Mice

bassmo1, May 2, 8:39pm
I have a new house, just moved in. Mice are in the walls. The cat is very interested and he's already caught one, but he gets bored and has a sleep. I'm hearing them now, gnawing away. I went to mitre 10 for some bait stations. Hubby thinks they must have got in during construction. The lady at mitre 10 has had other new house owners enquiring as well.
strathview, May 2, 9:29pm
There seems to be lots of mice around this year. Thankfully we have no rats. Also plenty of feral kittens and young stoats too. Checking our mousetraps twice a day. Starting to make a difference after a fortnight.
rednicnz, May 3, 4:35pm
Good summer = lots of mice. Since my daughter found a dead mouse in her room, we have stuck with traps rather than bait. Then we know where the bodies are (apart from the desiccated one found under the sofa yesterday after hubby forgot he'd set a trap there!).
vomo2, May 5, 7:17pm
Swap your mice for the rats in our walls and ceiling!
krames, May 5, 8:48pm
any one have any experience with rats widdling and making stains on the under side of ceilings?
cameron-albany, May 6, 8:01pm
If you have a lot of mice then you need to employ a lot of traps. I would suggest getting poison (unless you have pets/chickens/livestock) and putting it in strategic places (so placing the blocks/bait in sections of pipe works well. like at the end of 500mm long sections of drainpipe etc). Just put them up against hard surfaces and the rodents will enquire and eat then go away to die. Secondly you should get some traps, like the basic old mouse traps or the more modern variety like Nooski etc. Just bait them with peanut butter, cheese or dogroll. These will kill rodents quickly. You just need to be on top of them. NZ has a target of being Pest-Free within a couple more decades and it relies on everyone (urban and rural) to be on top of killing pests. I'm not sure you can rely on cats! They are pretty random and actually are a bit of a pest themselves.
gpg58, May 6, 8:11pm
I find this the best of all i tried, looks like a paste in tea bags.
https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/yates-racumin-rat-bait-100g/p/138762
I put it in the hollows at edge of roofing iron, as a lot climb trees etc and jump across to get in from spouting(i have seen rats jump across 1.5m to get in my roof - only the once, air rifle sorted him). Also use wax baits on a wire in ceiling and under house, and i use the grain types in old pieces of pipe around my pond, it seems best to use a variety of types.
hound31, May 23, 11:20am
Bumping this as I saw one of the little sods galloping across the lounge skirting boards yesterday morning. i bought a couple of the old wooden traps and baited with raw bacon I had left over. one trap had a larger piece in than the other. one trap in HW cupboard (just had the cylinder replaced yesterday) and other alongside skirting boards.
This morning bacon was gone but no blardy mouse! what have I done wrong please?
ETA i won't use poison as I have pets.
budgel, May 23, 11:23am
You left out the eggs and toast!
trade4us2, May 23, 11:42am
This is the best and safest mouse and rat trap.
It just uses peanut butter or similar, and should not affect pets (unless they are pet mice/rats!)
I have made 4 traps. You could buy them if you are not into DIY (in which case you won't be reading this message board)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfaDQJVplYI

This has a gang plank held up by a tiny magnet.
There are other traps that have a rolling aluminium can, that also work but not quite as well.
I have caught 8 mice so far. There are no signs of rats at the moment.
mrfxit, May 23, 12:03pm
We have cats & dogs but are very careful to place baits in places they can't get into.
Best ever "bait" I have used ever, is what I have done this year.
My son has pet caged rats & we ended up putting their cage in the carshed.
Now . I already knew this would attract the locals, so I pinned a bait block to the wall near their cage & for 3 days each, I had to pin a new block to the wall, then after that, the next block lasted 2 days/ then 4 days & now not been touched for about 2 weeks
hound31, May 23, 12:04pm
Lol. so that's where I went wrong.
hound31, May 23, 12:12pm
Thanks for that, blerk, I got the shudders just watching the video! for the moment I'll stick with the normal cheap wooden traps. Reason being (don't laugh) I can't handle emptying them so the trap gets chucked out with the corpse. I have a serious phobia about the corpses, something about the tails ewww! I will try the peanut butter though thank you.
hound31, May 23, 12:14pm
Thanks for that, but I have a dread of secondary poisoning from corpses. I know someone who lost a much loved pet that way.
trade4us2, May 23, 12:30pm
I just tilt the bin over the top of my rubbish bin and push the mouse out with a stick. I throw the stick in the bin too!
rainrain1, May 24, 3:38pm
We had a plague of the wee bu88ers in the garage below the house. Shock, horror, and YIKES! . I've just finished cleaning up a huge mess, we used the bags same as post #7, and I note they have sure chewed into them. No more scurrying about in the walls and ceiling now, just more cleaning up to do over the weekend.
mo5g2, May 24, 3:51pm
I used one of those plug in things. Havent seen any mice since. They make a high pitched sound that only mice and insects can hear
hound31, Nov 7, 1:10pm
Update on my house guests. bought some of the grey plastic "Intruder" traps at Mitre 10 yesterday. baited with peanut butter and two dead mice this morning. Best of all, put my big girl pants on and managed to get them out of the traps (shudder. at $10 for two traps i didn't really want to be throwing them out with the corpse) and have cleaned ready for reuse. i'm thinking there are probably more rellies lurking, so will try and keep on top of it.