Wapsi Square Forum

I was already using peanut butter, but the mice still managed to lick it off without setting off the trap! (I posted about that, a while back...)

At first, I tried with the rat traps I already had (which had caught me a nice rat, the previous year). Then I figured that maybe it took too much pressure for a mouse to trigger a rat trap, so I bought mouse traps, but the result was still the same: peanut butter gone, trap still untriggered... (That's when someone suggested I might have some flying mice - complete with an image of a mouse sporting bat-like wings...)

lake_wrangler wrote: ↑Wed Dec 30, 2020 9:49 am I was already using peanut butter, but the mice still managed to lick it off without setting off the trap! (I posted about that, a while back...)

At first, I tried with the rat traps I already had (which had caught me a nice rat, the previous year). Then I figured that maybe it took too much pressure for a mouse to trigger a rat trap, so I bought mouse traps, but the result was still the same: peanut butter gone, trap still untriggered... (That's when someone suggested I might have some flying mice - complete with an image of a mouse sporting bat-like wings...)

Try bacon rind.

I couldn't seal off the attic - it was a rent house, and I wasn't going to spend the money it needed to close everything back up.

Total trapped animals - two dead rats, a number of dead mice, three possums, two raccoons, and absolutely zero squirrels, weirdly enough.

Bookworm wrote: ↑Wed Dec 30, 2020 12:53 am

lake_wrangler wrote: ↑Tue Dec 29, 2020 11:14 pm

Bookworm wrote: ↑Tue Dec 29, 2020 8:40 pmI detest glue boards because I consider them inhumane. I have nothing against killing the suckers, I just feel that there's no reason to add torture to the list. I use snap traps.
(They pitch glue boards as being a humane trap, yet you've already listed why they definitely aren't. People don't check them)

I was using snap tracks before, but these mice have managed to eat the bait while still not activating the trap... So I had no choice, but to switch strategy.

Switch the bait around a bit. You want a bait they have to either tug out (bacon rind, for example), or put pressure on (peanut butter). You also want to bait the area with the 'food' for a few days so that they get the idea that it's legitimate food. Apparently rats and other rodents smell food on the breath of other rats, and that triggers "This is legitimate!" I've had really good luck with peanut butter. I also had to make sure to use both rat traps and mouse traps, because I had both in the attic. (I can share pictures!)

I've also had good luck arranging things so the mouse must approach the snap trap from a particular direction - so the trap snaps down on its body, rather than lifting it up. Something similar to an empty cereal box, set on its narrow side, will do the job nicely. Well, not from the mouse's perspective...

On one occasion I set a wooden spoon bridging the gap between the sofa and an empty garbage can, with a glob of peanut butter on the end of the spoon that stuck out into the middle of the garbage can. About half an hour later the spoon - and a mouse - fell into the garbage can, so I quickly retrieved the spoon and then took the garbage can some distance out from the house and let the mouse go amid some rocks and brush.

I have mice that trap themselves in wastebaskets without any help from me . . . naturally, usually in the middle of the night.

I drop them in the toilet and wait for hypothermia to set in - it usually takes about 15 minutes.

--FreeFlier

Another good way to secure the bait is with the thick rubber bands you get from the market, used to hold broccoli heads together. You want something else (physical bait) under the peanut butter for them to tug on.

As for your traps being humane, I'm lost too much stuff chewed on/destroyed. Live outdoors and be free, come inside and wear down those ever growning teeth on stuff?, quite literally- to Hell with you.

I would normally recommend .22 ratshot, but good luck getting any ammo right now...

Firing live ammo - even something as feeble as .22 ratshot - in the kitchen ... or basement ... or attic is not generally regarded as a desirable action.

AnotherFairportfan wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:43 am Firing live ammo - even something as feeble as .22 ratshot - in the kitchen ... or basement ... or attic is not generally regarded as a desirable action.

I knew kids who did shoot .22s in the house. That's a big reason why I decided not to have firearms.

I guess y'all can't tell if I'm joking anymore. Sorry about that.

I've done it . . . shot a rather large and aggressive rat with a .22 short from a rifle, because I wasn't going to get any closer to the little b______d than that.

SNAP!

Remove the ex-rat and clean up the minimal splatter.

--FreeFlier

Well, if it works, it works, I guess.

I ended up ordering a bunch of paints from Citadel Colour yesterday for painting tabletop miniatures. Hopefully I can do a decent job painting them when the paints arrive inna few weeks. (They ship from the UK)

Last weekend, I also picked up a set of Norse Foundry's "Aged Mithral" dice and a silicone dice holder, and a copy of the Critical Role sourcebook for the second campaign. It's just the setting, though, so I could make any kind of campaign I want.

Now if only the folks who would play it with me had time to do so...

Typeminer wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 5:00 am

AnotherFairportfan wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:43 am Firing live ammo - even something as feeble as .22 ratshot - in the kitchen ... or basement ... or attic is not generally regarded as a desirable action.

I knew kids who did shoot .22s in the house. That's a big reason why I decided not to have firearms.

My father fired a .357 magnum in the garage, but it was to kill a possum. _It tried to get away after being shot_. That's how hard it is to kill those suckers.

Bookworm wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 12:59 am

Typeminer wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 5:00 am

AnotherFairportfan wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:43 am Firing live ammo - even something as feeble as .22 ratshot - in the kitchen ... or basement ... or attic is not generally regarded as a desirable action.

I knew kids who did shoot .22s in the house. That's a big reason why I decided not to have firearms.

My father fired a .357 magnum in the garage, but it was to kill a possum. _It tried to get away after being shot_. That's how hard it is to kill those suckers.

Guy i used to work with - left both legs in Viet Nam - was NOT enamoured of snakes. He got around pretty good on his dual prosthetic legs, but they were not, shall we say, particularly buoyant.

He and a buddy were fishing, working along the shore in his bass boat - a NICE boat.

Snake dropped from an overhead branch, right between them in the middle of the boat.

Friend bailed out - the water was only about waist deep.

Doug didn't.

Grabbed his .44, put three or four rounds into the snake.

He didn't salute, but you know what they say about the Captain and his ship...

I should mention that the rat I shot was in a trap and cornered . . . I went and got the rifle and the ammo, shoved the barrel into his face, and pulled the trigger when he tried to bite the muzzle. Then I buried him in the yard.

I've had good luck lately with a combination of TomCat^(TM) Mouse Attractant Gel and peanut butter.

--FreeFlier

I just got finished (yesterday) reading one of those 'recomended' articles re; how implausible modern Avacadoes were. Even went on to mention the pits are ground up and mixed with bait as anti-rodent stuff.

Persunous

TazManiac wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 4:59 pm Persunous

Pay the Jar, Taz!

FreeFlier wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 8:35 pm I should mention that the rat I shot was in a trap and cornered . . . I went and got the rifle and the ammo, shoved the barrel into his face, and pulled the trigger when he tried to bite the muzzle.

Definitely hard to miss at that range...

Warrl wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 6:01 pm

FreeFlier wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 8:35 pm I should mention that the rat I shot was in a trap and cornered . . . I went and got the rifle and the ammo, shoved the barrel into his face, and pulled the trigger when he tried to bite the muzzle.

Definitely hard to miss at that range...

Unless you happen to be Don Knotts...

I just learned that freezing fog is a thing, and we have it in Arkansas at the moment. What really sucks is that I have to be at work really early today.

Oh, and our driver who goes to Pine Bluff was sent home yesterday because he tested positive for the coof, so I'm probably going to have to run his route, meaning I have a new area to learn now.

(plonk, plonk...), 2 Avacado pits into the Pun Jar...

Alkarii, hang in there!