Mice taking over my ute!

[Paul In Ireland]

Found mouse shite on the seat the other day and thought nothing about it. Winter is setting in here so the rats and mice start heading in doors. Already got a few mice and one large rat in the house (all dead now obviously) but it was worse to find them in the FC! So I set a trap in garage just to see were they around. As I was detailing some timber I kept seeing a mouse - obviously more than one... 

Friend comes over to collect his timber and we watch incredulous as 2 mice fight over the food on the trap - they somehow manage to set it off whilst fighting but still get the food and disappear. 

Time to get serious - went and bought another 8 traps and set them with bits of fruit and nut chocolate bar - I think this is the best stuff closely followed by a bit bounty choc bar. Gave it an hour to see what would happen. The trap in the ute had one along with 4 more around the garage. Whilst piling the corpses I see two more. This time I got the crossbow and started taking pot shots. Missed by fractions but its great craic (fun) and i had whale of a time for about half an hour. 

Reality is sinking in now, I am infested with mice so I think the old greasy bottle on the edge of a bucket full of water may have to be employed to try and get on top of the buggers. I am also thinking of setting up a chair in the middle of the floor, grab crossbow and a handful of bolts, couple of beers and sit back watch.... 

I will update with the tally and see how many I catch and how many I shoot - don't hold your breath on the bow though as I think a moving small mouse at 5m is a hard shot at the best of times.


 

[Omalley]

I remember as a kid in Woomelang Victoria there was a mice plague.........  you can imagine what happened there, there were millions of them

[Paul In Ireland]

Do you remeber in the mid 80's there was some famous footage of mice like a moving carpet on a farm near Gunnedah. This was the farm next to the one my brother was working on. All the kids would make use of the shotgun repacking machine and fill the cartidges with salt - worked well and was cheap too.

[pedro]

I am also thinking of setting up a chair in the middle of the floor, grab crossbow and a handful of bolts, couple of beers and sit back watch.... 

Now why doesn't that surprise me Paul , pity you weren't over here it sounds like fun , living on acreage surrounded by bush we get them every autumn, slip down to woolies or the irish version and get some talon or ratsack, it usually comes in a larger box with smaller ones inside nowadays, chuck a couple of boxes in the ceiling through the manhole and within a few days they will all be gone, unless you are unlucky and get one die in the wall 
                                      Pedro

[ratbox]

i'm not sure about the crossbow + beer
if it were me crossbow + beer = bolt in the foot  
i also don't like mice around where i live mice = brown snakes

[Paul In Ireland]

I don't use poison any more. After the last 2 seasons of ripping up the attic flooring getting rats out after the smell takes over the house - mice are ok but rats... you really have to have a strong stomach especially when you have to pick em up and get them out..... They say with the poison they get thirsty and leave the house looking for water - for us they find the most inaccessible point and curl up and die.

So, traps only. I also bought the mini crossbow (fires well for about 70m) for the rats I see outside the house. Of course I try for crows, rabbits, hares and anything else but I usually having a laugh and don't hit much.


 

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Make sure you leave a set trap in the ute all the time then, I've seen the little nests they build by rearranging the stuffing. The seat looks OK from the outside but it's a different story under the vinyl 

[RET]

Make sure you leave a set trap in the ute all the time then, I've seen the little nests they build by rearranging the stuffing. The seat looks OK from the outside but it's a different story under the vinyl 

Just don't be fumbling around under there for your dropped keys 

[Paul In Ireland]

9 more....

but I have a feeling there aren't many left as these were young ones.

Good tip Stinky - will leave one set in the ute for a while.

Taking the ute to work tomorrow, can't leave it in the shed all the time.


 

[Martin]

Paul, I know you said you don't use poison any more, but ...

I lived in the far west of South Australia during a mouse plague in the late 70s.  I kid you not, the Eyre Highway turned from black with a white line to wall-to-wall grey with no line visible (squashed mice). The town ran out of Ratsak. 

The blue snail pellets worked a treat (if you can get them).  Put a small pile of them on the ground, the mice nibble and move less tham 30cm from the pile and die.  Don't know how they go with rats, but it might be worth a try - away from the house.

Martin