On Thursday night, Mrs Bealman reckoned she saw a little brown mouse on her bedside table which jumped down behind the bed and disappeared.
Naturally she refuses to sleep in there at the moment.
Yesterday I bought a couple of traps, but also some sachets of poison:
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/108/255-020421015927-1080752235.jpeg)
Each sachet is about 10x5 CM and holds 20g of poison. My watch as a size comparison. The idea being that a mouse or rat would nibble through the sachet and eat the poison.
Last night I put one on the floor near to where the mouse was seen.
Now the mystery.... this morning the whole sachet has gone!
I've looked everywhere -- drawers, cupboards, under the bed, it's totally gone! Now I don't think a little mouse could drag that off anywhere, so it would suggest a rat.... which of course is even worse.
It's got me baffled. I've put another one back in the same spot, and will be very interested to see what, if anything, happens to it.
Any theories very welcome, as long as it's not that Mrs B took it to put in my coffee - I've already thought of that. I don't drink the stuff anyway!
I'd be remiss if I didn't point out it was called 'RatSak'.
I hate to tell you, but if the whole packets vanished it ain't a mouse!
You will be surprised how much they can eat, in my loft I had a large cardboard box filled with a dozen 1kilo packets of fishing bait, all brand new and sealed, six months later I went to get some to go fishing and found every bag empty that's 12kilos devoured in less than 6 months.
Our mouse's are also immune to all the common poisons available. We (the wife ;)) just keep the place spotless so their is no food about to attract them and we don't see evidence of them in the home, although we do hear them scurrying around in the loft at night, sometimes they are so noisy you would think they are playing football wearing hob nailed boots.
NGM
Well, as I said, the mystery suggests a rat. But we've had em before but only in the roofspace. One carked it, fell down the wall cavity and stunk the house out.
Anyway, if this stuff does what it says on the packet, it's days are numbered.
Quote from: Bealman on April 02, 2021, 08:28:12 AM
Well, as I said, the mystery suggests a rat. But we've had em before but only in the roofspace. One carked it, fell down the wall cavity and stunk the house out.
Anyway, if this stuff does what it says on the packet, it's days are numbered.
Well, that depends George.
If it's smart enough to carry it away rather than eat it, I'd be reluctant to leave a fresh cup of coffee unattended.
:worried:
:laughabovepost: :smiley-laughing:
Says on the packet 6g will kill a mouse, 9-10g a rat.
I'm only worried that the greedy rat's taken it before the mouse could get to it ;)
Quote from: Bealman on April 02, 2021, 08:38:25 AM
:laughabovepost: :smiley-laughing:
Interesting...
...he thinks I'm joking...
...it's like he's never watched cartoons.
They're based on real life ya know.
Quote from: Bealman on April 02, 2021, 08:41:44 AM
Says on the packet 6g will kill a mouse, 9-10g a rat.
I'm only worried that the greedy rat's taken it before the mouse could get to it ;)
I'd be more worried that the mouse found it, started to gnaw on it and a rat came and carried them both away!
Well we all know who's the smartest out of Tom & Jerry ;)
It is most likely a possum.
Very easy for the average city-slicker to confuse with a mouse. ;)
Quote from: N_GaugeModeller on April 02, 2021, 08:23:43 AM
although we do hear them scurrying around in the loft at night, sometimes they are so noisy you would think they are playing football wearing hob nailed boots.
I'll do you a deal. You tell your team not to play any more International matches in Leitrim and I'll tell my lot not to issue any more invites. :)
If setting a trap, don't bait it with cheese. Bait it with rich fruit cake. Mouses LOVE it ... as we discovered to our cost when we lost all of the wedding cake which we were saving for use as our first child's christening cake (30 years on, we still have no first child ... so I think the loss was not so great as it felt at the time ... )
When we were visiting my parents the following Christmas, and they reported a mouse problem and that their mice were ignoring the traps which they had baited with cheese, we re-baited them with my mother's Christmas cake and bingo!
Ha Ha, thank you. This is not the first time Chez Bealman has had mice over the years. You are quite correct - forget the cheese. I've never tried fruit cake, but Cadbury's chocolate worked. :thumbsup:
I tried to get the old wooden mouse traps which I have always found to be the most effective, but all you can get now are the covered plastic 'safe' models.
