Mice in the house! Dog killed one!

[AndrewR]

So, we had a sudden infestation of little mice in our house (of course, while I was on a business trip). Well, lo and behold, our 75 lb dog pounced on one and killed it the other morning! I'm so proud of the pup who isn't actually anywhere near a puppy at 7 years already.

I set some traps and got another one this morning. The trap was in the drawer underneath the stove and made a GIGANTIC metallic clang at about 4am. I went down there and found one of the nasties with his back broken in a most spectacular way.

We think there's at least one left, and I have some traps set out for it. Hopefully, we'll have our third kill in the morning. I'm still damn proud of my dog though.

Anyone have any mousing tips? I was in Orlando last week and perhaps I pissed off Mickey who sent his minions for revenge.

 

[nakedfrog]

You got that backwards, dogs are the nasty ones

 

[iamwiz82]

We had the same issue last year when it got really cold. I got some of those traps with food that kills the mice and when they rot it is without a smell. Haven't seem any of those bastards since.

 

[Leros]

We were gone from our house for about a month and came back to find a mice infestation. We set out traps and caught around 5 mice a night for over two weeks. Then we just got some poison and haven't seen any since.

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: Leros
We were gone from our house for about a month and came back to find a mice infestation. We set out traps and caught around 5 mice a night for over two weeks. Then we just got some poison and haven't seen any since.

What brand of trap did you use? I bought "Blackcat" traps from Lowes, and they are absolutely horrible. Instead of traps, I feel like I've bought "mouse feeding stations".

 

[isekii]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
We had the same issue last year when it got really cold. I got some of those traps with food that kills the mice and when they rot it is without a smell. Haven't seem any of those bastards since.

Got info on thie mice food.

I got a couple that are evading the Electric Zapper.

 

[Geekbabe]

Miss Kitty is availble on a contract basis... she is lethal

 

[NikolaeVarius]

My Dog also catches mice. Freaked me out the first time it walked into my room with a still struggling rat in its mouth.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Cats are much more efficient at killing small rodents.

Your post=fail

 

[Q]

5 stars for the dog

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Cats are much more efficient at killing small rodents.

Your post=fail

I've found a snap-trap properly baited with dried cherries to be more effective than either of my two cats. The cherry gets clamped down into the trigger, and is held in place by way of the trigger's teeth (Victor traps). The tough skin + sweet smell makes for a delicious treat that requires lots of tugging. The mice generally died with their teeth still in the cherry. One cherry held a record of about 10 mice over a period of a few months.

The mice always seem to stay by the walls or underneath furniture or appliances, or else they just made a racket from inside one particular wall, so my cats never had much luck catching them. The house was out in the country, so we had good old paranoid country mice, not docile city mice. The wall was finally cleared of all the mouse carcasses, and the mouse damage was repaired. Concerning the dead ones, they apparently fell in between two of the studs and would just die in there. The weird thing was, there was also a whole litter of mummified mice in there, too. Mom fell in, couldn't get out, gave birth, and they all died together. Ahh, the good life.

 

[amdhunter]

Originally posted by: AndrewR
So, we had a sudden infestation of little mice in our house (of course, while I was on a business trip). Well, lo and behold, our 75 lb dog pounced on one and killed it the other morning! I'm so proud of the pup who isn't actually anywhere near a puppy at 7 years already.

I set some traps and got another one this morning. The trap was in the drawer underneath the stove and made a GIGANTIC metallic clang at about 4am. I went down there and found one of the nasties with his back broken in a most spectacular way.

We think there's at least one left, and I have some traps set out for it. Hopefully, we'll have our third kill in the morning. I'm still damn proud of my dog though.

Anyone have any mousing tips? I was in Orlando last week and perhaps I pissed off Mickey who sent his minions for revenge.

It's not so rare. I had a German Shepard back in the day that would catch mice all the time. He'd kill them easily then take the carcass back to my mom's bed. It was easy for him to catch them though, since the mice would jump trying to get in my parrots cage, and then fall right into his mouth...lol.

Man I miss my old pets.

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Cats are much more efficient at killing small rodents.

But my dog can kill cats quite easily; therefore, killing small rodents is just too easy for her.

