Has anyone tried leaving the mice alka seltzer tablets to eat. They could be flavored with kool-aid or soup mix or anything else to attact the mice.
Has anyone tried leaving the mice alka seltzer tablets to eat. They could be flavored with kool-aid or soup mix or anything else to attact the mice.
Why would you do that?
Panzer
It would make thier bellies explode and leave little mouse bits all over the shelter.
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Mice, like humans, can burp, expelling the CO2 from their system. All you would get was alot of gassy mice. A better solution to get rid of shelter mice is not to eat/prepare food in the shelter whenever possible. And if you have to cook in a shelter due to weather, then be cautious about spilling and clean up after yourself.
No, no, no...That alka seltzer thing is a myth. You need to feed them uncooked rice.
If hikers were cleaner and did not leave anything for them to eat they (mice) would not be there
even if every hiker dropped one little crumb of food each there would still be mice.
Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.
-Edward Abbey
Yep, a Myth. "A rodent can't vomit" is along those lines, my Rats did it from time to time, not very often, but they did it. They sure can belch, It's actually funny to hear.
You have to ask, why would a critter who lives on refuse not be able to throw up if they accidentally got something bad.
Anyway, if they bother you, don't stay in the shelters!! They don't bother me, yet I don't stay at the shelters.
Curse you Perry the Platypus!
Now that's a live and let live attitude! After all, you are coming into their neighborhood. It's a hard enough life being a mouse what with snakes, and owls, and other hunting birds on the lookout for them. I say if you are going to kill them, you should have to eat them. Like Danielsen says, except stewing would be OK too...
Last edited by beeman; 07-18-2010 at 19:10.
Actually, they'd be perfect candidates for pit-roasting. Heat up some good chunks of granite in a fire, put them in the bottom of a small pit, add a little dirt, wrap the mousemeat in some tasty leaves and place on the dirt, and fill the rest of the way in. With, say, a deer, that's quite a task. With mice you might as well be digging a cathole.
Maybe we just need more hikers from Malawi and Mozambique where you can be treated to barbecued mice. The book "Enough" mentions boys in Africa standing around brush fires capturing fleeing mice and roasting them like hotdogs. Personally, more cats like Ziggy on the trail would be a more appealing form of rodent control.
The mice are just the symptom, not the problem. Unless the underlying cause for the mice (bits of stuff they can eat) is removed, you can kill all the mice you want, and they'll be replaced by other mice. There will be as many mice as there is food for them to eat. No food, no mice.
Random Thoughts on Mice:
When I see a mouse I always scream lol then I am trying to catch it... The same goes for bats!
I was reading someones trail journal and a mouse went in someones sleeping bag and down their shirt, they woke up screaming lol I don't mind mice, they are cute little creatures, but I just don't see myself sleeping in the shelters with them.
I don't agree with those of you wanting to kill them or torture them. Food or not, its only natural the mice will cozy up in shelters, they are probably castles to them! We are in their territory and need to respect that.
People make such a fuss over mice.
I think people who kill shelter mice are really cool.
Panzer
If you kill them, you should eat them.
FACT:
most serial killers started off by killing shelter mice... lol
Panzer
Last edited by Panzer1; 07-19-2010 at 15:12.
Last thing shelters need are exploding mice and rotting guts. Perfect meal for predators and scavengers.
''Tennessee Viking'
Mountains to Sea Trail Hiker & Maintainer
Former TEHCC (AT) Maintainer