Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] Mouse traps/poison

From: Gordie Bird <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2015 18:00:59 -0400

I bought the lifetime supply of Contrac (18# pail) a few years ago and have
made sure my (heated) garage is well baited in the corners  and along walls
where nothing but mice have seen for a decade.   Ibve not seen a mouse, nor
had any smells, but have noticed bait blocks mostly eaten.  Bait is not
accessible to my large dogs and I watch them carefully when we are in or
around the garage, theybve shown no interest in baited areas.
No signs of mice anywhere in house or garage (except for eaten bait blocks in
garage), including in my winter stored MGA.
What prompted my purchase of the pail is having my AC fail in 90* weather only
to find mama mouse laid out across the terminals of the start/run capacitor
for the motor.  Block placed in elec box (with new cap) has prevented further
inhabitants.
IMO properly placed bait blocks would be the solution.

Just my experience, hth.
gb

From: Jim Stone
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2015 4:27 PM
To: Shop Talk
Subject: [Shop-talk] Mouse traps/poison

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]>
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2015 17:30:33 -0700

Gordie wrote:

>for the motor.

         That's similar to what prompted me to start baiting.  I started 
see rat poop on the engine cover of my car.  With a modern car and it's 
reliance on electronics, chewed up wiring is Very Bad Indeed.
         That was the idea behind placing bait station around the house - 
to make the property a dead zone for rodents.  Any that wander over from 
the neighbors find some tasty treats laid out for them and it's goodbye rat.

         Here's one trick I used to keep them out of my car.  Some bait 
comes in "place packs".  These are small paper envelopes filled with an 
ounce or two of bait pellets.  The paper is permeable so the rodents can 
smell the bait.  The packs are intended to allow you to place bait in areas 
not easily reachable.  For example, you could place them in an attic or 
crawlspace by just flinging them into the area.
         I taped one to my engine cover so that the rat that was hanging 
out under the hood would be sure to find it.  I checked it every 
morning.  If the pack was untouched, I left it on and drove around with it 
still attached.  If it was chewed, I removed the pack so pellets weren't 
getting all over the place.  That worked great until the bait stations were 
being used regularly and wiped out the local colony.  If I see any rat poop 
since, I do the place packs for a week or so just to make sure I get 'em.

Todd the rat killer

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