The Not So Great White Hunter
Is this where Im allowed to say you have decended the ladder to the original level of what LD&D Ent. first started out doing when originally concieved?
No. It’s a “we also walk dogs” approach. You pay me, I’ll do it, and do it right.
Sure, filing form 815b.2a all day long, every day, for a whole career, might pay better. But it’s boring as hell. I like that this little side job has so many different aspects.
We had a mouse in the house in KY - to be expected - large field behind us (he mowed twice a season) and the house was poorly maintained (which is why we got it as a VA repo). Anyway I was stripping the horrid wall paper off the kitchen/dining area to paint and low and behold the previous moron (who actually thought of himself as a ‘home repair handyman’ (he stapled the ceiling tile in the out room and he scotch taped the floor tile in the kitchen - not even my idea of desperation fixes) - had put the paper over a hole in the wall between the kitchen and out room. Up pops a lil mousie - it was his last mistake. Between me and the killer cat - she would sit patiently and wait until the dog bashed the moles to death to grab it and go to eat - it lasted a few more minutes on this earth.
We had one make the mistake of coming into the garage here - with our cat wandering out into the garage while my hubby smokes and the neighbors two cats - his body laid in state on the driveway for a few. I can tell when Sebastian (the bigger hunter of the two next door brothers) has been fed kibble - he kills but does not eat. Does not matter to me - as long as the vermin are gone.
And the oilier the peanut butter, the better. It will last weeks and still draws the little poop machines in.
I always felt bad trapping the cute little beggars until I had an entire army of them in our last house and they chewed the air vents out of an expensive car that was parked in the garage and chewed into every last one of my boxes of food that were stored in the basement. Then I didn’t feel so bad anymore.
Posted by Nicole
02/16/2010 at 11:25 AM
It wasn’t a knock Drew.I Gave up the repair gig for selling used parts for similiar reasons. Instead of listening to the bitching about not fixing 10 other things I wasnt asked to fix I just sell em the parts,count the money and hang around here giving you Snark.Way more fun.
The old fashion snappy traps work best, trust me I live in the woods! Tried them all, glue boards, the new Tomcat black plastic traps, etc.
For some reason they like natural peanut butter better than the skippy crap they sell with the sugar added.
Posted by gdonovan
02/17/2010 at 05:28 AM
Yep, Victor traps work best! Nailed 11 of the little bastards in a few days. The glue pads are inhumane… The sucker is still alive the next morning and you’ve got to stomp it’s lights out, not pleasant. Or they escape leaving a bunch of belly fur on the pad. The plastic fancy box ones don’t work and they are expensive. Avoid the round plastic ones it’s impossible to place properly. The Victor traps are lightning quick and out of 11 mice, one escaped for an evening and was nailed the next day.
Trick is to figure out their comings and goings. Trial and error in trap placement is key. If you cannot tell by droppings alone where they are traveling then you can cover your bases and see which traps catch a mouse. Then focus on placing traps along that path. Mice will follow the wall, they rarely will venture out in the open. Place the trap perpendicular to the wall base board with the bait towards the wall. This will get them from either direction along the wall. They not only defecate constantly but they urinate to mark a trail as well. They are actually following a scent trail left by themselves or their fellow family members so that means they will take the same route all the time. it’s how the rest of the family finds the food! (ants do the same thing) The trail is left on the way back to the nest. When they encounter the trap they will climb over it rather then around it. They will discover the bait and go for it.
I sprinkle bird seed on the peanut butter, it works very well. My first mouse adventure happened when a new tenant moved in with birds and my apartment was overwhelmed with mice. Mice go nuts for bags of bird seed, it is their most favorite thing in the world! If you have birds or a bird feeder, put your bird seed in plastic sealed bins! Don’t leave it lying around. I had a mouse take the bird seed from a bag in the garage and build a nest in some comforters on a closet shelf upstairs. I went to pull out the comforter and there’s all this bird seed falling all over the place! Secret stash....
Posted by MJS
02/19/2010 at 06:16 PM
