Rodent infestation

**Chainsaw_Willie** · 01-07-2009, 08:19 PM

Had a rat infestation at my place. The house is really old with a huge crawl space under it and post & pile construction so no realistic way to seal off all of their access points. They were frolicking in the attic and in the walls, but never came inside the living space, probably because of my dogs. Still, the attic was a nasty mess by the time I realized what was going on and there's probably a lot of rat shit in the walls. They also invaded my garage.

What made this worse was this is some kind of race of super rats, able to set off snap traps and take the bait without getting caught. Also able to foil sticky traps. One night I set out 10 traps and the next morning all of them had been tripped but not one rat. I found a sticky trap upside down about three feet from where I'd set it and no rat in it. Fuckers had dragged it through the dirt upside down, ruining it.

Finally, a guy at my work gave me the solution. Buy a bunch of the snap traps and put them inside a cardboard box. Cut a couple holes in the ends of the box and set the box along a wall or fence line where they run. They may be able to jump fast enough to avoid getting caught in one trap but they will land in another. I arranged the traps in the bottom of the box so there was a pathway into the middle of the box where the baited traps were, unbaited traps were arranged closer to the entrance holes. I had six traps total in one box and it worked like a charm. Caught 5 rats in two days and occasionally still get one out in my garage, but otherwise haven't seen any more since.

Here is a link to a pic of the carnage after the first night.

Originally Posted by GiBo

I got pissed when I started getting bit at night by mites. Turns out, rodents have these tiny mites that are attracted by carbon dioxide. So when I would go to bed with my door closed, they would sense the CO2 I was exahaling and come and bite the shit out of me. Itched like hell too.

Mites? More than likely they were fleas. Fleas on rats & mice were the primary agent of bubonic plague infection during the middle ages. Rats & mice carry the disease and they have fleas, fleas bite them then jump off and bite you, transmitting the disease. Flea bites itch like hell and leave a tiny little red welt.

**The Suit** · 01-07-2009, 08:24 PM

Originally Posted by iceman

You just throw the whole thing out after it kills, the traps are cheap enough.

Weak! Why throw out a perfectly good trap, unless you are a girl?

Carry the trap out to the end of your driveway, then pry it open so the mouse falls out. Shake a little if dried blood has stuck the mouse to the trap. The local birds (ravens, magpies, etc.) will learn to look for treats there.

Try to leave the mouse white side up in the summer, brown side up in the winter. The birds find it more easily that way.

**iceman** · 01-07-2009, 08:37 PM

Originally Posted by The Suit

Weak! Why throw out a perfectly good trap, unless you are a girl?

Carry the trap out to the end of your driveway, then pry it open so the mouse falls out. Shake a little if dried blood has stuck the mouse to the trap. The local birds (ravens, magpies, etc.) will learn to look for treats there.

Try to leave the mouse white side up in the summer, brown side up in the winter. The birds find it more easily that way.

You win, I lose.

Dagnabbit.

**Benny Profane** · 01-07-2009, 08:54 PM

Hey, if you really want some fun, drive down to the local strip mall like I did with a live one I caught Sunday, let it our with 40 yards to any kind of cover, and be amazed at how quickly 3 crows show up for a morsel. Poor sucker, screamed bloody agony.

**jongtastic** · 01-07-2009, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by iceman

In the other scenario, you would be like "Peanut Butter, cool, fuck I'm stuck HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME oh fuck I'm screwed, but at least I have time to think about how screwed I am. I guess that is a blessing. FUCK NO IT'S NOT A BLESSSING I'M STUCK AND I'M DYING.

]

I laughed for 10 minutes. HARD! sigworthy!

oh yeah, FUCK THE FUCKERS THIS IS WAR!

**Rontele** · 01-07-2009, 09:29 PM

Maybe the mice were scared away by Mrs. Rontele's hysterics, but I was just out for the last three hours and no carnage to report.

I did also get one of those sonic transmitters that you plug into the wall...

**300hp** · 01-08-2009, 02:41 AM

we don't want to drive them away by this point, do we> Your locked and loaded. Invite the fuckers in for tea and trapps. Turn off this silly repellant device on the grounds that it is not manly and report back.

**Rontele** · 01-08-2009, 07:41 AM

The irony of iceman discussing humane killing techniques is wonderful.

