Mice . . . .

Build your own repeating mouse trap
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/easterly110.html

By Allen Easterly

Safety note: Because of drowning danger, 5-gallon buckets with any amount of water in them should never be placed where children under the age of 5 will be present.

When the mice are giving you a problem in the barn or feed shed you can put a significant dent in the population in short order with a repeating mousetrap. Standard mouse traps are a one-shot deal. Once sprung you need to bait and reset them. To be effective these traps need to be checked daily. While commercial repeating traps work well they have a very limited holding capacity until the mice need to be removed. That means you need to check the traps often as well. But there is a better mousetrap.

How would you like to have a trap that you only bait occasionally and only have to check every week or two during warm weather or maybe just monthly during the cold of winter? You can build your own repeating mouse trap from items you may already have on hand.

The only materials you will need are: ---CONTINUED---

HOUSE MICE
http://icwdm.org/handbook/rodents/HouseMice.asp

Identification

The house mouse (Mus musculus, Fig. 1) is a small, slender rodent that has a slightly pointed nose; small, black, somewhat protruding eyes; large, sparsely haired ears; and a nearly hairless tail with obvious scale rings. House mice are considered among the most troublesome and economically important rodents in the United States.

Adult house mice weigh about 2/5 to 4/5 ounce (11 to 22 grams). They are generally grayish brown with a gray or buff belly. Similar mice include the white-footed mice and jumping mice (which have a white belly), and harvest mice (which have grooved upper incisor teeth). For more details on species identification, see a field guide such as that by Burt and Grossenheider (1976). ---CONTINUED---

Rodents And Others
http://www.the-piedpiper.co.uk/th1.htm

As you can see below there is a full definition of the term Rodentia, if you are interested, like me, then once you have read the preamble you can click on one of the links above to take you to the page which most concerns you. Also included above are some none-rodent types, which , thanks to do-gooders releasing them, various imports and escapes, have become a major problem to indigenous species e.g. Mink...!

Rodentia: (rats, mice, beavers, squirrels, guinea pigs, capybaras,coypu)

The rodents, or Rodentia, are the most abundant order of mammals. At present, over a quarter of the families, 35 percent of the genera, and 50 percent of the species of living mammals are rodents. Probably an even higher percentage of individuals are rodents, for they tend to be small animals with dense populations. They are one of the few groups of animals that flourish in close association with men. Some, such as squirrels, live independently but fairly successfully near humans. Others, such as the house mouse (Mus musculus) and black and Norway rats (Rattus rattus and R. norvegicus), have adapted themselves to human civilization, and live everywhere that man does. These two rats (and the Polynesian rat, Rattus exulans, of Australia and Oceania) have travelled in ships and boats of all sizes, and have populated the entire habitable world, especially near human habitations (see below for differences). ---CONTINUED---

Includes:-With photos for identification

Brown Rat    k Rat    House Mouse    Grey Squirrel    Red Squirrel    Coypu    Woodmouse    Yellow Necked Mouse    Harvest Mouse    Mink    Capybara    Common Dormouse    Glis glis    Water Vole    Pine Martin    Weasel    Stoat    Pole Cat    Bank Vole    Common/Short Tailed Vole

CROSS-POSTED in: Rodents, Rats, Mice, Bugs and other annoying critters --> Rats

I know it's not a repeating trap, but I've sworn by the clamping mouse traps sold under the brand Jawz from JT Eaton. Easy cleanup in that I never have to get my fingers too close to the dead mouse and easy to rebait with a smudge of peanut butter or a chunk of cheese, although I find peanut butter to be pretty darn effective. I have to check the traps twice a day as we transition from summer into fall and then into winter, but once the weather stays cold I can check them every day or two.

Every fall and spring I trip them all, clean them out and rebait them (to keep the bait fairly fresh.) To trip them I insert folded papertowel that is about 3/8" thick to absorb the impact...otherwise they can flip and break (maybe 1 time in 10, but I'm too cheap to replace things before its strictly necessary.)

Our mouse traps are 3 cats. They have kept the mice away from the house and cars since we acquired them. All 3 were strays that showed up somewhere around us. We spayed/neutered to keep them around.

Cinnamon wrote:Our mouse traps are 3 cats. They have kept the mice away from the house and cars since we acquired them. All 3 were strays that showed up somewhere around us. We spayed/neutered to keep them around.

Unfortunately our cats are indoor cats that are too well fed...they tend to play with any mice they find or they present us with tribute. So I try to make sure to kill the mice as fast as I can so we don't get any live tribute from our feline friends.

dmwalsh568 wrote:

Cinnamon wrote:Our mouse traps are 3 cats. They have kept the mice away from the house and cars since we acquired them. All 3 were strays that showed up somewhere around us. We spayed/neutered to keep them around.

Unfortunately our cats are indoor cats that are too well fed...they tend to play with any mice they find or they present us with tribute. So I try to make sure to kill the mice as fast as I can so we don't get any live tribute from our feline friends.

Our indoor cat eats the occasional bug ... does that count?

Yeah - bugs count!

Our cats were feral for a few weeks before we got them, only one is a true indoor cat, the other stay out all spring, summer, autumn and part of winter before we can coax them to stay indoors all night. As soon as they hear the birds twitter before dawn, they want out, usually that's around 4 AM.

How To Mouse Proof Your Home For Winter
https://www.offthegridnews.com/how-to-2/how-to-mouse-proof-your-home-for-winter/

  You don’t have to live next to a farm, field or forest to have a large mouse population in your neighborhood. It is important to mouse proof your home the best you can to keep these varmints out.   ---CONTINUED---

Mouse Trap-5 Gallon Bucket
http://fivegallonideas.com/bucket-mouse-trap/

(SNIP) ... The bucket mouse trap catches many mice in a single trap and does not need to be reset between mice. It’s also so simple to make that you probably already have all the parts needed lying around your garage.

Never purchase commercial mouse traps or poison again! ---CONTINUED---

Mice
http://www.wildlife-traps.com/mice.html


Includes:
What Damage to Mice do?
What bait should I use for Mice ?
Where should I place Mice traps?