it's that time of year and all the mice are coming in, has anybody used those plug in things that supposedly chase them away?
I have a minefield of traps where I think they are coming in but have caught one yet. My oldest boy (2 1/2 years) keeps seeing them in his room at night, I think they might be climbing on him and scaring him, but his new favorite word is Mouse pronounce "Mou"

I've got a cat you can have if you can catch him!

Had one in every room of an old ranch house we only used occasionally. If it ever kept them at bay, you couldn't prove it by me. They were as thick before as after.

A Sharps or 6.5X55 will work, but they do over penetrate...

sticky traps work well and I didn't say this, but I spray diesel all around and under my camp in the swamp and that keeps almost everything away.

Never tried the plug-in gizmos.
I get 2-3 mice every winter.
What works for me is the original mouse trap and recently glue boards......bait them with peanut butter.
Mice love edges so place the traps near the baseboard. With glue boards i trim off most of a non-sticky edge and then tape down the rest of the glueboard (wood floors).
I watched a mouse zip and tippy toe along a 3/4" non-glue edge one time to avoid the glue.....so i trimmed off one side and got the little pith'n bass-turds.

Paprika and steel wool shoved in all holes to outside.

Those on the inside get the rolling beer can covered in peanut butter over a bucket of water or antifreeze treatment.

Take a 5 gal pails with lid drill a 1" hole about 1" from bottom in the side. Get some Tom Cat mice pellets and put about 8-10 inside. Put on the top and place around the out side of the building. Put something heavy on to keep the wind from moving. The mice find a dry place with food and do the rest for you. We run 6 of them up at the deer camp and have cut why down on the mice. Plus the dogs can not get at the poison . Hope this helps. Clint

No experience with the electronic gizmos, but I'm considering trying them out this winter in our camper. Never had a mouse problem in it before, but we found evidence of an infiltration over the weekend and I've caught 2 of the little bastids so far.

I bought a couple cans of Great Stuff spray foam with a bittering agent that is supposed to be vermin resistant and sealed up every conceivable hole in and under that camper.

Good luck with your mouse problem, WyoCowboy. I'll be following this thread to see what the consensus is on the electronic repellers.

That's a trick I haven't heard of before, Clint. Might have to try that in my barn this winter to keep the mouse numbers down.

I got home after being gone for eight days and found they had moved in, got little mouse turds on my computer desk. Guess it's time for a trip to Ace hardware for some anti mouse supplies.

Hit 'em hard and give no quarter to the little bastids!

I'm at war with the mice up here this year. suns a bishes are getting into all my old cars and trucks, I spent all day last weekend un-stanking my 77 f150. My old plow truck has em bad, I will start evicting and un-stanking that rig this week.

For the first time since we built our deer camp cabin in 2007, I saw some mouse turds in there a couple weeks ago. I've got sticky traps out there right now, I'll have to check them later this week.

I work on classic cars/trucks for a living now, and the mice are almost always in these cars when they show up at my place. I have a 69 mach 1 coming to the shop this week. First thing I will do is toss 2 or 3 sticky traps inside the car.

Headliners.... dear lord, thats mouse piss heaven right there, they love it up in the roof of an old car.

Pulled the old headliner out of a 64 Galaxie a little while back.... terrible.

I hate mice.

I haven't found one in the house, or the truck, since we got the Terminator.

If you're going to use peanut butter...use Crunchy. I find smooth is too easy for the mice to eat without tripping the wire of death. The best bait I've found so far for the old school traps is a bit of Tootsie Roll.

Chew on it for a minute or two to soften it, and apply. It sticks well and the mice love it.

I had tried the electronic plugin's at my camp and I really can't say they work, I saw no difference, but what I posted earlier works along with the glue boards.

terminator?

I dug a nest and a mouse out of the heater box on our buick lucerne. The boy had one run across his foot while driving his firebird, as did the daughter in her jeep.....

We are seriously at war with the meece this year.

Flies too.

I bombed my shop last night with fly foggers, swept up a huge metal dust pan fulla dad flies this morning.

I'm winning the fly war, not sure about the meece war.

And I put a little peanut butter on the bottom side of the trigger, it's death on those with a light touch.

Chapped lips is right. Mice being prey want to be near cover so they tend to track along baseboards. Even better is a tube or small box with no ends (with a trap in it). Even a book or board angled against the wall. Peanut butter or apple has always worked for me in the old Victor-type traps, haven't needed to try anything else. I think apple works better but it's pretty close to a tossup.

Those electronic things definitely don't work.

they do not work. poison does.

