[northfifeduckling]

must be mice in the greenhouse although I can not find any other evidence (no pooh) than that 3 peas I have put in pots on the table in the greenhouse yesterday as they had started to sprout nicely in the pods - and this morning they were gone!   

[Fleecewife]

Little devils   

[Blonde]

must be mice in the greenhouse although I can not find any other evidence (no pooh) than that 3 peas I have put in pots on the table in the greenhouse yesterday as they had started to sprout nicely in the pods - and this morning they were gone!   

icing sugar and plaster of paris mixed, fixes mice right up in the greenhouse

[northfifeduckling]

nice to see you back, Blonde.
How do you mix it? Recipe, please!

[Blonde]

nice to see you back, Blonde.
How do you mix it? Recipe, please!

tablespoon of plaster of paris and equal parts icing sugar in a powder.  Put in a corner that is popular with mice.  It is sweet, mice will consume and it will set in their tummies ......no  more mice. 

[Fleecewife]

That's horrible   

A trap baited with cheese or chocolate is quick and painless.  We caught 15 over one week with traps.

[northfifeduckling]

no , not a nice death, but commercial poison's no better...will have a look if I find the traps ...

[Blonde]

That's horrible   

A trap baited with cheese or chocolate is quick and painless.  We caught 15 over one week with traps.

And having their heads decapitated while enjoying the fruits  of pleasure that you offer is not any different.

[SallyintNorth]

That's horrible   

A trap baited with cheese or chocolate is quick and painless.  We caught 15 over one week with traps.

And having their heads decapitated while enjoying the fruits  of pleasure that you offer is not any different.

Well on this one I think I'd prefer a swift decapitation to a more lingering death by turning my stomach to stone.

I have always found mouse traps (the Nipper type) very easy to use and very effective too.  We use peanut butter as bait - it's good and sticky, so they will definitely need to get on the plinth properly to get it.  Since switching to this I have never had any empty sprung traps nor any mice caught by the leg or tail, they've all been well and truly snapped and killed outright in an instant.

It's key to position the trap somewhere they'll like to be - either on a run they already use, preferably against a wall or even better in a channel, or in an inviting-looking crevice, corner or nook.  In the latter case, where you are wanting them to go somewhere they don't usually go, you may have to be patient for a few nights before they decide to have a lick at it.

All of which, for me, works for mice.

Rats, however - now that's a whole different ball game.  I don't have a solution that I am happy with for these fellas.

[Bionic]

Traps work well for me too, or at least they usually do.

I saw a mice in the kitchen so set a trap before I went to work. When I got home the trap had caught the mouse but not in the way you would have expected.  It had caught him by his rear end and trapped the back two legs.

With his front legs stretched out he had tried to escape. There was a gap underneath the skirting board and he had made part the way through there but with his back part still stuck in the trap couldn't escape completely.

By the time I got home rigor mortis had set in and he was as stiff as a board with the front part still under the skirting board.  I tried to wiggle him out and he snapped in two.   Uggggh it was horrible.  Needless to say all skirting board gaps have now been filled.

Sally 

[SallyintNorth]

Sally, try peanut butter as the bait - rub it well onto the spike.  I've never had one maimed and die an agonising death like this since I switched to peanut butter as bait.

[Fleecewife]

That's horrible   

A trap baited with cheese or chocolate is quick and painless.  We caught 15 over one week with traps.

And having their heads decapitated while enjoying the fruits  of pleasure that you offer is not any different.

Well it is different.  Filling the mouse's insides up with plaster of paris which will presumably set or at least block the digestive tract will lead to a slow and painful death by starvation and pain.  A trap will usually kill it quickly - you are right Sallyintnorth - peanut butter gets them cleanly every time. Rat poison of the Warfarin type shouldn't be painful either, just a gentle falling asleep from blood loss. 
We don't have to be cruel when we have to kill animals - there is usually a kind way.

[Bionic]

Thanks SallyintNorth
I'm putting a jar of peanut butter on my shopping list.

Sally

[Blonde]

That's horrible   

A trap baited with cheese or chocolate is quick and painless.  We caught 15 over one week with traps.

And having their heads decapitated while enjoying the fruits  of pleasure that you offer is not any different.

Well on this one I think I'd prefer a swift decapitation to a more lingering death by turning my stomach to stone.

I have always found mouse traps (the Nipper type) very easy to use and very effective too.  We use peanut butter as bait - it's good and sticky, so they will definitely need to get on the plinth properly to get it.  Since switching to this I have never had any empty sprung traps nor any mice caught by the leg or tail, they've all been well and truly snapped and killed outright in an instant.

It's key to position the trap somewhere they'll like to be - either on a run they already use, preferably against a wall or even better in a channel, or in an inviting-looking crevice, corner or nook.  In the latter case, where you are wanting them to go somewhere they don't usually go, you may have to be patient for a few nights before they decide to have a lick at it.

All of which, for me, works for mice.

Rats, however - now that's a whole different ball game.  I don't have a solution that I am happy with for these fellas.

Yes rats are a different ball game.   If you set a trap and dont tie it down the rat runs off with it.  A pumpkin seed on the trap brings them in, but you need to tie the trap down.

[Plantoid]

Just a bit of advice about the Plaster of Paris idea .
 The guys on a professional pest controller site I play on  have been quite pointed in condemning the idea .
 They say it is in humane and will get you done under the 1911 cruelty to animals act if you happen to get found out as it is  considered / tantamount to long drawn out intentional cruelty .
 
 I used to hunt  all sorts of things to eat and over the years have come to respect my quarry by despatching it as quick and painlessly as possible. I'd rather have a 2 second or so meaty mess in a trap than finding a fourteen day rotting from the inside creature that is in agony and about to die hiding in my feed shed .

I'd even consider that ethos on rats mice and insects as well  ....there's no need to let them suffer any longer than needed to kill them.