# Taking back the Garage (mice)



## wasilvers (Dec 4, 2012)

As I was getting ready to put the boat away for the winter, I started cleaning the garage. The very first thing I noticed was a few mouse turds on a table. YUCK! I immediately recalled 20 posts on here about mice eating boat/engine wiring… that’s when I went on the warpath. Mice traps are great, but they only catch the dumb ones. Glue traps are great, but they don’t work well in the cold of my garage (Wisconsin) and mice get trained quickly on them. So I scoured the internet (youtube) enlisted the help of my seven year old son and built one of these.

[youtube]jezQKOl5q-w[/youtube]

Using the tools on hand (a used gatorade bottle, 5 gallon bucket, and an arrow) we built a mousetrap. There was a bump on the bottom of the bottle and I couldn’t drill a hole as the bit kept slipping off, so I turned to my son and said, “You want to shoot a hole in this bottle?” As any 7 year old, his eyes lit up and we got out the 22 air gun. One blast in the middle and we had a perfect little hole. That’s right, we’re redneck up here too. We put 4” of water in the bucket, some peanut butter on the bottle and set it in the garage that night. In the morning we had TWO mice! My son was ecstatic. However, I saw that there was peanut butter eaten on the bottle, so one or two must have learned how to balance. Dang mice 
So that night I built another type. 




Using a long soda can, I pierced two holes about in the middle, threaded some old wiring through the holes and tied it off to the bucket handles. I put a screw in the bucket for the can to rest on near the bucket side, and baited the end of the can with peanut butter. Theory is, once the mouse hits the far end, can tips, mouse can’t grab on to slippery can and falls in bucket. Simple as pie. I set that and caught another mouse… this time I had 1 dead mouse and lots of peanut butter left. To me, this means I caught the last one willing to venture out. Now, I can move the boat in and feel better about it. :wink:


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## DocWatson (Dec 4, 2012)

Are you waiting by the front door ???

I've heard that if you "build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door." :wink: :LOL2: 

Looks like you found a simple, elegant solution to the problem. 8) But, I doubt it will work in those Wisconsin winters unless you add some antifreeze to that water. :wink: :wink:


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## bigwave (Dec 4, 2012)

Brilliant........made me laugh.


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## Jim (Dec 4, 2012)

How many inches of water at the bottom of the bucket?


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## wasilvers (Dec 4, 2012)

Jim said:


> How many inches of water at the bottom of the bucket?


About finger length. I don't want them standing in it when I check the trap.


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## lovedr79 (Dec 4, 2012)

We ysed to do something similar, 5gallon bucket, corn in the bottom and a ramp up to the top, they jump in for the corn and shoot them in the morning with a pellet gun.


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## DocWatson (Dec 5, 2012)

lovedr79 said:


> We ysed to do something similar, 5gallon bucket, corn in the bottom and a ramp up to the top, they jump in for the corn and shoot them in the morning with a pellet gun.


Water's cheaper and probably less messy. Of course, that doesn't account for the fun factor. :wink:


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## lovedr79 (Dec 5, 2012)

mice can swim, they are actually taller than you think when they rear. so personally the thought of them drowning kinda sucks. i would rather them die quickly instead of struggling all night to stay afloat. i used to be in research and one of our behavioral test was the watermaze "M" it was a trough that was shaped like a M that they would "learn" where the escape was. then a week later we would test their memory, then right after they escaped we would move the ramp to the otherside and they would learn and memorize again. they swim rather well and make good fishing bait.


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## wasilvers (Dec 5, 2012)

It isn't great to think about, but the end result is the same. I believe the 35 degree water in Wisconsin probably works faster than normal.

Any ideas on how to pickup and hook a mouse without getting bit? I will catch a few live and use them for bait. I imagine docks would be a good place to start. Any hook size/type suggestions?

I'll have to put the traps away for awhile though, I believe I caught all of them in my garage for now.


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## rickybobbybend (Dec 5, 2012)

You guys are gonna put cats out of business. vbg.


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## JMichael (Dec 5, 2012)

Back in the 60's, a friend of mine did something similar at his dad's service station (for the younger members out there, that's a full service gas station where they would clean your windshield, check your tires, oil, brake fluid, etc while they pumped the gas into your car/truck ). He put a bucket in the storage room, put some crackers in the bottom of the bucket, and made a ramp to the top for the mice to walk up. The mice would jump from the top of the bucket to get at the crackers but couldn't escape afterwards. He would go in the next day and find several mice in his bucket. Their demise was a bit gruesome, even for a mouse. Without going into too much detail, it involved a mixture of used motor oil and gas, a pair of pliers, and a match.


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## DocWatson (Dec 5, 2012)

lovedr79 said:


> mice can swim, they are actually taller than you think when they rear. so personally the thought of them drowning kinda sucks. i would rather them die quickly instead of struggling all night to stay afloat. i used to be in research and one of our behavioral test was the watermaze "M" it was a trough that was shaped like a M that they would "learn" where the escape was. then a week later we would test their memory, then right after they escaped we would move the ramp to the otherside and they would learn and memorize again. they swim rather well and make good fishing bait.


