Kill the mousies!

[Judy G. Russell]

Okay... I've had it. I am NOT going to live with both squirrels in the attic and mice in the kitchen! The mice, in particular, have GOT to go. I picked up a couple of ratzappers (http://www.ratzapper.com/) and just since last night, two mice have been zapped off to mousie heaven.

I have to admit: it works, and it does much less damage to the real estate than the 50mm machine gun that I was contemplating.

Now I wonder if anyone makes something similar for the squirrels...

[Peter Creasey]

something similar for the squirrels...

Judy, I thought you were going to try the bait that I suggested...did it not work for you?

[Dan in Saint Louis]

mice in the kitchen
Time for a conversation with your cats?

[Judy G. Russell]

Judy, I thought you were going to try the bait that I suggested...did it not work for you?I'm leery of using rat poison because there are too many areas in the attic where the $%#$ beasts could get into and die and I couldn't get the decomposing carcasses out.

[Judy G. Russell]

Time for a conversation with your cats?My one remaining kitty would remind me, with the disdaining glance that only a cat can manage, that he is more than 16 years old, slightly arthritic, and DEAF. ("Why are your lips moving? You KNOW I can't hear you, and cats don't listen to anything other than: 'Dinner!' anyway...")

[ndebord]

Okay... I've had it. I am NOT going to live with both squirrels in the attic and mice in the kitchen! The mice, in particular, have GOT to go. I picked up a couple of ratzappers (http://www.ratzapper.com/) and just since last night, two mice have been zapped off to mousie heaven.

I have to admit: it works, and it does much less damage to the real estate than the 50mm machine gun that I was contemplating.

Now I wonder if anyone makes something similar for the squirrels...

Judy,

That's 50 CALIBER machine gun to all you weapons newbies out there.

<g>

Good to hear you killed a couple little rats. I once had a rat in Chinatown, ne Soho/Noho, that was so smart that he avoided all my traps for a couple of months. Finally got him by putting a glue trap behind the traditional cheese snapper. I caught him by the tippy tip of his tail and showed no mercy in finishing off the sucker.

As for the squirrels, it is a pity that there are no natural predators for them.

[Judy G. Russell]

That's 50 CALIBER machine gun to all you weapons newbies out there.Caliber, millimeter, it's still a big gun!

I caught him by the tippy tip of his tail and showed no mercy in finishing off the sucker.I really just want to have 'em dead. I don't want to be the one to personally kill 'em. (Setting a zapper trap puts me at one remove, I figure.)

As for the squirrels, it is a pity that there are no natural predators for them.I wonder if an alligator would work in the attic...

[Judy G. Russell]

The score: Ratzapper 4, Mousies 1. (The trap was empty once with the light flashing.)

[Peter Creasey]

I'm leery of using rat poison because there are too many areas in the attic where the $%#$ beasts could get into and die and I couldn't get the decomposing carcasses out.

Judy, Supposedly (empahsis on "supposedly"), the poison I mentioned dehydrates them and makes them so thirsty they leave to find water and die there.

[Judy G. Russell]

The problem is with the "supposedly" part, Peter. I can't take the risk of anything dying inside the walls. So I'm probably going to end up with traps.

[ndebord]

Caliber, millimeter, it's still a big gun!

I really just want to have 'em dead. I don't want to be the one to personally kill 'em. (Setting a zapper trap puts me at one remove, I figure.)

I wonder if an alligator would work in the attic...

Judy,

That would sure be one surprised Squirrel. Perhaps a Python?

As for that Chinatown mouse, he was around, my wife reminds me, for almost 5 months, not just 2, and got the nickname of "Mickey." When finally I got him around 3a.m., his favorite feeding hour, I was in no mood to be squeamish. I put him between two glue traps and bagged him pdq.

<g>

[Judy G. Russell]

That would sure be one surprised Squirrel. Perhaps a Python?Heh heh heh... except that I'm ... er... um... heh heh ... afraid of snakes.

[Lindsey]

Heh heh heh... except that I'm ... er... um... heh heh ... afraid of snakes.
Especially snakes that take on alligators (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9600151/) . . .

Love to eat them mousies,
Mousies what I love to eat.
Bite they little heads off,
Nibble on they tiny feet.
--B. Kliban

--Lindsey

[Judy G. Russell]

I was trying to forget about that photo!! (Talk about scary!)

But I love Kliban's cats...

[Lindsey]

I was trying to forget about that photo!! (Talk about scary!)
As far as I'm concerned, ANY picture of a snake is scary! I skip over those pages in dictionaries and encyclopedias.

--Lindsey

[ndebord]

Heh heh heh... except that I'm ... er... um... heh heh ... afraid of snakes.

Judy,

Me too. A little one called a Krait in particular. <weak grin>

Perhaps a Rat Terrier? (If they would deign to deal with Squirrels instead since they are just rats with fluffy tails imo!)

