The art of mice catching!!
OK this is the time of year when the little devils come inside and for those of us who live in the country it can be infuriating to find the damage they can do. I have been battling with this problem since we moved here five years ago and here are my thoughts:-
First, a warning, if you do catch one
do NOT relax, there will
always be more than one, possibly a lot more
TRAPS
The temptation is to go out and buy one of traditional traps, you know the ones with a rectangular piece of wood with a crude spring and wire lever thing...........
don't waste your money, they maybe cheap but they are useless, time consuming to set, difficult to get any bait to stay on and worst of all they often only catch the mouse by the leg and I have had several dragged away and not found for days.
There have been a few firms who have tried to improve on this basic design and go by the name of
'Super Cat' or
'Little Cheese' these are a bit better at catching them but you
MUST mount them on a
thick heavy flat piece of wood about 12 inches square. If you screw them down make sure the trap can still be set, I used to use hot melt glue which was quick and strong enough to hold it in place.
But, the mice can still get the bait off without triggering the trap, or get the bait and get away before the arm has come down on them.
There is a bigger version of the traditional type which has a removeable bait 'dish' in the centre, this makes it easier to put the bait in but I still found that the wire arm sometimes only partly caught the mouse and you are faced with an injured and not dead mouse the next morning so I would not recommend these.
I have now standardised on the
'Big Cheese' which is a big black trap with a large clam type cover and a powerful spring. Made by Rentokill I think, the advantage of this type is that the mouse has to get both feet on the trigger plate and when this happens the clam cover comes down in exactly the right place,
death is instant and there is no pain for the mouse. I would still advise mounting it on a wooden plinth about 12 inches square and you can set the trap with your foot and remove any dead mice with a pair of tongs so there's no need to get up close and look them in th eye
BAIT
This is a big problem with the conventional types, what ever you use will
not stay on the hook and usually has to be wired on which is a very time consuming job.
I bought two syringes from B&Q and when they were empty I continued to refill them with peanut butter which I've found works well, or strawberry jam but that is a bit messy. The B&Q syringes are expensive (About £4 each IIRC) but as I say
they can be reused and it sure saves a lot of time as you just
squeeeze the plunger to put the bait on the 'dish'
ULTRASONIC
The jury is still out on these, I am happy that they operate above a dogs hearing level so they are OK to use with pets but I am
not certain they really work. I have read that they are best used
BEFORE the mice arrive, i.e. they will deter a mouse from entering the room but once in they won't make it go away. I use one in my workshop and have not seen any mice on the ground floor where it is located, but upstairs in the loft area they are still around
HUMANE TYPE
A good friend on Dogsey asked me to try these and I have used both the one with a little stairway which drops down and prevents the mouse from getting out, I have also used the 'Revolver trap' type which is a once only trap, the mouse is supposed to go in and then you throw the whole thing away.
Neither of these have caught even one mouse, and even if they did it would be neccessary to walk at least half a mile down the road to release them
else they would be back PDQ
POISON
Definately not to be used if you have cats or dogs. I have tried putting it in a tray inside a biscuit tin with holes on the side and a big brick on top, it does work but my worry is that if the mouse was found outside our dogs might play with it and might even eat it and then the poison would be in them, it must be a slow death for the mouse too so all in all I wo't be using poison anymore.
A CAT
Yes, a good 'mouser' is probably the ultimate deterent but if you have dogs that are not used to cats then it is not an option. Our two Newfies will always chase a cat if they see one so I have no experience of this method