Rodent Problem - Traps Are Not Working. Ready to Burn Down the House

Check out Shawn Woods Mouse Trap Monday on YouTube. Floating Doc suggested it on the Mouser thread, kudos man. Great site if ya wanna kill rodents.

He's prolly reviewed hundreds of mouse and rat traps, kill and live traps. 

Bucket trap is a cheap, easy and effective build. May not get all rats tho as they can hold on the bucket edge but it's one of the best for baggin' mice. Cleaned out my garage in less than two days. 

Never had rats in all my years here, Shawn would have a trap for them tho. 

He has a website too: https://new.mousetrapmonday.com/category/mousetrap/

RossD said:

Know anyone with a terrier? Rent, borrow, steal, buy one. Might want to look for a Rat Terrier in specific. 

http://www.terrierman.com/ratdog.htm

 

Max the mini schnauzer was a fabulous guy.  Mice lived in fear of Max.

You need a mink

https://youtu.be/mrIDQKCVGsI

My first house was over run with mice. It had so many holes that I literally had to cup my hands around my lighter to light a smoke on a windy day. (Quit smoking almost 36 years ago, BTW)

Tried traps, poison, etc. Minimal success.  

I kept a .22 revolver loaded with bird shot next to my chair. Pretty effective.

You need these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00APWMD3A/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I used short (10" or so) scraps of 2"x4" and screwed these to them, one per 2x4, to keep the trap from being dragged around. It also makes the mouse reach up to the bait so it's more likely to snap them in the right spot. These traps grab quickly and effectively but so gently that a 3 year old's fingers won't be hurt in the least by them so you can put them in places you can't put the regular snap traps. It would still scare her given the noise and grabbiness of it so not much worry of her making a habit of handling a dirty mouse trap. I bait mine with peanut butter. You don't need to rebait between mice, just dump the dead mouse far from the house and reset the trap. If it doesn't get them they can't get to the bait once the trap is tripped so you're not at risk of just feeding mice.

We had a mouse infestation when we bought the house. I set all six and got all six many days in a row. Now we just get a few as the seasons change.

Wire screening. I like the expanded mesh used in plaster. Cut a two foot square. Take a extension cord and cut the end off and separate the wires and attach the white wire to the screen. Take a dowel that is about one and one half inches long and stick through the screen so it sticks up and gorilla glue it to the screen on the bottom. Take the black wire and strip off about and inch of insulation and tape it to the dowel with the exposed wire sticking above the dowel top. You can run it under the screen if you want but totally not necessary. Apply peanut butter to exposed wire. 

Put some place where dogs cats and kids won’t find it and plug it in. Put a light on the same circuit. Where you can see it. Then the light goes out you have dead rat or mouse.  I strongly recommend not putting it on a 30 amp breaker. A 20 or 15 will be plenary. A 30 amp will bring the water in the critter to a boil before the breaker pops resulting in a rapid pressure build up from the steam. The resulting small explosion while being quite sadisfying can be a bit messy. Make sure to unplug the trap when removing the body’s and re loading with peanut butter. Then reset the breaker and repeat as needed. 

I should add that the first time I did this beer was involved at my friends welding shop and we used 208 volts from the welder plug.  The resulting plasma arc vaporized the rat. 

We learned that more was not always better. 

I've recently moved out into the country and luckily I don't have a rodent problem in the house.  The problem I'm  having is the mice really like my FRS.  I have three cars and only a two car garage so the FRS lives outside.  I've found a nest under the hood a couple of times and I've seen mouse prints in the snow leading to and from it.  The funniest was when I was driving down the road and there was suddenly a mouse on one of the windshield wipers.  I think it got too hot under the hood so it crawled out onto the windshield.  I hit the wipers and it flew over the car onto the back window and managed to hang on for a while until a turn and it lost its grip.  Aside from building another garage (which is happening this summer), any tips for keeping rodents out of my car?  There's no food or wrappers in the car, I haven't eaten in it at all, and so far they've just been under the hood, not in the passenger compartment.

Here's the stowaway on the back window.

For the rodents in the car, I have been using hot sauce.  I bought some one million unit hot "sauce" on amazon, put it in a quart squirt bottle, filled it the rest of the way with rubbing alcohol, and at each oil change, I squirt down the engine bay.  Outside.  While either holding my breath or wearing a paint respirator. So far, so good, knock on wood.  And I've had "issues." 

dean1484 said:

Wire screening. I like the expanded mesh used in plaster. Cut a two foot square. Take a extension cord and cut the end off and separate the wires and attach the white wire to the screen. Take a dowel that is about one and one half inches long and stick through the screen so it sticks up and gorilla glue it to the screen on the bottom. Take the black wire and strip off about and inch of insulation and tape it to the dowel with the exposed wire sticking above the dowel top. You can run it under the screen if you want but totally not necessary. Apply peanut butter to exposed wire. 