But trapping is more fun, love to hear that snap from the garage. I can outwit mice - hot damn!

Lots of good ideas here but get a cat after your done and use the method the guy mentioned about steel wool and some hot sauce. The steel wool will keep them out for a time. Those bastards can get out of a 1/4" by 1/2" hole.

Since we got a cat that likes to eat them there are seldom any in the house. The barn is a different story though. Too many holes to ever plug out there.

I had one about 10 years ago I could not kill. I tried old spring traps glue traps, everything but poison. I didn't want one to eat poison then go somewhere that I couldn't get to it and die. One day I come home early and nobody home but me. I was reading at the kitchen table and having a glass of sweet tea and I heard something. Athat SOB had come up through the stove and popped out where the stove eye plugs in. When he went back down I grabbed my oldests BB gun, I waited and when he popped back up BAM right in the neck. It was far more satisfying than a trap. That little sucker was slick but not slick enuff.

I have a 93 POS civic I use for running to town. I knew I had a mouse in it and then it started to stink. At the same time the heater fan started making a funny noise. Pulled the fan and there was the dang dead mouse.

Our house has been infested this year too. We tried putting peppermint oil on cotton balls around and that worked really well for about a week. Then I think the oil wears out.

We've been using poison and sticky traps.

THIS!!! You may need to put a little peanut butter on the board to get them started i the right direction. I've used one in my attic in the Winter and put RV anti-freeze in the pail. Works like a charm.

Best way to get rid of them mouse critters is to git your self half a dozen rat snakes and turn em loose in there.

I've killed one so far today.

Get your self about five phone books and some peanut butter and a accurate air rifle and a six pack of Michelob light. You get the idea. It works well a good way to kill a Sunday night. Just make sure you can hunt on Sunday in your state and check hunting over bait laws...

Use the mouse poison Decon. I have used it at the camp for decades. It gets rid of squirrels here in the attic too!

http://www.d-conproducts.com/products/

There is another product called TomCat.

I just read that somewheres else here recently, I was wondering if it worked. My humble abode sits literally IN the woods, so each year I am inundated with the little critters. Hate is probably a gross understatement for my feelings about the little pests. Somehow, they manage to get INTO my walls, behind the pine boards, tear out insulation and head to build their little nests throughout the house, mostly in the ceiling above my loft.

My cat will kill them, but she is overwhelmed, there are just too many. It is ridiculous. Occasionally I will get a whiff of that all-to-familiar odor of mouse urine, and have nightmares of contracting the Hantavirus or Plague. It infuriates me just thinking about it, like an ongoing home invasion; little illegal aliens pouring into my home, unchecked.

I have tried traditional Tomcat traps, but little to nothing seems to interest them when it comes to bait. I have tried Peanut Butter (though not crunchy,) raisins, that TomCat brand bait gel, nothing seems to really 'draw them in' aside from the occasional one here and there. I can't use poison on account of the dogs and the cat, and I have never tried the 'bucket trap,' though I have heard good things. Perhaps I will try a few old school traps using my daughters bag of Tootsie Rolls. Hopefully my success rate will elevate.

I am thankful to the OP for starting this thread, oftentimes, I feel alone in my battle against mice. It is a strangely comforting feeling knowing that I am not alone.

My Grandmother told me many many years ago to sew a piece of bacon to the trap and so far it has worked everytime for many many days.

Well, that would work on me too!

Can't resist bacon...

John

Bacon grease for bait on bucket trap roller, raisin packed into bait trigger on spring trap- it gets dry, and they tug at it-
standard Colibri loads in .22 pistol out in the shop. The new spring traps that you just pinch to set or release are working well here in CO and at our MO place. But I've got another dang pack-rat out in the shop, and that bugger is smart.

We used to have mice every winter!!!!! Until we got a Yorkie......She killed 5 or 6 the 1st year. word must have got out!!!! We have not seen a mouse in 5 years.Better than a cat and she doesn't eat much...

The field rats love my tool shed and landscaping. The wife's Pomeranian did his best to kill them all but the rats knew they could escape him by climbing up the trees or the shelves in the shed. We lost the pom and latter got a kitten from a litter of barn cats. She lives in the tool shed. I haven't seen rats or rat droppings in there since she moved in. Occasionally, she will leave part of a rat on the patio to show she's doing her job.

Personally, I prefer snakes to cats but the wife and sons won't let me have snakes.

Unless you want Dead Mice and other rodents hidden in your wall, do NOT use Decon or any other dehydration type product.

