Bye, Bye Jerry

[Lazarus]

Ha!

Little blighter.

I've had a mouse (or more?) living behind the kitchen cupboards for a few weeks.

After a brief lull with no new droppings, I discovered a mangled mouse on our patio, which looked like the charitable works of next door's cat.

Sadly, the problem returned and I acquired some traps.

Set one a few days ago with a nice piece of Edam and have observed nothing but the cheese learning to walk.

Until just now.

I was chopping the Veggies for tonights Roast Peasant when there came a "thunk" from under the sink.

Opened the door and therein lay a mouse, really rather dead.





First time ever catching vermin, but I'm wondering how many more there are around.

 

[Analoguesat]

Try sultanas rather than cheese ;)

 

[Lazarus]

Really?

I didn't know that - will give it a whirl!


(Trouble is, SWMBO and I are rather fond of Sultanas as a nibble: I hope she doesn't get hungry in the night and I find her stuck under the sink!!!)

 

[Piltdownpaul]

Nutella works well too.

 

[PaulR]

Bacon rind or other fatty stuff is the preferred bait of choice chez PaulR, Rind is good because it can be fairly securely affixed to the trap meaning the mouse has to give a real tug to remove it.

The mouse otside the back door was probably a field mouse and not one of your inside nibblers, sad to say.

 

[sonnetpete]

I have heard that peanut butter is an excellent bait...though with five cats I have little experience of using traps.....I agree with Paul re the 'outdoor' mouse. I've just seen my smallest cat playing some sort of feline "keepy uppy" with a dead fieldmouse on my drive...

 

[Lazarus]

Thanks both - I take the point about Field vs House Mouse:

I may put the House Mouse out for Pussy to play with.

That should help the head come free .................


It's still under the sink right now - will eject it au matin (Or, if CH is reading, au gratin)

 

[Channel Hopper]

It's still under the sink right now - will eject it au matin (Or, if CH is reading, au gratin)

Chocolate is my preferred bait, though I have found potato bread excellent in the past week (and free as there was a piece stuck at the back of the fridge)

I've caught six this week, four on the cooker and two on the larder shelves. They got all of the spagetti and most of the cereal before I knew they were about.

 

[Lazarus]

Cripes.


When I reported my little success, it was partly by way of reminding you City types just what horrors we yokels must endure - but it seems rather a common problem!


Anyway, it's a nice change from all that Satellite related stuff.

 

[Hughes]

In this part of Spain, the preferred method of mouse capture is pegamento ( glue ). It's a tube of what looks like plastic cement, the stuff used for assembling plastic kits etc, but it doesn't set. It is applied to a piece of card, along with a morsel of food, and the poor mouse gets hopelessly stuck. If you realise you've caught him, you drown him. The worst is if you don't realise and you find the dead body days later. Is it available at the ironmonger's in the UK? If not I could always mail you some! By the way, rat poison here is called "rat food" by the local peasants!

 

[Lazarus]

Interesting idea.

I'll let you know if I get bored of lethal snap-traps!

PS: The ones I got (3 for 1.5 Sovs) are brass plated steel, not the common-or-garden balsa and clothes peg jobbies.

 

[PaulR]

The best mousetraps I've found are trademarked "Little Nipper". These are all wood and have the pivoting flap cut full width. They also seem to have the spring pressure just right and the pin to hold the bait in place is, again, just right.

I have had less success with all wood ones where there's just a finger of wood cut out in the centre (too narrow) and the ones with a yellow plastic bit where the bait goes (spring too weak and difficulty attaching the bait). The weak spring type do have a use when you're trying to catch a juvenile mouse though. The Little Nipper type just don't react to the lighter weight.

Rolf - we need a mousetrap section I think!

 

[Lazarus]

Rolf - we need a mousetrap section I think!

Just so long as it doesn't go alongside our (somewhat dormant) Food one!


(Hamster and Tomato Sandwich, anyone?)

 

[Lazarus]

In this part of Spain, the preferred method of mouse capture is pegamento ( glue ). It's a tube of what looks like plastic cement, the stuff used for assembling plastic kits etc, but it doesn't set. It is applied to a piece of card, along with a morsel of food, and the poor mouse gets hopelessly stuck. If you realise you've caught him, you drown him. The worst is if you don't realise and you find the dead body days later. Is it available at the ironmonger's in the UK? If not I could always mail you some! By the way, rat poison here is called "rat food" by the local peasants!

SWMBO has just told me this is a common technique in Italy (whence came her family) too.

 

[Hughes]

Would there happen to be such a thing as a "Big Nipper" RAT trap? We are sharing our finca with hordes of rats! One of the dogs, a boxer, has caught quite a few, but they're definitely on the increase. The other night we were woken up at 3am by a scraping sound under our downstairs bedroom, as if "they" were trying to gnaw their way up through the concrete floor...

 

[Lazarus]

Only time we've had Rats was at an old Farmhouse we once owned >>>>> There was a big log pile and kindling store that housed a family of rats, one of whom we named Russel, 'cos we knew he was active when the sticks in the kindling started rustling.

 

[chris]

We have a problem with mice under our kitchen sink jat the moment, just reloaded our trap with peanut butter and normally catch 3 or 4 within a couple of days then nothing for a few weeks. We do live next to fields so expect it a little.

 

[PaulR]

Would there happen to be such a thing as a "Big Nipper" RAT trap

Well I have bought a larger version but whether it's from the same company I don't know as the traps are in France. You have to adopt a different technique with rats compared to mice as they are more suspicious anything new. You're supposed to put bait down for a few nights without arming the trap. This gets the rat used to taking the bait and then, when you arm the trap, the rat "should" try to take the bait without undue caution.

Having said that I never had any success catching rats that way. We used poison bait which, given that we are away from our place in France so much, is a better idea anyway. There are two types available in France that I'm aware of. Grain and a paper sachet containing some fatty substance. Both are colured blue for identification. Again, you're supposed to start off by putting ordinary food down for them and put the poison bait down when they're used to feeding from that spot although my experience is that they'll eat the stuff anyway!

 

[Topper]

Would there happen to be such a thing as a "Big Nipper" RAT trap? We are sharing our finca with hordes of rats! One of the dogs, a boxer, has caught quite a few, but they're definitely on the increase. The other night we were woken up at 3am by a scraping sound under our downstairs bedroom, as if "they" were trying to gnaw their way up through the concrete floor...

There certainly was a Little Nipper Rat trap in the late 60s early 70s, my dad's rented warehouse was in an old mill which was situated by the canal in Nelson. The rats in there used to jump over your shoulder as you entered in an effort to escape, but of course you thought they were going for your neck, we used the wooden Big Nipper traps for a long while but unless you kept cleaning them the build up of fluids from repeated use made the rats steer clear.

Indeed it seems it is still for sale
-amazon.co.uk/Pest-stop-Little-Nipper-Trap-single/dp/B000LV6CBY

 

[Analoguesat]

We have used little nippers quite successfully to catch the occasional mousey that got into the kitchen.

They can be a bit gruesome when the mouse is lying there with its eyes popped out!