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Thread: Clever Mouse Raiding My Back Patio Bodega

  1. #1
    Gold Member FischAutoTechGarten's Avatar
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    Default Clever Mouse Raiding My Back Patio Bodega

    My SouthWestern home doesn't have a basement, attic or closed garage. So, I rely on a small 3x8 bodega off of my carport and a 3x8 bodega off of my back patio to store everything.

    My front bodega, which is also known as the R.O. Bodega becuase that is where I have my Reverse Osmosis Equipment and Water Storage, has always been and continues to be pest free.

    My rear bodega has been plagued with mice and bats over the years. I have filled every crack imaginable with steel wool (bats and mice hate the stuff). The bats have been gone for more than a year. The mice have returned in force... pooping and peeing on everything. This weekend everything had to come out for a thorough cleaning (I literally just did this last May.. so it's annoying to go through this exercise again.... so soon).

    You can see that I keep almost everything closed up with lids. But all of those totes, tool bags, containers, etc... get pooped and pee'd on... so they all came out for thorough cleaning with bleach water and a soak in the sunlight for 2 days.... Walls and floor of the bodega got hosed down and cleaned with bleach... Tool bags got washed in hot bleach water.... and yes soaked in the sunlight for 2 days...

    Everything went back in... I set 6 mouse traps inside of it (I also set 2 in random locations outside of it).... a large live trap for pack rats (haven't seen those in more than a year and still haven't)... and a smaller live trap for kangaroo rats/mice.

    BackPatioBodega.jpg

    First day... Got a kangaroo mouse in a live trap (released him to the desert about a mile away from my home), 2 mice inside the bodega in the taps, and 1 mouse outside the bodega in a trap. 4 critters not bad..

    2nd day.... 2 empty live traps with bait...2 empty mouse traps with bait .. all outside of the bodega... But inside the Bodega 6 traps that were robbed of their peanut butter, but left unsprung. I am dealing with an ultra intelligent mouse here...

    UnsprungRobbedMouseTraps.jpg

    So, I'm going to not use peanut butter.. .but instead cheese so that he has to tug at it more..... on all 6 of them..
    Peter
    Cuerpo en Green Valley, Arizona, USA y Corazón en Alamos, Sonora, Mexico

    learning never stops

  2. #2
    Administrator and MVP Dec.2015 Second Hand Pat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Clever Mouse Raiding My Back Patio Bodega

    That is annoying Peter having a mouse issue. Hope the cheese works. My daughter has a seasonal issue with mice in my her barn. She is constantly finding the mice in the horses water buckets where they drown. Maybe adding a water type trap may be the ticket.
    Pat
    Your discus are talking to you....are you listening


  3. #3
    Moderator Team LizStreithorst's Avatar
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    Default Re: Clever Mouse Raiding My Back Patio Bodega

    Peter, as I think you know, I live out in the sticks where we have lots of meeses. The problem with steel wool is that over time it rusts and degrades. Try this. I use it with success. https://www.google.com/search?q=copp...hrome&ie=UTF-8

    I gave up on those Victor traps a long time ago. The new gold standard is this one. https://www.amazon.com/Rodent-Killer...NsaWNrPXRydWU=

    It's always a battle though when there isn't enough food available to them out of doors. Once I noticed that every time I opened and closed the dishwasher door dog kibbles fell out. I took off the inside panel of the dish washer and meese were using it as a storage place for the dog food that they stole from the dog's bowls. There was enough kibble in there to feed a large dog for a week! Another time I put something in the oven and the oven caught fire! I took my food out and took off the base that guards the oven from the direct flame. Same thing. I found a new hidden place where they had chewed out a hole under a kitchen cabinet. Where I live it gets coldish in the winter, they can feel the warmth from the house. Once inside they find the dog food bowl and think they've got it made. I hate them meeses to pieces!

    Another solution people use with success is to adopt a feral cat and not feed it. That would never work for me because I could never have an animal and not feed it. I have a pet cat that will bring me a decapitated or half eaten mouse but she works on the side of the house opposite from the kitchen.
    Mama Bear

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Clever Mouse Raiding My Back Patio Bodega

    A rodent can find its way back from its capture point up to 2 miles. There is a sonic emitter that may of us who store cars in their garage. It's battery powered. It is installed under the hood to keep rodents from chewing on wires and building nests. You can buy them at Amazon for various amounts of money so you might try one of them. I think the battery lasts for about a year. My daughter, Ellie-Mae, who has studies all things rodents, in depth, tells me that mice and rats are very smart and as a result they can determine traps and smells very quickly. She thought that they may even be able to figure out my sonic device after a time. She says that peanut butter and chocolate is the best.

