Mouse problem - advice re traps

[kurgan]

Well Smeagol's terrapin food that I left otu to dry (soaked and mixed with calc/d3 supplement) has attracted some unwelcome guest of the rodent kind.
I've left some spring loaded old school mousetraps out and so far we have one clean kill (baited with terrapin food!!).
Has anyone had any similar problems?
Gluetraps are hideously cruel and I feel the same about poison (plus the problem of decaying mouse under the floorboards!), live release traps seem to me to be irresponsible and potentially just as cruel.
Has anyone come across any other sort of trap?

My wife wanted to put the corpses to use feeding Monty but given I have no idea what they will have eaten (poison, parasites etc.) and that he is feeding nicely on rats, that is not going to happen.

[frankykeno]

We rent an old house and have a few visitors of the furry variety this fall. Oddly enough they never head for the rodent room where I have tons of rats and rat food for them (I keep it in a closed bucket but you would think the smell would attract them to some degree). Anyways we tried those live traps and they were next to useless. The mice just came back or got in and out of the trap without triggering it. Old school snap mouse traps work the best for us and the mice are just disposed of. I wouldn't feed wild mice due to issues with illness (wild rodents can carry some nasty diseases) plus there is no way they can be as nutrious for our snakes because they are hunting constantly for food unlike our chubby well fed, home raised feeder rodents. Wish we still had our old female cat around. She was such a good mouser that she only had to nail a couple of them and the rest just buggered off once they sensed her prowling about the house at night.

[kurgan]

A cat would be my choice of mouse trap too but there are a few issues in the way. Jen is allergic to many cats and finding one that she isn't too bad with could be quite trickey and emotionally difficult, also the flat we are living in isn't ideal in terms of space.
Eventually

[Ginevive]

I feel your pain. We lie in bed at night and can actually hear them moving/chewing inside of the walls of the house, and no amount if yellin', bangin', or swearin' makes them be quiet. Our cat kills a pretty large share of them though; he is our only rodent defense, and he's a great mouser.
I wonder if you could look into a hairless cat?

[tmlowe5704]

try peanut butter on the traps

[kurgan]

I love cats but I don't think I could ever have a hairless cat - they just look too bloody weird!

I have brought a jar of peanut butter for this purpose actually. The whole routine is fairly grim and setting the traps is very fiddly but we too have heard them running around at night.

[slartibartfast]

Back when I lived in the Appalachians, there were always mice. We use peanut butter for a while, but had mice smart enough to lick it off without triggering the trap. Ultimately what worked best was shreds of raw bacon, attached with thread. They love the smell and the amount of force necessary for them to chew on it is much more likely to spring the trap.

Edit: Hairless cats are not significantly less likely to cause allergies. The compounds that humans are allergic to are in the saliva, not the hair itself although it gets transferred to the hair when the cat grooms.

[kurgan]

Just found the mouse base camp so to speak - an old microwave hot water bottle in the back of the cupboard (closet). It was stuffed with grains of what and the mice had hollowed it out and made a nest. Rather gross.
So far the mouse scalp count stands at 2.

[frankykeno]

We too are using the snap traps and it's beyond gross getting up in the morning and having to deal with the corpses before having a coffee! I swear I'm going to adopt a barn cat if this goes on much longer. I love big old houses but don't love their resident mouse populations one bit!

[sweety314]

Snap traps are the only way to go..unless you've got really good mouser kitties.


Stripe USED to be, then she'd just play w/'em *sigh*

Now w/THREE cats (all former barn cats) in the garage, and 4 cats in the house (yeah, yeah...we're a cathouse hee hee ) I don't expect to have any mice this winter.

When I lived surrounded by fields and grass seed, the mice came in and what the cats couldn't? wouldn't? catch, the snap trap did...Oh,...that and a newly emptied kitchen garbage can w/just a few scraps in the bottom. Two got in, but couldn't get back out (for some oddball reason) and I had to smoosh 'em

And growing up in a single wide, my mom loooooooved the Decon, but boy!! did they always stink for a week or so in the summer when they died in the walls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But YEAH, you DON'T want to feed wild mice. Too much of a chance they've eaten poisoned seed corn or grain or Decon from somewhere (even if you didn't care about the parasites and fleas.)

Good luck in your irradication!