Help!! Our neighbor put out poison for mice - what alternative do we offer?

A month or so ago one of the neighbors up at the end of the road had a mouse problem in his RV. He thought the "nest" was under his deck, so he had it pulled out and put down gravel instead.

Today Gary found out he's still got a problem, so he put out POISON PELLETS. Gary tried not to freak out on him, but has a meeting with him at 4:30 this afternoon to discuss how to do this without threatening all of the wildlife around here. I don't know if deer eat mouse pellets, but there are dozens of them around here munching on whatever it is they eat in our yards. There were eight in our yard this morning. We have chipmunks, skunks, raccoons, fox, squirrels... and, of course feral cats!

The kittens that are waiting for their spot in the foster network are still here, and YESTERDAY someone left us a present - yup, a dead mouse. Thank goodness it hadn't even been munched on. But because of that alone I'm proud of Gary for not going ballistic on this guy.

Anyway, any thoughts on what we suggest he do?

Before we had cats, we stuffed dryer sheets into all the access points we knew about, and that worked.

But any other suggestions? I mean - if he's going to insist on doing something to kill them, I'd almost rather see him use snap traps. At least it's a quick (usually) death. But I'm still afraid the smell of peanut butter or whatever he would use would attract the cats or skunks, chipmunks, raccoons... ????

Anyone have any thoughts??????????????????????

(We could suggest he start feeding the cats, and help us with trapping, but he's a pilot, and not around a lot).

There are reasonably priced humane traps for sale on eBay. Nice, sturdy metal boxes where you don't actually have to handle the mice to release. They look too small for other animals to enter. I've never tried them, but they seem to get pretty good feedback.

Relocating small animals = death in most cases. Thus it's never humane, people just feel better about themselves because they don't realize the slow death they cause instead. (it's the same concept as with TNR, where the R stands for return to the same area so the cats survive)

Snap traps would probably be the best bet, in mouse size. I don't know about the other animals, but I've never seen cats that interested in peanut butter. I'm sure there are some out there that like it, but not to the degree that dogs love the stuff.

The RVs need to be cleaned up around and under the best that they can be. Don't make them mouse friendly and the mice won't hang out around them as much.
Holes need to be patched properly whenever possible. You could make hardware cloth (wire mesh) covers to keep rodents out.

Yeah, he already ripped out one wall to do that. He obviously hasn't gotten all the pipe inlets. (In RVs, they tend not to seal those up and the holes are larger than the pipes). We also found there was an access point up through our back bumper into the back wall. They couldn't access the inside of the house from that point, but they were in the wall, so we had to do the same thing he did. Maybe he's got the same issue with access through his back bumper. His coach is a different model than ours, and much newer, but it's the same manufacturer.

Gary can at least show him all the places to seal, and where to shove dryer sheets.

Steel wool will work better than dryer sheets. The sheets may smell and taste nasty for a while but nothing really likes chewing on steel wool (cuts up mouths).

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Steel wool will work better than dryer sheets. The sheets may smell and taste nasty for a while but nothing really likes chewing on steel wool (cuts up mouths).

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that plus sealants...

corn gluten meal has been said to kill mice... I use sticky traps

Originally Posted by sharky

corn gluten meal has been said to kill mice... I use sticky traps

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Really? I think my DH said the mice occasionally get into it. The only problem with sticky traps outside under a deck/RV is that everything will stick to them. Their neighbor would have a nice collection of leaves and dirt.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Steel wool will work better than dryer sheets. The sheets may smell and taste nasty for a while but nothing really likes chewing on steel wool (cuts up mouths).

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Steel wool is what I stuffed holes in my house with and Butz never went near them. She did think that dryer sheets were some kind of animal that smelled like catnip. Very funny.

I thought there were mouse traps that had triangular roofs that the mice/rats went in and didn't come out. We even had those open stick traps placed out of sight to us but I am sure that Butzie could/would have found them but never did she touch them.

What I wouldn't put out are pellets that contain Waffarin. It is a blood thinner that scientists found is great for humans who need that and deadly for mice and rats.. Wouldn't want to check the effects on humans.

Hope that you get rid of the vermin.

Steel wool is a great idea! Maybe that AND the dryer sheets (we understood it was the smell of them - we just replace them every month).

Gary went down there, but he was in the middle of something so asked him to come back at 5:00pm. Now he can go armed with the steel wool idea too.

As to the sticky traps... it's something neither Gary nor I can deal with. The concept of the poor mouse stuck, trying to get away, and then just starving to death? I'm not sure that's much better than being poisoned, actually. Besides - outside, a cat, chipmunk, squirrel, skunk, raccoon - anything - could step on it and then have that thing stuck to it! (Though yeah, leaves probably cover them before anything else gets stuck on them, especially right now).

Originally Posted by butzie

Hope that you get rid of the vermin.

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We're not trying to get rid of them. Thankfully with the cats, we haven't had a mouse in the RV for.... 9/10 years. Just having the ferals outside I think discourages the mice here.

No, these are field mice, and they are permanent residents of the farm/fields/forest and are just part of the wildlife one should expect around here. They DO get into the trailers and RVs, so the issue is to figure out how to help this one guy that has a problem so he'll get rid of the poison that could hurt so many other animals. Make him realize he can't rid them from the area, he's got to focus on just preventing them from getting in his home.

