Building a better mouse trap- will it work?

**Biff** · 12th June 2005, 11:36

A trick my grandfather uses in his house and garage to get rid of/keep out mice is placing cayenne pepper in the places the mice enter/gather/party. Apparently the little critters hate the smell of the stuff.

My mice have apparently now made it into the attic. Ms Biff claims to have heard them last night and now says she hears them munching on one of our bathrooms extractor fan outlet pipes. Time for the Biffmeister to hinvestigate.
It now looks like war has been declared here to.

**TonyB** · 12th June 2005, 17:04

Well if I'd used a bottle that he couldn't jump out the little bugger would have been caught...there's a mouse poo in the bottle- he can jump out.

**onearmedbandit** · 12th June 2005, 17:17

Maybe he thought you were kind enough to leave him a 'toliet'. Rig up a trap door on the top of the bottle, that'll fuck him.

**Enn** · 12th June 2005, 21:26

Plastic supermarket bags work well for the cheeky ones, put a bit of tucker in the bag and hang in a accessable place you can tell when they drop in lotsa noise then quiet, you ever tryed to get something out of a plastic bag quietly??? and if your not in the room a baby monitor works well, as some of us are bound to know too bloody well....

happy hunting eh..

**zooter** · 12th June 2005, 21:42

Originally Posted by zooter

My vote is drown the little bastard.

Bucket of water with ruler "balanced" on the edge, bit of weight (less than mouse weight!) on the end resting on something the same height as your bucket, peanut butter down the business end.

But if you really don't want to kill the little rat then you could put 15 to 20mm of water in the bottom of the bucket so he can hold his head up out of it but can't get a grip on the bucket with his wet feet.

**sAsLEX** · 12th June 2005, 22:47

Originally Posted by zooter

But if you really don't want to kill the little rat then you could put 15 to 20mm of water in the bottom of the bucket so he can hold his head up out of it but can't get a grip on the bucket with his wet feet.

fill it and make it swim, they dont sink they just paddle around!

NC · 13th June 2005, 06:55

At an old flat, the chick I was living with used to have 3 cats, and 2 of them used to bring huge live rats into the house. So...my flatmate used to track them down, throw a tea-towel over it and SMASH them to death with a hammer...W....T....F!

Another reason why, I'm just not right

**tl_tub** · 13th June 2005, 07:38

Originally Posted by NC

At an old flat, the chick I was living with used to have 3 cats, and 2 of them used to bring huge live rats into the house. So...my flatmate used to track them down, throw a tea-towel over it and SMASH them to death with a hammer...W....T....F!

Did she wash the tea-towel after that?

**TonyB** · 13th June 2005, 08:14

I don't fricken believe it!!! I get to work this morning, and what do I find? MOUSE SHIT IN MY COFFE CUP!!!!!!!!! There's something going on here....are they out to get me??? .......am I the first stage in a evil mousey plan for world domination???

**Paul in NZ** · 13th June 2005, 09:11

Originally Posted by TonyB

I don't fricken believe it!!! I get to work this morning, and what do I find? MOUSE SHIT IN MY COFFE CUP!!!!!!!!! There's something going on here....are they out to get me??? .......am I the first stage in a evil mousey plan for world domination???

Dude! Thats what you get for being nice to them!

This aint Micky Mouse! making the neighbourhood a better place and they are not building the magic kingdom up the road! These are cunning, kill you if they could carry the black death vermin type critters... Just get some disposable (and lethal) traps before they get established!

**vifferman** · 13th June 2005, 09:19

Originally Posted by crashe

Oh and dont put cheese on the mousetrap... put a piece of meat on it....
apparentely mice dont go for cheese now

Ah.... there's a reason for that.
Mice in the wild don't come across very many cheese trees. Or meat bushes, come to that.

They eat seeds, the occasional insect, that sort of thing. So the best bet is bread, and even better is peanut butter smeared on the trap, because (a) the smell is enticing, and (b) it's not easy for them to sneak off with it.
Traps are generally pretty humane, and if you don't like killing them, there are traps that trap rather then kill. However, if you just take them outside, they'll come back in. It's getting cold and wet outside now, and food is scarce (not seed season any more), so they'll come back to your hotel again.

Anyhow - mices ain't so bad - we had a rat in our kitchen last year, which I chased around the kitchen with a 'squash' racket (it didn't squash it) and I caught two or three by our spa pool. Kinda weird having a war with rats when we have three pet ones...

**Pixie** · 13th June 2005, 09:33

Living in the country,this is the time of year they all start to move inside.
I recommend nailing a block of Pest Off to a piece of wood,the mouses love it ,it smells like fudge.It was all I could do to resist eating it myself.And it kills them too!
If your trap works you will be left with a live mouse.You will then have to make the choice of despatching it or imprisoning it as a pet .Release is not an option.
A humane way of disposing it is to give a small squirt of CRC CO contact cleaner into the bottle.The mouse will be anaesthetised and asphyxiate while unconsious.It's a lot better than hitting it with a hammer.
Or shooting it.
An aquaintence told me of shooting a mouse he saw in his linen cupboard.
He used a .22 shot round,which I don't think are available any longer.
There was a lot of washing to do that day!