Mice

[Ron Citerone]

My Father in Law's 4 car garage/barn has a serious mouse problem. I was reading reviews of the next generation of mouse poison and many said they don't work. Is there any brands people have had good luck with? I know the building is not sealed in many places, but I need to knock them back a little. Droppings all over the place...............even in my lumber pile!!!

Thanks, Ron

[Doug Garson]

If I were you I'd look into some of the ultrasonic pest repellent systems to keep them out of the garage. If the building is not sealed you may be trying to kill every mouse in the neighbourhood. I've had them in my garage for years and often work with the door open and haven't had any sign of mice for years.

[Ted Calver]

I don't like poison because it can affect other animals/birds in the food chain. Better to try one of the bucket traps or some other mechanical device. I've been experimenting with an electric one but haven't had any takers yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SIlYiiCGLI

[Myk Rian]

Regular spring type mouse traps, with no bait. Seriously. You don't need peanut butter or any other treat they like.
Set the trap, and put the paddle end up against a wall. Since mice are wall runners, they just go right over it. Snap.
Also works for rat traps.

[Jerry Bruette]

I tried the ultrasonic repellents and they worked for a while then the mice came back. The bucket traps, baited with peanut butter, worked very well but you have to stay on top of them and keep them emptied or they get nasty real fast. I'm currently using Tomcat bar bait in a PVC bait station. You can Google PVC bait station to see how to build one for a couple dollars. If you choose bar bait use it responsibly. Only use it in a station that your neighbors or your pets can't get into, and they should be child resistant also.

Oh yeah, I tried using D-con bait pellets and found that the mice just carried it away to stash it somewhere else and found green colored droppings. Quit using it and went to bar bait. They can't carry it away and haven't found any droppings anywhere.

Another tip. Place the bait stations outside of the building, no sense inviting them in. Keep it outside and the mice stay outside with the bait.

[Tom M King]

The best mouse trap I've found is a tall, kitchen plastic trash can. Put a small variety of good smelling food in the bottom, and leave it beside something they can climb on. They go in, but can't climb out. It needs to be cleaned out good before the next use.

[Ed Labadie]

I use the poison blocks that have a hole thru them, screw it to the wall....no take-out orders here...

Ed

[Aaron Rosenthal]

I have them in my basement.
Victor electrical traps with 4 batteries, and a black cat.

[John K Jordan]

Can you borrow some cats for a while? Mice like to move inside when the weather gets cold. Eliminating food supplies inside can help too, things such as birdseed.

We have two in-and-out house cats that often catch rabbits and chipmunks - mice in the garage don't have much of a chance. I put a cat access door in the wall between the laundry room and the garage, the type often used to the outside.

Three barn cats outside are pretty good at keeping the general mouse population down around the house and barn.

JKJ

[Peter Kelly]

They'll kill all the songbirds around you while they're at it.

Spend a day sealing up all of the potential points of entry to the building and trap the ones remaining inside afterwards. I'd had a serious mouse problem at the house Upstate for some time prior to doing this. Mouse-free for almost 2 months now.

[Jim Becker]

There are some things that professionals have available that do the job with less risk to the immediate food chain, but they shouldn't really be employed unless it is a last resort. (We unfortunately had to do that recently when for the first time in over 20 years, we discovered not just mice, but some rats that came out of nowhere and we couldn't risk the danger to our parrots...the rodents will attack them) There is a product available at the 'borg that you can try first called Mouse-X/Rat-X which is a corn gluten meal based, non-chemical product. It swells in their intestinal tract and subsequently interferes with them continuing to live. We also have good success with the electric traps.

[John K Jordan]

They'll kill all the songbirds around you while they're at it.

Spend a day sealing up all of the potential points of entry to the building and trap the ones remaining inside afterwards. I'd had a serious mouse problem at the house Upstate for some time prior to doing this. Mouse-free for almost 2 months now.

Maybe, maybe not. My best hunter can catches mice, moles, small rabbits, chipmunks, and an occasional squirrel. He tries, but is rare for him to catch a bird, one I remember in the last several years and it was a carolina wren.

Some cats are different. When I was a teenager our cat brought in full sized rabbits, crows, and once a large ring-necked pheasant. That cat caught a lot of birds. About 20 years ago I had a cat that was a champion squirrel catcher - I found eight partially decomposed squirrels in a window well where he dropped them through a grate. I never saw him with a bird or other catch.

For traps, I like the little plastic live traps (baited with peanut butter) instead of the snappers, just one reason is there were sometimes small children around. I euthanize the mice with a shot of nitrogen in a container. I have far more problems here with raccoons, skunks, and groundhogs.

Speaking of peanut butter, that and a single electric fence wire will solve the deer-in-the-garden problem too.

JKJ

[Jim Koepke]

I don't like poison because it can affect other animals/birds in the food chain. Better to try one of the bucket traps or some other mechanical device. I've been experimenting with an electric one but haven't had any takers yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SIlYiiCGLI

If you have cats that hunt mice, then the poison should be avoided.

The bucket roller looks good, but it seems some of the mice might be wise to it.

jtk

[Lee Schierer]

I've had good success with the Tomcat bait and their traps. I also use regular old spring traps baited with peanut butter in the house. To make the traps more effective tie a bit of cloth to the trigger and mash the peanut butter into the cloth. Once they lick off the soft part, they tug on the cloth and that is all they do ever. I don't recommend the bait if you have cats that are free range.

Cats only work to a point. The farmer up the road has no fewer than 6-12 cats and you can walk through the barn during milking time and see mice running along the old round timber beams in the ceiling. It has been that way for years, yet you always see cats with mice and dead , partially eaten mice.

[Peter Kelly]

Maybe, maybe not. My best hunter can catches mice, moles, small rabbits, chipmunks, and an occasional squirrel. He tries, but is rare for him to catch a bird, one I remember in the last several years and it was a carolina wren.

Domestic cats, considered a global invasive species, kill anywhere from 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds in the lower 48 states each year.

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380