No mice in traps this morning, nor any fresh droppings.

**Blatant** · 01-08-2009, 09:06 AM

get a pussy.

**GiBo** · 01-08-2009, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by Chainsaw_Willie

Mites? More than likely they were fleas. Fleas on rats & mice were the primary agent of bubonic plague infection during the middle ages. Rats & mice carry the disease and they have fleas, fleas bite them then jump off and bite you, transmitting the disease. Flea bites itch like hell and leave a tiny little red welt.

"RODENT and BIRD MITES (Liponyssoides sanguineus, Laelaps echidnina, Ornithonyssus spp., Dermanyssus gallinae, Cheyletiella spp.)

Rodent and bird mites may bite people when their hosts die or abandon their nests. Three types of rodent mites readily bite humans: the house mouse mite (Liponyssoides saguineus), spiny rat mite (Laelaps echidnina) and tropical rat mite (Ornithonyssus bacoti). The house mouse mite prefers to suck the blood of mice, but also will bite rats and people, often causing a rash around the bite. They prefer warm places (e.g., around pipes and furnaces) where rodents live. The spiny rat mite feeds on rats at night and hides by day in cracks and crevices around rat nests and resting places. The tropical rat mite’s bite is painful and causes skin irritation and itching."

**khakis** · 01-08-2009, 12:49 PM

I've seen mice tear their skin off trying to get out of the sticky traps. They are awesome. I like the idea of baiting them too! I spent the better part of a summer killing mice at a hunting camp once, just waiting for the day they show their furry mugs at my house...

**grrrr** · 01-08-2009, 01:00 PM

Originally Posted by The Suit

Weak! Why throw out a perfectly good trap, unless you are a girl?

I've found the dead mouse smell tends to discourage other mice from becoming deaded.

My best ever was 4 baby rats in one trap. Snap!

**PNWbrit** · 01-08-2009, 01:06 PM

Originally Posted by Blatant

get a pussy.

Sloowwww pitch.

**iceclimb** · 01-08-2009, 01:39 PM

I used to have 3 cats, the youngest one was a go getter... she had a killer spirit for sure. THe other two were pussies...err, pansies. Anyway, the young one dies and there's a fight for dominance in the house. Both of the cats being lazy good fornothings.. no one wins.

Anyway, I'm sitting there in the spring, with the first floor sliding glass door open, with a beer open, and the TV on. I don't remember what I was watching, but I do remember suddenly hearing gnawing... which made me, and the cats, look at the sliding glass door. The gnawing sound stops, and a mouse comes racing into the living room.

Now.. to go anywhere the mouse either has to turn and run, or run a gauntlet between the two cats. And that mouse had some balls, because he just went for it... switch to the road and all that kind of stuff.... straightlining between the two cats. Who sat there and watched him run all the way into the kitchen.

Of course, I took a drink of the beer and said "well fuck... you two are worthless fuckers go get the mouse!" The looked at me and rolled onto their backs figuring I was gonna get the mouse and give it to them as a treat. so I get up and patch the screen door, and figure the mouse is now trapped in the townhouse I live in, the cats will get it tonight when it tries to escape.

I figured it might take a day or two, but the cats would get the mouse. Nope, after a week, I reached down under my oven to get a baking sheet, which had mouse poo and piss all over it, and realized the little fucker had holed up in there, probably writing his mousifesto and getting ready to go all unibomber on us with hanta virus or something. At that point I realized that the cats were truly good for nothing and I should call my ex and thank her for leaving me with a few years worth of feeding, watering and shit cleaning up. I also briefly considered getting really big rat traps and trapping the cats.... but decided that might make me a bad person.

So I manned up and pulled out the range, those fuckers can shit a lot in a week. cleaned that floor up, washed everything in the house, and left the range out, and waited... until I caught him and threw him out into the dumpster.

Lesson? Some cats are really lazy, and you may want to make sure you always have a beer on hand for mouse fighting.

**iceman** · 01-08-2009, 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by iceclimb

I used to have 3 cats, the youngest one was a go getter... she had a killer spirit for sure. THe other two were pussies...err, pansies. Anyway, the young one dies and there's a fight for dominance in the house. Both of the cats being lazy good fornothings.. no one wins.