Put some place where dogs cats and kids won’t find it and plug it in. Put a light on the same circuit. Where you can see it. Then the light goes out you have dead rat or mouse.  I strongly recommend not putting it on a 30 amp breaker. A 20 or 15 will be plenary. A 30 amp will bring the water in the critter to a boil before the breaker pops resulting in a rapid pressure build up from the steam. The resulting small explosion while being quite sadisfying can be a bit messy. Make sure to unplug the trap when removing the body’s and re loading with peanut butter. Then reset the breaker and repeat as needed. 

 

This would've worked with my coon problem.

Dr. Hess said:

For the rodents in the car, I have been using hot sauce.  I bought some one million unit hot "sauce" on amazon, put it in a quart squirt bottle, filled it the rest of the way with rubbing alcohol, and at each oil change, I squirt down the engine bay.  Outside.  While either holding my breath or wearing a paint respirator. So far, so good, knock on wood.  And I've had "issues." 

What happens if you have to work on the car?  

In reply to chaparral :

This. I had a rat problem. Caught one in a trap, still had the issue. Got one cat (best friend ever), he caught FIVE in one day. FIVE! After that, we never saw any mice. I now have 3 cats... (I know, I’m one over the legal limit.) my neighbors complained about having mouse problems, we moved in next door and guess who doesn’t have problems anymore. 

In reply to Trackmouse :

Imagine how scared humans would be if they had a predator as fast and as big as a Greyhound bus. That's a cat, to a mouse. 

Feral cats are awesome hunters and killers. One dropped off mama cat had a litter on my upstairs porch one year. Neighbor adopted 'em (oh so cute n cuddly) and built a lean-to next to their shed. Mouse free here for the year.

Then they started dragging mice, birds, rabbits, moles, chipmunks and even small squirrels home. 

They all went to a farm after that.

MadScientistMatt said:

Bait the snap traps with vacuum cleaner hose and boot heels.

Congratulations, sir.  You have achieved humor level "Wally".  ;-)

RossD said:

Know anyone with a terrier? Rent, borrow, steal, buy one. Might want to look for a Rat Terrier in specific. 

http://www.terrierman.com/ratdog.htm

 

My suggestion as well and read Tales of a rat hunting man. 

There have been several threads like this...including one I started. 

Poison is the “Miata” of rodent eradication.

They sell plastic traps at home depot. Kids, cats, & dogs can’t get in. Rodents eat the poison, then they die. Problem solved.

PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO NOT USE ANTIFREEZE!!! 

Side bar YouTube rabbit hole - or rat hole if you prefer. Search terms “mink dog rat hunting” and the other good one is “terrier nyc rat hunting”

I thought the obvious answer was rat snake.  

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

If you are having problems catching rodents you might be setting up your traps incorrectly.  Rats and mice are afraid of a human's scent so it is important to wear gloves when handling a trap.  Just smear a pea sized bit of peanut butter on the trap and you are good to go.  Traps need to be placed perpendicular to walls and ledges. 

Use a lot of traps to quickly get rid of the rodents.  I used 12 traps to deal with rats in a crawlspace recently, which made quick work of the problem.  Also as a rough guide to help you identify the type of rodent you are dealing with the, mice have dropping about half the size of a grain of rice, rats the size of a small bean.  If your mouse traps are being set off without any success suspect rats, if your rat traps are being set off without success suspect squirrels.  Hope this helps and good luck!

There is something to be said for a few semi-feral neighborhood cats - I haven't had a rodent problem in years. 

In reply to Quasimo1 :

We've never had a problem just setting traps and catching mice.  They always seem to go for it.  This time, it's been no luck, so far.  We set the traps in places where there's evidence of rodents, along baseboards, etc.  It's always worked in the past.  This time we even tried switching up the bait.  The rodents had gone after some butter we'd left out, so we baited one trap with some of the butter.  We also tried some lunchmeat.  And the peanut butter.

Right now, we have 4 rat-sized glue traps, 3 snap rat traps, a bucket trap with water, a small have-a-heart trap, and 4 or 5 mouse snap traps set.  Our house is like a minefield.  All weekend- caught nothing, no traps tripped, no bait touched.  

I did get all the holes in the floors sealed with wood plugs.  So maybe that helped.  We haven't noted any new droppings nor anything else chewed.  

Try some poision, perhaps play with baiting traps.

There comes a time to engage professionals though.  Your level of frustration indicates that you should at least seriously consider hiring an exterminator. 

some rats are better than others.  I tried the steel wool and he just kept eating thru it and dragging it across the room.  I bought the poison traps and he actually ate into the packaging for the extra "bait" for a snack.  Finally went old school and put out the rat sized spring traps baited with peanut butter and he was one dead rat very quickly.  You just have to keep trying and find the solution.  It was in my office or I would have gone to the animal shelter for a young female cat.  Males are too lazy.

You need a Cleo.  She's effective on mice, rats, moles, voles, chipmunks, baby rabbits...