Originally Posted by LDG

We're not trying to get rid of them. Thankfully with the cats, we haven't had a mouse in the RV for.... 9/10 years. Just having the ferals outside I think discourages the mice here.

No, these are field mice, and they are permanent residents of the farm/fields/forest and are just part of the wildlife one should expect around here. They DO get into the trailers and RVs, so the issue is to figure out how to help this one guy that has a problem so he'll get rid of the poison that could hurt so many other animals. Make him realize he can't rid them from the area, he's got to focus on just preventing them from getting in his home.

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I think that I wrote that I wouldn't want the effects of Waffarin on humans but I meant cats. It is great for humans!

Anyway, Butzie is a huntress and when she was and indoor/oudoor cat, she would routinely bring in a live mouse or songbird (wail) and play with them, in my bedroom. Not a pretty sight and I tried to save the birds by taking them to the local, well-respected wildlife rehabilations in CA but they couldn't save them.

As for the mice, they were better than the song birds to "play with/kill" then endangered song birds. So, I used to tell Butzie that she was a good girl when she brought me in a mouse but not a bird. After all, we had budgies that flew free in the house.

My understanding was taxed one day, however, when I told her she was such a good girl when she brought in a live mouse. Then, she batted that mouse into one of the bird cages!: and she looked and I was like uh Now, who did you think had to clean that mouse out of the bird's cage that day? Ex DH? Don't so.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Relocating small animals = death in most cases. Thus it's never humane, people just feel better about themselves because they don't realize the slow death they cause instead. (it's the same concept as with TNR, where the R stands for return to the same area so the cats survive)

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Oh, dear! I had no idea!

Originally Posted by nurseangel

Oh, dear! I had no idea!

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People don't usually know. Animals usually have their territories, and in those territories they know where to find food, water, and shelter from predators. Some animals can have smaller ranges and others can cover miles. Any time you take an animal out of it they'll try to get back to their home range. This is why they have problems with bears - they'll relocate them but often they just make their way back.
With small prey animals the drive to get back may not be as strong, but they'd still be lost. In the process of trying to find what they need they could starve or, if lucky, be caught by a predator pretty quickly.

This counts for reptiles, too. They have their home ranges. Its why if you see a turtle in an area you don't take it somewhere else even if you think another location would be better.


And I agree about sticky traps. They're cruel to use for an animal, though I'm perfectly fine using them for insects.

OK. The guy didn't want to pick up the poison, but we found out it's illegal in NJ to do this!!!!!!!!!! So Gary scared him, and showed him where and how to plug up the holes. The poison should be up tomorrow.

Is it illegal to bait? Or just to do so openly (or on certain types of property) where other animals or children could encounter it?

Originally Posted by strange_wings

This counts for reptiles, too. They have their home ranges. Its why if you see a turtle in an area you don't take it somewhere else even if you think another location would be

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We had to relocate a turtle once. A huge one at that. We found her in an apartment complex. A HUGE apartment complex that was nowhere near canals, lakes or any water source, note even a pond! How she got there is a mystery to this day. We took her to a canal near where I live and it was so awesome! As soon as she saw the water she was dying to get out of our hands and she practically made a run for the water. lol.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

People don't usually know.

Animals usually have their territories, and in those territories they know where to find food, water, and shelter from predators. Some animals can have smaller ranges and others can cover miles. Any time you take an animal out of it they'll try to get back to their home range. This is why they have problems with bears - they'll relocate them but often they just make their way back.

With small prey animals the drive to get back may not be as strong, but they'd still be lost. In the process of trying to find what they need they could starve or, if lucky, be caught by a predator pretty quickly.

This counts for reptiles, too. They have their home ranges. Its why if you see a turtle in an area you don't take it somewhere else even if you think another location would be better.


And I agree about sticky traps. They're cruel to use for an animal, though I'm perfectly fine using them for insects.

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Oh, I've used have-a-heart/humane traps a few times for "rodents" such as mice, chipmunks, moles, etc., with great success! (I certainly can not speak for bears or reptiles, *shudder*), as have members of my family..I'm going to have to disagree with you about it's better/more humane to kill them off outright than relocating them away from your home. I think these creatures certainly are smart enough to find food sources, nests, shelter, etc..even when relocated, I don't believe they will starve at all. And as far as predators being a threat, the predators are always a threat, even around the RV, home, etc., before any relocation, and I surely would rather have a mouse killed quickly by another animal that needed to eat it, rather than a slow laborious death by poison, sticky traps, even conventional "snap traps" (true story here, a few years back my dad used a "snap trap" for a mouse in the basement, he found the mouse in it, but still alive, not killed, it's back hind legs mangled, the mouse was struggling/suffering in pain for hours and hours in it, dad had to manually kill it, and dad swore off this kind of trap ever since then..)

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Is it illegal to bait? Or just to do so openly (or on certain types of property) where other animals or children could encounter it?

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My understanding is that it is illegal to bait with poison, unless you apply for "special needs exemption" from the NJDEP. There are "poison-free" baits that basically dehydrate the animal, and because it is "poison-free" it's legal.

In my gite (vacation rental cottage) I use a thing like this
http://www.victorpest.com/advice/all...-of-repellents

and it seems to work, so this may be worth a try. there are others on the market but this was the first one I found on google.