Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: DC on April 27, 2020, 07:27:45 pm
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I think we have at least one mouse wandering around our house. I've been after him/her(I hope not) for about a week. I have eight Victor traps out. I've tried peanut butter(licked clean except for the stuff under the trigger), pretzels(ignored), Tootsie Rolls(ignored in the house but I did catch a rat with it in the crawl space) and tonight I'm trying sunflower seeds hot glued to the trigger. Funny thing is the only thing we've noticed is that they've chewed off houseplants. A Ti plant. a Jade plant and a cactus of some kind. They have also pulled off some carpet close to a crack between the wall and the floor. The crack is only about 1/8" by 3", too small for them to go through. Our gut feeling is that they/it are trying to get out. Any thoughts? It's starting to get to me. I sure wouldn't make any money as a trapper :D
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I use the same trap with a piece of dry dog food wired to the trigger also cheese squished into the trigger. Both work good. I tried hot glue but nothing messed with it.
Oh, by the way, you never have just one mouse. ;)
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They can get through a very small crease! I agree with Pat B, there isn't ever only one! Ham fat spread on the trigger works, just enough to encourage a firm hit! Keep a trap line loaded!
Hawkdancer
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put the end of trap against the wall. the end without the bait.
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I use the sticky traps with a smidge of peanut butter in the center. Never failed to catch a mouse yet with that combo.
Yeah, they're single use, but with my temperament, I'd be punching holes in the walls and baseboards with a pellet gun by now in an attempt to shoot the darn things.
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try the rolling can trap
it's DIY and it's very difficult to pick the peanutbutter without falling in
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I super glued a chunk of Frito on the Pan- took 4 in a row :OK ! Bob
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Couple of ways I do it around the hunting camp.
super glue a kernel of corn to the trap catch. They can't steal it on you.
take a gallon ice cream bucket and fill it half full of water. Sprinkle sun flower seeds on to the water. place it near a wall and lay a board on an angle to it.
Both of these have worked real good. I don't have them inside the cabin but in the out house and other buildings.
I also take rat traps and screw them to a tree, super glue corn to the catch to get rid of the red squirrels.
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Maybe you need to ask outback about his figure 4 deadfall on page 2 of primitive section. He’s doing pretty good thinning the herd. :-T
Bjrogg
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Adopt a cat from the pound.
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They can get through a very small crease! I agree with Pat B, there isn't ever only one! Ham fat spread on the trigger works, just enough to encourage a firm hit! Keep a trap line loaded!
Hawkdancer
There can be only one...if you've already caught the other one :-)
I use a raisin stuffed into the hole at the end of the trigger then peanut butter slathered over that.
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Has anyone run across them eating houseplants? I searched Google and the best I can find is that they will dig in the soil around the plant but I couldn't find anything about them eating the plant. It's a strange behaviour to me.
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I wire a small piece of Bologna on with peanut butter on the trigger then dribble honey over it. Works every time.
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Sticky traps are fail proof. I put a peanut or almond right in the middle. 100% success.
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For mice nothing is better than the old fashioned snap traps. Bait with salami or pepperoni, stuck into the bait hook on the pan, or if no hook, tie down with dental floss. Set against the wall as willie says, placement is very important the biggest mistake most people make.
But: Mice can't help but leave droppings everywhere they go and are very easy to catch, so combined with the fact that you caught a rat in the crawlspace, I don't think you are chasing a mouse. Norway rats are hard to trap (roof rats not so much). A rat sized snap trap set the same as above for mice may work. I usually just poison rats and accept the fact that I may be looking for a smelly corpse a few weeks later. The trap I have found that actually works the best for them is a chipmunk/squirrel sized live (cage) trap baited with oil type sunflower seeds (bird seed) or dry pet food. Of course, you then have a live rat to deal with...
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The only difference between a rat and squirrel is the tail. ;D ::)
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Usually wherever I have had rats, I don’t have mice. It just seems like they chase all the mice out. They can be very difficult to get rid of. Fortunately I have never had them in my house.
I’m a bit curious that all you find is damaged plants. I really can’t remember that problem. Usually it’s turds in the bread drawer or a hole in some type of food package. They usually leave sign. Like said , they can’t control urine and poo. They leave a trail wherever they go and others follow it.
I like to wrap peanut butter on trigger with toilet paper. Might be to valuable for that right now. I also like the chunky peanut butter and usually press a chunk right into the hole on trigger. If you wrap with toilet paper and alternating layers of peanut butter. They will try to eat both and set off the trap. When you still have peanut butter on the trigger and a dead mouse in the trap, maybe you got em all.
Bjrogg
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Practice your primitive skills at home, set ya some figure 4 deadfalls.
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We have had no damage and no sign of critters since I got the rat in the crawl space. The crawl space is more a short basement. It's sealed up as tight as the rest of the house. Well it is now. We have a bay window and a jut out in our dining room. The lazy contractor(me) never got around to putting soffit material under either spot. There was just insulation. After 40 years it was getting kind of tattered so I finally put soffit material on them. I'm thinking that a rat was nesting in the insulation and I trapped it in the house when I put the soffits on. I haven't quite figured out how it got from the crawl space to the house but there are possibilities. Anyway I'll leave the trapline out for a few weeks. just to be sure. I caught the rat with an old Victor rat trap baited with Tootsie Roll and a couple of raisins I took out of my granola.
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Here is how I dealt with a mouse in my bow shop. The trophy picture is gone from the post.
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,49527.0.html
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Clint that reminds me of my first hunt with my dad. Actually my dad wasn’t much into hunting. He was always to busy working to hunt.
Us kids did have a pellet gun and even though we were really young, we could hit what we were aiming at with it. One night dad said we were going hunting. We put on our barn clothes and each carried a flashlight. We went to the barn and didn’t turn on any lights. Just shined our flashlight. We went to the the where we stored the oats to feed our calves. Just shining the flashlight and stopping it’s beam on mice. They would freeze in the light. Then we would shoot them with the pellet gun. I still can see it. Well over fifty years ago. It was a little creepy, but it was a great hunt with my old man. We then shined the light in the rafters and shot sparrows. Later in life my dad started to do a little hunting as he had more time, since us grown kids did more of the work. I went deer hunting with him a few times. I don’t recall any of those hunts as much as I do the mouse hunt. Just proves to me. It’s more about the hunt than the trophy.
Bjrogg
PS we didn’t use the same method for deer. Just in case your wondering.lol
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Usually wherever I have had rats, I don’t have mice. It just seems like they chase all the mice out. They can be very difficult to get rid of. Fortunately I have never had them in my house.
That's because the Rats eat the Mice. I came across a Rat's nest once in my Grandmother's barn. Inside were Mouse bones and some of their skins turned inside out. It was a very strange thing
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Here is how I dealt with a mouse in my bow shop. The trophy picture is gone from the post.
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,49527.0.html
Good read OO :D