Farmall Cub

Glad to hear I wasn't the only one with a mouse onslaught. I keep poison down most of the time, and it usually goes untouched between April and October. Last week- 7 bodies removed from the basement! Scent indicates there must be at least one more waiting to be found, unfortunately. Good luck in the battle!

I don't use poison because the bodies tend to accumulate where humans can't easily retieve them. The smell of a dead mouse is just as irritating as the knowledge of of a live one.

Also, poisoned prey may poison predators, depending on the toxin in the bait. I want all the help I can get!

GAZILLIONS of mice, or at least gazillions of mouse droppings, some of them undoubtedly real antiques, in my not-cleaned-in-decades 1880 barn led me to adopt 3 adult feral/semi-feral 'barn cats' a week ago, from a local 'Homeless Cat Project' lady. All spayed females. Well, I'm not sure about the lady but the other 3 are.

[Where did SHE pop up again? some of you may be wondering 'cause I haven't posted in my months because I GOT A SMALL FARM . Will re-introduce under some other topic.]

I am dutifully confining them in the barn in the loft 'chicken penthouse' (4 coop rooms built over about half the loft area--rather clever, actually) until they get acclimated & won't run away. One will let me scratch her head. One will come about 6 inches away. The third is really a scaredy-cat, stays a good distance away. At least after my feeding them and making mew-mew noises like Mr. Rogers for the past week they will come up when I enter their room, which comes complete with the Kitty-TV channel--the coop walls are 2/3 wire and there are roosts and a platform at one end of the room, so they can sit there & watch the antics of the chickens one coop/room away (licking their lips, I might add, if cats have lips). All I can say is, THEY BETTER BE GOOD MOUSERS when I let them out of jail because the copious mouse droppings are disgusting! The mice run along the beams overhead and.... UGH!

FarmLadyWannaBe
now in western Massachusetts near Springfield

Jocelyn - it's good to see you posting again!

Jocelyn,

I agree... It's good to see you again.!

Mouse droppings aren't always a bad thing. I'm really glad to see them... By coincidence directly below my long vacant bat houses.

Jocelyn
Good to see you back. Sounds as if you were taking care of business.

Thanks, guys! All I can say is, the Cub is REALLY proving to be indispensable! What a work horse! SEAT TIME WHEEEE

Jocelyn

Just when I thought I had caught all of these #@$%&& mice (10 of 'em!), I got up this morning and headed for the bathroom, and what do I see in the toilet bowl? A dead mouse! Up on the second floor of the house!
Well, I figured that after finding that, my day could only get better

FarmLadyWannaB wrote:Thanks, guys! All I can say is, the Cub is REALLY proving to be indispensable! What a work horse! SEAT TIME WHEEEE

Jocelyn

Hi Jocelyn,
Looks like we are neighbors, since we're in Granby, CT! We bought a small horse farm last year, and enjoy our version of country life immensely. I have a 1948 Cub coming here in a couple of weeks to join my '56. Watch out, they are addicting!
Brian

Had friends with a hunting cabin, they kept a board from the floor to a large metal box. The mice would walk the ramp as it were. Every morning the box was emptied. Only took 3 or 4 days till everything was under control.
I had a real pesky one the we used a similar trick. We went shopping with a plank to the toilet in the basement, when we got home the mouse had failed swimming lessons, soit was flush time.

I have smart ones in the city, always get the PB and never trip the trap. Someone told me to put a string with pb into the wedge in the front of the bait part. Film at 11.

Also, a friend has a truck camper like mine and they manage to get it that. Seriously good climbers I guess?

Buzzard Wing wrote:I have smart ones in the city, always get the PB and never trip the trap. Someone told me to put a string with pb into the wedge in the front of the bait part. Film at 11.

Also, a friend has a truck camper like mine and they manage to get it that. Seriously good climbers I guess?

If the PB/string doesn't work, try tying a whole peanut to the trap with a piece of thread (you drill a tiny hole in the peanut). Sounds crazy, but it worked for me! Sounds like the string idea would work, too. I'll be watching for your results, since that sounds easier than drilling a @#%^ hole in a peanut

Screech Owls are your answer. A few years ago , My freind I were checking our Wood duck nest boxes we have around 80 boxes . Other birds, squirrels will use them. Mainly screech owls. We had a spring flood that pushed all the mice to high point surrounded by water. When we checked this one box. we counted 57 mice cached for later, It was still Feb so it was still cold, they were like mouse sickles. We had never come across that before but , when we came back in April they were all gone and a nest full of youngins.
My.02
Phil

We had a pretty big problem with mice/kangaroo rats at our work tent "Up Top" (on top of the Vermilion Cliffs http://www.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=3 ... &z=11&om=1 ). Then, everyone who went up there this year started bringing their dogs. They may not be small and agile like cats, but the place doesn't have very many hiding spaces, and dogs are hunters too. Haven't seen or heard one yet this year. Just a thought for those that may not like cats about, like my brother-in-law.

Our last dog was a mouser. The second day we had her, we took her outside to go potty, and she came back with what looked like a string hanging out of her mouth, it was a mouse. Over her lifetime, I bet I saw her catch 50 mice, and who knows how many more unseen. The vet wasn't too concerned, so neither were we. As far as the anticoagulants in d-Con, etc., the amount to kill a mouse is far too small to hurt a cat or dog, unless they got into the box (which is unlikely).

Bob