Little blighters!!!

[Capn Jack]

Friends were down for the weekend so after lunch walked the dog, cut across the fields to the barn where the boats kept. Took the covers off aft end to have a quick check and found a hole about 5cms across in the rear seat with about 2cm deep foam missing. On removing a little more of the tarpaulin there was a hole knawed through the canvas cover grrrrr!!!

Looks like I'll be setting traps now.

[baasboat1]

flippin eck Capn, how big is your country estate then????

sorry to hear about your little visitors, time to get 'snappy' then!

[Capn Jack]

As u say BB time to get snappy. But where on earth do u buy traps from these days. When I was a lad you could buy them easily buy I don't think they are generally stocked by Homebase.

WhAt I might do as an interim measure is to take off the fitted cover and let the Tarp flap around and maybe tie some old CDs inside you know like bird scarers. It might help until my next days off.

[jokaboat]

You must be livid after all that hard work

If you use humane traps make sure you take them a long way away before release. I suppose it's a risk you take storing in a barn.

[JORIDAPILOT]

As u say BB time to get snappy. But where on earth do u buy traps from these days. When I was a lad you could buy them easily buy I don't think they are generally stocked by Homebase.

You can still buy poison in Homebase, or you could a year or so ago, it does work but takes while, by which time they will have chewed through the helm seat.

[Gazjen]

Screwfix or wilko's sell traps

[Torque of the Devil]

Our gamekeeper uses 'Little Nipper' traps for mice and Jack Russells for rats. 'Little Nippers' are the little wooden ones that you find in hardwear shops and they are definitely the best of the lot and the weapon of choice by those in the know. I wouldn't go near any copy 'Little Nippers' - stick to the original as they are the best. Humane traps are as useful as a rubber ladder and with those traps the mice will still be in and out of that barn like a fart in a colander. They need to be culled quickly and effectively so get those 'Little Nippers' (£1.50 each) and bait them with a bit of chocolate or peanut butter. Also stay away from the 'Big Cheese' brand traps. They are useless.

[Capn Jack]

Thanks for all the advice guys.

JB yes gutted. I'm hoping it's only one confined spot.

I've found that B&Q sell traps both spring and another plastic sprung thing. I'll buy a few and see how it goes.

So baits, some say Nutella, buy Peanut butter or chocolate eh?

[Torque of the Devil]

Hard choclate the best. Heat up the bait spike on the 'Little Nipper' trap and slide a petit pois sized bit of chocolate onto it so it will dry and stay on firmly. This will mean that the mouse will have to place it's foot on the IED to get some purchase to extract the bait from the spike. This will activate the trap and hey presto you have a clean kill.

[Torque of the Devil]

Here's one I prepared earlier. In my kitchen 2 weeks ago.

Mouse.pdf

(23.25 KiB) Downloaded 52 times

[salamis]

You must be livid after all that hard work

If you use humane traps make sure you take them a long way away before release. I suppose it's a risk you take storing in a barn.

Very true. I released the same mouse twice from the trap I set in my garage before I invested in a less humane trap, he didn't get back in after that! Chocolate buttons are the best bait to use by the way.

[Torque of the Devil]

Green & Blacks better than Chocolate Buttons.

[salamis]

Green & Blacks better than Chocolate Buttons.

Best I have the Green & blacks and the mouse gets the chocolate buttons.

[Torque of the Devil]

That sounds like the perfect priority salamis!

[baasboat1]

A small cube of cadbury dairy milk works well, nice and solid to fit snug on the trap.
Word of warning though, I was managing a project many years ago and the contractor saw the odd mouse scampering so he put the trap down, three days later he had 27 dead mice! I have heard of rats being clever enough to carry and drop stones on traps to set them off so they can nick the bait - cunning little sods!
Good luck Capn! Watch those fingers!!