Little $#!+ mice, need peace of mind

[Yesfan]

Bummer. I've had a mole problem too. I've got a weeping cherry I planted many years ago. I thought it was dead this year as it produced no blooms. In the past, the blooms usually powder my driveway, especially on a brew day. It does have leaves despite no earlier blooms. There's a lot of mole holes near it, which I treated last year. I'm hoping it's just getting a late start this year since there was some cold snaps here and there.

About the poison......One reason I don't, and haven't, used it is because of my dad. Many many years ago, my dad got the bright idea of using Coca-Cola as pest control. Put a little Coke in the cap lid and they'll drink it up like we do with home brew. Apparently mice can't burp, so the co2 from Coke builds up to a point where it kills them. Well, when they die (and start to smell), good luck finding them. After visiting him one evening, walking in just to get the scent of dead bloated mouse (a scent you'll never see on a bottle of Febreze, thank God), I knew then and there any mouse poison was going to be off the list.

Sorry to hear about the shrubs.....

EDIT: You said voles, sorry. For some reason I ran with moles in your post.

 

[Nagorg]

I use the food grade 5gal buckets from Lowe’s with Gamma lids. Comes out to less than $15. When I’m out of grain, I use them to store wood smoker pellets.

I use those for grain storage too and they work really well. But if you have a rodent issue, those little f'ers will chew right through the plastic.

In that case you'll need to set the buckets inside a steel trashcan with a lid or some other chew-proof solution they cant squeeze into. If they know there's food to be had, they will be relentless at trying to get into it.

 

[Nagorg]

Bet they can't get into https://www.lowes.com/pd/Behrens-20-Gallon-Silver-Galvanized-Metal-Trash-Can-with-Lid/999995394

They cant!

 

[shoengine]

Two traps?? That sounds like a bad ass mouse to me. If he has brothers, might have to break out the heavy artillery (stray cat, small dog, rpg...)

One trap had two rats

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Mouse poison is not really a problem for predators. A mouse would have to eat like a Rottweiler in order to store enough poison to endanger a predator later. And you don't have to put the mice where other animals can eat them. Mine get their own version of Space Mountain, right to the septic tank. Either that, or I dump them in the trash.

Where I live, it would be a great blessing if dead mice poisoned other animals. I have coons, possums. bobcats, coyotes, foxes, and squirrels. They all need to die, basically.

I don't rely on poison by itself to kill the mice. I use it because it's an ideal tool to make traps do what they're supposed to do. The mice don't get to eat it, because the traps kill them while they're trying to grab it.

I've used the old wooden traps with peanut butter, bacon, factory mouse bait, and God knows what else. The mice lick the traps clean and run off. When you use a Tomcat plastic trap with peanut butter under a ball of Victor poison, the mouse has no shot. The mouse has to move the ball to get the peanut butter, and when it does that, it dies. I have a 100% kill ratio with this method. I have never found a snapped trap with no mouse in it or an unsnapped trap with the bait gone. I have reused the same bait balls because the mice died before they could eat them.

With the wooden traps, the mice usually won, and I've seen a mouse run across the house with a glue trap stuck to it and then escape. I've seen them shake glue traps off, and I've found footprints in glue traps that didn't have mice in them.

The mice love the stink of the Victor balls, just as they love the smell of peanut butter. Put them together, and a mouse can't resist. I assume other things will work, but using poison balls guarantees me kills if the mice ever succeed in stealing bait.

I also use bait balls to see if there is mouse activity. Put several in a neat row on the floor, and if there is a mouse around, you'll wake up to see the balls moved. If nothing happens for many days, you know you probably don't have a hole in your roof vent or some other opening mice can get in.

I don't worry about dead mice stinking the house up, because it hasn't been a problem. I've put glue traps in my attic, and when I caught mice, I never noticed any smell. Maybe other people with different construction would have problems. I had some smelly mice when I found them in traps I set in the open, but it's not a big deal. Flush and mop. Problem gone.

I wouldn't use the bait balls where a pet could get at them, or if I had really stupid children, but they're perfect for my situation.

Now that the roof is fixed, I don't expect to need the traps, but they will definitely do the job for other people.

 

[bwible]

We have 4 cats so mice will never be a problem here. I found one on the floor one day. They have a bunch of toy mice but this looked different. Sure enough it was a real, once alive, now dead mouse. I don’t know how he got in but that was his mistake.

