But they won’t get to the store until Thursday. I’ve used them before, very effective and the most humane kill I can think of.
This morning when I walked into the bathroom a mouse was in the bathtub and scampered down the drain. :eek:
What I did was put a cardboard box in the tub so the little fucker could climb out…but I have no way of knowing whether it has, in fact, exited the drain. And, I don’t want to take a shower and end up with a dead, rotting wet mouse blocking the plumbing.
This is gross - right now my house is the cleanest it’s ever been, every speck of mouse-edible food is in the freezer, fridge or (cat and bird food) out in my van. Yesterday I scrubbed all the floors and used dilute bleach as a final rinse on everything.
I’m off to Home Depot to pick up some snap traps so I can bait one and set it in the tub, just in case. Does this sound like a good plan? Does anyone know if it’s feasible that the mouse could happily hang out inside my plumbing for a long time? This is the second time in a week that I’ve found a mouse in the tub - I don’t have a colony of them living in the plumbing, do I? (Sorry if that’s an ignorant question WRT to plumbing anatomy; google isn’t helping much here.) I am very squicked out at the idea of drowned mice in the crawl-space pipes.
I would have run lots of water, to flush it down the drain, so at least it wouldn’t die in the trap. Chances are, though, it just swims through the trap water.
I wonder if it would help to fill all your tubs and sinks with water, then open all the drains and flush all your toilets at once, to flush them out of your house and into the sewers? Maybe start at the top floor, and leave those faucets running, then continue down to lower floors.
I’d imagine once it cleared the 1.5" plumbing and made it to the 3" plumbing it wouldn’t present a problem.
As for snap traps, I can hardily endorse these. Also, I’ve found that putting peanut butter in the bait cup doesn’t work as the mice can get it out without tripping it. I learned, from an Orkin guy, to use a Milky Way. Break off a piece and wedge it in there. That way they really have to work to get it out. Anytime I see a mouse in my (attached) garage I set this, with a chunk of Milky Way and I normally hear it snap within minutes. Then I just empty into the garbage and move on. If you’re squeemish about it (as I thought I was going to be), attach a length of string to it, then when it goes off, you can just pick it up by the string and take it out to the garbage. That’s what I did at first, but then I didn’t feel like tossing a $5.00 trap and it wasn’t really all that gross to just open the trap into the garbage (also, I bought it because I thought I had giant rats, but that turned out to be a opossum).
Yes, these traps work well. I learned that last winter when there were rats in my apartment that my landlord wasn’t dealing with. (I am so very glad I moved this past summer). Unlike Joey, I threw them out. There was no way I was cleaning them and reusing them. (also, now I’m almost twitching at remembering the horror of last winter’s rat problem).
Also, remember that since rats can get through an opening the size of a quarter(!), I assume mice can get in through a much smaller hole, so there’s little chance of it getting stuck in the pipe.
Also, I specifically meant to mention that I do use the rat traps to catch mice. I bought them because I thought I had a rat problem and then I started catching mice in them, one after another. Luckily, this has all been contained to my garage, nothing has ever made it to the house.
The rat traps do a much better job, IMO, then the mouse traps. With the mouse traps, I’d find them dragged around the garage (with the mouse in them). The rat traps, because of how strong they are, kill much faster. I swear that thing will break a (human) foot. In fact, I set it by stepping on it. Also, because of it’s size, you’re a bit more distanced from the business end, so emptying it is a bit less squicky.
Whatever you do, don’t drop fireworks down the drain & cover with a pot!!! Anyone in the next apartment sitting on the commode would be in for a rude surprise.
Not to mention the mouse.
Arrrrrrgh…!Thhhhhuuuck “…This isn’t the kitchen…” :eek:
Joey - I got the mouse version of those traps. Hopefully the work, they seem quite grippy.
Yeah I thought about turning on all the faucets and letting them run for a while…but the idea of one (or more)dead mice getting stuck in a pipe didn’t really appeal. They are clever little things, and can squeeze through a quarter-inch gap.
However, I think it got out of the tub. Before I left I put a cookie crumb by the drain hole and it’s still there. Nevertheless I put on baited trap in the tub, and another along the wall in the closet where the water heater is - it’s on a pan but there’s enough space around where the pipes come up from under the house for mouse ingress, I guess.
I’m hoping there’s no blood involved with these traps…
That’s small beer. Gasoline and a match – or, a blowtorch with a long fire-hole-tube.
ETA more seriously (actually, I was being serious above) – why not some caustic, some acid or something? Probably not good for glass but you can’t have a rotting carcass down there forever.
I have some hand made olive oil and goats milk scented soap in the bathroom, guess that’s attracted them.
One mouse caught already, by the way. Quite dead in the trap. Under the hot water heater. No blood. Now I have to go release its little body into the trash. Ewwww.
rat traps may not be triggered by a mouse, the pressure needed to spring them is much greater, also the trap bar might totally miss the mouse except maybe its tail. rat traps are also a greater hazard to humans if not needed.
use crunchy peanut butter to bait a mouse trap wedging a chunk under the hook/point on the bait platform. apple chunk also works. peanut butter is good because it is stinky and a normal food (grains and nuts with fat not processed foods).
one mouse trap type i’ve seen recently i was initially skeptical of, it has a large plastic bait trigger that looks very cheesy (very punny). the bait trigger has holes in it which smooth peanut butter can be pushed into, this means the mouse will likely set the trigger.
trap placement near entrances and along walls or large barriers is important, mice don’t like being out in the open.
We’ve got mice in the house. We found evidence in our cellar, which is poured concrete on six sides and only 4 possible points of entry…the door which I have sealed due to cold drafts, the vent which is covered with wire mesh, the sump hose exit which is stuffed with steel wool and the weeping tile drain into the sump. I figure they’ve come through the drain and up into the cellar. I got a couple of wire snap traps and baited them with a smear of peanut butter. I caught 2 that night, and never saw any more evidence of more. I figured there would be more, but haven’t found or caught any since them.
A couple of nights ago, one of our cats was insisting that she NEEDED to check out the linen closet. Since she’s a hard headed Siamese, she can raise an incredible ruckus if she sets her mind to it, so eventually my husband let her in there. Moments later, we heard a “SQUEAK”. After a few minutes, Sapphire emerged from the closet, looking even more smug than usual. We checked the closet. No blood, no mouse, no rat. Either Sapphire scared off the mouse, or she ate it.
I may not have the “infestation” I suspected - perhaps just a few very active mice?
I caught four last night - the mouse version of the trap Joey P linked to is quite effective, pretty much instant kill and no gore. Thankfully. The two traps are still set and baited in the same locations but nothing since last night.
Only bad thing about these spring-type traps is I don’t imagine they’re really safe around dogs or cats. Won’t kill a larger animal of course but I imagine an inquisitive nose or paw squashed in the jaws would be quite painful!
So can a terrier and a Rottweiler. About one second, for the Rottweiler, actually. Mostly the terrier cross has been the mouse-catcher but the Rottie was quick enough to catch one a couple of nights ago.
When my hunter-cat was still alive (sniff RIP) I actually watched in horrified fascination once as he tired of playing with a mouse and ate it. While it was still alive and frantically kicking. Poor wee thing. The cats never got tapeworms from eating mice - perhaps since they’re wired for eating vermin, they’re more resistant - but the terrier has gotten them twice. Grosser than mice in the house, tapeworms are.
On an early episode of Dirty Jobs, Mike went down with a crew that cleans the crust of cooking fat off the insides of the sewer. A mouse jumped on his crotch. It was in Dirty Jobs promos for years.