Rodent control needed - without harming cats

The mechanic at the garage today noticed that there was evidence that a rodent had likely been living in my car engine compartment. Obviously, I need to get rid of it quickly before it chews some of the wires or does other damage to my car. The mechanic suggested using D-con, but I have two cats which go outside. Both are mousers. I'm afraid that they might ingest a poisoned rodent. That car sits outside. So what do you suggest?

glue traps work great, but you'd have to kill the mouse...........

Glue traps? Never heard of such a thing!

Yeah you'll probably have to get a glue trap. The humane traps aren't likely to catch a mouse in an engine bay since there is so many places to go. Maybe he's really hungry for some real food though, so you could try a humane trap with like peanut butter and oreos in it. Works great for our house.

Good Luck,
Brandon

Edit: Glue traps can get pretty gross

We used them, 'cause even with 3 mousers in the house, we had a mouse problem, but didn't want the standard traps, 'cause we were afraid the cats would get in them. As is was, one of the cats did get the tip of her tail in the glue, and woke me up in the middle of the night doing laps around the house running from the glue trap, everytime she came by the bedroom door, the trap would whack the door! I had to get up and cut part of her fur out of the trap (after I caught her, that is)!

Well, learn something every day! I'll head down to the hardware store tomorrow and look for some glue traps. Sounds like that might be the answer. Thanks, all.

Like Brandon said, if you can get hold of a small cage trap and put peanut butter (rats and mice can't resist) as bait, you can catch the bugger. It will be up to you what to do with the vermin later.

It worked! I put a glue trap in the engine compartment last night and had my first catch this morning. It wasn't gross at all. Maybe the little guy had a heart attack or something, as the critter was dead, much to my surprise! (I don't pretend that I'll be that lucky next time.) At least with the glue trap, he didn't move the trap into some remote corner of the engine compartment where I wouldn't be able to get at it. I set another trap tonight; hard to tell how many might find that engine compartment that might not have even ventured there without that peanut butter smell to attract them.

One thing I have to do, though, is to put the trap out just at dark and go out and remove it at the first crack of dawn, whether there is anything in it or not. Chickadees and other little birds are also attracted to peanut butter and could get up in the engine compartment, too, so I don't dare leave the trap out in the daytime.

I don't think a humane trap would work there. I just don't think there could possibly be room in the engine compartment. Suppose I could set one under or near the car, though.

Here's an old country method of catching rodents: get a bucket and put some fat in the bottom of it (like lard) so that the bottom of the bucket is covered in grease. Tempt the mouse in with some cereal - they can get in to the bucket, but with greasy paws they can't climb out again, and in the morning you can take the bucket and either let the rodent go, or *ahem* dispose of it.

My OH had a mouse living in his car, the mechanic thought it liked the warmth of the engine!

Sue

I hate glue traps, I think they are incredibly inhumane. They can and will be in such a state of panic they will chew off, or attempt to, their legs to get out. I have seen it and its not pretty. I would hate to put any creature through that. I have love for the mouses!
Now, certainly you do need to control them in some way, I am not suggesting to just let them run wild in your car. Of course my first choice would be a humane trap, but as opposed to glue I would rather use a snap trap. Chances are much greater it will be a quick kill, though it does happen those dont work as planned.
Just my own opinion about glue traps.

Originally Posted by Trillcat

I hate glue traps, I think they are incredibly inhumane. They can and will be in such a state of panic they will chew off, or attempt to, their legs to get out. I have seen it and its not pretty. I would hate to put any creature through that. I have love for the mouses!
Now, certainly you do need to control them in some way, I am not suggesting to just let them run wild in your car. Of course my first choice would be a humane trap, but as opposed to glue I would rather use a snap trap. Chances are much greater it will be a quick kill, though it does happen those dont work as planned.
Just my own opinion about glue traps.

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They are inhumane and I completely agree with you. Animals who die in glue traps die slow agonizing deaths. Because they are rodents does not mean they are not capable of being abused and traumatized. I advocate strongly (with much veterinary support) for the banning of glue traps, and have successfully petitioned them out of several local and more major stores. The comment was even made in this thread that the traps should be moved to prevent trapping birds...why is it seen to be ok to kill rodents this way but not birds? A more humane alternative would be to purchase bobcat urine and hang a scent tag in the engine compartment - the rodents wont come back. Box type traps also work well - food motivation goes a long way. Here is a good read for those who continue to advocate this form of cruelty to animals
http://www.vcec.vic.gov.au/CA256EAF...ty to Animals (Prohibition of Glue Trapping)% 20Regulations%202005%20RIS.pdf

But doesn't a box type trap contain poison that will cause a slow painful death as well? These aren't pet mice they are pests. If we don't start killing some we are going to have some serious overpopulation issues. Every animal to someone is a pet--but to another is just an animal, we can't take offense to that.

People eat turtle soup etc I don't take offense to that just because I keep them as pets. Every animal serves multiple purposes not all of which we like.

Leslie

We used snap traps when we had problems with ground squirrels living in our garage and messing with our car engine. Worked great, and it killed them quickly. And it was better than maintenance putting out poisons, as there was lots of wildlife and dogs & cats that I was worried would eat poisoned rodents. It was getting bad enough that we were sure the apartment complex was going to start doing something about it.

It didn't kill all of the ones on the property, but the ones that kept going in our garage were taken care of. Which was all that we wanted. They had started chewing car wires.

And we tried a humane trap first, they could get out of it on the occasion they tripped it. Repellents didn't work either.

Lots of suggestions here, so I'm going to hijack.