They eat it, then crawl off into their "Hiding" places and die. These hiding places are usually in the walls, ceilings or other areas with insulation for bedding.

Trapping them is a far better option then letting them die in your walls and stink up the house.

Get a cat, about a year old, they will destroy a mouse population, when they get too old to hunt or slow down on the killing get another one and get rid of the old guy.

Got another one this morning.

got one in a snap trap last night, and had the peanut butter cleaned off and the trap tripped but no mouse on another.

I'd like to think the old guy has earned his keep at that point

We put dryer sheets in our camper when we store it for the winter. Supposedly mice won't go near it - never had a mouse problem so I guess it works.

won't kill them but it might be a cheap way to steer them toward a trap

Having the same issue, need suggestions...........

Wife just informed me that all of a sudden we've got mice sign everywhere. We pulled out washed everything, put out poison and within 24 hours all the poison was gone. I put out more and we'll see how much they take. Sheesh. I'm thinking the big rains this summer made the mice populations explode.

You can lighten the trigger up a bit, but be assured, once they get the taste of peanut butter off the trigger of a trap, it's just a matter of time until lights out for the little fugger.

my buddies place out in the country gets mice a lot. he finally got himself educated on where and how the mice were getting in and stuffed steel wool into the small crevices they were using and we took all the furniture and appliances out and scrubbed down the floors with bleach water to get the urine trails they leave behind that gives the next mice road maps to where to go. then we also laid those enclosed traps and some glue traps on the outside of the house around the foundations to try to get them before they get into the house. he still gets an occasional one but has reduced the issue greatly. they sure can mess up a place in a hurry and cause some damage too.

Just be aware of the possibility of overpenetration on the mouse haids!

I just set a dozen of the 'Tootsie Roll' baited traps last night. I will let you know when I check them.

The bucket set is the ultimate.

I've had good luck with the Kress brand traps and also the Ortho brand traps. The old wood Victor style traps only seem to work about half the time. I've been using crunchy peanut butter. I'll have to give the Tootsie Rolls a try.

As for poison, I've used Dcon pellets inside the cabin. Outside, I have the large rat bait boxes with a combo of Tomcat (Bromethalin) and "Just One Bite" Bars. they seem to like this better than the Tomcat with Diphacinone.

When it gets cooler (less/no bugs), I put a light coating of peanut butter on the poison bars/chunks that I have outside.

Managed to completely eliminate any mice in the cabin for about 3-4 months, until it started getting cool again, then I caught two in my inside traps last week.

Gonna have to break out another can of the "pest block" spray foam and steel wool....

If they're stealin' the peanut butter, then put some polyester fiber under the lip and then wad it up with the PB. It works every time for me. In fact, you can use polyester and bacon grease, or any kinda cheese spread. You want them working a little harder than just licking to spring the trigger.

This one sprung the pack rat trap. Pack rats are bad this year also. About 15 mice from the house and the young cat has been slaughtering the voles. I think I will try the five gallon bucket with holes and bait.

well I put 7 traps out with the Tootsie Roll bait, I nailed two in what? 2 days. Not bad considering the ones that I have baited with peanut butter or that Tomcat gel sat untouched. It was interesting to note that on the hardened Tootsie Roll traps that snaped mice, there was distinct tooth marks on the block of tootsie roll.

Well, I thought I would update.. after an initial burst of success, my traps have sat untouched again, using the Tootsie Roll bait.

Is it perhaps possible that mice become aware of the trap, or of the particular bait being used, and recognize it as dangerous? They walk up and watch poor Frank get his back broke, or see little Annie with her head snapped shut under a metal bar and decide that the little wooden platform with Peanut Butter or Tootsie Roll on it is too good to be true?

Little fuggers.

mice don't reason, lol

I had a little family of mice working inside the drywall behind my laundry room. they were just having a good time knocking around nuts and dog food inside that will void.

after some thinking, I grabbed a can of Gumout throttle body and carb cleaner, poked a hole into the sheetrock with a screwdriver and let er rip with the red extended nozzle tip. Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.......ssssss...ssssssssssssssssss


there was some floppin around noise for a few seconds and then quiet.

so then I had to cut a small hole in the wall, it was a nest with momma, daddy, and several little babies looked like kidney beans.

it was a good day, it was like a 'mouse Halabja' chemical attack

I wonder if you could have put a golf ball size hole up near the top of that wall after you gassed them and then placed the end of one of those extended butane lighters into that small hole you poked with the screwdriver and turn the whole nest and family into a sort of potato cannon. that would have poped out of that hole on top. but then I guess you would have stood the chance of having to explain the whole thing to your local fire department. oh well, it was just a thought.

