How do I get rid of a rodent?

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

It looks like a rodent has been living in our car and chomping at food. How do we get rid of it?

2

First off, don’t leave food in your car. If you do leave food in your car, place it on a mousetrap.

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3

Sticky traps work pretty well. Peanut butter on a mousetrap if all else fails. As far as keeping the mice out, remove the food source and they’ve got no reason to stay, like mentioned above.

4

Once you stop feeding it, home improvement stores sell something like this.

Tester

5

If your car has a cabin air filter, make sure to check it. Mice often nest there. You really don’t want to be breathing in the results of that.

6

How do you get rid of a rodent? Vote them out!

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7

I recommend you place a couple of these around your home and where you park your car:

You’ll need some bait to put in them:

If you have pets and/or children, you’ll want to be careful about where you place them. If you find them having been moved, it’s likely raccoons tried to get to the bait, so you might need to weigh them down with some stones or pavers.

8

We have a growing problem around here with hawks and owls dying from eating dead rodents that ingested rodentcides like this. It’s better to use snap traps baited with non-poisonous foods.

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9

Get it out asap. You will really not like it when it chews up the wiring in the dash and the car is immobilized. If it does eat up the wires be prepared for someone else to eat up your wallet.

10

I remember the first time I ‘caught’ a rat with an anticoagulant: I found it in a pool of uncoagulated blood. Rats and mice cut themselves all the time squeezing through rough holes. With their fur and quickly-coagulating blood, they don’t lose enough blood to slow them down. Give them an anticoagulant and they exsaguinate (look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls). I’d get a live trap and take them to the woods to feed an owl or coyote.

11

whatever you do, don’t follow this lady’s example:

http://www.peterpaulandmary.com/music/17-07.htm

12

Have you considered getting a cat?

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13

Some cats don’t kill rodents though. It’s luck of the draw.

14

A young female cat is the best bet.

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15

Got it. If you live in a rural or suburban area where there is that kind of wildlife around, my suggestion could stand some scrutiny, but if you live in an urban area, my method will be more effective than snap traps or glue traps, and isn’t likely to harm predatory wildlife.

My only issue with snap traps and glue traps is that they only catch one rodent at a time, and it is very rare to have a problem where you only have one rodent.

16

But the cat urine will help keep the mice away.

I had a big mouse/packrat problem. They shewed up tons of wires on my trucks that are not driven often. I have 2 cats that will kill anything that moves but they are barely keeping up.

17

Mix molasses with peanut butter and put on a snap trap and the mice will run to trap almost as soon as it is set. I have used this, set a trap in a kitchen cabinet and heard it snap before I left the kitchen. Best bait of all.

18

And the leftovers go great on toast!

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19

Level of effectiveness is debatable. They both seem to do the job. There’s no snap trap limit. The problems around here seem to ebb and flow with the seasonal changes. Fall and spring are the big activity times. I set out half dozen snap traps during those times. They are cheap. They only catch the intended target. After I have culled the burgeoning population and they aren’t catching any more, I remove most of the traps and only leave one or two active. I might get an occasional transient offender in the “off season”. :slight_smile:

20

Rodents are hard to get rid of. Orlando has a huge, powerful rodent, still there after fifty years.

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