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Controlling the mice population in our backyard

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Elektrishun

Well-Known Member
Couple of winters ago we had what appeared to be a vole issue in the backyard. Wrecked havoc on the lawn. I am not overly concerned about a pristine lawn but it was bad.

Made a "feed station" using 2" PVC schedule 40 and 1/8" threaded rod with a couple nuts at one end acting as a stop. Imagine an upside down "T" shape with the threaded rod suspended from a cap that hangs down almost to the intersecting point. Found the design on YouTube.

The bait comes with a hole in the center and slides down the rod. The vole can come in from either end and feed. When the closest bait block gets eaten the next block slides down.

The next winter the bait station was set out and I stocked it until the bait no longer was being eaten. The following spring the backyard lawn looked much better. Couple summers later my wife is getting freaked out because she is seeing mice running around the garden while watering the plants. She has a mouse phobia so I bring out the feeder again.

Here's the question - the type of bait you find at typical home improvement store, like the Victor brand, any good? Or am I am just feeding these mice the equivalent of fast food? The reason I ask is this past summer we seemed to go through a lot of bait. Just kept loading it up. Maybe 8 blocks would be eaten in a week at times. Slowed down finally in the fall.

Bait 2.jpeg
Bait.jpg



BTW - after doing some reading it appears that ONE source for all these mice could be the neighbors hot-tub. Apparently the style that has the wood shroud with insulation behind can turn into a great mouse house. They neighbors haven't been using the tub for awhile and I wonder if I am not providing the Continental breakfast for a nearby mouse hotel.
 
Elektrishun said:
Couple of winters ago we had what appeared to be a vole issue in the backyard. Wrecked havoc on the lawn. I am not overly concerned about a pristine lawn but it was bad.

Made a "feed station" using 2" PVC schedule 40 and 1/8" threaded rod with a couple nuts at one end acting as a stop. Imagine an upside down "T" shape with the threaded rod suspended from a cap that hangs down almost to the intersecting point. Found the design on YouTube.

The bait comes with a hole in the center and slides down the rod. The vole can come in from either end and feed. When the closest bait block gets eaten the next block slides down.

The next winter the bait station was set out and I stocked it until the bait no longer was being eaten. The following spring the backyard lawn looked much better. Couple summers later my wife is getting freaked out because she is seeing mice running around the garden while watering the plants. She has a mouse phobia so I bring out the feeder again.

Here's the question - the type of bait you find at typical home improvement store, like the Victor brand, any good? Or am I am just feeding these mice the equivalent of fast food? The reason I ask is this past summer we seemed to go through a lot of bait. Just kept loading it up. Maybe 8 blocks would be eaten in a week at times. Slowed down finally in the fall.

View attachment 57861 View attachment 57862


BTW - after doing some reading it appears that ONE source for all these mice could be the neighbors hot-tub. Apparently the style that has the wood shroud with insulation behind can turn into a great mouse house. They neighbors haven't been using the tub for awhile and I wonder if I am not providing the Continental breakfast for a nearby mouse hotel.
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1736873313785.png
 
Elektrishun said:
I don't know what that picture of a lap warmer has to do with this.:)

I live in the city. Free roaming cats eventually fill potholes or worse.

If I was out in the country I wouldn't even need to ask about bait. But either the mice go or my wife...hmmm


:D
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If you are in a city I'm surprised rats have not yet displaced the mice! Thats whats happened over here. Most cities if not all are now over run by rats. We have lots of roaming neighbourhood cats but they seem to be too fat and lazy and not doing their job. The rodent population thrives anyway.
 
Canadium said:
If you are in a city I'm surprised rats have not yet displaced the mice! Thats whats happened over here. Most cities if not all are now over run by rats. We have lots of roaming neighbourhood cats but they seem to be too fat and lazy and not doing their job. The rodent population thrives anyway.
Click to expand...

Oh great.

We're gonna need a bigger boat...er...trap.
 
I do not do poisons. We had a dog die from a neighbours poison. As well it kills cats who may eat the poisoned mice.. Trap em all. Works better in the long run.
 
djberta said:
I do not do poisons. We had a dog die from a neighbours poison. As well it kills cats who may eat the poisoned mice.. Trap em all. Works better in the long run.
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We checked into this before and I think the type of poison and the way the poison is used factors into poisoning of an animal. Basically being irresponsible with how it is handled.

The type of poison bait I am using and the feeder design limits access by anything other than rodents. Apparently for an animal to suffer from secondary poisoning from eating a rodent that has consumed the poison first is not considered a likely outcome. See this article:


I would not want to hurt somebody's pet.
 
I too have issues with putting out poisons, despite that they are often the only viable option.

I ran essentially, a trap Line, in my garage when I lived north of Edmonton. Mostly snap traps, unbaited, but nosed in to the area of the wall that the mice ran as they followed it along. Got five in one particularly busy night!

The real producer, though, was the bucket/log roller traps. Drill a hole in the middle of the base of a small plastic soda bottle, another fairly centered in the cap. Doesn't have to be perfect, as long as the weight of a mouse can make it roll. Thread a straight wire through the bottle, and through two sides of a plastic 5 gallon pail rim. a couple dabs of peanut butter, on the bottle serves as bait. Mouse smells bait, walks out onto the bottle, which promptly rolls, and dumps the mouse into the fluid in the bottom of the bucket, trap is ready for several more customers, almost immediately...

I had no animals that had access to my shop, so in cold weather, I used antifreeze in the bucket (like, about a five second lifespan, when they hit ten degrees below zero antifreeze!), if you have pets access to the trap area, use RV antifreeze, it's not toxic.

Have seen guys build ramps so the mice could walk up to the rim of the bucket, but I usually had places that I could simply leave the bucket in place, and the mice were able to reach the rim. Cheap, simple, and worked very well, pretty much the Trifecta!
 
Warfarin is still the main poison used, it's an anticoagulant, so basically they bleed to death. You need to eliminate their food source, if you have an infestation of mice it is because there is lots of food for them and their offspring.
Bird food is usually the culprit.
 
skippyelwell said:
Warfarin is still the main poison used, it's an anticoagulant, so basically they bleed to death. You need to eliminate their food source, if you have an infestation of mice it is because there is lots of food for them and their offspring.
Bird food is usually the culprit.
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You are kinda correct.

From what I've read the active ingredient in the product I am using is Diphacinone which is an anticoagulant like Warfarin:

"Chlorophacinone and Diphacinone are anticoagulants, of the indane-dione class, which differs chemically from hydroxycoumarin anticoagulants such as warfarin or brodifacoum. Diphacinone is more toxic than warfarin to most species of rats and mice. Clinical and post-mortem signs of toxicosis are as for other anticoagulants. The persistence of diphacinone in the liver is similar to other first-generation anticoagulants which are rapidly eliminated and do not bio-accumulate like the second-generation anticoagulants. Chlorophacinone has similar properties to diphacinone but with slightly greater potency."

1st generation anticoagulants - RRAC Resistance guide

guide.rrac.info guide.rrac.info


Bird food is definitely a source. Now I just need to convince all the neighbors around me with feeders, for which there are many, to get rid of them.
 
Around here we have rats because so many of the residents are pigs and toss their fast food containers out on the ground with tons of left overs.

The management puts out poison and blames it on rats liking to eat dog shit... and not the leftover popeyes chicken. Then the rats die, then the crows scavenge the carcasses and die...

we have a ton of foxes in the area, I see then every few days, but they prefer the ample organic vegan eastern cottontails population
 
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