Mouse in the garage (fish room)

[emartin]

Last week when I pulled up to my house at night I saw a mouse run underneath the garage door.

Two days later I bought a $4 mouse trap (not the spring ones). And put peanut butter inside. It's one of those traps that after the mouse enters to get to the food it can't leave. So far nothing.

Tonight I noticed mouse droppings (big pile) under the one fish tank. I don't remember seeing it before so I have no idea if it is fresh or not.


Two questions...

One, any suggestions for getting rid of it/them? I will not be using any poisons in the garage (for multiple reasons, the fish, my dogs, etc). Should I go for the spring traps instead or get more of the one-way traps?

Two, apparently the one garage door doesn't firmly touch the floor. The mouse has been pushing up the rubber "feet" on the garage door and during the day you can see light coming in that one spot. So it appears the mouse is using the garage as shelter (unless it was just for the one night). There is no loose food in the garage at all, and only moisture is from the tanks and the only way it could get water is if it fell in the tanks (no dead mice in them, as far as I know). I'm not sure how it could've got on top of the tanks anyway since there are metal stands in there and tight fitting glass lids.

So anybody know how to adjust garage doors (motorized ones) so I can have it firmly touching the floor?



If I go with the snap traps, what should I use as bait? I'm using creamy Jif Peanut Butter in the one trap I already have.



Thanks in advance,
~Ed

 

[jonclark96]

I have always found spring traps to be the most reliable. I used to live a bot further out in the country in an older house, and the mice were pretty bad. I got rid of them by setting multiple snap traps.

Any peanut butter will work. As for adjusting the door, I would think it would be easier to get a threshold that you attach to the garage floor.

Good luck getting rid of the little buggers.

 

[Pat Kelly]

I kept having mice in the trashcan under my sink......(when I had a kitchen) I put some of the sticky traps in the cabinet near the pipe hole where they were coming in. Never caught the mouse.
The mice were smart enough to somehow go around and get paper towels out of the trashcan and cover the traps. I swear. I would put a new trap in and the next day there were towels covering them and droppings on top of the towels. This happened like 4 times.
The spring type finally got them.

 

[cmcpart0422]

The spring traps are the most reliable and when set off right there is a 90% chance of a quick instant death. Its a good idea to stay away from the poison. Even if the mouse does find the poison and then runs off and dies it could be a while before you find the mouse. And a dead mouse can smell pretty bad after a few days. Just put like 3 or 4 spring traps against the walls and you should get him.

 

[dogofwar]

I've had good luck with the poison traps...although...they do result in a dead mouse / rat somewhere.

Our basement has drop in ceiling panels. My wife said that there was some mold growing on one of them and was scared that there was mold on a lot of them.

I grabbed a step stool, pulled back the ceiling tile to see what was going on... and the dead, dried rat fell on me. I'm glad no one was home because I screamed like a woman. The mold was caused by the dead rat (killed by the poison trap) being trapped in the ceiling...and his fluids seeping out.

On a positive note, I didn't find any other mold.

I still shiver when I think about it.

Matt

 

[Spine]

Follow the directions on the trap. Spring trap seem to work the best. I had mice one time' it`s reccomend that you set traps at the recomended distances. You should also feedfrom the traps for a week before you set them because you want the highest kill rate you can get^. they are smarter than you might think

 

[mchambers]

Traps

We had mice last winter. I caught a couple in those humane traps, where the mouse goes down a ramp into the bottom of the trap, with the ramp springing back up and trapping the mouse.

Unfortunately, there were a lot more mice, and ultimately the only thing that worked was poison. (In fact, I had a box that had bags of poison pellets on the shelves in the basement, and the stupid mice broke into it and pulled the bags out and ate them.)

 

[dlfn1]

ed,
just wondering if u heat your garage in the winter for the tanks? i've got some space in my garage but figured it was a bit too cold over winter to keep fish in there.

 

[emartin]

ed,
just wondering if u heat your garage in the winter for the tanks? i've got some space in my garage but figured it was a bit too cold over winter to keep fish in there.

The garage is attached to the house and the garage doors themselves are insulated and two of the walls are insulated as well as the ceiling. Only the one wall isn't insulated to my knowledge.

Last winter with just a 75g, 60g, and a 20g running with heaters the garage on the coldest nights (when it was like below 20F outside) was in the low-mid 50s, never colder than that.

I'm sure once I get the two 125g up and running, 3 more 75g, the 40g, a 29g, another 20g, etc, keeping it warm in there won't be a problem. Plus I bought an extra cheap carpet from Home Depot last year during a sale (like $5 for a 12ftx12ft carpet!) which I will put down and will help keep the floor warm.

Either way if the house sells I won't have to worry about that room anyway. We do have a bunch of electric room heaters for the really cold nights just in case, plus we can just open the inner door and put up a dog barrier to let heat from the house warm it up if it gets bad.

 

[emartin]

Thanks for the advice everybody. I guess I'll go with the spring traps.

What do you all recommend for bait? I've heard of people using peanut butter (and my dad used to use it to catch squirrels and raccoons back when we used to have problems of them ripping holes in the roof and living in the attic). All I have is JIF Creamy Peanut Butter.

I also have peaches (fresh ones), zucchini, all kinds of cereals, grains like whole oat, whole wheat, whole flax, etc...

 

[Airborne001]

You can use american cheese also. What ever you use make sure you smash it right down into the depression on the trip plate. If you don't he'll bring friends along next time to share the snack you gave him.

 

[gravel_digger]

peanut butter peanut butter peanut butter and patience with safe traps worked well for me. i ended up putting down more than one of the box traps making for more attriactive options....

 

[Tony]

Sorry I was late to get on this thread, Ed... was out of town over the weekend.

I think everyone hit it with spring traps and peanut butter. Never ever had luck with the humane traps and always have good luck with the snap traps.

In terms of sealing off your garage to keep the little buggers out... you won't be able to. They can get in through tiny gaps and even if you close them off, they will make new gaps.

 

[Billy Rocket]

Put poison around the outside of the house. If you just trap them inside the house, they seem to just keep coming.

 

[Tony]

... or it may be an excuse to purchase that flamethrower you've always wanted...

 

[Ophelia77]

My neighbor was deathly afraid of mice (evidenced by the screaming like a mad-man swinging a broom at one through my back yard) and bought a spring trap that was enclosed, and when he caught the mouse all he had to do was push a button over the trash can and it "ejected" the mouse. really neat if you don't want the mess. but peanut butter all the way, Jiff should work fine. I think that trap went off about 20 times in one night all off the same glob of peanut butter!

 

[Leffler817]

If none of that works, I like the spring traps, you could catch a garden snake and let it loose in the garage. It'll take care if them for you...

 

[minifoot77]

are you seriously getting man handled by a rodent?

 

[longstocking]

are you seriously getting man handled by a rodent?

lol Feel the love.

 

[danger_chicken]

I had mice once. I found out from them chewing holes in the dog food bag. I used dog food as bait. I had to glue the food to the trap with elmers or they would get away. One piece of food a couple drops of glue and SNAP all night long.