# I have mice! And the dogs think they are treats. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 12, 2011, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858 "2011-12-12T00:31:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/1 "2011-12-12T00:31:47Z")
At this very moment, the Rottweiler and the terrier mix are circling the loveseat; I’m pretty sure there’s a mouse under there. Last night the terrier pounced and caught a mouse, killing it quickly. Then before I could react appropriately, the Rottweiler ate it. :eek: The terrier is circling and growling now; the Rottweiler is waiting on alert for her to do her job. Last week, the terrier pranced into the kitchen proudly holding a dead mouse. (I took it away from her before anyone could eat it.) A couple of weeks ago, I got my winter boots out of the closet - and one was nibbled and scattered with mouse poops. Ugh. I’m sort of urban, but with fields a block away and part of my property is overgrown woods; now that it’s getting cold and freezy the mice are moving inside. Sadly, my old hunter-cat passed away this summer, so I have no indoor cats to keep the mices away now. Time for another [Rat Zapper 2000.](http://www.ratmousezapper.com/?gclid=COaz2LSe-6wCFYTsKgodpG62TQ) It’s been years since I’ve had a mouse problem, and electronic traps are humane (or as humane as you can get when killing things), clean and safe. Mouse goes in one end thinking happy thoughts about food (the trap is baited with cat food or peanut butter) and is killed instantly when it touches the electrified metal plate. Light blinks red, tip with trap over the trash can and slide the door open, you don’t even have to look at the dead mousie), press button to reset and put the trap back. Update - I just moved the loveseat and saw no mouse. The terrier does not lie - there _was_ a mouse there but it went under the baseboard and is now lurking in my wall somewhere, the little fucker. ---
**Author:** ![Feyrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/fbc32d/32.png) [@Feyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feyrat)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/2 "2011-12-12T01:14:15Z")
Yeah, you might want to bring your dogs in for a dose of wormer if they’re eating wild mice. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/3 "2011-12-12T01:24:59Z")
Last night, there was a tiny lizard in one of the wastebaskets. The wastebasket is a very fine wire mesh, we use it to hold stuff to be shredded. The cats were absolutely fascinated by the lizard, and wanted it to come out of the basket to play. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/4 "2011-12-12T01:31:17Z")
> [@Feyrat](#): > > Yeah, you might want to bring your dogs in for a dose of wormer if they’re eating wild mice. Yah, my first thought! General deworming, not a big deal. Tapeworms, ick, gross, yuck, and a separate med besides. I’ll be watching the Rottweiler’s butt, or maybe picking up a prophylactic scrip for Droncit just in case. Lynn, my terrier mix wants to live somewhere with lizards. Mice are hard to catch and bugs aren’t that tasty. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/5 "2011-12-12T01:37:09Z")
We ALWAYS had lizards in the house in Las Vegas. They were the kind with the breakaway tails, which my cats found fascinating. There were a lot of rabbits and/or hares (I don’t really remember which they were) which one cat just loved. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/6 "2011-12-12T02:27:32Z")
At least one of your dogs eats the mice. Hudson just steps on them until they stop moving, then wanders off to do something else. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/7 "2011-12-12T03:42:46Z")
One of my former cats would catch tiny mice and leave them in my shoes. Though that cat (and the mice) are long gone, I still shake out my shoes before putting them on. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/8 "2011-12-12T04:21:02Z")
**chiroptera** , your dogs are needed [at a storage facility in AZ](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14259812&postcount=2125), stat! After all, if they’re having fun with mice, they’ll just go CRAZY over the rats. ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/9 "2011-12-12T06:48:45Z")
> [@Sierra\_Indigo](#): > > At least one of your dogs eats the mice. Hudson just steps on them until they stop moving, then wanders off to do something else. One of my dogs does that. The other one throws the at walls. Dazed, brain damaged mice. Then she wanders off, too. ---
**Author:** ![BeaMyra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@BeaMyra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeaMyra)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/10 "2011-12-12T08:38:08Z")
Are they house mice or field mice coming into your home? A field mouse is pretty easy to catch with traps, but house mice are so clever, they know how to avoid all the traps. Glue traps or poison are about the only thing I found that work to catch a house mouse, and they learn to avoid glue traps pretty fast. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/11 "2011-12-12T12:02:39Z")
[House mice](http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Mus_musculus.html). Which often live outside during warm months, but move inside when it starts getting cold. I can’t use poison because the dogs (and outdoor cats) might eat them and get sick or dead. And I find glue traps unecessarily cruel. The rat zapper I used 8 years ago when I had a similar infestation was really effective; when my mice were all gone I gave it to a friend. I’ll buy another this week. Last night’s toll - another mouse. Not eaten, lying dead on the living room floor. I heard the terrier getting active and barking sometime in the wee hours, she was on the job. **Morgyn** , I don’t know that I’d want to pit the terrier against rats! I’ve pondered hiring her out for goose control though (there are actually people who train dogs for this.) A nearby lake beach is a staging area for Canada geese gathering for the flight south. There are hundreds and hundreds of them. I take the terrier there sometimes early in the morning when nobody’s about and she’ll herd maybe 500 geese from the beach into the water in a couple of minutes. She’s a cross between an Australian cattle dog and Jack Russell terrier, so she’s either going to kill things or herd them. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/12 "2011-12-12T12:24:30Z")
