Mice in my kitchen.

[Jikan]

Backstory: I live in a converted garage next to someone else's house, in a suburb near Washington, DC. It's cozy and affordable, but also a bit drafty, and our neighbors are not the tidiest people on the block.

Consequently, we have friends. Raccoon friends outside, rodent friends now in our kitchen. Raccoons aren't such a problem. The chubby gray mice, however...

I want to get the mice out of the kitchen without killing them before our moderately-disabled housecat kills one or gets sick trying. None of the live traps I've tried have worked; these mice are clever enough to get the peanut butter out of the little widget before the trapdoor comes down.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated by myself, Donnie the cat, and the mice too.

[muni]

http://journal.chrisglass.com/2005/09/h ... ch_a_.html Maybe this. Put enough tissue or old piece of cloth in the bucket. Free it in safe area.

[Jikan]

http://journal.chrisglass.com/2005/09/how_to_catch_a_.html Maybe this. Put enough tissue or old piece of cloth in the bucket. Free it in safe area.

Oh, that's a great idea. Thanks!

[kirtu]

Well I have used live traps that I thought didn't work only to discover that they finally did work (unfortunately all too well). Don't give up on the live traps but check them daily. I also had a large maze like live trap that didn't seem to work at all but it was totally transparent.

I personally never got the fooling mice into a bucket trap to work either but finally the mice went away (we had a brief infestation in the building a few years ago).

Kirt

[Inge]

Some mice jump very high, so make sure the bucket or trash-can must is deep enough, and also to have something soft in the bottom. Like kirtu I also once made a trap that for a while was not visited, and then I forgot about it, and went on vacation, during which a mice was caught and died in the trap.

[Tara]

Hi,

This is the humane trap that we have been using for several years to catch field mice who come into the farmhouse sometimes. It has been great and very successful. As mentioned above it is vital to check the trap/s at least a couple of times a day. (We put tasty mice treats at the end away from the entrance!)



regards,

rt

[Jikan]

hi rainbowtara777,

what's the name of that mousetrap? do you have a link for it?

thanks

Jikan

[Tara]

hi rainbowtara777,

what's the name of that mousetrap? do you have a link for it?

thanks

Jikan

Hi Jikan,

The trap appears to be called the Trip Trap. Here is a link for the trap http://www.pestfreehome.co.uk/trip-trap ... etails.htm I hope the information is of use.

Regards,

rt

[Jikan]

Yes, thank you everyone very much

[Huifeng]

Mice will only be there if there is an available food source. Even if you put in traps, as long as the food source is there, their cousins from next door will soon replace them.

[Jikan]

This is so, Ven. Huifeng.

I have reason to think the available food source for these mice is the neighbor's overflowing trashbin, a few meters from my kitchen window. I can't find anything in my kitchen or pantry that has been consumed by rodents, but I know they're lodging around here overnight...

this could get complicated.

[Tilopa]

The truth is it's not your kitchen, it belongs to the mice as well but if out of compassion you feel the need to expel them from their home so as to save them from your savage cat then the kill free traps are a good option.

[Huifeng]

This is so, Ven. Huifeng.

I have reason to think the available food source for these mice is the neighbor's overflowing trashbin, a few meters from my kitchen window. I can't find anything in my kitchen or pantry that has been consumed by rodents, but I know they're lodging around here overnight...

Well identified.

this could get complicated.

Just don't let it turn out like the Naples mafia trash wars!

[spiritnoname]

Once when returning to my house after a long time,... my family hadn't kept things clean,.. mice came and after cleaning the house out we bought humane traps,.. they didn't work,. then we bought glue traps,.. Never get glue traps,.. I was only able to pull one out of the glue and release it in the hills,.. the others I put in freezer ziplocks and suffocated them to keep them from chewing off their legs,.. which took like 3 days,.. Just buy poison,.. Sooner rather than later,.. you'll have to kill more later.

The trashcan/paper towel roll thing looks good,.. I wish I had seen that design 2 years ago.

[fragrant herbs]

We have mice but they have no food source because everything is in jars. they come in during the winter for warmth.

glue traps are inhumane as you learned spiritnoname. better to have killed them instantly when you could not get them off the trap, but maybe you could have with peanut butter rubbed into the glue. i use a humane trap and then take them at least 2 miles away so they won't return, and i let them loose where they can get food and water, like the river with lots of trash cans that some people don't really use very well. poison is not a humane way either as it causes them much suffering in that it is very painful. the live traps will work if you put cheese on it and make it stick so they have a hard time getting it loose. but then there is the possibility that you have caught a mom mouse, and if you take her away her babies will suffer in death. better to try to mouse proof your house by putting steel wood pads between the pipes and finding any hole that they have made and cover it up with wood putty or whatever. i had a mouse proof farm house until one day i saw some mice and learned that they had made a little moon shaped hole behind the refrigerator.

These poisons give the animal that eat them anything but a nice death.
Rats and mice take an average of around 7 days to die after poisoning, and spend much of this time in severe pain. Anticoagulant poisons work by causing internal bleeding. They die paralysed and in pain, from blood loss and internal organ damage.

http://www.civicdirect.net/article/help-stop-suffering-caused-rat-poison

[Jikan]

Live trap did the job. This morning I liberated a very large and healthy gray mouse in a wooded area. Depending on your view, I either saved its life from endless torment at the hands of this myopic and confused tomcat I rescued earlier, or I just fed a fox.

[spiritnoname]

(nods),.. keeping the house sealed and clean is the best way,... I think also lighting strong incense makes mice and bugs avoid your house.

[catmoon]

Live trap did the job. This morning I liberated a very large and healthy gray mouse in a wooded area. Depending on your view, I either saved its life from endless torment at the hands of this myopic and confused tomcat I rescued earlier, or I just fed a fox.

Or maybe you just set a future Buddha on the path to enlightenment.

[Jikan]

Live trap did the job. This morning I liberated a very large and healthy gray mouse in a wooded area. Depending on your view, I either saved its life from endless torment at the hands of this myopic and confused tomcat I rescued earlier, or I just fed a fox.

Or maybe you just set a future Buddha on the path to enlightenment.

That's my wish. I passed it under a door mantra a few times as well.

Live trap caught another about ten minutes ago.

[Individual]

Just be mindful and compassionate -- not stupid and pitiful.

However you treat the mice will be good.