Author Topic: Eradication of Meeces  (Read 12561 times)

Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #50 on: 09 November, 2013, 10:58:26 pm »
I had a bunch of the blighters in the roof 3 years ago. I bought a bunch of humane traps and set them with peanut butter every day. There was a mouse in every trap for about 2 weeks in all (probably 30 of em altogether  :o). I released them all 10 miles away on my way to work to make sure they couldn't hike back. One poor bugger was dead in his trap one day (I checked them daily), presumably gorged himself to death on the peanut butter  :(

Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #51 on: 13 November, 2013, 08:32:30 pm »
Cor I think we have a meece. Droppings have appeared on the ground floor in areas sundry. Very surprised as we have a concrete slab ground floor. Last house semi rural with timber suspended floor and  mice.
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Rhys W

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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #52 on: 13 November, 2013, 09:10:46 pm »
Mine are back. I got two a few months ago but replacements have arrived. Traps been out for almost a week, baited with peanut butter but to no avail. I think I need a different bait.

Rhys W

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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #53 on: 06 December, 2013, 06:53:47 pm »
Damn them - I'm being outwitted by creatures with brains the size of a pea.  >:(

I've had the traps out two weeks or more since they came back, baited with peanut butter, nutella and jam and they've been roundly ignored. A couple of days ago I spilt a handful of Kellog's Bran Flakes on the floor, and being such an awful procrastinator when it comes to housework I forgot to sweep them up before I went to bed. The next morning my kitchen floor was clean!

Now, I'll get you, I thought. I cleaned out the old bait and used a smear of nutella topped off with those lovely crunchy Bran Flakes. I carefully laid a cartoon-style trail of Bran Flake crumbs to lead them to their spring-loaded fate. This morning the trails were gone but the traps untouched...

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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #54 on: 08 December, 2013, 04:05:59 pm »
Having caught a few with the "humane" trap (only humane if you don't leave them in there for a month), the remaining meece took to ignoring it. So I got a couple of Little Nippers. The buggers treat them as feeding stations. I can't move them without triggering them but they can remove every trace of bait (peanut butter, chocolate, jam, cake) without disturbing them at all.
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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #55 on: 08 December, 2013, 04:19:22 pm »
the trick is to use *bait elastic to tie bait on to the trap or cotton, bait elastic is used for holding bait on to fishing hooks (mainly sea fishing) so you could say it's designed for the job, ;0


*available at all good fishing tackle shops


forgot to say we're having problems with their bigger mates the rat, we are using a mix of rat sized spring traps and cage traps, baited with everything from kippers, fish head, dog food even tried olives with varying degrees of success, so far I have accounted for 6, Troy the dog 1 but now the rats are fighting back, they gnawed through an electric cable which meant we lost all power to the yard and to our water supply, it took us 2 days to find the damage, so the fight is on :demon:  oh the joys of rural living :) 

Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #56 on: 09 December, 2013, 06:00:36 pm »
There is a technique to make it impossible for mice to take the food from a trap without it going off.

1) Remove the little trigger piece that holds the food.
2) Tie a little loop of cotton.
3) Poke the loop though the hole where the trigger came from
4) Put a peg, made from chocolate, though the loop of cotton to stop the loop pulling back though the hole
5) Set trap, and hold the release lever in place by putting the other end of the cotton loop over the lever

You now have a trap that won't be set off by rough handling, but will go off when insufficient chocolate remains.
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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #57 on: 30 December, 2013, 08:49:12 pm »
I wiped up a load more mouse shit from the kitchen worktop tonight, and decided I was so pissed off I'd try the glue trap my friend gave me. Two mice stuck in it in the first hour. I freaked out a bit and bobb had to get rid of them.
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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #58 on: 30 December, 2013, 08:55:56 pm »
In my experience, the 'humane' traps, baited with raisins, work very well.

