Rodent Abatement: What's Your Preferred Method?

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Infantry23

Part of the Furniture Now
Nov 8, 2020
894
2,628
44
Smithsburg, Maryland
We use the snap mouse traps as well and they've been successful for us. However, I have a friend who used to do contract work for the city of D.C. and his job was to shoot rats with pellet guns in and around the area of DuPont Circle from midnight to 5am. He would get paid by the rat if i remember correctly lol. Sounds like a blast!
 

HawkeyeLinus

Lifer
Oct 16, 2020
5,869
42,305
Iowa
Mama cats, or females that have been mamas, are a somewhat sure bet. As long as they've spent time with mama, males are also adept, but they have to be taught. We had a little female that lived to be about 20, and she didn't get along with our two male sibling rescue cats, bottle fed, but she did teach them to hunt, after watching their futile efforts with disgust and disdain. I guess she figured they were orphans. The boys thought it was a soccer game. She had down the ambush to a professional level after living partly outside on a large property. She didn't chase anything. She just located the meal and waited, and then boom, it was over. No need to withhold food. In fact, food gives them energy. They'll hunt whether they're hungry or not. Once they've had their fill, they bring you presents. Now the boys pretty much take care of the problem.
Our big ole Siamese we had when I was growing up loved to bring home trophies - the large dead frog was the most surprising!
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,211
60,640
Rat terriers are amazing. Family in rural Missouri had a rat terrier on their farm. They will take on anything. They think they are Tyrannosaurus Rex. That dog would charge out the door and flush deer in the field. It was her turf, and she'd have at it. Zoe was that girl's name.
 

pappymac

Lifer
Feb 26, 2015
3,582
5,130
Slidell, LA
I would really like a cat but we have a daughter and grand-daughter who are allergic to cats (and dogs) so we are pet less. We did have a miniature Dachshund for about 12 years and he didn't hesitate to catch the errant mouse.

Our rodent problem didn't start until Sept. 2005 when most of our subdivision flooded except for the two block area we live on. It's on a ridge. Animals just evacuated to higher ground. The feral cats helped somewhat with the rodent population. We tried snap traps but the wife decided we needed to use live traps. The live traps work and we would sometime catch two or three at a time. I used to drive them down to the nearby swamp and dump them in the water. A game warden asked me to stop doing that because I was feeding the gators. He said it was better to just open the traps in the parking lot.

Then I started getting lazy and just leaving any we live trapped in the cage and put it in the back yard. The occasional stray cat would figure out how to open the trap and eat the mouse or it would just die and I would dump it into the trash.

We also identified where they were getting in through the kitchen wall, packed the holes with poison and steel wool and patch the hole. We also had the siding replaced on the house and patched any holes we found.

We still get the occasional mouse but it doesn't last more than a day or two.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,211
60,640
I'm in town, so live traps are an issue, not with mice or rats, but with squirrels, raccoons, and opossums. There are wildlife laws that require a license and permit to trap and release that is geared toward professionals. I was all set to trap some squirrels and release them in "a better neighborhood," like the state park. Wildlife enforcement is pretty rough, precisely because many people try to ignore it. Pick up owl feathers or bones, and you have some serious contraband -- huge fines, jail sentences. I assume there is some slack for boy scouts and misinformed science teachers, but I wouldn't count on it. The .410 is a good fix in the country, but in town it is impossible. People would be breaking the neighbors' windows and hitting pets and kids, and using larger calibers that would penetrate walls, etc. No good, that.
 
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pantsBoots

Lifer
Jul 21, 2020
2,371
9,022
We have cats and don't get mice. Before we got them, we used the live traps and liberated them to the local city park. We don't kill what we don't use.
 
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FurCoat

Lifer
Sep 21, 2020
10,261
96,624
North Carolina
I plugged all holes with stainless steel wool. Then I bought a gallon bucket of rat poison pellets and and spread them under the whole house. End of problem. I live around farm land so when fields get plowed and harvested the mice take off to the nearest dwelling. Sticky traps with peanut butter work well too.
 
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