Can mice recognize mouse traps?

[Sugarcoated]

We've got mice again this fall, and they're bold little fuckers, one just came out of the kitchen to sniff around the dining room table. We caught a few at first, but now, even with several traps, snap, sticky and the one that just traps them in a little compartment thingy, we're getting nothing.

[jobycom]

1. If they live near a National Institute of Mental Health, sometimes they can.

[Sugarcoated]

4. Exqueeze me?

[mikeytherat]

8. "Mrs. Frisby and the rats of N.I.M.H."

An excellent book.

mikey_the_rat

[Skittles]

2. I bet Mickey would

[1]

3. i get mice every fall... when the temperature goes down...

i live on a farm. they get cold and look for a warm home.

honestly? i would let bygones be bygones if it wasn't for that thing they do... take a shit every second or two of their lives. if a mouse were to show up in a drawer of mine, snoot about and leave i would think nothing about the intrusion and ignore them.

but the mouse shows up in a drawer of mine, and shits little mouse turds like every second or so... so after he is through snooting about my drawer, it is full of little mouse turds.

disgusting! and i can't have that.


i don't do catch and release. and the myth about cats is just that, cats don't catch mice. traps catch mice. so i set traps with cheese. *snap!* and i burn their little bodies in the trash pile.

i don't want to. but why do they shit so much in my drawers?


idiots...

[Sugarcoated]

5. Eeek!

[pokerfan]

6. Yeah, they figure out traps

but poison works.

[Sugarcoated]

7. My husband's been avoiding that because he's afraid

they'll die somewhere where we can't get to them.

[pokerfan]

13. That wasn't my experience

And trust me, I had the same concern. But I've only retired one in that manner. He expired in the open. I'm not sure but I think the poison might make them look for water.

[Deep13]

9. peanut butter bait.

I use covered spring traps. They don't have time to figure them out.

[halobeam]

10. last year we had over two dozen of them!

I called exterminator after we caught four and there were more making a racket in the kitchen the next night!

They set traps, (different from ours... I'd say change the type of trap and that will help confuse them) and they caught the other twenty.... in two weeks. It was absolutely disgusting, and I had to sanitize EVERYTHING every morning! You can get sick from them (hantivirus sp?)... anyway.. I decided to call exterminator when one jumped on my head while I was lying on the couch watching tv. I'm totally not kidding. I can laugh now, but at that moment, I figured I'd have less wildlife If I camped out in my backyard that winter.

Two dozen gone, and every nook and cranny we have seen is sealed w/ steel wool and filled w/ foam. Nothing yet here, but I won't be comfortable until an entire season passes by w/o those #!%##**@!

Each night after all the lights are out, I sit and wait for a while w/ the mute button on and listen very intently for any noise whatsoever. It's a terrible thing to deal with. I really feel for you!

*fingers crossed for you, me and all the victims of these "bold little fuckers!"

[Sugarcoated]

11. Wow! I'd have a coronary if one jumped on me!

I put the dog's dish up off the floor and I suspect that's why one wandered out of the kitchen, it was looking for food, and think they may find their way upstairs . . . ! I was actually afraid to go in and make lunches for the next day. It's annoying, not to mention gross. And they squeek at night, too, and pretty loudly. Are they calling in their friends? My husband filled in what entry spots he could find, but it's a big and very old house. Can you describe what the traps looked like that the exterminator used?

[halobeam]

14. After using catch and release and getting four a night,

we brought out the snap your neck kind. We did catch and release the season before that and there were just a few, but I swear they multiplied in a nearby bush, and returned w/ their extended family and friends the following season.

I had them on the ledge of my foundation wall in the basement, all the way up into the second story attic. We hid them behind the stove, the fridge.... and I'd hear the snaps go at night and sometimes they'd be hmmmm how do I say this... not dead right away because some were the adolescents of the family. They were the bigger ones. I wouldn't do the laundry in the basement for fear a big one would get snapped and fall off the ledge and onto the machine or ME for that matter.

I know ppl live in worse conditions, but I honestly believe things are relative and this was a serious stressor.

Yeah, I might have had a slight coronary, had it not been for the 36 hours straight I was awake, due to my brothers wedding. Side note: Its paws never touched my scalp because I had soooooo much hair spray in my hair that I just felt and heard the "crunch"! I was wearing a hoodie bathrobe and was afraid it fell in it. I was stripping pretty quickly while dancing a not so very sexy dance might I add! I can laugh now.. but oh, I won't rest until this season has passed, mice free.

[LOUWEEZY]

12. mouses in the houses

I feel your pain too. 2 winters ago we were mobbed by mice. I
live in Chicago & we had had an early, really cold winter.
Once we got rid of 2, we thought that was it. The next thing I
knew they were everywhere & replete with little brass
mouse balls. One watched me from the windowsill. One strolled
over to the dog food bowl & was having breakfast while my
2 useless mini-schnauzers were on my lap. I too was lounging
on the couch & one crawled up the curtain next to my head.
I screamed so loudly I woke my poor hub who was on the
opposite end of the house w/ the door closed. Those humane no
kill traps were o.k. until I realized we had a real problem.
It then became a moral issue-gah. I don't rally wanna kill
'em, but they're a health threat, they're making my house a
potty(gross), & if the dogs get 'em-- I don't even wanna
know. What really worked best was #1 finding where the buggers
got in-basement, through the a/c compressor hose. sealing it
up, #2 not leaving any dog food out, & then they got
hungry. And C) I bought those little D-Con houses. I put
simply jif in the little holder, set them, & in 2 days I
had about 14. That was all she wrote. I put the traps in the
basement along outside walls, & directly next to the
totally cliche' mouse hole they made in my b'ment stairs. One
trap even had 2 in it-on on top of the other. Never saw
another one ever again. Maybe they didn't have enough time
hanging around to get wist to the traps.  Now I don't feel so
bad, I am not alone & am not gonna feel bad for acting
like a cartoon character-screaming & jumping up on things.

[halobeam]

15. Nah... imo... it's war when it's that many. It's a complete health hazard.

I won't go there. I was disinfecting everything, each plate, cup, UGH. Forget it. They HAD to go. My son said he heard a bunch of squeaky noises in the shed just two nights ago. I think we are going in for another round this week.... I can just tell (or it's either my paranoia or maybe the little bums actually can't get in this year LOL... I hope so!)

If this was life's biggest problems though, I'd count my blessings. I've two teens that you can't remedy with a purchase from Home Depot! :rofl: