. Get the full sized rat model, not the little mouse model

this one: http://www.ratmousezapper.com/_inv/ultra-rat-zapper.html

[hoopoe]

in short, no poison is safe. Most not only kill outright, but the carcus has potential to spread poison to the secondary preditor, often raptors ( birds) and small mammals. This you know and it cannot be repeated often enough

traps of all kinds are the best way to go
rodent proof the foundations
sanitation sanitation sanitation. If you have a public / boarding barn, others need to be on top of this as well. No treats in lockers unless in a metal container.

You can sometimes find help via your county on where rodents are getting in and what can be done to help with that.

[farmtoursofocala]

There is an electronic mouse/rat killer that looks like a little mailbox. The VICTOR M240. The rodents go in after your bait (peanut butter, etc) inside and get electrocuted. The Amazon reviews are quite entertaining! I cant wait to get mine! They recommend that you keep the thing off for a couple days and "feed" the rodents. Then turn the sucker on. I borrowed one once. Loved it. No gagging, just dump in the garbage without seeing it. Plus its a more humane kill.

[Liberty]

[QUOTE=Belg;6666859]
I like the ratzapper. Couple peices of dog or cat food and 4 D batteries. Get the full sized rat model, not the little mouse model

this one: http://www.ratmousezapper.com/_inv/ultra-rat-zapper.html[/QUOTE]

I second the Rat Zapper. BEST trap ever. Mine has done the job with a rat in my barn, even though it’s not quite as large as the one in the pic above (and uses 4 AA batteries). The bait I use that never fails are the Dumor Horse Treats (oatmeal, honey & raisin flavor) from TSC. I just break the treat into 3 pieces, and drop two in the trap. Easy, clean, and no mess. No toxic dead bodies, so I can just put them out along my back pasture fenceline, and they’re scavenged (gone) by the next day.

[Liberty]

[QUOTE=farmtoursofocala;6666958]
There is an electronic mouse/rat killer that looks like a little mailbox. The VICTOR M240…[/QUOTE]

I hope yours works better than the Victor M250 I purchased at Tractor Supply. I couldn’t catch a thing with it. That’s when I went with a Rat Zapper (bought it off Amazon). Good luck!

[SuckerForHorses]

I’m ordering one of these ASAP!

We have the same problem…they aren’t even trying to eat the Peanut butter off the snap traps. I caught three mice with glue boards, but now they aren’t catching anything but I still have poop on my counters almost every day. And the glue boards are strategically placed at the ends/edges of my counters where I have SEEN the mice come up, and they are now somehow getting around them.

I HATE MICE!

[CC1]

The rat zappers are not large enough for a cat to get into are they?

I certainly do not want to poison my barn cats but I don’t want to electrocute them either!

[cowboymom]

I don’t use poison but I know some people do with no problems with their cats/dogs. I worked with a vet once that said there wasn’t enough poison in a dead poisoned mouse to harm a cat or dog. I’m not telling you one way or another, just presenting a possibility.

http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/secondarypoison.htm

[kookicat]

[QUOTE=Belg;6666859]
I like the ratzapper. Couple peices of dog or cat food and 4 D batteries. Get the full sized rat model, not the little mouse model

this one: http://www.ratmousezapper.com/_inv/ultra-rat-zapper.html[/QUOTE]

Yep, these work really well if you know where to put them.

[Whitfield_Farm_Hanov]

One of my JR’s ate a very small dead mouse that had been dead for a while & later that night she started vomiting blood & having bloody diarrhea. Prayer, I can’t think of anything else, saved her. Of course the vet had something to do with it too! No poision for me here EVER.

[MeghanDACVA]

[QUOTE=Whitfield Farm Hanoverians;6671075]
One of my JR’s ate a very small dead mouse that had been dead for a while & later that night she started vomiting blood & having bloody diarrhea. Prayer, I can’t think of anything else, saved her. Of course the vet had something to do with it too! No poision for me here EVER.[/QUOTE]

The anticoagulant baits, at least the modern ones, don’t work that fast. You are looking at DAYS, maybe even a week, for you to see any signs of bleeding. So don’t blame the tiny bit of rodenticide in the tiny dead mouse for the hemorhagic gastroentritis (HGE) your dog developed from eating a very rotten carcass. It got what I call “dead critter diease”. Doesn’t matter what it died of.

