Mouse (and other Pest) Wars

["couldbecousin"]

Back to ghost mice. No signs but caught one in the snap trap. Py heard the death throes. Wolfish slept like a stone.

  I'm glad you slept through that.  Do you have any sense of how many mice remain? 

[WolFish]

Back to ghost mice. No signs but caught one in the snap trap. Py heard the death throes. Wolfish slept like a stone.

  I'm glad you slept through that.  Do you have any sense of how many mice remain? 

no, and now we can't leave the trap as it was because we have ants. the ants don't like diatomaceous earth but neither do the mice.
a few signs but more ants than mice signs
no ant traps at the grocery store so i will have to make my own.

['andersom']

Can you find their nest?
I' ve poured boiling water in nests of intruding ants. And after that, when the ants started cleaning their nest from dead ants I poured a mixture of lukewarm sugarwater with yeast in the nest. Ended with lots of dead ants and a nest too small     to invade my house. The dead ants were no problem for birds etc.(maybe they were for mice, because of yeast producing co2)

[WolFish]

Can you find their nest?
I' ve poured boiling water in nests of intruding ants. And after that, when the ants started cleaning their nest from dead ants I poured a mixture of lukewarm sugarwater with yeast in the nest. Ended with lots of dead ants and a nest too small     to invade my house. The dead ants were no problem for birds etc.(maybe they were for mice, because of yeast producing co2)

Out house starts on the second floor so it might be hard.
I have found where they are coming in - likely a window.
Plan is to poison them with sugar and borax.

The problem is that might be off putting for the mice. Once I get the sugar out they might stay there and not invade the traps.

[WolFish]

we put out commercial ant bait for the huge ones that were invading my desk which is by the back porch window.

meanwhile ketchall caught another mouse with no food at all in the trap - i had removed the goodies because of the ants. it still smells a little of kinder surprise.

kinder chocolate is likely similar to those mcgross hamburgers that people leave on the shelf for years that don't get moldy or deteriorated. the oldest one will be 16 or 17 this year.

["couldbecousin"]

  So are you getting the upper hand in the war? 

[WolFish]

We are still getting the occasional "sign" but nothing like the destruction that went on earlier. I did find a shirt with a hole chewed in it, but that could have been from the past. No signs of intrusion on the counters or the stove so I am guessing we are winning.

["couldbecousin"]

We are still getting the occasional "sign" but nothing like the destruction that went on earlier. I did find a shirt with a hole chewed in it, but that could have been from the past. No signs of intrusion on the counters or the stove so I am guessing we are winning.

  That's good.  It's been months since the last "sign," and I've only recently resumed storing food
   in the refrigerator.  I'll probably pull it away from the wall again today to check for "signs." 

[WolFish]

We are still getting the occasional "sign" but nothing like the destruction that went on earlier. I did find a shirt with a hole chewed in it, but that could have been from the past. No signs of intrusion on the counters or the stove so I am guessing we are winning.

  That's good.  It's been months since the last "sign," and I've only recently resumed storing food
   in the refrigerator.  I'll probably pull it away from the wall again today to check for "signs." 

Where were you storing it until now?

['andersom']

We are still getting the occasional "sign" but nothing like the destruction that went on earlier. I did find a shirt with a hole chewed in it, but that could have been from the past. No signs of intrusion on the counters or the stove so I am guessing we are winning.

  That's good.  It's been months since the last "sign," and I've only recently resumed storing food
   in the refrigerator.  I'll probably pull it away from the wall again today to check for "signs." 

Where were you storing it until now?

In her Weeble tummy.

["couldbecousin"]

We are still getting the occasional "sign" but nothing like the destruction that went on earlier. I did find a shirt with a hole chewed in it, but that could have been from the past. No signs of intrusion on the counters or the stove so I am guessing we are winning.

  That's good.  It's been months since the last "sign," and I've only recently resumed storing food
   in the refrigerator.  I'll probably pull it away from the wall again today to check for "signs." 

Where were you storing it until now?

In her Weeble tummy.

     Some in the freezer  (I trusted it more than the lower part of the refrigerator/freezer unit),
  and the rest in the microwave.  I've eaten very well lately despite the paranoia, believe me!   

[WolFish]

Ah, I forgot about weeble food, which apparently does not need refrigeration.
I could do without the refrigeration outdoors this week. I am sure it will drive more mice to our trap. It is still a lot warmer in here than outside (4C). It's a balmy 14C indoors.

["couldbecousin"]

Ah, I forgot about weeble food, which apparently does not need refrigeration.

    Weeble chow keeps very well frozen or at room temp if necessary.

[WolFish]

We might still have the odd mouse but we have moved on to warm weather pests.

Flies are not out yet (this thread was not in time for the Great Maggot Wars of 2015, but noseeums, mayflies and moths are. We got rid of the small ants but the carpenter ants remain a problem. The sleaze put up unfinished new wood in place of the wood he broke up to disturb the carpenter ants. we have had about three days of really heavy rain and a few days of plain rain since. Guess what he used (pine) and guess what happened? Hopefully this will lure the carpenter ants back outside where they can feast on common fare.

The moths are another story. I am not sure how they got in, but we have had open windows. I found two with loose screens and one with a hole repair gone bad. I found a grocery tote (i thought made of cotton) with holes - some so small that it wouldn't make sense for a mouse to have made them. I also found a shirt that had been hanging on the back of my door with a hole near the shoulder.

Next research project, I guess. I wonder if pepsi in a tin lid would kill some carpenter ants?

[Icequeen]

Carpenter ants.

DE or Diatomaceous Earth. You can get the food grade, non toxic, they have an accordion like thing on amazon too (pest pistol) to spread it with (definitely wear a mask, it's not poison but you don't want to inhale it).

DE is a drying agent, basically they get coated with the dust and will wither and die. Go along the baseboards and the base of the foundation if you can.

This crap works on spiders, millipedes, and centipedes too.

Unfortunately it does diddly squat to asian stinkbugs.