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The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

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181–190 of 218 posts

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#181
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a Cat to work on mice it has to be a Mouser. I can't pretend I know the full theory of Mousers but it seems that females brought up by Mouser mothers in a mouse-rich environment are the best Mousers, since they are taught to kill from their earliest years.

They don't have to be all the good of a mouse hunter to lower the number of mouse sightings you'll have. Rodents have a built in fear of car urine and cat dander, so just their presence will deter mice.

> Rodents have a built in fear of car urine and cat dander, so just their presence will deter mice.

I thought so too. But nope.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#182
post #20

I use the old-fashioned snap traps. They work fine. Sometimes it's necessary to tweak the catch to make it more sensitive. They're made of wood and wire, and aren't an environmental problem. I live near a greenbelt and there's a never-ending invasion of mice. If I leave the garage door open and unattended, they're in in a flash and setting up shop. The only way to get rid of them is the traps, and you have to get rid…

Rats tend to be more clever, and harder to trap than mice

The snap traps still work on them every time.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#183
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/location/usa/surveillance/human_r... This is absolutely nuts. Also how would he know that he wasn't bitten if it brushed up against him.

I am not sure by what part you think is nuts? Worrying about bats? I don’t like to play with odds and now personally know someone who died from it. I would rather not take a chance. Here is an article about his death and the rabies in the bats in our area. https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/mobile/man-21-dies-after-...

I woke up one night with a bat flying circles around the ceiling of my bedroom. It flew all over my house until I trapped it in a room. It flew with total precision, like it was at home in a cave, nothing like a confused bird flapping around in your house.

I paid $400 to have it captured and tested (which involves killing it). It was negative. It could have bit me in my sleep, and I was glad to not get that series of shots (at the time it was those ones that go into your gut) or wait it out and wonder if I would die a year later.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with most traps is that they only catch one at a time. By far the most effective way to deal with a mouse problem is a bucket with a ramp leading up to a cylinder(bought online) that spins and drops the mouse into the bucket when they come for the peanut butter taped to the cylinder. You can fill the bucket with water to drown them or something non lethal. It can catch many mice at once, they stay inside…

I had one of those and somehow the fuckers would always clean the cylinder and not fall in. I lubed the shit out of the cylinder too. I put a video camera on it. They would keep their back feet on the top of the ramp and stretch their whole body along the cylinder to lick it clean without tipping in.

There's a YouTube guy who does mouse trap reviews and he loves the rolling log thing. he recently put up a new video on it and pointed out that you don't want the rolling log to be too easy to roll because then they are more careful venturing out on it.

I also have one of those that I lubed up as well (not realizing that was a bad idea) in my garage and last fall I caught 11 mice in just a few days. 3 so far this year.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#185

I use the old-fashioned snap traps. They work fine. Sometimes it's necessary to tweak the catch to make it more sensitive. They're made of wood and wire, and aren't an environmental problem. I live near a greenbelt and there's a never-ending invasion of mice. If I leave the garage door open and unattended, they're in in a flash and setting up shop. The only way to get rid of them is the traps, and you have to get rid…

I sometimes get mice in the house, and found snap traps to be totally ineffective. They worked at first, but when I had more than one mouse in the house, they seemed to learn to avoid them and even how to eat the bait without setting off the mechanism. The most generally effective trap I have found is glue traps. They are an awful device but very effective. Unfortunately, you have to kill the trapped mice yourself. T…

> They worked at first, but when I had more than one mouse in the house, they seemed to learn to avoid them

In my experience they never learn.

> and even how to eat the bait without setting off the mechanism.

That happens sometimes. I just bend the tab a bit so the trap becomes a hair trigger, when the slightest vibration will set it off.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has the same energy as that "you wouldn't steal a car" ad in IT Crowd. But it's not far from the truth, and unless 10 news websites report on it online platforms won't even bother with an empty statement. Amazon for example lets vendors transfer good reviews to any other product by just replacing the product entry (name, description, price). Sure you then have reviews for coffee cups under some solder wire, but…

> Amazon for example lets vendors transfer good reviews to any other product by just replacing the product entry (name, description, price). Huh. I wondered why often the reviews were for clearly a different product than the one in the description.

I bought a small wastebasket years ago that was the perfect shape, size, material, and finish. Lots of people agreed and it had really high ratings. Recently I wanted to find the official size to buy tighter fitting bags, maybe buy another wastebasket, only to find the listing now shows a meat slicer from a different company, with all the obvious trash can reviews still in place.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#187
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I sometimes get mice in the house, and found snap traps to be totally ineffective. They worked at first, but when I had more than one mouse in the house, they seemed to learn to avoid them and even how to eat the bait without setting off the mechanism They work, you just have to give it time. Keep the peanut butter fresh and smear it all over the mechanism to increase the probability of them setting off the trap. T…

Also … the simple snap traps are sometimes badly calibrated. As a poster further upthread alluded to, you can fix them. I bend the vertical plate a tiny bit so that there is a bit less “shelf” for the tension wire to rest on. Be careful - you can take this too far and make it a hair trigger… ALSO: I always mix a pinch of quinoa or tiny seeds into the peanut butter so it can’t be licked clean - they must bump and move…

Also be sure to work the peanut butter into the inside of the curl of the plate. That'll set the trap off when they try to get that last bit out.

I didn't realize it at first, but the snap traps are diabolical in that if they go off when the mouse is licking there, the wire will catch them on the back of the neck, crushing it, which will kill the mice quickly and humanely.

I don't want to kill them. Once, there was one running across the counter. Quick action with an inverted glass caught the little bugger. I slide a card under the glass so I could pick it up, took it outside, and let him go a hundred yards away.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sometimes get mice in the house, and found snap traps to be totally ineffective. They worked at first, but when I had more than one mouse in the house, they seemed to learn to avoid them and even how to eat the bait without setting off the mechanism. The most generally effective trap I have found is glue traps. They are an awful device but very effective. Unfortunately, you have to kill the trapped mice yourself. T…

I find glue traps as inhumane, the mice get trapped and they die an agonizing slow death. Once trapped they cannot be detached from the glue bed without their skin being ripped off their bodies.

Yah, I was horrified at that. Never used glue traps again.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#189
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, I totally thought that it would be about some law that ruins the internet for everyone while at the same time does nothing to stop bad actors. Like the EU cookie warning mandate.

God I hate that bullshit. They have accomplished what, exactly? Oh, a big annoying banner that I now have to click through. So helpful. A testament to the stupidity of mankind.

They have given you a choice and taken away some comfort. It’s literally what libertarians preach.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God I hate that bullshit. They have accomplished what, exactly? Oh, a big annoying banner that I now have to click through. So helpful. A testament to the stupidity of mankind.

They have given you a choice and taken away some comfort. It’s literally what libertarians preach.

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