A slightly embarrassing post but here goes. I’ve got some sort of rodent living in my kitchen. I’m not sure whether it’s a rat or a mouse (or a family of either) however I find whatever it is stealing food and gnawing away at packaging. I’m really worried about using toxic baits around food and am a bit squeamish when it comes to setting mouse traps so was wondering whether anyone has any practical advice I can follow?
I found this electric mouse traps which allows you to remove the rodent without seeing it but unsure if I’m going down the right route. Also fearful that if I purchase a mouse trap it won’t be suitable for rats. I’ve also searched for where it could be living / hiding out but can’t seem to find anything. I suspect it lives behind the kitchen units.
I get the occasion mouse in my garage. I don’t want them chewing on any wires in the car, so I set up a glue trap. I put a small blob of peanut butter in the center.
They make them in both mouse and rat size. I get the rat size as the mice (here) are fairly large for the mouse size.
I’m sorry that you are going through this, yikes. Sealing off any openings where the rodents can enter your home or apartment is key. You really must exclude the critters from getting in. Copper wool (like steel wool, but made from non-rusting copper) can help in openings such as where a water pipe enters a cabinet/kitchen unit. Ask me how I know—old house!
As has been noted, an exterminator can help.
One thing to be mindful of is the use of rodenticide. Rodenticides can kill wildlife and pets if they eat the poisoned pests or accidentally get into the bait. Information about wildlife and rodenticide here. My dog once found a rodent bait cube outdoors and ate it before I could intervene. Things might have gone very badly if I hadn’t rushed her to the vet.
I have successfully caught mice with all manner of traps (snap, glue, electric like the exact model you showed.)
Last time I had tk use the electric ones, I handled the traps with gloves on so I wouldn’t scent them and used soft cat treats as bait. I set them where I saw the mice scurrying. If they didn’t work in the first day or so I put the gloves back on and relocated the traps. The first time I caught one in an electric trap I swept the whole trap up and just threw it all away, but that’s expensive (and there is usually more than one mouse to be caught.) Subsequently I forced myself to open the trap into to the garbage can.
I really dislike glue traps. They’re messy and unnecessairly cruel. Yeah, I know we’re talking about mice/rats, but still, I think we have a moral obligation to dispatch them as quickly and efficiently as possible. I once caught a rat in a glue board, and the rat managed to crawl away until the board got wedged between a few garden tools. The rat squealed and hollered (I don’t really know how to describe it, but I never knew a rat could make that kind of noise) until I heard it and went out to the garage to investigate. IIRC, I killed it with a shovel. A few days later, I found the front leg of a rat stuck to another board - the rat must have gnawed off the leg to get away, leaving a bloody footprint trail. It turned my stomach and convinced me there had to be a better way. Since then I’ve used the Tomcat rat trap (https://tomcatbrand.com/en-us/shop/traps/tomcat-secure-kill-rat-trap/0360801.html), which seems to work well.
We rid our country weekend place of multiple mice by setting out unwrapped bars of original scent Irish Spring soap. They HATE the scent and simply leave of their own accord. Has worked for over 5 years now.
If the rats are that big that they are getting out of the glue traps; I’m breaking out the Conibear 110 traps. When it comes to rats… take no prisoners.
As far as glue traps, they are cheap and disposable. It seems the mice/rodents (here) like vehicle wiring. My neighbor spent a small fortune replacing his main wiring harness on his truck after a mouse or rat or something made a meal out of the wiring. I really can’t afford a major repair like that, so inhumane or not if they come in the garage (or house), they have to die.
Get a cat or two?
We’ve had success with the electric traps when we didn’t have ‘interested’ cats. The hardest part for me was remembering to check the
batteries in the trap.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
13
Almost inevitable. We’ve had mice in the house only once. I used standard traps, baited with chocolate as advised. Caught three.
Rats in the area have been a regular problem over the years. So far, they havent taken up residence in the house although I know they have with a neighbour. Whenever I saw them regularly in the garden, I called in the pest control services from the local council, who offered a free service at that time. Since they started charging, I’ve bought bait and a couple of bait boxes. Other neighbours have done similar and the concerted effort seems to have worked. Not wishing to tempt fate, but havnt seen one for maybe 18 months.
Also I should have mentioned a few simple things that we’ve found helpful in excluding mice:
pencil (or chopstick) to pack in the copper wool
mirror to see under things where small openings may exist
bright flashlight to help you spot small openings where critters may be entering
In our previous house, we discovered that openings for pipes under the kitchen sink and around the plumbing to the dishwasher needed to be plugged with copper wool.
And do make sure there’s no access to water or food for the unwanted visitors. That includes removing bird feeders outside, which attract more than birds.
The stuff you learn from living in leaky older New England houses!
The first rat didn’t get away from the glue board, it managed to crawl around with the board stuck to it’s underside (sort of paddling like a surfer in search of a swell). The second one only got three-quarters away. They are cheap and disposable, I’ll grant you that. My problem with them is that they’re cruel, inefficient, and messy.
Do you just drop the glue board into your trash with a live rodent stuck to it?
By the next morning, the rodent is dead and into the trash. Not really messy, I just use a plastic bag around my hand to grab it, place it in another plastic bag, knot it up and into the outside trash can.
The mice/small rats I’ve trapped on the glue boards are small enough that they get their whole body stuck to it. They go after the peanut butter at the center.
If the rodent is on the bigger side, I’ll set a conibear 110 trap. The Conibear 110 trap is a quick death. If they are too big for the 110 trap, I’ll upgrade to the 220 or 330 – after that, I’m calling in a professional.
We did have one of our felines reach under the cabinet where a glue box for catching insects was placed. The result was this ‘flapping’ noise downstairs in the middle of the night. It was a sad but comic sight. The procedure to remove was difficult, but we were able to free puss’ paw from the glue box. We had to carefully open, then cut the box from around the paw and the do a little soaking to separate paw from pad. I don’t know if you’ve taken a piece of masking tape, rolled it around itself and attatched it to a cats paw pads. Comic, but sad also.
Learned a lot that night.
I was just reminded of this one javelina/peccary that was laying in my driveway late one night. I went to take the trash out and there was large blob in the driveway. I went back in and turned on the outside flood lights. Lo & behold there was this huge old javelina laying there all alone. They usually travel in herds and I’ve read that they leave the herd prior to dying.
I started thinking what am I going to do with a 100+ pound wild pig carcass?? Who do I call if he is dead in my driveway?? They are a protected species, I don’t need this. So I started clapping my hands and making a whole bunch of noise. I had Sunshine flip the lights on and off. After a bit of a delay, he slowly rose to his feet and very slowly wandered off.
and the do a little soaking to separate paw from pad. I don’t know if you’ve taken a piece of masking tape, rolled it around itself and attatched it to a cats paw pads. Comic, but sad also.
