I just found out that my neighbor that I share a wall with is moving out because of “the mouse issue.” This is the first I’ve heard about it. I’m pretty sure I don’t have mice. I haven’t found any chewed food packaging or what looks like mouse droppings. I do have a cat but I’m not confident he would know how to kill a mouse. I’ve never seen him chase anything on the floor but I know he will chase flying insects. I also haven’t been presented with any “presents.” Could he really be keeping the mice from my apartment by just his scent?

  • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    14 hours ago

    When the dirty neighbor moves out you’re about to have a “mouse issue”.

    IMO, get ready now and set some old-school wood-and-copper snap traps, I put mine in shoeboxes or disposable tupperware with little mouse holes in the side. This keeps the kitty off the traps. I bait with peanut butter, two traps per box and I bend the sear so it goes off on a hair trigger.

    I am loath to use poison on rodents because I don’t want to make pets, raptors, or owls sick. I settled on Cholecalciferol because it seems safer for other wildlife.

    Good luck and don’t forget, smacking them with a broom works too.

    • FaceDeer@fedia.io
      0·
      11 hours ago

      I occasionally deal with a mouse or two in my house, and I much prefer these kinds of traps. They’re slightly more expensive, but you don’t need many and they’re reusable so that doesn’t really matter much. The advantages are:

      • Super easy to set, just pull the jaw open by the little handle and it clicks in place. No need to touch the dead mouse, it plops right out into a garbage can.
      • I’ve never had mice successfully steal the bait, the cover forces them to put their heads in exactly the right place for the kill bar to come down on them.
      • This also means that I’ve never seen a mouse fail to get instantly and painlessly killed.

      The best places to put mousetraps are often dark and hard to see, and the bright red kill bar makes it easy to tell at a glance whether it’s triggered.

      • Empricorn@feddit.nlEnglish
        0·
        2 hours ago

        Uh…

        At your link I’m a little concerned about all the 1-star reviews on Victor’s own site saying the kill bar didn’t… y’know, kill and they had to deal with a live mouse stuck in the trap. Of course it depends on the type/size of the rodent, but I’m inclined to believe them since they aren’t steering people to competitors, only Victor’s traditional spring-bar traps…

        • FaceDeer@fedia.io
          0·
          1 hour ago

          That’s very weird, frankly. 75 reviews and every single one of them with 1 star says the same thing? And all of them within the period of Dec 2024-Feb 2025? Not to mention I’ve been using these for years myself and have never seen a mouse survive, the kill arm smashes hard and the trigger is very sensitive. I get the suspicion that one person had a bad experience and spent a few months review-bombing.

          • Empricorn@feddit.nlEnglish
            0·
            40 minutes ago

            Honestly, it sounds more like they don’t show older ones, but they are still calculated into the score. But like I said, I’m not informed and haven’t used a mouse trap in over a decade…

    • raynethackery@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      14 hours ago

      Thanks for the information. I guess it’s time to get containers for all my food. I already keep bread in the freezer.

    • scytale@lemmy.zip
      0·
      14 hours ago

      Poison also means they’ll hide and die somewhere unreachable and will stink up the place.