If you have your stuff in a barn there are many rescue organizations that have cats they want to adopt out as barn cats. They might have come in as ferals or they’re not quite socialized, etc. Cats that prefer to be outdoors. They would live in your barn and you just feed them. That would solve any mouse problem.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Find me a cat that eats squirrels.

 

[beren]

Find me a cat that eats squirrels.

Those are called tigers or maybe a bobcat. See if anyone wants to reintroduce them in your area Building Bobcat Alley

 

[AzOr]

“Honey, after all the research I’ve done about ridding gardens of squirrels, seems like the only ethical, environmental, humane way is to purchase a fancy pellet rifle.”

I would totally go out and buy a fancy Gamo w scope.

 

[shoengine]

“Honey, after all the research I’ve done about ridding gardens of squirrels, seems like the only ethical, environmental, humane way is to purchase a fancy pellet rifle.”

I would totally go out and buy a fancy Gamo w scope.

I'll shoot BBs at the metal objects those stupid woodpeckers keep going after. I feel like I'm sparing them the headache.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Those are called tigers or maybe a bobcat. See if anyone wants to reintroduce them in your area Building Bobcat Alley

We still have bobcats here. Another thing that needs to be shot.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

“Honey, after all the research I’ve done about ridding gardens of squirrels, seems like the only ethical, environmental, humane way is to purchase a fancy pellet rifle.”

I would totally go out and buy a fancy Gamo w scope.

I used to go outside and stalk them, but then I realized there was a better way. I open the bedroom door or the front door and blast them with a Sweet Sixteen. For some reason, they don't seem to see it coming. Also, I never brake for them. Steady application of the gas and no swerving.

The law here permits me to shoot them out of season if they're harming my property. That's nice, because traps don't work. I tried trapping, and I caught exactly one squirrel, plus a very angry coon, which I sent to coon heaven with a pistol.

Sometimes I can look out the window and see 6 squirrels. They're horrible.

 

[AzOr]

I used to go outside and stalk them, but then I realized there was a better way. I open the bedroom door or the front door and blast them with a Sweet Sixteen. For some reason, they don't seem to see it coming. Also, I never brake for them. Steady application of the gas and no swerving.

The law here permits me to shoot them out of season if they're harming my property. That's nice, because traps don't work. I tried trapping, and I caught exactly one squirrel, plus a very angry coon, which I sent to coon heaven with a pistol.

Sometimes I can look out the window and see 6 squirrels. They're horrible.

I live in a city so my neighbors would frown upon gunshots. Even though I have a nice selection of 22lr and 12 gauge tools.
I have great neighbors so I don’t want to be “that guy”.
I’m the past I’ve opened up the kitchen sliding doors and shoot my Daisy BB gun. I usually only pump it once or twice.

In reality, there are much bigger and better gardens around here. So it hasn’t been an issue for a few years.

My brother has a pretty big garden and there has been years when all of his veggies have at least one giant bite out of each. For marital reasons he was relegated to using an air soft gun. Which is slightly more effective than spitting on them.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I've seen a really interesting trap design that involves squirrels sliding down a pipe into a bucket of water, but it's kind of cruel, so I can't make myself build one. There is a neat CO2-powered gadget that crushes their heads. It's called the A18. Very tempting. It will supposedly mash 18 squirrel heads on one cartridge.

As for air guns, I shot a squirrel from about 2" away in my living room fireplace. I used a .22-caliber air rifle which supposedly goes 900 fps. I thought the squirrel would die instantly and I could throw it out the back door. Unbelievably, I only wounded it, and it ran into my bedroom and out the sliding glass doors. I didn't want to use a rifle in my chimney, and I figured 900 fps would get it done. I was very disappointed. I do not like squirrels, but I don't want them to die slow, painful deaths.

I had a squirrel eating my expensive aluminum gate, and I put a block of Tomcat neurotoxic poison where he would see it. The block disappeared, and the chewing stopped. I assume the squirrel took it to his nest or whatever and poisoned his whole family.

 

[AzOr]

Aluminum gate? Jeezus, I hate to see what your raccoons look like.

 

[rmchair]

I put a camera out to see what was eating my baby hop leaves in the greenhouse. Mice. Could get a cat-But then how do you get rid of the cats. Pardon while i sneeze just from typing c-a-tchoo.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Aluminum gate? Jeezus, I hate to see what your raccoons look like.

Squirrels love aluminum.

 

[Joewalla88]

I did a deep clean of the garage, and made sure everything is properly put away. I laid out traps and some mouse repellent balls, and it's seems to have fixed the issue so far.