Here's what I wrote on the subject, such a long time ago...
Mark...rat killer supreme
It's a year ago to the day that I slayed the giant rat!
This is what I wrote about it back then:
It's late at night, I'm tired, but I feel the urge to let you all in on my wee tale of woe...
2 nights ago I awoke to high pitch screaming in the bedroom. As sociable as I am, I reached over my girlfriend and put her light on. Our cat (one of them, the other has disappeared and is causing us a lot of stress...she's only 7 months you see, but that's another tale of woe altogether) had corned a mouse between the wall and the cupboard. The mouse was on it's back waving its little legs in the air.
It was a big mouse. I know nothing of mice, but it didn't look like Mickey and it certainly didn't look like Jerry either. It was, as I said, a big mouse.
Anyway, it was cornered and Homer (that's the cat in question) was pawing it without using his claws. Homer is a little slow, hence his name.
So, I get up (and the mouse is still screeching like a banshee...or Bono, whichever) and pick up Homer and put him outside the bedroom.
I figured it would be easiest to remove him and then put the mouse in a cardboard box. Homer ran back in. So I picked him up again and put him out the bedroom. Then when I turned back to net the mouse...it had crawled behind the cupboard and there was no way either Homer or I was going to get at him.
So, I'm telling this story to my collegues the next day and one of them, a female Dutch farming type of a lass, says, when I get to the part of putting Homer out of the bedroom, I quote: "I bet the mouse ran behind the cupboard."
Yes.
"You know," I'm still quoting, by the way, "you should have just picked up the mouse and twisted its neck." And she makes the movement of someone seriously executing a wee mouse.
There is no way I'm gonna kill a mouse.
Next night (that's last night), 2 collegues and I went out pubbing and when we got back to my place...yup...there was high pitched squealing once again. So we go into my bedroom (and my girlfriend is asleep...she has hearing aids which she doesn't wear when she's sleeping and is as such effectivly deaf...unless you open a packet of crisps...I don't know...I just really don't know) and the cat has cornered the mouse in another corner of the bedroom.
Brave and drunk as I was I approached the screaching beastie.
It was a big mouse, so big in fact that one of my collegues, who knows a lot more about mice than I do, said (and I quote): "That's not a mouse. That's a rat. Look at its tail."
So, brave and drunk as I was, I tried to pick up the screaming rat. IT BIT ME. THE BASTARD BIT ME.
I started screaming, the rat was screaming, my collegues started screaming and we woke up my deaf girlfriend. I picked up the cardboard box (in which Jules, the kitten that's disappeared, usually sleeps in) and scoop up the rat with Homer trying to get in the box with it. It jumped out. So I start screaming again, my collegues slam the bedroom door shut and continue screaming. My girlfriend starts screaming and Homer decided to retreat under the bed.
I scoop up the rat again, pull back the curtain, and throw the rat out the open window.
Next morning...I wake up and there's a dead rat at the foot of the bed.
I had to get a Tetanis jab and a week's worth of anti-biotics.
Jules still hasn't returned and I think Homer's lost interest in mice altogether.
Well, now it's a year on...
Wee Jules (the missing cat) returned on Christmas eve.
My girlfriend and I have split up.
Since the rat slaying incident I've been assaulted by mosquitos, dogs, flees, parrots and an emu (and people wonder why I don't swim in warm waters???).
Let's hope that 2006 sees me and the animal kingdom in slightly more harmony than this year!
Originally posted by huckleberryhoundHere is the tip : capture it in trap and release him somewhere where he wont bother anyone. Do not kill him. You will feel better and mouse will certainly feel better too.
Any tips ?
I have a few traps, some chocolate as bait, and some mouse killer.
It's not my house, i'm just helping out someone who is scared of mice.
In the village of the my grandpa they had some nice mousetrap which capture the animal but don't kill it...
Originally posted by ivan2908Truth be told, i'm just an information gatherer for a friend...if it was up to me, i'd hunt for the hole it's coming from and lay some bait on some upsidedown duct tape.
Here is the tip : capture it in trap and release him somewhere where he wont bother anyone. Do not kill him. You will feel better and mouse will certainly feel better too.
In the village of the my grandpa they had some nice mousetrap which capture the animal but don't kill it...
Originally posted by ivan2908Its probably something like a crabbing cage where the mouse can get in but can't get back out.
Here is the tip : capture it in trap and release him somewhere where he wont bother anyone. Do not kill him. You will feel better and mouse will certainly feel better too.
In the village of the my grandpa they had some nice mousetrap which capture the animal but don't kill it...
I recently caught a mouse without having to kill it using a trap like this.
You'll need:
- Bucket
- Cardboard roll (i.e. the thing left after you've used all the kitchen roll)
- Two rectangular boards/cardboard/whatever
- Peanut butter or other similar mouse bait
Put the bucket down and use one of the boards (1) to make a ramp up to it's brim.
Stick the other board (2) such that it covers part of the bucket opening and touches the ramp (1), so that the mouse can access it.
Put the mouse bait inside the roll on one of the extremities.
Balance the roll on the edge of board (2), with the extremity containing the bait hanging above the uncovered part of bucket opening.
The mouse will go for the bait and the roll will pivot, making the roll inside of the bucket along with the mouse.
This WORKS! In my case, it only worked after I switched the lights out, but it only took around 15 min afterwards. The more vertical the walls of the bucket the better, so that the mouse can't climb out afterwards.
PS: I also flattened one of the sides of the roll to get better balance, i.e. the opening of the roll looked like a D, instead of an O. Put the bait on the flat part.