Anyway, I'm sitting there in the spring, with the first floor sliding glass door open, with a beer open, and the TV on. I don't remember what I was watching, but I do remember suddenly hearing gnawing... which made me, and the cats, look at the sliding glass door. The gnawing sound stops, and a mouse comes racing into the living room.

Now.. to go anywhere the mouse either has to turn and run, or run a gauntlet between the two cats. And that mouse had some balls, because he just went for it... switch to the road and all that kind of stuff.... straightlining between the two cats. Who sat there and watched him run all the way into the kitchen.

Of course, I took a drink of the beer and said "well fuck... you two are worthless fuckers go get the mouse!" The looked at me and rolled onto their backs figuring I was gonna get the mouse and give it to them as a treat. so I get up and patch the screen door, and figure the mouse is now trapped in the townhouse I live in, the cats will get it tonight when it tries to escape.

I figured it might take a day or two, but the cats would get the mouse. Nope, after a week, I reached down under my oven to get a baking sheet, which had mouse poo and piss all over it, and realized the little fucker had holed up in there, probably writing his mousifesto and getting ready to go all unibomber on us with hanta virus or something. At that point I realized that the cats were truly good for nothing and I should call my ex and thank her for leaving me with a few years worth of feeding, watering and shit cleaning up. I also briefly considered getting really big rat traps and trapping the cats.... but decided that might make me a bad person.

So I manned up and pulled out the range, those fuckers can shit a lot in a week. cleaned that floor up, washed everything in the house, and left the range out, and waited... until I caught him and threw him out into the dumpster.

Lesson? Some cats are really lazy, and you may want to make sure you always have a beer on hand for mouse fighting.

That's funny shit, mang, The "mousifesto" had me LOLing for realz.

**Downbound Train** · 01-08-2009, 03:50 PM

Originally Posted by iceman

Dead is dead. A quick death by broken neck seems better than a lingering death stuck to glue to me. You would be like "Peanut Butter, cool." Then you would be dead.

In the other scenario, you would be like "Peanut Butter, cool, fuck I'm stuck HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME oh fuck I'm screwed, but at least I have time to think about how screwed I am. I guess that is a blessing. FUCK NO IT'S NOT A BLESSSING I'M STUCK AND I'M DYING.

So, my recomendation is the snap traps.

If you disagree, I am willing to experiment on you and whatever family members you can round up for this death experiment extravaganza.

1. In my considerable expierince, the neck breaker seldom makes a clean neck breaking snap. Many times there are minutes to hours of excruciating pain before death.

2. Smart mice figure out they can rape your snap trap of it's bait over and over without getting caught. Sticky traps are hard to rape.

3. The mouse mind doesn't know it's going to die on a sticky trap...it just pisses them off. And, if you check the traps daily, you can find them while still alive and pissed and do away with them in a humane fashion of your choosing.
I go with suffacation in a ziploc bag myself....

3.5 I think a mouse doesn't have the emotions needed to freak out like a person. I think it's more like catching a fish. The fish isn't panicing and contemplating death when you pull him out of the water.

Come to think of it, I'd rather be stuck to something and pass out of dehydration and die vs getting painfull pinned down to a board till I died of internal injuries.

**iceman** · 01-08-2009, 04:57 PM

3.a.2.a.9: Shut the fuck up, snap traps work like a charm, you know not whereof you speak. Be a good little moron and sit down and shut up.

**iceman** · 01-08-2009, 04:58 PM

I mean, really. Get fucking serious.

**edg** · 01-08-2009, 05:08 PM

Originally Posted by iceman

I mean, really. Get fucking serious.

Yeah, hunt it mano a mano with a claw hammer, you pussy.

edg

**bklyn** · 01-08-2009, 05:26 PM

**jfost** · 01-08-2009, 06:24 PM

^

did you just crochet that while reading this thread???

**bklyn** · 01-08-2009, 06:31 PM

No. Rontele's mouse commissioned me.

**iceman** · 01-08-2009, 07:00 PM

Originally Posted by edg

Yeah, hunt it mano a mano with a claw hammer, you pussy.

edg

Meanwhile, while no one was looking, EDG's transformation from Cheerful Cheeky Kid to Sour Pain-In-The-Ass-Self-Appointed-Genius became complete.

I liked that other guy much more.

RIP, fun kid!