In my shop I have mouse troubles. Those little bugger get into everything, chew stuff up too. I keep a few bucket traps here and there. A bucket trap is well known but I didn't see anything on the forum. It's simply a soda can with a stiff wire strung through the middle, then I poke a couple holes in the top of a bucket and string the wire through those holes. Pour a few inches of anti-freeze in the bucket and smear some peanut butter on the can, stick a board up as a ramp and the mice comes up and get caught.
Out in the woods rodents are always a problem. I keep things in good containers as much as possible. I have had them ruin good gear, food and paper products. I have had them chew through a plastic olive oil bottle.
Mention that the antifreeze should have ethylene glycol as the active agent. Rather toxic, don't'cha'know. My anti-Christ maternal grandmother asked me which antifreeze killed cats. I told her. She later became angry with me because the cats she wished dead weren't killed by it. I should have told the b#### that she should then feed it to them with a small hose or eye dropper. ... Or, told her to just get out Pap's 12-ga and shoot the dang kitties. I've only got one animal trap, it's a Tender Trap / doesn't kill. Have to nuke critter w/.22. Should have more traps. Got me to thinking. That trap I have must be 3o years old, anyway. Back when, local country groceries, small shops they were, sold squirrel meat. Local boys could make a few cents selling them to market. The grocers started having to leave the heads on, cause people began passing off kittens as squirrels. I remember poor boys buying just a few rounds of .22 lr, cause that was all the money they had to spend. Supper meat was predicated upon marksmanship ... or wringing the neck of yet another nasty chicken. My folk hunted hogs ... and yes, squirrels and rabbits. They lived up in the mountains of S.Appalachia. It's what you did. Army expert marksmen came from where? Yes, the poor of this nation. Get accurate or listen to your gut growling. "Beware the man with one rifle!" Let me add, "and has no spare ammunition". People who have been without any security in childhood store food and ammunition when they come into money -- hunger will re-wire the brain.
Just an FYI. Wire minnow traps make great mouse traps when baited with corn. They can't figure there way back out and continue to catch mice. I add feathers or raw wool closer to trapping season as it makes a great attractor in predator sets and the mice make great bait. In summer or warmer areas catching the mice this way attracts snakes which then get caught in the trap. Be careful when dealing with snakes as they will bite through the wire. A similar trap with a larger hole is used for trapping the brown tree snakes in Guam by the government. Dale
I use propylene glycol sometimes called RV anti freeze. I don't use it to poison the mice but to hide the smell of the dead mice as compared to water. Also it doesn't freeze solid in the winter so the mice will drown.
Good morning all, For "on the march" / in the field, I use moth balls - camphor - to keep bugs and critters away from my stuff. It's not as pleasing a fragrance as is WD-40, but it works for me.