I also use a 5 gal. bucket with abut 2" of water. I just smear peanut butter around the inside about 3" down and come back in a few weeks. I do this at my cabin. My son has asthsma and the mice really but a rut on his breathing. He weezes in side 10 minutes of being in the cabin. We us traps but the coons seem to run off with the traps if there is a mouse in them. Five weeks ago I did 3 5 gal buckets. Two were outside and one inside the cabin. We ended up with none in the cabin, 10 in one bucket, 6 in another and one in a trap. Two weeks later We had 10 altogather. That makes 27 mice in 5 weeks. Next , we are using old anti freeze. and will keep them all winter I suppose. Sure wish I would have some weazels around I won't use bait cause it seems weazels would die .

I'm willing to give anything a try, though the antifreeze may not be such a good idea around my place considering the cat and dogs running around.

Your bucket trap sounds simple enough..

..do you use a stick leading up to the bucket, or the spinning can and rod, such as the bucket traps I have seen floating around on YouTube, and being mentioned here? Or is it just as you said... A five gallon bucket.. water.. and peanut butter spread around the INSIDE, 3" or so down from the top? How do they get up there, climb the bucket?

I just put it next to a wood pile . I also put a board leading to the top of the bucket too. Both work but the wood pile seems a bit better for some reason. Just tuck it up to the wood pile and you will have mice. I am at war with mice sinse my son had such breathing problems from being in the cabin. It is to the point he can't be there anymore and that makes me darn mad. There is something about that smell that gets in his lungs. The lungs swell up or something. Breathing treatments work for a little while and that is all. If ya have dogs I would do without antifreeze.

I have a big barn and mice sometimes get in. Three ways I handle it:
1. Cats 2. traps 3. 22 shot shells

Oats, raisins and FixAll mixed together. Keep it dry and let them eat it. Binds them up. So I saw on Youtube. Haven't tried it yet.

Update on this
I put a trap baited with peanut butter on my desk and kinda forgot about it.
Earlier today I heard a noise coming from that room, sounded like something fell. I checked it out and didn't see anything but later I noticed the trap on the floor and knew instantly what had happened. My Black lab has a taste for peanut butter, and must have found the trap.
Don't know if it got her, but when I picked it up and showed it to her, the tail and head went down and she left the room.

Oh by the way, the partially chewed tootsie roll is the best mouse/rat bait. They can't lick it off and get snapped.

The key with this stuff is making sure the mice can't get out again after they eat the poison.

Rodents live for about 2 weeks after they eat a lethal dose of rodenticide. The amount of poison in the tissues of a dying rodent is enough to kill a dozen dogs. Your dog or cat eats the rodent, and 2 weeks later your dog or cat dies.

This happened to my bird dog last November. Neighbors were poisoning the local squirrels to keep them out of their pecan trees. We still have the squirrels a year later, but half a dozen dogs and cats in the neighborhood died.

My dad prided himself on setting the victors really "light". Peanut butter and let her rip. Heard the trap go off one morning and low an behold he caught a roach. Yep, set so light it caught a frigin cock roach.


Clyde

...havin' real good results with Victor electric mouse traps at the ranch. victor traps

Well when I was a whole lot younger I had an untrappable mouse in the kitchen. So I built an electrocution trap, a wired aluminum pie plate for him to stand on while he ate peanut butter off the other stripped end of a light cord plugged into the wall. I sat back in the living room drinking beer and he'd get in the plate and get knocked halfway across the kitchen, then he'd keep coming right back and doing it again. It was hilarious but it didn't work either so the next night I set up a backstop and shot him with the .22, while drinking beer naturally. It was funny too until I went in and saw mouse parts EVERYWHERE throughout the kitchen. Good times.

It took me a couple years to replace a cracked motor in a truck that I'm driving now and it stinks of mouse piss. A co-worker said next time buy a box of instant potatoes and set some out. The internet and he says that they can't vomit, so they eat the dehydrated spuds which swell up and ruptures their organs and they can't puke them out. Worth a try maybe.

THE best mouse traps are the old fashion spring type wooden Victors with the upgraded trigger pad that is yellow plastic and looks like cheese. It has a deep pocket to hold peanut butter. They are fool proof and NEVER miss a mouse.

I just now shoved one out the door with nothing more than a broom and a flashlight!!

Saw a new trap on the redneck teeth inventors show the other night. Involved a ping pong ball. Pretty cool actually and really worked!