Or a Jack Russell. (For a change of pace, mine got a squirrel and a pigeon this week.)
My dad has great luck with the bucket trap- he set one up in my Grandmother’s 1835 Cape house when we were visiting and caught 10-20 in one night. For bigger things, I’ve heard that the zapper traps are humane and effective.
I will repeat- have this discussion with wildlife rehabers. They disagree. The studies on done a certain amount of the poison and doesn’t take into account raptors eating large numbers of the poisoned rodents. They dont eat just one. If I google it states a reduced risk of secondary poisoning, not no risk.
And these people have apparently not published their thoughts in any sort of paper, or even posted about it on their sites anywhere on the internet??
The lethal dose of cholecalciferol is very different for a rat than a bird, and cholecalciferol doesn’t persist in a bird for very long.
It’s tough to take you seriously when all you can say is “talk to a rehabber” but can’t point to a single thing actually backing up your derision of this particular pesticide. There is so much information shared so broadly…but not this? Even if rehabbers are reporting this (somewhere…) how are they certain that any harm is due to cholecalciferol? And that it’s secondary poisoning? Are they testing the birds they find dead?
If this is happening, I’d really like to read about it. As I’ve said, we have a hefty population of very cool birds of prey around here, along with other wildlife, and I’m very cognizant of the harm that can come. But there’s just nada out there to support what you’re saying…
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We have field mice that come into the barn every fall and use these https://www.idealtruevalue.com/store…RoCtOIQAvD_BwE
they work really, really well. And yes, I do release the field mice and they are gone until next fall. Is it the same mouse every year? Possibly :lol: The rats however are too smart for live traps and so they get the old fashioned snap traps. I have no mercy on rats.
If you can’t get a bunch of garden snakes or any more cats, the next best thing is an electric rat zapper.
A good bait for mice on snap traps is a drop of Hershey’s chocolate syrup. They love it and can’t take it away with them.
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I read thru this thread the other day … figured I’d come back in here for an update. On the day I read it, I was going to post about how I’d always had good luck with live traps. They are sort of like a very short shoebox, and allow the mouse to go in either end, but can’t get back out. Load up with peanut butter, and poof you have a mouse. Or two or three. Then my preferred method of “disposal” was to put the whole thing into a bucket of water. Not thrilled about drowning them, but it got the job done. This has been my method for years of owning houses and having cats (now a dog too) and wanting to make sure they don’t get harmed by a snap trap.
So now this year I have a barn to look after and the litle bleepity bleep bleepers were getting into my horse food. I hate to toss out what started out as a perfectly good bag of food, but when a mouse got inside it and was apparently living the good life of pooping and peeing in it, and making trails inside the bag from top to bottom, I figured it’s gotta be thrown out.
I have one dog and one outdoor cat, but the barn is not set up to allow the cat to come and go, no cat door, and no door I feel comfortable leaving open regularly. So for the last few months I’ve been letting the cat and/or dog have sessions of 1-2 hours in there at a time, and both seemed eager to catch the little bleepity bleep bleepers.
Finally last week, I broke down and got snap traps. I wasn’t sure if the cat or dog were making any headway, and as long as I could keep them safely locked OUT of the barn so they wouldn’t get hurt, then it was time. Bought 8 snap traps and a jar of peanut butter.
Got 8 the first night. Then 4 more in the morning between breakfast and lunch. Then it’s been a steady stream since of 2-4 each time I go out to check on them. I’m up to 33 of the bleepity bleep bleeps in three nights and two days. I’ve also been leaving the live traps out, and 2 of the 33 were from the live traps, but otherwise snap traps totally get my vote now!!!
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I had good success in my house with the electrocution box traps. You put peanut butter on the wall of the trap and when they walk in to get it they step on pads and are electrocuted. This combined with cats got rid of the mice in my house when I moved in. Also, for rats in snap traps, try a bit of ham gristle. They cannot resist ham.
I’m on the tail end of the usual fall mouse problem, although this time I think I’ve finally really found how the little #$^@ers are getting in and life may be better.
I’ve had decent luck with old-school snap traps, but somebody recommended “The Better Mousetrap” to me (in hardware stores everywhere, not too expensive) and I dubiously gave them a shot last winter. They’re fantastic. Just about no stolen bait, they’re made to last, they’re super-easy to set, and I think they’ve eliminated our indoor mice, which old-school snap traps never quite managed and I didn’t think was possible. (I’m in a forest next to a swamp, so there’s no shortage of white-footed mice who would be happy to be roomates.)
