Mice in the cabin during the winter

[johnsopi]

My family has a summer cabin in NE Ont. Canada. The mice move in during the winter and make huge mess. They use poison
and traps but still the mice come. Any tip on keeping them under control? The place is empty after sept till the next summer.

 

[JustWood]

Dcon sucks! Don't bother.
Tom Cat bait bars are the best I've used and they have a hole in them so you can nail or wire them down so the little bastages don't haul 'em off!

 

[peakbagger]

I have heard from several folks that these work well for long term. I am planning to build me own for my garage.

(broken link removed to http://www.madeinmaine.com/MouseAh.asp?S=35)

The antfreeze keeps the mice preserved so they dont stink up the place. As long as you use the RV antifreeze, it can be dumped on the ground in the spring.

 

[SE Iowa]

Concept is very similar to how we did it when I was a kid living in a weather-port tent. We used coffee cans fill 1/2 with water. We'd run a coat hanger up the side and dangle a string with peanut butter on it over the center of the can. We'd then place plastic wrap, with a hole cut in the center, over the can and push it down slightly so that when the mouse climbed the can and reached for the peanut butter, it would slide down the plastic into the water and drowned. We would catch 3-4 per night sometimes.

 

[d.n.f.]

+1 on peanut butter bucket anti-freeze killer.


You need a metal bucket so they can't climb out. Line the bucket with some peanut butter an inch or two down the bucket (on the inside). Have a little wooden ramp up the bucket. Fill the bucket with about an inch or so of water and some anti-freeze. Mice come up the ramp, and they fall in the bucket.

Used over ten years in my old Ontario cottage. Left traps outside along perimeter (and inside) during the summer trying to thin out the herd. No traps over winter.

 

[pybyr]

Nuke the mice! Arghh! I'm not even talking about a cabin- my old farmhouse unavoidably has some nooks and crannies that they've gotten in through, and just in the last month, they chewed a hole in the drain hose behind my washer, and moments ago, I found knaw-marks in my good compressor hose. With cool weather fast approaching, they're probably ready to commence the annual arrival en-masse.

The Maine Mouse-Ah link above indicates that they're sold out for now. It does indeed look like something that one could replicate D-I-Y, but at the moment, I've already got a lot of projects, large and small. Anyone know of other sources of something simple and effective and that doesn't take a lot of continued monitoring the way that individual traps do?

 

[dvellone]

+1 on peanut butter bucket anti-freeze killer.


You need a metal bucket so they can't climb out. Line the bucket with some peanut butter an inch or two down the bucket (on the inside). Have a little wooden ramp up the bucket. Fill the bucket with about an inch or so of water and some anti-freeze. Mice come up the ramp, and they fall in the bucket.

Used over ten years in my old Ontario cottage. Left traps outside along perimeter (and inside) during the summer trying to thin out the herd. No traps over winter.

I agree with d.n.f. This is a great method especially if you're not around to empty traps regularly.

 

[Highbeam]

I don't know guys, a bucket partially full of antifreeze and peanut butter? My dog would be all over that and would then, well, die too. Momma wouldn't be happy.

We just used a plastic 5 gallon bucket half full of water with a handfull of oats thrown in to float and look like a huge bucket of oats. Supplement with a string across the top between the handles and a blob of peanut butter in the middle of the string.

I don't think we even used a ramp, but surely killed a lot of mice.

I did have a lame experience where some young girl could hear the mouse drowning and scratching the inside of the bucket so she dumped the whole thing over and saved its life. The gooey grain and dead mice made a mess.

 

[dvellone]

I don't know guys, a bucket partially full of antifreeze and peanut butter? My dog would be all over that and would then, well, die too. Momma wouldn't be happy.

We just used a plastic 5 gallon bucket half full of water with a handfull of oats thrown in to float and look like a huge bucket of oats. Supplement with a string across the top between the handles and a blob of peanut butter in the middle of the string.

I don't think we even used a ramp, but surely killed a lot of mice.

I did have a lame experience where some young girl could hear the mouse drowning and scratching the inside of the bucket so she dumped the whole thing over and saved its life. The gooey grain and dead mice made a mess.

Yeah, not a great idea if a dog has access, but I think that woodfox is trying to find a solution for rodent control during the winter when nobody is around and the camp isn't in use.

 

[d.n.f.]

We would lift this as soon as we re-occupied the cabin. My dog would like this combo too. This is an over-winter trick only with an empty cabin (only the mice around).



If my dog was stupid enough to set off a mouse trap, well she would not do it more than once....

 

[Highbeam]

We had a collie when I was a kid that got a rat trap snapped on her nose. Big old lump for quite a while. That was rude of us.

 

[d.n.f.]

We had a collie when I was a kid that got a rat trap snapped on her nose. Big old lump for quite a while. That was rude of us.

I said mouse trap. Rat trap, man could take a finger. Poor dog.

 

[ROBERT F]

THE DROWNING POOLS WORK GREAT IF SET UP PROPERLY, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF EVAPORATION! ONCE ALL THE WATER DRYS UP THEN YOU HAVE A NICE PILE OF ROTTING MOUSE FLESH! GREAT FOR MAKING FUR WALLETS THOUGH!!

 

[Nyquil Junkie]

the bucket trap with a dowel rod across the top, and a tin can with both ends cut out. The dowlel goes thru the can, and into holes on either side of the bucket. cover the can with melted chocolate.

the mouse climbs up a little ramp you put on the outside, across the dowl and onto the can which spins around and dumps the mouse in the bucket.

put 2 or 3 inches of cooking oil (canola oil good).

or you can smear the bottom of the bucket with axle grease.

The oil is easier to clean out.

 

[Highbeam]

Okay I'll bite, is the oil/grease to keep them from climbing out or to drown them?

 

[Nyquil Junkie]

The oil they drown in or die trying to jump out of.
the axle grease has the same effect, its just a sticky mess they get tangled up in and die trying to get free of.

you could drop a few big sticky rat traps in the bucket for that matter.

cruel yes. Unfortunately cruel and effective walk hand in hand.

 

[raven]

no muss just flush eh