I use a lot of sticky traps but you do have to be smarter than the mice, and that can be a challenge. And this last batch of mice I had took forever to die on them. I wound up euthanizing most of them (I have that luxary). I have used baits before but make sure they are placed in tamper proof containers. And be sure the bait is one that is an anticoagulant, ie that Vit K is the antidote!! If you use one that is a neurotoxin or is cholecalciferol, etc, they are much harder to treat if the dog or cat where to get into it. Bromethelalin, the neurotoxin, is usually fatal by the time an owner realizes the pet has gotten into the bait. Not a problem if the dog/cat eats the dead mouse but definitely a problem if it eats the bait.

I have heard good things about the zapper things too. I have 2 of the ultrasonic repellers in my tack room right now and that seems to be keeping them out of there now that I got rid of the infestation I had.

[alternate_universe]

Anyone ever hear of or try bubble gum? I recall hearing a few years ago that rats would eat bubble gum and that it would kill them. Sounds very close to a wive’s tale though. But if it really does work, bubble gum isn’t poison…

[ReRustica]

Mice are driving me insane too…I am getting sick of bleaching my counters every day. I am using traps but as soon as I kill 2, 2 more move in. Landlord not interested in plugging holes (there are a lot of them and they aren’t easily accessible). What about those plug-in sonic things? Has anyone used those successfully?

[2DogsFarm]

[QUOTE=MeghanDACVA;6671441]
Bromethelalin, the neurotoxin, is usually fatal by the time an owner realizes the pet has gotten into the bait. Not a problem if the dog/cat eats the dead mouse but definitely a problem if it eats the bait. [/QUOTE]

Bold is mine - please explain for science-challenged Me how that works.
I used a neurotoxin bait in my chicken coop when my hens were freerange and not at all interested in their rodentiferous houseguests. It worked wonderfully, aside from the Eau De Dead Rat that lingered for a week or so.

I know it was a neurotoxin because the next day after I put out the bait packs, I had the “pleasure” of watching a young rat die in an obviously neuro-toxified manner. I put that carcass in my trash.
Now that my hens are kept in their fenced yard (fox) I’m afraid they might go for a dead/neuro-poisoned rat from boredom.

It is getting cold here and the rats have taken refuge n my coop again.
The little bast***s are bold enough to poke their noses out when they hear me filling the feeder :mad:
They need to G-O, but I do not want to trade a dead hen for a dead rat.

[Grataan]

There was an absolutely EPIC thread involving the Rat Zapper (even had an honorable mention of Gene Simmons IIRC) here. Someone not on an iPhone should search it.

[CZFLGator]

New safe rat bait on the market

I know this is an old thread but having rodents in barns is an ongoing problem. I have been looking for a safe way to kill rats that is relatively humane. Used to use cholecalciferol (vit D3) until I heard about the possible side effects, although my dog ate 2 packets once with no problems at all, still too chicken to use anymore. Then I tried the various forms of electronic rat traps, which are great WHILE THEY WORK. Unfortunately, they stop working properly in about 5 to 6 weeks. Victor will replace them free for a year: I have been through 5 replacements (both the silver and blue ones). One night recently I was out at the barn and heard buzzing from the trap, which it does when dirt or debris gets between the metal plates, shorting them out. I smelled something burning and thought some hay got in there; upended the trap to dump it out. There was a small rat in there, stunned, not dead, with its fur burning. I had to kill it by hitting it with the trap. No more for me. That is definitely NOT humane. I have been trying the plaster of Paris mixed half and half with rolled oats but it’s too early to tell if it works. Today I read about a new totally safe rat bait that has just been approved by EPA that is made from corn gluten and other cereal products that interrupts their digestive process. It’s called RatX, made by Ecoclear. They have it at Home Depot, Walmart, Ace Hardware, Sears, and Amazon. I am going to give it a try, although it has mixed reviews. It takes several days to kill them and apparently they go into their burrows and dehydrate. It’s about 20 bucks for a pound, around 30 for 3 lbs. Takes about 2 oz. per rat.

[csaper58]

Google 5 gallon bucket rat trap. They are cheap and easy to make, and pet safe.

[sarafina]

[QUOTE=csaper58;8893805]
Google 5 gallon bucket rat trap. They are cheap and easy to make, and pet safe.[/QUOTE]

This. We use these on our farm, and fill them with either water (where pets may be) or antifreeze (if they will be in a pet/child free zone for awhile and we don’t want the contents to stink)

We call it the Yooper mouse trap. Works like a charm. Oh, and use Nutella. Works much better than peanut butter.

[moving_to_dc]

I just set out RatX today - it is basically corn gluten meal (and salt) pellets, no chemicals in the ingredients.

I will try to remember to post an update.