UPDATE: Last mouse killed by a "double trap" -- I placed two traps side-by-side with one trap flush into the corner. I figured since the little prick was stealing the bait on the traps which were exposed on 2-3 sides, I'd surround the one trap with two walls and then another trap to force the mouse onto the trap to get the peanut butter. It worked, and there appear to be no more critters running around in the walls.

The dog is finally resting easy! She was on pins and needles most of the time because she could hear and smell them.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: AndrewR

Originally posted by: Leros
We were gone from our house for about a month and came back to find a mice infestation. We set out traps and caught around 5 mice a night for over two weeks. Then we just got some poison and haven't seen any since.

What brand of trap did you use? I bought "Blackcat" traps from Lowes, and they are absolutely horrible. Instead of traps, I feel like I've bought "mouse feeding stations".

I buy cheap no brand name things for a dollar at the hardware store. They work pretty good with peanut butter on them.

I act like I'm handling a nuclear bomb when I'm setting them up though. I about had a heart attack when one of them sprung while I was sliding it into place.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Peanut butter is good bait, but cheese works well too.

A tip that I got from my dad, which he got from his dad: When baiting with cheese, light a match and hold it near the cheese for a second. The cooked cheese smell carries better than if it were uncooked.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Cats are much more efficient at killing small rodents.

Your post=fail

my cats = fail because ive see them watch a mouse walk right up to them and run away and they just sit there or look up at me like im supposed to do something about it

 

[torpid]

Cats prefer to play with their prey. It's annoying when you want them to kill something but all they do is bat it around and tilt their heads sideways repeatedly. NEWS FLASH: tilting your head sideways does not kill it. Stop being lazy and earn your keep around here, damn it.

 

[PingSpike]

It depends on the cat...I've had cats that regularly slaughtered mice and rabbits, killed weasels without getting a scratch on themselves, taken swipes at fat northeastern raccoons, lept off the house roof to snag bird in midair and tried to take down a full grown turkey. (What that cat was going to do with all that meat if she succeeded, I have no idea)

My current two spoiled house cats however have had one encounter with a chipmunk that crawled in through the dryer vent. They proceeded to follow it around the basement while it squeaked for 3 hours until they got bored and it crawled back out the way it came. Only one of them even kills and eats houseflys. And she usually meows at me to help her get them.

 

[40Hands]

Originally posted by: torpid
Cats prefer to play with their prey. It's annoying when you want them to kill something but all they do is bat it around and tilt their heads sideways repeatedly. NEWS FLASH: tilting your head sideways does not kill it. Stop being lazy and earn your keep around here, damn it.

Meh...my cat will catch mice in our house and play for a while before killing it. I say let her have her fun. She is cooped up in the house all the time and the mouse eventually gets whats coming to it.

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: 40Hands

Originally posted by: torpid
Cats prefer to play with their prey. It's annoying when you want them to kill something but all they do is bat it around and tilt their heads sideways repeatedly. NEWS FLASH: tilting your head sideways does not kill it. Stop being lazy and earn your keep around here, damn it.

Meh...my cat will catch mice in our house and play for a while before killing it. I say let her have her fun. She is cooped up in the house all the time and the mouse eventually gets whats coming to it.

My cats just let it escape eventually. I'm talking about bugs here, though. Maybe it's different for actual mice. I've not tested that out yet.

 

[interchange]

bored well-fed house cat != killing machine

 

[Patt]

My cat is pretty useless at catching mice. The only times (no kidding) have been when she has tag-teamed them with our 85 lb Black Lab\Rottwieler cross. When it gets really cold around here they come inside ... and right now we have a few. The dog's individual tally is 7, the cat's individual tally is 3 and together they've gotten 4 others.

The best/worst was when the dog was barrelling after one of the little buggers and it ran between some shelves stacked on their sides. The dog couldn't stop in time, and smacked those shelves together, resulting in a mouse pancake

 

[RandomFool]

My dog used to catch mice all the time, unfortunately they were my pet mice.

 

[Vonkhan]

My shepherd-collie is an expert mouser I live in Brooklyn so we do get the occasional mouse

 

[Modelworks]

Peanut butter.
Mice love it.
And it sticks well to the traps, so they cant grab and run.

I had a cat that would kill mice and leave them in my shoe.