[MollyM/CA]

Judy

I adore my ratzappers, especially the new spaceship "Ultras" that take D batteries and catch more per setting. If you run into any problems holler. I got my latest ones from a place in Maine, and well worth the few cents more over Cheapzapper, 4 out of 5 of whose traps of a year ago were either dead in the box or failed after a few catches, or none. I now think it's the company (which doesn't answer e-mails about dead traps). The "Industrial" batteries I ordered from Maine are way heavy-duty over the ones Agrizap recommends, too.

When the light starts flashing like that and there's no mouse it's often a sign that the trap is getting dirty. It just takes the least bit of anything bridging the plates --slowly, the current will make its way through so even though the "good to go" light goes on and fades, it will be flashing when you check the trap next day.

I think, also, that this happens when the batteries begin to weaken also. Can't prove it but sometimes cleaning the trap (by their directions and for heaven's sake be sure they're really really dry before you put the batteries back in) won't stop the flashing and new batteries will. I find that the batteries can often be used in something else for quite a while even though they don't have enough kick left for the Zapper.

We have roof rats --some are the size of squirrels, just about. They like trees, especially our four big walnut trees and giant palm tree with enough thatch for an elephant to hide in. And attics. And make do with the basement in a pinch. The best bait I've found for them is walnut pieces basted with peanut butter, a quarter in the very back of the trap and a crumb in the front, and the trap has to be left unarmed until the rats start taking the bait. I wonder if a young squirrel might be Zappable with the same technique--

What I wish is that there were a way to make a Zapper that could be used for gophers!

[Lindsey]

I adore my ratzappers, especially the new spaceship "Ultras" that take D batteries and catch more per setting.
Sounds like they could use some in Eau Claire, Wisconsin (http://dwb.newsobserver.com/24hour/weird/story/3367197p-12392004c.html), too!

--Lindsey

[Judy G. Russell]

I wonder if a young squirrel might be Zappable with the same technique--I like the way you think. The score here is now Ratzapper 5, mice 1 (the empty trap) and nothing for the past 2-3 nights!

[Judy G. Russell]

Patriotic squirrels??? Or just furry terrorists!!!

[Lindsey]

Patriotic squirrels??? Or just furry terrorists!!!
I vote for furry terrorists!

--Lindsey

[MollyM/CA]

Hey, wait a minute. Doesn't this come under the "desecrating the flag" act? (Amendment? You know, that election-year perennial that came up recently--) Shouldn't Bush declare war on Au Claire for harboring terrorists, or flag desecrators, or something? Send in the Marines and haul people out of their beds in the middle of the night and yell at them in Arabic and all that?

[MollyM/CA]

Turn the trap off, keep it baited, and turn it on again when the next hatch leaves the nest and finds the bait.

The sequence here is big rat, big rat, big rat, smaller rat, adolescent rat, elementary school rat, toddler rat, mouse (rats eat mice, which doesn't altogether recommend them to me), mouse mouse mouse, juvenile mouse, toddler mouse, no mouse... no mouse... big rat... and on and on. Count yourself lucky --I guess.

[Judy G. Russell]

I vote for furry terrorists!You know I'm not going to disagree with you!

[Judy G. Russell]

Turn the trap off, keep it baited, and turn it on again when the next hatch leaves the nest and finds the bait.I'd already figured that that was the way to do it: leave it turned off but baited for a while then turn it on again and see what happens.

The sequence here is big rat, big rat, big rat, smaller rat, adolescent rat, elementary school rat, toddler rat, mouse (rats eat mice, which doesn't altogether recommend them to me), mouse mouse mouse, juvenile mouse, toddler mouse, no mouse... no mouse... big rat... and on and on. Count yourself lucky --I guess.EEEK!! I consider myself lucky BIG time only to have to deal with them mousies. Don't even like to think about rats.

[Lindsey]

Hey, wait a minute. Doesn't this come under the "desecrating the flag" act? (Amendment? You know, that election-year perennial that came up recently--) Shouldn't Bush declare war on Au Claire for harboring terrorists, or flag desecrators, or something? Send in the Marines and haul people out of their beds in the middle of the night and yell at them in Arabic and all that?
LOL!! Yeah, I was thinking along the same lines. (Except that I don't think the Marines yell at anyone in Arabic -- the armed services seem to have ejected most of their Arabic-speakers under -- well, I hesitate to call it "dont' ask, don't tell," because the commanders don't seem to have any problem with asking . . .)

--Lindsey

[MollyM/CA]

Too simple: they ejected the Arabic speakers (both of them?) from the troops in Iraq so they could yell in Arabic at Americans dragged from their beds in the middle of the night while the Iraquis dragged from their beds in the middle of the night are being yelled at in American.

Well, not exactly 'while' as our middle of the night is their day and vice versa--

[Lindsey]

so they could yell in Arabic at Americans dragged from their beds in the middle of the night
I'm in the midst of reading Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, and that sounds only too plausible!!!

--Lindsey