Anyway, all sachets still there this morning, so I presume it's gone. It's still a mystery as to how that sachet disappeared completely, though! :thumbsup:
Quote from: Bealman on April 03, 2021, 09:39:23 AM
Anyway, all sachets still there this morning, so I presume it's gone. It's still a mystery as to how that sachet disappeared completely, though! :thumbsup:
Obvious isn't it
There wasn't just a mouse but mice who carried the sachet away above their heads for safe disposal in a local rat nest.
Not a sleepwalking midnight snack then?
No, Malc.... it's my wife that roams around the house for midnight munchies ;)
Quote from: Bealman on April 03, 2021, 09:39:23 AM
his is not the first time Chez Bealman has had mice over the years. You are quite correct - forget the cheese. I've never tried fruit cake, but Cadbury's chocolate worked.
I tried to get the old wooden mouse traps which I have always found to be the most effective, but all you can get now are the covered plastic 'safe' models.:thumbsup:
My wife is really fuming. Found today that mice made a nest in our bed at country house, poo and wee everywhere and they chewed the hell out of her new Sheridan sheets plus other bedding.
Haven't touched the rodent baits so mechanical traps baited with chocolate were deployed.
Bunnings claim to stock traditional traps: https://www.bunnings.com.au/gotrap-wooden-traditional-rat-trap_p2961777 (https://www.bunnings.com.au/gotrap-wooden-traditional-rat-trap_p2961777)
Will try to get a couple this week.
That would do it!
Last Monday the owners of the land that backs onto our property have started felling diseased ash trees. The bonus is no more ash keys to block gutters, downpipes and soakaways. On the other hand, we have had a sudden influx of rats whose nests have been disturbed. I have two old style mechanical rat traps and currently I am scoring between 4 and 6 deaths per day. It is almost a full time job sending the corpses back to where they came from, but the magpies seem to like them.
Another good bait for small rodents is peanut butter, if that's available to you (ubiquitous here). For groundhogs (woodchucks) and opossums, canned peaches worked a dream.
Jon
Quote from: Jon898 on April 03, 2021, 01:56:57 PMFor groundhogs (woodchucks) and opossums, canned peaches worked a dream.
How do they get them open?
Seeing all these posts makes me feel less alarmed about the small brown thing that ran across my living room floor a couple of weeks ago. I bought some poison and a bait station, but there's no sign of nibbling so far.
Bacon and Ham are also god bait for mice
Quote from: dannyboy on April 02, 2021, 03:25:23 PM
Quote from: N_GaugeModeller on April 02, 2021, 08:23:43 AM
although we do hear them scurrying around in the loft at night, sometimes they are so noisy you would think they are playing football wearing hob nailed boots.
I'll do you a deal. You tell your team not to play any more International matches in Leitrim and I'll tell my lot not to issue any more invites. :)
Deal :wave:
The Bazaar thing is, when they are running about with their boots on we do hear what sound like a ball rolling about as well, it sounds like a large marble rolling on a hard wood floor.
I tried just about every type of bait/poison I could get and none of it ever shows signs of being touched.
I have been on Youboob watch videos of mouse catchers and the most successful trap seems to be one of the simplest, a tall bucket with 3 or 4 inches of water and a spinning roller across the top with some peanut butter around the middle and a rump upto the edge of the bucket, Mr Mouse runs up the ramp, tries the cross to the middle of the roller which suddenly spins dumping Mr Mouse into the water, in one video they had 25 mice in one night.
Obviously its a lethal method so don't tell anyone what you are doing as the Smashed Avocado Brigade will be up in arms.
In my case we have a boxed in section covering pipework and I think they run along their rather than in the actual loft so cant actually get to them with traps or poison. Perhaps I need some more fish bait that attracted them last time and I should mix the poison with that.
NGM
My mouse catcher is efficient at catching them but unfortunately she goes out to catch them then she brings them home.
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/108/1970-030421152905.jpeg) (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view&id=108139)
Our mouse catcher used to do likewise but she is now retired and in declining health. (She used to give the corpses to the dog, but that is another story... :( ) Fortunately we have not been troubled by rodents indoors for many years now - we have rats in our compost heap from time to time but we can live with that. Our problem indoors is slugs :sick2: . We have been trying for years to find out how they get in but we sometimes come down in the morning to find a silvery trail across the rug. They have also been found in the dog-food cupboard. We can't put slug bait down with dogs in the house, so we are at a bit of a loss. Ho hum....
Cheers,
Chris
For Slugs use Salt.
Won't stop them coming in, but they won't do it twice!
Alan