  5. #5
    Registered Member + MVP danotaylor's Avatar
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    Default Re: Clever Mouse Raiding My Back Patio Bodega

    Pumpkin seeds crammed onto the bait hook is what we used with great success in Australia

  6. #6
    Moderator Team LizStreithorst's Avatar
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    Default Re: Clever Mouse Raiding My Back Patio Bodega

    I've never tried chocolate. I've had my best luck with peanut butter. And yes, they are smart. They've got survival down pat. I've heard that the sonic devises don't work. How long have you had yours and has under the hood been mouse free since? I understand that the newer car engines that use soy rather than rubber for the "rubber" parts and that meese will eat the stuff.
    Mama Bear

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    Default Re: Clever Mouse Raiding My Back Patio Bodega

    I have not seen a mouse but that might mean that there are not mouses there to scare away. We have used the super stick pads but the problem with that is getting the mouse out of the stick without getting bit. Ellie-Mae will not allow for any critter to lose a life. Not on her watch. Not even spiders. She caught a bat a while back. She took it outside but before she let it got she gave it water in case it was thirsty. Toyota won the class action lawsuit filed in California that they were not liable for rodent damage cased by the rodents eating the soy based car engine wires. I wonder what genius thought this would be a good idea to use a food based product for car engine wiring to begin with?

  8. #8
    Gold Member FischAutoTechGarten's Avatar
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    Default Re: Clever Mouse Raiding My Back Patio Bodega

    Here in the Sonoran Desert, I have no issues with the steel wool rusting (it's been in place for about 2 years already). None of it is directly exposed to elements even when it does rain.... so we are good there.

    Pack Rats are an issue with chewing soy wiring on cars here in the desert. About 8 years ago, our older CRV was victimized a few times by Pack Rats in Mexico and it was a bear finding all of the shorts and open circuits. With our dogs outside on the patio and our cat running free, we've not seen Pack Rats in well over a year or more... I still set the trap out on occasion just for good measure.

    I'm going to give the traps a try tonight with Feta Cheese (they are already baited and in place). We will see how it goes.

    It's starting to really get warm out now (going to be one of the driest and hotest Februaries on record...), so perhaps they will stay away. I have a bird feeder, so they like to steal from it and store the sunflower seeds in the grill, under patio furniture cushions and of course in the bodega (dropped in power saws, drills, etc...). Nothing like using your sawzall and starting to smell cooking sunflower seeds...

    Of course, we get all kinds of critters in our yard. These guys are frecuent visitors as the like muching on the fallen mesquite pods in my side yard. They're not just wild animals... javenlinas are wild party animals... turning adirondack chairs over... etc... Love these little guys...

    JavelinasInTheSideYard.jpg

    My girls keep a watch on everything from their perch on the back patio.

    ZuriGritaCoquetaOnGaurd.jpg
    Last edited by FischAutoTechGarten; 02-24-2021 at 07:14 PM.
    Peter
    Cuerpo en Green Valley, Arizona, USA y Corazón en Alamos, Sonora, Mexico

    learning never stops

  9. #9
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    Default Re: Clever Mouse Raiding My Back Patio Bodega

    I've never had a mouse problem because I've always had a cat, that is until my current cat. I've seen it sniff nose to nose with a mouse and walk away. My cat spends the night in the basement so I can sleep through the night and then I found out there was a couple of mice living down there eating my bird seed. The cat must be very well fed because they all got along just fine.

    My cat also likes to catch Chipmunks, she brings them to us and they play dead, she puts them down and then they run away. She's a sweet cat but will never be a mouser.

  10. #10
    Registered Member 14Discus's Avatar
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    Default Re: Clever Mouse Raiding My Back Patio Bodega

    Stick w peanut butter, but take a one inch piece of pipe cleaner and wrap it around the bait spot, then smear pb on it. They’ll surely bother the peanut butter on a saturated piece of pipe cleaner. I get plenty that way. You might also like the JAWZ traps better and they are super easy to bait up wo snapping a finger. The well for bait is perfect as they keep trying for more until....Zap.
    Lastly, when you remove a dead mouse, your hand is not even close to contact w the dead mouse when using a JAWZ trap.

  11. #11
    Registered Member 14Discus's Avatar
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    Default Re: Clever Mouse Raiding My Back Patio Bodega

    Here is what these JAWZ traps loook like. I love them.
    FD68CD13-631C-42AB-A9C3-C0A04665FA44.jpg
    BD9E49D0-76AF-4BB8-8463-728D323C20DA.jpeg
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by 14Discus; 02-25-2021 at 11:00 AM.

  12. #12
    Moderator Team LizStreithorst's Avatar
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    Default Re: Clever Mouse Raiding My Back Patio Bodega

    The Jaws are the same design as the one I suggested. I've used both and both are excellent traps.
    Mama Bear

  13. #13
    Gold Member FischAutoTechGarten's Avatar
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    Default Re: Clever Mouse Raiding My Back Patio Bodega

    Found two more dead mice in two traps this morning. The feta cheese worked! All of the other traps are still intact... So we will leave them out for tonight.

    JAWZ might be superior... but I own 2 live traps and 8 Victory kill traps. So, I'll stick with these for now as long as they are working. I take the dead mice and toss them on the hill behind my patio and the RoadRunners dispatch them quickly....
    Peter
    Cuerpo en Green Valley, Arizona, USA y Corazón en Alamos, Sonora, Mexico

    learning never stops

  14. #14
    Moderator Team LizStreithorst's Avatar
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    Default Re: Clever Mouse Raiding My Back Patio Bodega

    I toss mine into the woods or into the compost pile.
    Mama Bear

  15. #15
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    Default Re: Clever Mouse Raiding My Back Patio Bodega

    I heard a scream from my wife, dead mouse in the aquarium.

    Cliff

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