The thought of them drowning sucks, but they make good fishing bait ??? #-o :wink:


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## lckstckn2smknbrls (Dec 5, 2012)

I put a dozen old fashion traps in the garage last night. I had 3 dead mice this morning and had to rebait 6 of the traps. I might try one of the buckets.


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## Charger25 (Dec 6, 2012)

Might have to try the bucket trick. Apparently the garage is becoming a battle ground !


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## one100grand (Dec 6, 2012)

This is brilliant, I know we have a mouse or two that have been running amok in the garage and this is a perfect solution.


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## Speyhead (Dec 9, 2012)

What I didnt know for the longest time was that mice can...... run vertically and sideways across an unpainted brick wall and do it almost as fast as they scurry across the floor,.... can climb and descend a vertical 1/2" copper pipe,.... leap almost 3 ft from the ground (to a bird seed bin) with total ease. climb like a Sherpa up an untreated 2X4...and yes Ive watched them perform all four over time, in my garage.

Also, a pest control guy once told me, if you have mice you dont have rats, the two dont live together....and.....if you have a hole in anything thats the diameter of a pencil approx 3/8" then a mouse can squeeze through it, they're just about all fur....
Lastly, mice crawl over everything and are totally incontinent, they pee everywhere, so be sure to wash all full beer or pop cans if theyve been stored where mice live as theres a high degree of certainty they'll have mouse urine on them....."Mythbusters" tackled that one and its true


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## lovedr79 (Dec 9, 2012)

Speyhead is absolutely right. Altars and mice don't play well together. Kinda like cats and dogs


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## JMichael (Dec 9, 2012)

Speyhead said:


> What I didnt know for the longest time was that mice can...... run vertically and sideways across an unpainted brick wall and do it almost as fast as they scurry across the floor,.... can climb and descend a vertical 1/2" copper pipe,.... leap almost 3 ft from the ground (to a bird seed bin) with total ease. climb like a Sherpa up an untreated 2X4...and yes Ive watched them perform all four over time, in my garage.
> 
> Also, a pest control guy once told me, if you have mice you dont have rats, the two dont live together....and.....if you have a hole in anything thats the diameter of a pencil approx 3/8" then a mouse can squeeze through it, they're just about all fur....
> Lastly, mice crawl over everything and are totally incontinent, they pee everywhere, so be sure to wash all full beer or pop cans if theyve been stored where mice live as theres a high degree of certainty they'll have mouse urine on them....."Mythbusters" tackled that one and its true


Wow, lots of stuff I've never heard about mice being capable of before. I know they can get through some small holes but wow, 3/8" is impressive.


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## richg99 (Dec 9, 2012)

Years ago, we returned to the "summer house" in late May. Had mice. Had the local guy put out some traps (part of the association services).. Still had mice. 

Called in a pro. He put down some serious killer stuff in the attic. Killed a zillion mice. Had flies dying on the window sills. He said they were dining on the dead mice in the attic and, because of the poison that he used, the flies were dying too.

The main point of all of this is, .... he told me that I couldn't catch them fast enough with traps. They were breeding ( it was May) faster than the traps could catch them.

Once he killed them, we never had a problem after that. Rich


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## Speyhead (Dec 10, 2012)

Just clipped this from a Google search

"A mouse is pregnant for 21 days, and after giving birth can become "with mouse" again within 12 hours!.....In a single litter a mouse can deliver anywhere from 4 to 12 offspring."

As soon as mice are sexually mature they will even mate with their own parents.....Given that rate of reproductivity its not hard to figure how one can easily face an infestation in very short order, is it ?


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## sawmill (Dec 11, 2012)

If you are in an area that has freezing temps you can use antifreeze instead of water in the bucket. I use to leave a bucket set in our pole barn all winter and got a lot of them.


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## Bugpac (Dec 11, 2012)

I set up a trail cam one night over a mouse trap, ill see if i can find the pics. It was kinda cool.


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## JMichael (Dec 11, 2012)

sawmill said:


> If you are in an area that has freezing temps you can use antifreeze instead of water in the bucket. I use to leave a bucket set in our pole barn all winter and got a lot of them.


I'm sure most of you know this but it's still worth saying in case some don't know. You have to be careful about leaving antifreeze out. If you or any of your neighbors have cats/dogs, they will drink antifreeze and die because it is poisonous.


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## wasilvers (Dec 11, 2012)

JMichael said:


> sawmill said:
> 
> 
> > If you are in an area that has freezing temps you can use antifreeze instead of water in the bucket. I use to leave a bucket set in our pole barn all winter and got a lot of them.
> ...


I second that. My dad left some out in the garage one night, my mom let the cats in because it was cold. In the morning we didn't have any cats left. 
You could add salt to the water to lower the freezing temp some.


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