Catch the little buggers!

A great article by Clare Beebe in this months Home Farmer.

“As a poultry keeper you have a duty to keep rodents under control, both for the environment and your own well-being.  By doing this it not only helps to save you money by keeping down the cost of repairing the damage done by these animals, but also presents a huge saving on the food that is potentially going to be ruined by these animals.”

We have a bit of a mouse problem at the moment – we found mouse droppings in our shed – the little buggers were living in an old chair cover!  

Mouse droppings out of our shed.

 

We have started to use a product called Eradibait www.eradibait.com – the great thing about this is;

• no risk to children or pets
• no risk to livestock or birds
• no risk of either primary or secondary poisoning - bird of prey friendly
• no known resistance
• no special requirement for transport, handling, storage or disposal
• no risk of contamination to crops or food
• no environmental pollution - fully biodegradable

Brilliant because we have chickens in the garden, we’ll update you on results as and when they are available!

We have also caught a few in our house – as detailed below we have used a traditional snap trap in the house and baited it with Coconut Macaroon – works a treat!

Here is a summary of several ways you can get rid of a rodent problem

Humane Traps

Humane mouse traps are designed to capture mice without harming them or causing them undue distress and allow you to catch a mouse in order to release it far away from home - hopefully so far that it does not return. Because they do not kill the mouse, humane traps are also safer around babies, young children and pets.

Traditional wire and wood block snap traps

These traps are effective and inexpensive. The ideal bait is something like peanut butter rather than cheese.  Although we have found coconut macaroons are a winner for a bait choice. These traps kill the mouse almost instantly.  The only negative being once the trap has caught a mouse until it is emptied and re-set it cant catch anymore.

Poison containers

With poison it keeps the mouse in one piece.  Mice can't resist the bait so there’s less preparation and it makes less mess than traps.  As long as you’re willing to handle the time it takes for the poison to take effect, then poison is an ideal way to kill a mouse.  Aside from checking to see if the poisoned bait has been nibbled at it is very hard to tell whether you have actually poisoned any mice. This is until you discover weeks later smells emanating from around your house!

Buy a cat!

Cats are expert mice killing machines which is the very reason cats became domesticated in the first place.  Of course not all cats are going to be great mouse stalkers so I would try and get some kind of farm cat, something like a Maine Coon.

Call in the professionals

The other option is to call in the experts – just have a look in yellow pages for a local pest controller.  This is usually the most expensive option but should give you and your family peace of mind, and they will be able to give you thorough advice on how to stop future mouse problems.

Hopefully this has helped some of you out with controlling the little buggers!

All the best

Claire

xxx

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