Re: [A/S] Mousing

[Rick Kunath <k9ao@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Regarding the thread on humane mousing. I hate the sticky paper too, don't
> even like doing the mice in at all. BUT, I also don't like the destruction
> they cause, living in the woods it's just a fact of life (and this is the
> time they really start coming in).

Here's a tip I used and the only one that worked all winter. It does kill 
them, and don't know about humane, but it does the job.

Take a plastic bucket of the usual size. Cut a 1-inch wooden dowel off in 
length of a size about one-inch narrower than the bucket's top on each end. 
In other words a total of two-inches shorter than the bucket top diameter. 
Drive a long nail in from each end of the bucket in the center of the dowel 
such that it supports the dowel centered in the top opening of the bucket and 
the top of the dowel about level with the bucket top. Make sure the dowel 
rolls easily around on the nails like a paint roller.

This is the trap.

Get some thick peanut butter and spread a thin layer of it over the center 
three-inches or so of the dowel. Don't get it close to the ends of the dowel.

This is the bait.

Now lean a yardstick against the trap as a ramp up to one of the dowel ends. 
Bend over a couple of brads or drive then through the yardstick to make sure 
it hooks over the bucket and won't slip off.

Now fill the bucket about half way with ethelene-glycol anti-freeze.

At this point the mice will smell the bait, go up the ramp, spin over on the 
dowel, hang on until they get tired, then drop off and drown in the 
anti-freeze. The good part is that you have them in the bucket for disposal, 
and the anti-freeze keeps them from smelling. Also, it never freezes. In 
spring just dispose of the mice and clean the bucket. No dead mouse smell and 
no decomposition at all. 

I used this in the really cold Upper Peninsula of Michigan for years. The idea 
was passed on to me by my Dad, and it never failed. If I was just up for a 
weekend, I'd fish them out with a slotted spoon kept for the purpose, and 
re-bait, as the anti-freeze lasts a long time.

I think he originally got the idea because mice apparently love the taste of 
anti-freeze and were biting into the bottoms of plastic anti-freeze jugs kept 
in a shed. 

Rick Kunath
WBCCI #3060