Mice and mice traps

[SunnyWalker]

I have read of the buckets in Main (plastic bucket with water in bottom, peanut butter on sides, placed rightly, mice climb up and try to reach in for peanut butter and fall in, thus drowning), and of hikers carrying mouse traps, dogs and cats and etc. Do YOU carry a mouse trap or have you used a "bucket"? What have you found to work to reduce mice and rodent problem at the shelters? Maybe you love the mice? What is the record for executing the little rodents? -SunnyWalker

[CrumbSnatcher]

cook away from shelters, eat all your cooked food instead of throwing it out. hang your food properly. don't kill the snakes. and hike a few more miles every day so you don't waste time thinking of this crap LOL

[Lone Wolf]

http://www.d-conproducts.com/ i put it in a 100ft. radius of shelters. kills all kinds of critters

[kayak karl]

. Do YOU carry a mouse trap

I used this for years, lots of fun for kids of all ages

[SunnyWalker]

Hey Kayak: ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, yuk, hee, hee, ho, ho -Barney the mouse

[Jim Adams]

my cat Ziggy ate 11 mice at Blood Mountain Shelter that I saw...don't know how many total there.

geek

[SunnyWalker]

Jim: how long did you carry (I assume you carried the cat) on the AT?

[SunnyWalker]

Well, really though, I would like to hear about mouse traps and so forth. Not degerante into a argument about dogs and cats on the trail.

[fiddlehead]

I carried 3 mouse traps (the small wooden ones) for a while. Would'nt take long to catch 3 at shelters. Some folks didn't like the idea.
If you don't use shelters, it's not much of a problem although one would be a good idea.

I did the bucket thing you talked about at my garage in PA. Works great. But the water freezes up and then it's a feeding tray for them.

I think ideally, you would carry the mousetraps, stay near shelters and eat your catch every night. Then you wouldn't have to carry food. (but you'd have to use the bucket method as 20-25 mouse traps would weigh you down) (I think you'd need at least that many)

Anybody read that Farley Mowat book when he ate mice many different ways to see how the wolves lived?

[Jim Adams]

Jim: how long did you carry (I assume you carried the cat) on the AT?

Ziggy walked to Gooch Gap then rode the rest of the way...everything but the Smokies and Baxter.
It was very odd... people would set the wooden traps and others would really get down on them because they were killing "wildlife" but when Ziggy caught and ate the mice they all thought that it was "so cute."

If everybody carried 1 trap and set it every night then it may make a dent in the mouse population but probably never do away with them. They are a part of shelter life...either tolerate them or camp away from the shelters.

geek

[SunnyWalker]

Wow, it sounds like we ought to make it required for hiking the AT. Everyone must carry and use one mouse trap.

[Monkeywrench]

Wow, it sounds like we ought to make it required for hiking the AT. Everyone must carry and use one mouse trap.

Except it is illegal where the trail is in National Parks, which prohibit the killing of ANY wildlife. I doubt you'd ever get cited for killing mice, but you never know.

[Mother's Finest]

if you have a mouse problem in your home or business, the best way to take care of it is with a live trap.

You have the ability to catch multiple mice in one setting, requires no bait, and allows the freedom to either kill or release your quarry.

the shelters are not secure. you can kill as many mice as you want, they will always come back.

peace
mf

[Blue Jay]

They are a part of shelter life...either tolerate them or camp away from the shelters.

geek

Exactly....I like shelter mice, but my cat sleeps on my gear because it smells so bad. Mice NEVER go near my stuff. I you put your face to the outside of a shelter fewer mice run over your face

[Blue Jay]

Well, really though, I would like to hear about mouse traps and so forth.

Am I the only one who finds this an extremely strange statement.

[Undershaft]

Shelters are not your home or apartment. Why would you even bother killing the mice? Do you plan on moving into a shelter? Lets face it, most hikers will never spend more than one night at any given shelter, so killing mice won't do anything to make the shelter better for the hiker doing the killing. The dead mice will be replaced very quickly. Mice have many litters a year. The hikers will not win because the mice will always have superior numbers. Not to mention the peripheral damage to surrounding wildlife like snakes and owls, whose primary diet consists of mice.

I don't understand your motivation in wanting to kill mice. Most hikers I've met wouldn't even dream of killing wildlife on the trail. Yes, mice count as wildlife. When we go into the woods, we are on their turf and we should respect their right to live. If mice bother you, stay away from the shelters. I've been section hiking the trail for years and I've only seen shelter mice once. They are not a big problem.

Remember, mice are part of the food chain. If you kill mice, you kill everything that feeds on them, and that kills the larger carnivores that ate the animals that ate the mice, and so on....
I like seeing wildlife on the trail and I'm sure others do as well. Please satisfy your rodent bloodlust elsewhere.

[Cosmo Rules]

Thou shalt not kill...

[Footslogger]

[quote=SunnyWalker;679342]I have read of the buckets in Main (plastic bucket with water in bottom, peanut butter on sides, placed rightly, mice climb up and try to reach in for peanut butter and fall in, thus drowning), and of hikers carrying mouse traps, dogs and cats and etc.
=====================================

Saw that system last year with my own eyes up at the Harrison Fish Camp in Maine, just south of the Kennebeck. Seemed to work quite well. The bucket was loaded with drowned mice in the morning.

'Slogger

[NICKTHEGREEK]

seems to be an excellent thread for why you should avoid shelters

[minnesotasmith]

Mice have many litters a year. The hikers will not win because the mice will always have superior numbers. Not to mention the peripheral damage to surrounding wildlife like snakes and owls, whose primary diet consists of mice.

Either the mice in and around trail shelters can reproduce essentially endlessly, where hiker efforts to signficantly reduce their numbers are doomed to ineffectiveness, OR such efforts can cause problems for wildlife that relies heavily on mice in their diet. Which of these two irreconcilable positions do you want to go with?

I will add that I hate mice, that anyone who kills one is fine by me. I just didn't carry anything to kill them with north of Neels Gap during my thruhike BC I saw that as a diversion of effort from my goal. Humans own the land the AT passes through, after all, and mice are there on sufferance. Pests only live BC they're not yet worth the effort to kill, with what means we have.