The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Four Blind Mice, Four Blind Mice

Four Blind Mice,
Four Blind Mice,
See how they run,
See how they run,
I put the bait in the Victor trap,
And I hear them go clackity clack clack,
Four Dead Mice,
Four Dead Mice.

It seems that 'Jake the snake' that lives in my garage (and my basement) has NOT been doing his job. I was cleaning more boxes out of the garage and in doing so, ran a live mouse out of one of them. He scurried none other than BACK into the garage. So I declared war on him (them). I also noticed that day that they had eaten a corner of the cardboard covering the gas tank just above the rocker on the driver's side. Messin with Ole Booger is like goin from preachin to meddlin. I didn't want to use poison because then I'd have dead mice who knows where.

I bought 4 plain ole Victor traps and set them out the first day. It seems 3 of the 4 were just apetizers for them. They licked them clean without springing them. One of them however did SOME good (I think). I got up the next morning and could only find three traps. The fourth one either caught a mouse by the tail or Jake got a hold of it. One of them drug it off somewhere.

Today, however, I put them out again and got 3 for 3 in the traps I set. One on the workbench, one on the floor, and one in the cab of Ole Booger under the seat. I disposed of those when I got home and re-baited them before I left for the evening. I got one more from the one on the floor when I got home this evening. YES, I'm a killin machine now. Once I get them all outta here, I plan on keeping them baited and around the three places. They ain't welcome in my garage with Ole Booger.

Rance

What did you use for bait? We tried the original-thinking piece of cheese first (in our garage last winter). Then we tried peanut butter as somebody suggested. Didn't work either. My sister had left some of that squirt cheese in a can here ... so we tried that. That did the trick.

But I think you'd need to catch 'em pretty fast with the squirt cheese. I suppose once it hardens (and it really does), it might come off as easy as the "original cheese" piece.

Good job on catching them, tho. I was sorting through newspapers in the garage last night and I wondered if I was going to come across a mouse. But I didn't. But I sure did quite when I starting loosing daylight. Take no chances!!

Peg

Hey is Jake the Snake still alive? :p

You might have more mice than you think if Jake can't keep up! :mad:

Just think about this.........
My Wife Robin59 has a few cats (20) that she is trying to find homes for.....

Just a thought

Cliff59

Mice cant resist butter butter... but you have to rub it all over the trigger... and set the trap to snap easily... because they will sit there and lick it off...

Reminds me of when my sister in law had mice in the cellar.She would catch the mouse then throw the trap away with the mouse.Told me she had to keep buying new traps LMAO.

Peggy, I used peanut butter. The first batch I didn't put on too good or very much. You got to jam it in the hole where the trigger is. Sometimes they can still lick it out but eventually they DO get caught. I believe putting more on there helps too.

Gluing the dog food to the trigger? That's a hoot! Sounds like it might work though.

Update: I checked them this morning and again this afternoon. The two I could get to (on the bench and under Ole Booger's seat) still had the peanut butter on them. That's a good sign. I'll be checking the one on the garage floor later on when I can get to it.

About Jake, I've only seen the tail end of him crawling back into the woodwork. His skins are almost 6' long. About 20" from his tail he is about the diameter of a quarter or more. I hope he didn't get caught by the first trap that 'crawled away'.

Rance
[Edit:] Just checked the third trap. Someone has been licking on it but I must have interrupted him. Looks like there's still one lurker left.

You need more snakes.I've got a 4-5ft long bull snake in my garage and he keeps them under control.Scares the S#it out of me if I'm out there and he find one, they are restrictors you know and when he finds one it's a comotion, I mean to tellya. Sometimes wont see him for months.But I know he's on the job.

I like the traps that smacks their little jaws shut to but my wife says that is being cruel. So, what does she prefer? She has a real old trap that the mice/mouse go into and it flips them over into water and drowns them. Beats any darn thing I ever seen? ME cruel, hehe, go figure.

Sometimes it helps to knot a short piece of string through that hole in the trigger, and then smear the peanut butter on. As they're eating off the peanut butter, they will also start chewing (and tugging) on the string, which will help spring the trap.

this might help

For Hire

beef jerkey wired to the trigger then set some dog food around the trap i caught 3 in one trap once

hey Joker Ive seen that picture before but I must say that was the best application of it I have ever seen... made me laugh...'will work for beer'.

Well, let's make that FIVE Blind/Dead mice. Got another one yesterday from under the seat. I think I'm gonna keep one under there for a loooooooong tme.

I use raisins to bait traps with pretty good luck. Mash it on to the trigger so they have to tug on it to get it. Apparently I need more traps. Found one floating in my drain pan today when I went to empty the oil from an oil change a couple days ago. Yuk.

haha great post joker.

I havn't seen a mouse (in a trap) in weeks. And the trap on the workbench still has 2-week old PB in it. I still want to try supergluing jerky to the trap. I'm happy as a pig in slop... concerning the mouse population that is.

Was there some time/space warp I missed. This post is Spoon tripe. Where are the police when you need them. :mad:


Stuart

I worked for a plumbing supplier a few years ago and was in the breakroom toasting a bagel.on the shelf above the toaster was a jar of skippy peanut butter.The toaster popped and I opted for the peanut butter.It smelled a little funny but looked OK,tasted kinda like peanut skins but I was hungry so I ate it anyways.Just as I was starting on the second half my boss came in.He looked at my bagel and asked me where I got the peanut butter,when I showed him the jar he started laughing and yelling for the other guys.The peanut butter I used was the same jar of skippy they had been using for over 8 years as bait on mouse traps.That was in 2000 and skippy has followed me through 2 more jobs.They did buy me my own jar of skippy

Stuart, It's only tripe when it is not affecting YOUR stovebolt. This was a serious issue to me and I got some usable advice. Maybe I'll put it in the Greasy Spoon next time though.

Considering the damage that rodents cause to our vintage vehicles, I consider this thread to be on topic. I could count on one hand the number of trucks that we've worked on that didn't have some rodent attention.

Hell I remember my days as a lad, hunting mice (rats) in the barn. I would get out the 22 revolver dad had and load it with rat shot. We stayed in the barn all night 5 or 6 of us with guns telling wild tails and killing rats.

Peggy, I use peanut butter when I set my traps, also if you tie some string to it they will pull on it and set the trap, this keeps them from just licking the trap clean and leaving. Chunky is good also, you can stuff it in the holes so they have to put preasure on it to get the chunks.

Ed

I've got RATS now too... I found two of them inside a piece of carpet that i was drying out over my fence... the RAT B@$t@rd$ chewed it all up...