Indeed.  Mice are a fact of rural life and, if you have kids and want the place to stay reasonably hygienic, you need to deal with them.  We have ultrasonic things in the loft and our big roof void storage area,but still catch the odd one in spring traps occasionally.  The stock bait works well but raisins (and chocolate spread) are also effective here.

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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #59 on: 30 December, 2013, 11:36:19 pm »
A little bit of care when siting your "snapping" kill trap can help the efficiency. Take care to point the bait end towards where the mouse must approach from, use blocks of wood etc to funnel the blighters as well.

Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #60 on: 31 December, 2013, 10:04:12 pm »
We had one downstairs we assume was a Christmas gift from the cats this week. 2 humane traps in the kitchen baited with cheese (because some fecker ate all the peanut butter) worked a treat. The live mouse was released within an hour. We hope it wasn't later recaught!

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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #61 on: 03 January, 2014, 11:47:37 am »
The Answer to this question, The Ultimate Definitive Answer is

of course ...


The Bicycle


(click to show/hide)
the meece family go on holiday  ;D
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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #62 on: 03 January, 2014, 11:50:30 am »
We had one downstairs we assume was a Christmas gift from the cats this week. 2 humane traps in the kitchen baited with cheese (because some fecker ate all the peanut butter) worked a treat. The live mouse was released within an hour. We hope it wasn't later recaught!

..but did you catch the peanut butter eater?
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Eccentrica Gallumbits

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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #63 on: 07 January, 2014, 08:16:23 am »
Dead one on the floor this morning, live one running around..
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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #64 on: 11 January, 2014, 02:26:53 am »
Just get some Scram.  It's harmless to the mouse, apparently, just irritates their feet.  This lady's had no mice since 1943:



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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #65 on: 04 May, 2014, 11:16:28 am »
The last few nights there's been a strange noise from either the cavity or possibly the loft space at the wall/roof junction, sort of a cross between a hum & a buzz, but not the scratching I'd expect from mice. Any chance that this is caused by mice? If not, any idea what it might be - any insects that might be active at night? I've only heard it at night but that'll be because I haven't monitored it during the day...

The cavity is insulated with rockwool & the loft is mostly boarded-out but with extra insulation laid on top so any scratching noises may be muffled. Had a cursory check in the loft & couldn't see anything but the space is a bit tight around where the noises are coming from. There's no sign of anything under the eaves on the outside during the day at least. Looks like I might be having a night-time trip to the loft...

EDIT: managed to get closer into the eaves in the loft & discovered a small wasps nest with a huge queen walking around it so I'm going to assume that's the culprit. Wouldn't have thought they'd be active as early as 01:30 (as last night) but it was a cool evening & they may have been generating a bit of warmth by buzzing away...
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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #66 on: 05 May, 2014, 05:09:39 pm »
My last capture:   









I think it is a rat..  The trap is a very effective one although tricky to get the bait on the hook.

No more signs since I repointed the stone walls.

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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #67 on: 05 May, 2014, 10:28:08 pm »
The last few nights there's been a strange noise from either the cavity or possibly the loft space at the wall/roof junction, sort of a cross between a hum & a buzz, but not the scratching I'd expect from mice. Any chance that this is caused by mice? If not, any idea what it might be - any insects that might be active at night? I've only heard it at night but that'll be because I haven't monitored it during the day...

The cavity is insulated with rockwool & the loft is mostly boarded-out but with extra insulation laid on top so any scratching noises may be muffled. Had a cursory check in the loft & couldn't see anything but the space is a bit tight around where the noises are coming from. There's no sign of anything under the eaves on the outside during the day at least. Looks like I might be having a night-time trip to the loft...

EDIT: managed to get closer into the eaves in the loft & discovered a small wasps nest with a huge queen walking around it so I'm going to assume that's the culprit. Wouldn't have thought they'd be active as early as 01:30 (as last night) but it was a cool evening & they may have been generating a bit of warmth by buzzing away...

