Monday
Jan042010
No house for the mouse
Monday, January 4, 2010 at 5:35AM
Several months ago as the weather started to turn cold Kelli and I were awoken at night by the sound of a mouse chewing and gnawing on the floor joists in our bedroom. Not only is that not a fun sound at 1am - it's also a great way for the little buggers to find wires and burn your house down for fun. So - we needed a plan - how do you trap a mouse that seems to hang out in a space that is so difficult to get your Terrier doesn't even care?
The answer to killing a mouse in the ceiling is ingenuity and poison. To get access to where the offending critter was I didn't want to poke a hole in the ceiling downstairs or rip up the nice bamboo floor in the bedroom - so I went to where there was already access... I pulled off the floor grate and then pulled a couple of the nails that keep the duct work to the side of the opening... then using a funnel I dumped about 1/4 cup of mouse pellet poison down onto the TOP of the heating duct in the floor joists (not down the duct itself - that would be BAD). I then nailed the duct back into place. The same technique would work with wall registers too.
I did that on 3 vents in the bedroom and then in a couple others on the second floor. Then put 2 poison bait blocks on the top of the duct work in the basement (since that would be my guess as to how the suckers got upstairs). About 2 nights later we heard gnawing... then the sound of a few pellets falling onto the metal heating duct... things have been silent since then. Ahh - sweet relief... and the bait is still in there so if another uninvited guest decides to take refuge in our house... well... we do offer room service for the Last Supper.
The answer to killing a mouse in the ceiling is ingenuity and poison. To get access to where the offending critter was I didn't want to poke a hole in the ceiling downstairs or rip up the nice bamboo floor in the bedroom - so I went to where there was already access... I pulled off the floor grate and then pulled a couple of the nails that keep the duct work to the side of the opening... then using a funnel I dumped about 1/4 cup of mouse pellet poison down onto the TOP of the heating duct in the floor joists (not down the duct itself - that would be BAD). I then nailed the duct back into place. The same technique would work with wall registers too.
I did that on 3 vents in the bedroom and then in a couple others on the second floor. Then put 2 poison bait blocks on the top of the duct work in the basement (since that would be my guess as to how the suckers got upstairs). About 2 nights later we heard gnawing... then the sound of a few pellets falling onto the metal heating duct... things have been silent since then. Ahh - sweet relief... and the bait is still in there so if another uninvited guest decides to take refuge in our house... well... we do offer room service for the Last Supper.
Reader Comments (3)
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Nice. I am shocked last week when I found out who ate my chicks and some chicken meat. Guess who? its the big rats. I thought they only eat papers and woods. They give me headaches. Thank for sharing this one.
Rats will eat just about anything - including chicks and small chickens.
For your rat issue I'd get some of the bigger poison bait blocks and attach them to the outside of the brooder with large screws... The rat will likely not want to work too hard for his food if he can easily get it from the bait block. A few days and the issue is gone.
I always have a few poison blocks in the barn and they are always getting nibbled on by something... Just make sure to keep them in places where animals you care about can't eat them!