Mice...How do you get rid of them??

Originally posted by Uphill
As you have already discovered, some cats know what to do with a mouse and some don't.

Yep, exactly. My old cat Isabella (may she rest in peace) was very shy, but the new guy I have now probably would kill a mouse if I had one in the apartment now. He stalks and attacks almost everything, including me!

[edit on 8/31/2006 by djohnsto77]

Dg....with nightfall coming on, maybe you'll get some action out of the cat in the middle of the night...seems to be when mice run around the most. Good luck

I've heard soda will kill them if they drink, not able to burp or something?


i duno.

I still say go with a shotgun, or throw hammers at them, or buy rat poison?


who wouldve thought?

Good morning!

Well, i have to let you all know this; The cat woke up at 10pm and promptly went into the kitchen. he was missing for awhile so i went to look and he had a wild look in his face and appeared to have them corned behind the stove, although i couldnt see the mice. He spent the whole night cornering the critters, and at some point i heard some commotion.
I dont know if he got them or not, but there sure was a lot of action.

I think i like this cat.

Well dg, at least if they're cornered, they can't disturb you! Cats like being on patrol, they feel as if it's a duty. If it doesn't work, I still think you should go along with the guillotine idea.

I have chased a mouse with a hammer before, too! It ran across the street to the church. It was a funny moment indeed, the people that were at the coffee shop still tell that story to people, much at my expense.

If the mice saw and/or smelled the cat, they may have just left your house on their own accord for fear of being eaten.

We live out behind a pasture, and plowed farmland near our house. Tons and tons of little gray field mice, plus the occasional NORWEGIAN RAT!

I don't use poison, because we have small children in the home. Bar-bait looks like chocolate . . .

Plus, poisoned mice crawl off and die where you can't remove the body. Stinky.


We have a cat, whom I dislike. He whines constantly. But, he sleeps about 20 hours a day. The smell of him keeps mice out of the house. Now, he eats them from outside!

I think the smell of cat drives the mice away. He sleeps outside, and comes in for about an hour a day or so. He doesn't catch any (because maybe he ate them all!), but goes through the clothes hampers, closets, etc. Especially behind the fridge.

Everytime I threaten to get rid of the bothersome cat, he leaves a dead rat on the doorstep, and Frau Dr. becomes very protective of his place in our family. And the kids start petting him intensely.

.

Dr.....If you'd like to use the poison, here's what poultry owners do...build a small wooden lock box with a hole drilled into one end. Put the poison inside, lock the box. The hole should be just big enough for a rat to crawl through but not big enough for kids, dogs/cats, or chickens to get into. They crawl in, eat....take lethal treats back to the nest..etc. etc. About 2 to 3 days later you may start seeing slow sickly rodents.... then my son shoots them in the head with a BB gun...and we throw them out in the woods. Also, my German Shephard will kill rats if he gets the chance.....good doggy

Also...I have never had a problem with any mice/rats stinking when they decay because Decon dehydrates them so they don't have much body fluid when they die... so no stink....at least not that I have ever noticed.

DG......Glad you saw some action...that cat will get you some mice before you know it.

I've heard of that, Jensouth. But now we're invested in Harold the wondercat, and I get vetoed when I bring up other strategies.

And we haven't seen a mouse since Christmas. So I guess it's working, in his own Tom and Jerry style.

.

Cats are the best to keep them away from the house, but mouse traps and poisons should also do. Poisons should not be used if other animals are there, or kids. Clean your home often, keep it tidy, so mice can't find interest in it. They hate the smell of detergents.

I guess if the cat ripped them apart, then that'd be pretty damn metal!

Watch where the cat is watching.
If the cat spends time looking under the stove, that's an indicator.
Set traps under the stove for a while, and away from the cat. You might catch something.

I have a mouse hole where the 220 line comes in under my stove, it might be a good idea to look for access points and block them with a healthy dose of that expanding foam insulation.
I've never blocked up the one behind my stove because I have three cats that love to hunt. Sometimes I take a 1 foot sqare of tinfoil with some peanut butter on it and slide it under the stove just to attract them. The sound of the mice walking on the foil just drives my cats nuts because they can't get them.


Size and cunning are attributes of both species, but the mouse eventually loses.

heh my dogs an EXCELLENT mouser...went so far as to tear through the drywall to get one she heard in the wall (drywall, baseboard, carpet yadda yadda) so if cat wont do it, get a dog, get rid of the mice and the cat


oh, and for the record. john travolta isnt gay.


he's a scientologist which is infinatly worse

if you dont like beheading them try it this way. put bait beside your foot. wait till they get close and step on em. quick painless death to the rodent.

Buy a laptop with a trackpad instead.

Never fails.

Update:

My husband set up a trap by the stove and caught a mouse. I'm beginning to think the cat was playing with them....I'm not sure.
The cat has to go back I'm allergic to it.

Thanks for all your help

To Dgtempe, the following link to a current posting from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be helpful:

www.cdc.gov...

Sorry to hear about the cat allergy. Didn't someone start selling non-allergenic kittens? But I think they're asking for multiple $1000s per kitten.

It's that time o' the year. Mice coming in looking for a warm place to winter. I get some about every 2-3 years and looks like this is a year for me.

I've always had very good success with d-CON. I use the wedge. Just make sure you place them in areas not accesible to pets or kids. The nice thing is, once they've eaten the bait, they leave the area to die so you don't have a disposal problem.

It's always worked for me.

Late to the party, but...
Sorry you're allergic to your cat. Snap traps don't (usually) behead the little critter, it's more likely to break their backs. Traps are cheap enough that if it grosses you out, you can pitch the trap -mouse and all.
I second the peanut butter bait suggestion. Peanut butter never fails. You can use it in humane (catch and release) traps too. If you're using humane traps, make sure to sweep or vacuum up any mouse droppings you find. The mice will return if they can smell their droppings.
Put the traps in out of the way spots, like under the stove or refrigerator. Look for mouse droppings and place the traps near them.

Hi DG- We had mice in our basement and our cat is afraid of them. Whenever he'd come tearing up the stairs and jump up on a chair, we knew we had a mouse. We found that the glue boards work very well. We are mouse-free now! (Our scaredy cat would bring the mouse upstairs glue board and all once it was disabled on the glue board - what a wussy)

A couple of things to keep in mind - quite often, when there's one mice there may be more. They love to breed. Also, they like to run around the perimeter of a room so put the traps around the edges of a room. And another thing, they can fit through very small holes. Ones that you wouldn't even imagine they can fit through, so look for where they might be getting into the house and put some steel wool in there. They can chew through wood and concrete, but the steel wool keeps them away. It bothers their teeth, kind of like if you would try to chew on aluminum foil. Yuk!