Subject: [Shop-talk] Mouse traps/poison

From: Jim Stone <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2015 19:17:38 -0400

I keep a couple of mousetraps locked and loaded at all times in my
basement/garage (old ranch house that basically has a drive-in basement).  I
rarely catch anything during warm weather, but probably get 3-4 mice/week when
it is cold out.  With fall just coming to Long Island, I am catching about 1
per week at the moment.

The traps work well overall and are pretty simple to use: I just toss the dead
mice in the field across the street, re-set the trap and wait for the next
one.  The fact that I have never seen any evidence of them in the living
quarters suggest to me that I have been successful at keeping them from
settling in.  However, I am shortly going to be leaving town for a couple of
weeks and donbt want to leave the traps set while I am gone, least I return
to a rotting mess.  On the other hand, I am not wild about leaving the house
bunprotectedb either.

That leaves two options, at least as far as I know: nothing or poison.  I have
been afraid of mouse poison ever since a friend of mine had one die inside the
wall of his house, although that was a long time ago.  I understand that the
poison is supposed to send them outside to seek water, but canbt imagine
that is foolproof.  Am I worrying too much about a problem a neighbor had
decades ago?  Does anyone here have recent positive or negative experience
with poison, or other recommendations for me?

Thanks.

Jim

p.s.  My shop is currently in the basement. J
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From: Todd Walke <[email-masked]> localhost.pops.p.blarg.net
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2015 16:42:09 -0700

In case you didn't see my post of couple of days ago about rats:

         http://doityourselfpestcontrol.com/

         I have the Protecta Bait stations with Contrac Blox bait.  The 
stations keep the bait away from kids and pets.  The bait kills 'em deader 
than a doornail.  One feeding does it, turns my property into a dead zone - 
rats show up, never to come back.  And I don't have to deal with seeing 
dead rats or disposing of them - they die out of my sight.

         Contrac Blox is only available on the site in 18lb 
buckets.  Federal law restricts sale of the 4lb pails, but there are 
sellers on eBay that'll sell them anyway.  4lbs lasts me for more than a 
year, with 6 stations around my house.  There are other baits available 
that can be sold in 4lb pails.
	Most baits have a small risk of secondary poisoning (cat/dog eating a dead 
mouse).  Typically, there is a time window for treatment, with many 
antidotes easily available at a vet.

         If you don't like poisoning the bastards, the stations will take a 
certain brand of reusable snap traps.  I like the bait because a trap only 
gets one rat, the bait keeps working 24/7 killing everyone that shows up.

	Twice in 7 years I've actually seen a dead rat in the garage.  Mostly they 
eat the bait, go home to their burrow and die there, many times feeding 
bait to their young which kills them too.

	The site also has "multiple catch" traps.  Basically, it's box that mice 
get into and can't get out of.  They'll catch a dozen or more at a time.
	They also have glue boards, live catch traps, disposable traps, etc.  All 
sort of great stuff for killing rodents and many other pests too.

Todd the rat killer

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