I’ve trapped lots of mice in dog food bags (the large 50# kind) and garbage cans (again, the large 33gal size). You need to leave the top open to give them access, and make sure whatever is only half-full at most, so they can’t jump back out.
You’ll need to check it at least once daily, or they’ll eventually chew their way out.
I used a grabber-stick (one with multiple prongs) and nabbed 'em by the tails to remove them. Final disposition is up to you.
Also, check the couch thoroughly. They may be nesting in there, in which case you could just move them out entirely along with the sofa.
At first I eschewed glue traps also, but got some after the little bastards ate my inner tubes and crapped in my cycling gear. :mad:
For any trap, put them along the edge of the wall, and any place you can imagine mice might run; don’t just bait them and stick them away.
As for bait, as emilyforce noted, my mice loved chocolate. Didn’t touch any of the granola bars I had in my biking kit. They left me a little pile of tinfoil where they’d grabbed creme easter eggs and run away to devour them, and ate all the chocolate coating off a box full of chocolate peanut wafers.
This is not true. I currently have a rat (was meant for snake food) who escaped who is living in my garage on potato flakes.
I had mice once who were eating from the coffee can of congealed grease, mostly from bacon, that I kept under the sink. I kept it to add to it, rather than throwing it out mostly empty - you know, recycle and all that, but I didn’t cook all that often. The mice had chewed a hole through the lid and made quite the dent in the half full can. When I caught them (in a snap trap after throwing out their grease), they were the fattest things you ever saw! My dad used to get mice in his workshop and he swore they liked salami best. Either way, I think high fat is the way to go for trap bait, but it also has to be the only source of food around. You do need to clean up to remove other sources first as others suggested.
Reason #I-lost-count for the SO to trash his couch and chairs. Although I havent seen any tracks lately, doesnt mean they arent there somewhere… cant wait to get a cat or three! Or a dozen.
I had to do the same thing a couple years ago. The dog kept tearing the shit out of the couch because he was trying to get the mice that were nesting in it. The bag of birdseed and new work gloves I had forgotten in the pantry was turned into half a bag of feces.
I did what everyone here has said so far about gettign rid of the sofa, storing all my food, includeng dog food & birdseed, in sealable plastic containers & glass jars, then set spring traps baited with peanut butter and glue traps in their runs. I put the dog’s bowl on top of a 5-gallon plastic bucket high enough that he can reach it but the mice can’t jump into it. 3 weeks later, no more mice.
Speaking of good improvised mouse traps, a 5-gallon plastic bucket with a little bacon grease dribbled in the bottom of it and some sticks leaning from the floor next to it up to the rim. Mice smell the bacon grease, climb the stick to the top of the bucket, jump inside but can’t jump back out. I’ve caught 5 a night with this.
Yeah, I already checked the couch. Found that they’d gone inside, but weren’t actually nesting in there. The inside was empty, and feces-less. I patched up the hole they’d made.
I am so very allergic to cats, that even thinking about having some fur around is making me start to itch.
thanks for the tips everyone. I’m gonna try some chocolate, probably Milky Ways (and hey, if it doesn’t work, I’ll still have a bag of Milky Ways, so win-win.) And I may try the soda-bottle traps. I’m just not sure how far I’ll have to take them to find a release site that won’t send them right back here. (or to some neighbor’s house, which I would feel bad about.).
Yeah, I already checked the couch. Found that they’d gone inside, but weren’t actually nesting in there. The inside was empty, and feces-less. I patched up the hole they’d made.
I am so very allergic to cats, that even thinking about having some fur around is making me start to itch.
thanks for the tips everyone. I’m gonna try some chocolate, probably Milky Ways (and hey, if it doesn’t work, I’ll still have a bag of Milky Ways, so win-win.) And I may try the soda-bottle traps. I’m just not sure how far I’ll have to take them to find a release site that won’t send them right back here. (or to some neighbor’s house, which I would feel bad about.).