Thursday 27 October 2016

Playing Cat-n-Mouse.



It's early Autumn, and Mice are have been looking for somewhere warm to spend Winter.

Both here, and up at the barn, there's been a sudden invasion of Mice; they've been arriving like Swallows in Spring.

I like Mice, but not in the house. There's the whole of France out there for them to squat in, but not here thank you!

Freddie (Cat) does his bit to reduce the population, but my preferred method of eradication is the simple Mouse trap, baited with cheese. It is almost 100% successful, and does the job with unerring precision.


Wills and Kellogg, however, don't like killing the beasts (they're veggie/vegans), so have installed several 'humane' traps which have worked quite well, and the Mice released far away.

                            

I've also tried scaring the blighters witless, and have made this wooden cut-out of a Cat..... Success as yet unknown, but probably nil.



34 comments:

  1. House intrusion! We have one we've been chasing for weeks...or maybe its a whole family. He eats poison and sits there laughing at a us. I'm sick of cleaning. We've tried a few other things but not traps. Maybe it is time for the simple cheese in a trap.

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    1. Traps work well. I think we've solved our temporary problem here at the house, but we're still having a few up at the barn. We'll get there!

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  2. Cheese is a myth. Try chocolate spread (Nutella) - apparently mice are suckers for anything sweet.

    Your cut out cat is cute. Can I have one for Christmas, please? Unfortunately, mice are vision impaired (which is the reason they tend to run along walls/skirting boards so their whiskers guide them), so unless you make your cat a dancing one (think Flamenco) it will not be a deterrent.

    If you desire any more advice, let me know. There is nothing I don't know about mice since they gate crashed last winter - for two months of nightly nightmares. Luckily they didn't nest indoors - just partied when they thought I was asleep. One mouse had a particular fixation with a skirting board. Must have lived off it for a month.

    Wills and Kellog's approach is admirable - in theory. Have they considered whose doorstep they set those mice free on?

    Good luck, Cro.

    U

    PS and then I shut up: Have you considered snake's and/or lion's poo, strategically dotted around the place? Apparently it's the deterrent of choice for the discerning decimator of mice.

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    1. Cheese works very well. Sometimes I use Chorizo, but cheese is best. Wills and Co take their live mice into the woods, and give them a good talking-to.

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  3. I love your kitten!
    Greetings Maria x

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    1. The fact that it looks more like a kitten than a cat is probably why it's not scaring the bejezus out of them.

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  4. If I had mice they would be like your mice and nothing elsex

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    1. I think we're winning.... fewer around now; I'll check in an hour!

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  5. Paul uses chorizo in the traps back home. I like the cut out cat, probably doesn't work but it looks good. No mice here, just possums running across the roof.

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    1. Gourmet Mice here. They'd probably prefer foie gras, given half a chance!

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  6. Same here. Every year thy come in! One day I'll find all the holes and stop them up!

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    Replies
    1. They can squeeze through a keyhole Kev. Almost impossible to keep them out.

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  7. We favour the humane method so the local lake area is full of new homesteaders. When we go back to UK for the winter months they nibble at the furniture covers. Been busy blocking up holes and it seems to help. Joys of country living!

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    1. One year they settle in our Pool's Pump House electrical box. They chewed all the wires and mucked it up completely. I put poison in there these days.

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  8. I think I prefer the humane trap - I always think it is so sad to kill the little things (the farmer has an entirely different view!!)

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    1. I have nothing against Mice, but I don't want them in the house. I'm afraid it's the Death Sentence here.

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  9. We are not bothered by the small ones, but for quite a few years we had rats getting in to the house. Mainly behind the fitted kitchen cupboards and under the sink where the rubbish bin is. One used to get into a top drawer and chew the oven glove, which inevitably had old food on it! It only stopped after P took a lot of the kitchen apart and cemented ( with crushed glass) the holes he found. I still occasionally hear one under the floorboards though.( Luckily I am not freaked by rats…..a friend of mine would have left home until it was sorted)

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    1. When we bought our first farmhouse out here, we soon discovered that there were Rats in the loft. We used a 'humane' trap to catch them, then had to deal with extremely angry and snarling creatures to dispose of. I think we should have used an ordinary Rat trap.

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  10. Our cat Daisy catches and eats several mice a day. Unfortunately she occasionally brings one indoors, especially if it's raining outside, a drops it. We then all play "catch the mouse".
    It's the ones that seem to live in the gap between the old stone walls and the plasterboard that cause most trouble, with their nocturnal scratching and scampering.

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    Replies
    1. Freddie catches quite a few. He used to bring them (alive) into the bedroom at nights.... you can imagine the rest.

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  11. I admit that after expensive repairs to motorized items, I have very little sympathy left for mice. We are surrounded by fields and "scrub" land and there is a never ending supply of mice. We have two cats who help as much as they can, but ... as I was typing this I heard a sound on the front porch. It was our younger cat flinging about his latest catch on the doormat. Another offering for us. -Jenn

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    1. I often wonder how many Mice there are about. I wouldn't have thought the numbers were huge. Our Cat manages to catch one almost every night, and I believe they breed quite quickly, but even so I don't imagine the area around us is 'teeming' with them.

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  12. are you having much luck with the old fashioned traps? We caught more with the humane one, but then we had to take them somewhere else!

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    1. We've been 'lucky' with both types, it's only the cut-out which is failing!

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  13. When we lived in the country we had an invasion of mice one autumn. Seeing them dashing past out of the corner of my eye made my skin crawl! I don't care for rodents.

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    Replies
    1. They're looking for somewhere warm to spend Winter.... they'll have to find somewhere else.

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  14. A rat, big as a cat when it ran across my foot one night, has taken to come feed on birdseed outside my bedroom. The weenies can't seem to catch it so I went to buy a rat trap. It is scary and has popped many times as I've tried to set it. I will have to try cheese as the gummi bear hasn't worked.

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    Replies
    1. You need to watch your fingers when you set one of those. I have one, and it's lethal. Cheese or a bit of sausage is best.

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  15. Despite two cats inside and 4 feral cats outdoors, we get mice in our garage and basement. They cats are not doing their job, so no treats for them. Not really.

    I am glad to hear that you don't use those sticky paper traps. Those are terrible and the little animals suffer and have an awful death. I once tried to save one stuck on it but only succeeded in getting my shoe stuck to it also. My husband wished he had taken a video of it.

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    1. Pour some kind of cooking oil over the trap and the little creature can free itself. Terribly cruel method, I agree.

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    2. It is incredibly cruel. When we had the outbreak here last autumn one of my neighbours knocked at my door. She was in total disarray. She'd bloody put down that sticky stuff, then didn't know how to deal with a half dead mouse. It was awful. I folded the paper trap over and dispensed a hard blow with my fist to deliver that mouse of its misery.

      U

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    3. I've heard about those, but not seen one. They sound extremely nasty.

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  16. Well, I caught my rat last night with a gummy bear with peanut butter on it. Now, I don't know what to do with it. It's big.

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