Mouse Trap

I've been having mice problems in the yard, common for desert life. Thought my buddy left my backyard...




But (s)he's Back!

Cool! You know what else keeps mice away? Irish Spring soap. No ****. A friend of mine stores his hot-rod out at a farm and all he does is cut a bar into four pieces and put them on the floor inside, then he cuts up another bar and scatters it around the wheels. No mice for the last four years.

desertBrew said:

I've been having mice problems in the yard, common for desert life. Thought my buddy left my backyard...




But (s)he's Back!

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Woah! "Red touches yellow, kill a fellow....red touches black..venom lack"

Looks like the real thing there. Coolio....so long as the kiddies and pets keep away.

-Todd

The first year I lived up here, I saw this large brown rubbery looking snake in the meadow. So, I searched on "brown rubber snake oregon": Rubber boa! Wish I had gotten a picture, but they spend most of their time in rodent tunnels catching & digesting criters.

I think this beauty got a bath for the photo op:

HomerT said:

Woah! "Red touches yellow, kill a fellow....red touches black..venom lack"

Looks like the real thing there. Coolio....so long as the kiddies and pets keep away.

-Todd

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98% sure it's a king snake. That's not a high res picture but if I zoom in really close; that's just white bands between the orange and black. It's the 2% that always concerns me however .

I search for AZ coral and AZ king and I've yet to see a pic of any that look just like this guy. AZ coral's have a definitive wide yellow stripe. I've see it in my backyard for the past 3-4 years in summer. Keeps getting bigger. Dave, you used to live here. King right?

I got to try that irish spring. But I'll have to go to Sams Club as I got a lot of em.

Jesus Christ, I hate snakes. Thank God there's virtually no poisonous snakes around here (I think a few timber rattlers may live in the mountains, nothing I've ever come across). I'm a chicken****, not afraid to admit, when it comes to snakes; if I see even a garter snake, I'm grabbing a shovel and chopping the damn thing in half.

Needless to say, there's a particular movie coming out now that I WILL NOT be going to see.

Chairman Cheyco said:

Cool! You know what else keeps mice away? Irish Spring soap. No ****. A friend of mine stores his hot-rod out at a farm and all he does is cut a bar into four pieces and put them on the floor inside, then he cuts up another bar and scatters it around the wheels. No mice for the last four years.

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A friend of a friend owns an auto boneyard and had a problem with rats stealing his Lava soap. Found all of the bars under the hood of a Chevy.

I've seen corals without any yellow on them or the yellow is so pale it looks white.



But, the bands on a coral will go all the way around and they are rarely over 2 feet long. Stiil, I'm not expert.

I have a health respect for venomous snakes. The area in Illinois where I was raised was close to a race track & we would see rattle snakes once in a while.

desertBrew said:

98% sure it's a king snake. That's not a high res picture but if I zoom in really close; that's just white bands between the orange and black. It's the 2% that always concerns me however .

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http://www.reptilesofaz.com/Snakes-Subpages/h-r-lecontei.html
Appears to be a western longnose....

thats a longnose snake. same patterns as a coral but non venomous. Ive caught 3 this year. You can tell becasue the bands dont go all the way around.

Its a kingsnake/milksnake not sure which, and they are usually well tempered, so feel free to pick it up

Chimone said:

thats a longnose snake. same patterns as a coral but non venomous. Ive caught 3 this year. You can tell becasue the bands dont go all the way around.

Its a kingsnake/milksnake not sure which, and they are usually well tempered, so feel free to pick it up

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Thanks Chimone and nice surfing HomerT. As for picking it up, I'll leave that to the_bird . I printed out a picture of mine and will pop by the fire station for a positive ID. They charge my butt $450 annual for fire service and snake removal . They owe me.

Chairman Cheyco said:

Cool! You know what else keeps mice away? Irish Spring soap. No ****. A friend of mine stores his hot-rod out at a farm and all he does is cut a bar into four pieces and put them on the floor inside, then he cuts up another bar and scatters it around the wheels. No mice for the last four years.

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There's lots of cool little tricks to keep away mice. Using mothballs, or Bounce fabric sheets both work well. Or, if you don't have pets or little kids ( i know, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference ) you can put out a dish of antifreeze. They'll drink it up and be goners in no time.

An in-ground pool works too. They can only swim for so long. I scoop 1-2 out almost daily in the morning.

Watching a greyhound catch a mouse (about the size of the black tip of her nose) is a real hoot.

Heck, I use rat poison to kill the mice. Ol' Timers call it Bar-Bait? Works like a charm.

Still, the drowning sounds like a spectacular way to go?

david_42 said:

Watching a greyhound catch a mouse (about the size of the black tip of her nose) is a real hoot.

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maybe thats why I don't have mice or rats around here?

My 100-lb lab/pit bull has taken out some moles before, but unfortunately I've never had the opportunity to watch. More unfortunately, he wants to do the same to the cats.

the_bird said:

More unfortunately, he wants to do the same to the cats.

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well a dog needs to supplement its diet somehow.......