In our house, we have a walk up unfinished attic. My landlord has put poison pellets up there to keep any rodents/squirrels/etc. out. I hate that it's up there for various reasons. First, I hate the idea of poisoning an animal. Second, I worry that if the cats ever got up there, they might get into the poison (it's off limits, but to my cats, a closed door is a land to a magical paradise that they must get to!). So, today, I'm sending the BF up there to get rid of the poison pellets.

However, I do have a lot of stuff up there that I would really like creatures to stay away from (I have never seen anything up there, but apparently it can happen). What's a good way to prevent critters being up there. I'm not up there too often, so I would prefer no traps, even humane ones, since the animal would quite likely starve to death before I found it. What are my repellent options?

Originally Posted by zoeysmom

Lots of suggestions here, so I'm going to hijack.

In our house, we have a walk up unfinished attic. My landlord has put poison pellets up there to keep any rodents/squirrels/etc. out. I hate that it's up there for various reasons. First, I hate the idea of poisoning an animal. Second, I worry that if the cats ever got up there, they might get into the poison (it's off limits, but to my cats, a closed door is a land to a magical paradise that they must get to!). So, today, I'm sending the BF up there to get rid of the poison pellets.

However, I do have a lot of stuff up there that I would really like creatures to stay away from (I have never seen anything up there, but apparently it can happen). What's a good way to prevent critters being up there. I'm not up there too often, so I would prefer no traps, even humane ones, since the animal would quite likely starve to death before I found it. What are my repellent options?

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Has anyone tried those sonic repellants? Do they really work?
LOL about the closed door thing, how very true!!!

http://www.predatorpee.com/Merchant2...tegory_Code=BU

I strongly recommend anything from this site. I obtained the bobcat urine to do olfactory avoidance studies in my mouse colony - I work on a transgenic animal with an olfactory deficit. From personal experimentation (validated by many many other researchers) this product is extremely effective on mice, rats, and rabbits. After my experiments, I still have quite a lot of this bobcat pee left - and numerous people in my department have come and used it. They have had success in keeping rabbits away from gardens, squirrels out of sheds, pigeons away from balconies. I have heard mixed reports about this repelling cats as well (without being harmful to them - its a non toxic olfactory stimulus) with most people (myself included) seeing no effect on cats, but the lady with the garden claims her neighbours errant feline has found a new bathroom since she hung the scent tags.

Originally Posted by Jack31

But doesn't a box type trap contain poison that will cause a slow painful death as well? These aren't pet mice they are pests. If we don't start killing some we are going to have some serious overpopulation issues. Every animal to someone is a pet--but to another is just an animal, we can't take offense to that.

People eat turtle soup etc I don't take offense to that just because I keep them as pets. Every animal serves multiple purposes not all of which we like.

Leslie

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No - a box trap is a catch-and-release system, and in any case, commercially available rodent poisons do not cause slow and painful deaths as they put the animal in surgical plane anesthesia before terminating respiration - ie the animal *cant* feel it. And my problem was not with the killing of rodents, it was the choice to use the most inhumane cruel option possible, when numerous other options exist. It seems logical to me that someone who cares at all about animals would try to minimize suffering, not go out of their way to cause it. No doubt this type of attitude "not my pet, its a pest" is why so many actual pets get cruelly dispatched by nasty neighbours. Because we dont like the animal does NOT justify treating it cruelly.

I despise glue traps with every fiber of my being. DH's company used to use them and I was absolutely horrified. DH would actually carry the trap to a bucket of water to put the mouse out of it's misery. I hated that as well, but it seemed a better solution than having the creature chew it's leg off.

I do know a sure fire way to kill a rodent; unfortunately, there really isn't a humane way to kill a mouse, at least none that I've found. I convinced DH to use this method instead of the glue traps, and he discovered it actually worked better.

Take a few caps from a milk bottle, water bottle, etc----some small mouse-sized container. Fill them with cola and set them near the wall----mice stick to the perimeter of a room. They'll drink the cola and, believe it or not, it will kill them. For some reason, a mouse can't burp. You just have to use fresh cola and replace it daily. The only downside is the mouse may die somewhere that you can't dispose of it. The upside is that cola isn't attractive to cats.

Originally Posted by Februa

http://www.predatorpee.com/Merchant2...tegory_Code=BU

I strongly recommend anything from this site. I obtained the bobcat urine to do olfactory avoidance studies in my mouse colony - I work on a transgenic animal with an olfactory deficit. From personal experimentation (validated by many many other researchers) this product is extremely effective on mice, rats, and rabbits. After my experiments, I still have quite a lot of this bobcat pee left - and numerous people in my department have come and used it. They have had success in keeping rabbits away from gardens, squirrels out of sheds, pigeons away from balconies. I have heard mixed reports about this repelling cats as well (without being harmful to them - its a non toxic olfactory stimulus) with most people (myself included) seeing no effect on cats, but the lady with the garden claims her neighbours errant feline has found a new bathroom since she hung the scent tags.

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Is the smell strong enough to be smelled by humans? Because all I can think of is walking into a hot, sticky, and urine-stenched attic!

Originally Posted by zoeysmom

Is the smell strong enough to be smelled by humans? Because all I can think of is walking into a hot, sticky, and urine-stenched attic!

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Lol!
Yes - it can be strong enough for you to smell it, but you do not need to use anywhere near that much for effectiveness (in other words, if you are smelling it, you are using way too much!). 0.5 mL on 2 scent tags (1mL total) was/is effective for a single car garage, same amount used for the garden shed....not sure how the heat of an attic would figure in though...