Bees and wasps are indeed active all night in the nest. I'd get someone in to get rid of that now while it's small.
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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #68 on: 06 May, 2014, 01:16:01 pm »
I've got rid of wasps' nests using a spray can, from Wilko's or garden centres. Ideally spray the nest, but I've succeeded by continually spraying where they were entering the roof space.

The spray cans can squirt several yards, so no need to get too close.

Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #69 on: 06 May, 2014, 03:04:29 pm »
Boushti has been unusually active and noisy at night on a couple of occasions recently- he doesn't have a history of bringing mice/frogs/birds indoors but I've caught him chasing mice around the flat twice. Both mice died shortly afterwards.

A third one appeared one day while I was at work, Ms P watched it as it made a number of forays to Boushti's bowl of cat food pellets. It removed one on each visit and added it to a small pile behind a bookshelf. Ms P somehow guided it into a humane trap and took it for a little walk.

Haven't seen any more, or any evidence of them (no droppings or any noise), since. We keep a lid on the cat food bowl whenever Boushti isn't actually eating out of it now.

Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #70 on: 09 May, 2014, 09:13:24 am »
Naw, mice still around.

Score so far:

Mousetraps   0 (without human intervention)
Boushti      3
Ms P      2

Ms. P caught the last one big spider stylee with a glass and a bit of cardboard.

Score updated

Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #71 on: 09 May, 2014, 11:35:41 am »
I am not a pro pest person but through my beekepeing I have over the years destroyed many wasps nests and what I use is Nippon Ant powder from any decent hard ware place. Watch to see where the insects are landing and dust there throughly and they take it is on their feet. Very effective. Usually no more than 48 hours.

If you have bumble bees then PLEASE leave them alone they do us no harm and the environment a great deal of good and they never use the same nest again so just enjoy having them for the summer. Oh and they are incredibly reluctant to sting.

I get loads of calls usually involving the grand kids... oh I can't have them here the kids... blah... aye right it's no the kids that are fiert... LOL

PH
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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #72 on: 09 May, 2014, 12:11:50 pm »
Hornets are an excellent deterrent to wasps, they eat them.

They have been living in our old hollow chestnut trees for a few years and are no problem to us, unlike wasps. 

A good wasp deterrent if you are eating al fresco is a bowl of cloves. They don't like the smell maybe.
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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #73 on: 09 May, 2014, 10:10:07 pm »
one has gnawed some cycling clothes.


I'm trying to be humane with the mice, but if they touched my cycling stuff then I'll be after them with the meat tenderiser.

If I had a meat tenderiser. I'm a vegetarian.

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Re: Eradication of Meeces
« Reply #74 on: 15 May, 2014, 09:21:18 pm »
The last few nights there's been a strange noise from either the cavity or possibly the loft space at the wall/roof junction, sort of a cross between a hum & a buzz, but not the scratching I'd expect from mice. Any chance that this is caused by mice? If not, any idea what it might be - any insects that might be active at night? I've only heard it at night but that'll be because I haven't monitored it during the day...

The cavity is insulated with rockwool & the loft is mostly boarded-out but with extra insulation laid on top so any scratching noises may be muffled. Had a cursory check in the loft & couldn't see anything but the space is a bit tight around where the noises are coming from. There's no sign of anything under the eaves on the outside during the day at least. Looks like I might be having a night-time trip to the loft...

EDIT: managed to get closer into the eaves in the loft & discovered a small wasps nest with a huge queen walking around it so I'm going to assume that's the culprit. Wouldn't have thought they'd be active as early as 01:30 (as last night) but it was a cool evening & they may have been generating a bit of warmth by buzzing away...

As said above you may well have a bumblebee nest buzzing noise - they certainly like buildings and holes. If so don't kill them as they don't do any harm and are much reduced in numbers. They are a key pollinator. Check the exterior - you will see what you have there.
If it is wasps get in there and squirt the buggers.
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