> [@BeaMyra](#): > > Glue traps or poison are about the only thing I found that work to catch a house mouse, and they learn to avoid glue traps pretty fast. If the dogs are eating the mice she can’t use poison. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/13 "2011-12-12T12:26:58Z")
> [@chiroptera](#): > > **Morgyn** , I don’t know that I’d want to pit the terrier against rats! At least some of the terriers were bred to hunt and kill rats. Doesn’t mean your particular terrier would be up to the job, but they are surprisingly vicious and deadly for their size (and complete sweeties towards their humans). ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/14 "2011-12-12T12:40:47Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > At least some of the terriers were bred to hunt and kill rats. Doesn’t mean your particular terrier would be up to the job, but they are surprisingly vicious and deadly for their size (and complete sweeties towards their humans). Absolutely, and she is a very quick and vicious dog\* (and at 25 lbs since she’s a cross-breed, large for a ratter) but I don’t really want her to get bitten by a rat, either. With mice, the worst that she’ll get is tapeworms - at my last house she killed lots of mice outside, at least one squirrel, and a possum. And got tapeworms twice, which is just icky. (Regular wormers don’t handle tapeworms, that requires a separate prescription wormer.) \*[Quick](https://picasaweb.google.com/100939988229793064247/JumpingDogs#5645496269226772450) and vicious with vermin, absolutely [sweet and gentle](https://picasaweb.google.com/100939988229793064247/RenFest#5654777380645486514)with people. ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/15 "2011-12-12T12:42:10Z")
The mouse breeder kid in me is inconsolable, and crying “Catch them! Save them!” The dog lover I am is thinking what a fun killing time they must be having. The adult home owner in me is weighing up the best, least gorey eradication methods. I’m so torn. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/16 "2011-12-12T12:50:20Z")
> [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](#): > > The mouse breeder kid in me is inconsolable, and crying “Catch them! Save them!” > > The dog lover I am is thinking what a fun killing time they must be having. > > The adult home owner in me is weighing up the best, least gorey eradication methods. > > I’m so torn. I know, right? I’ve never been a mouse breeder, but I don’t want them to suffer unecessarily. Unlike cats, the dog at least dispatches them very quickly. Pounce, snatch, bite, shake, done. The time before, I got a live trap. Then found out that trapping and relocating was both ineffective and cruel. Mice are apparently territorial, and being dumped in unfamiliar territory means the mouse will probably starve. Or end up in someone else’s house. So I tossed the live trap. ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/17 "2011-12-12T13:09:29Z")
They are territorial **chiroptera** , and they can also be relocated; but it takes more effort than most people are willing to give to a mouse. The ones that fight capture most aggressively are more often than not, females with a nest of pinkies to return to. So to capture and release them is inadvertently a terribly cruel thing when the intention is so kind. But it is possible to relocate the entire family in a way that would have Beatrix Potter reanimate and write happy, happy stories. (Oh Mrs Tittlemouse!) ---
**Author:** ![leftfield6](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leftfield6/32/18780_2.png) [@leftfield6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leftfield6)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/18 "2011-12-12T15:54:06Z")
We have two dogs. a Labrador who can catch a Frisbee, but not much else. And a fierce, could survive in the wild, killer-instinct, fast as hell, fearless killer…cockapoo. Seriously. Lucy our 13 pound cockapoo has caught/killed at least 8-10 mice (in our yard), a mourning dove, multiple chipmunks, and a squirrel. She races out of the house, pounces on something, gives it the back breaking shake, and then drops it. She is ruthless. Want to borrow her? ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/19 "2011-12-12T16:59:00Z")
Having raised quite a few Siberian Huskies, my first thought is “Aw, let 'em have a mouse!” But the worming thing is quite true. I managed to eradicate a house mouse problem which had bested the professional exterminators with a few $3 plastic traps. [Like these](http://www.victorpest.com/store/rodent-control/m007) A little peanut butter on a cracker, followed by a few trips down to the railroad byway (they won’t bother anybody and should make a fairly good living there.) It was over pretty quick, and Celtling learned a good lesson from it. Just don’t use the glue traps. You can’t free them, and there’s no convenient way I’ve found to kill them humanely once they’re stuck. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858/20 "2011-12-12T17:27:15Z")
I’ve been using a catch-and-release trap. I take them about 2 miles down the road and let them out in a field. I was catching about 1 (rarely 2) per day for about 10 days but now haven’t had anything in the trap for over a week. I’m baiting with peanut butter and dog kibble. My dogs don’t seem to care about mice (although they hunt for rats in the barn and rabbits in the fields) and the cats woulld only care if the mice were going for their catfood. StG [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-mice-and-the-dogs-think-they-are-treats/605858.md?page=2)