A few years ago we found a snake on our front porch. He had slithered up our front porch collums and was eating the eggs out of a robin's nest. It was very disturbing to me who was a mom of 3 young children with another on the way. We called a pest control guy who came out and sprayed for snakes and taught me how to keep them at bay. As he was talking to me, I told him that my mom had a pretty big mouse problem under her house. I wanted his business card so my mom could have him come out. Instead of taking that new business, he did something most folks don't do. He told me how to get rid of the mice - sharing his own personal secret.
Now I'm sharing that with you.
As we live in the country, we have critters get into the house more often than I like. I'm not counting the rodents we have that run on wheels, fill their cheeks with food and my Fish Sticks cuddle. Nope. These are the mice, rats and squirrels from the wild. They have always been contained in the attics and crawl spaces (except that one time AB had one in her room that her big, brave brother captured and disposed of before we were even aware it was there!). This past year we've had rats in our chicken coop and they eat our chicken feed. They get braver and braver and totally freak me out (I think I'd prefer a snake over a rat most days, really.). When I go to collect eggs, they will scurry within inches of me and I JUST DON'T LIKE IT!
Here's the secret - remember that this poison is deadly so please keep it totally away from children and pets!!! Our lab got into one of my traps once and we had to call poison control. Not fun!
Buy a box of Havoc from your local farmer's co-op. It comes like this with packets of poison pellets inside.
Then get peanut butter - he told me the cheapest and oiliest, the better.
Smear a thin layer of peanut butter on a paper plate.
Sprinkle the pellets over the peanut butter and kind of smash them in a bit.
On this particular plate, I was trying to poison some flying squirrels who thought that our attic would be a great nesting place. I added some seeds and oatmeal to further entice them to my poison. It's not necessary though, just a little gourmet.
Place these plates where the critters are. Check it daily and when it's empty, then make another one until they quit eating it. I think the poison makes them literally dying of thirst, they will exit your house (or chicken coop) in search of water and then die. I actually found one dead in our chicken's water. YUCKO!! That would be another time when I pay my Fish Sticks a buck for doing a chore that I gross out about. :)
I hope you can tuck this away in a Pinterest folder and never have to use it, but if you aren't so lucky and have some rodent problems, this is the BEST solution! Happy Poisoning.
