I can’t tell you how many times I have heard people who live on a farm complain about the mice. Since I also can’t even keep track of the number of people who don’t live on a farm, who also complain about mice, I think it is a universal problem.
But it certainly affects us more than others, because when you have animals, dependent on you for life and sustenance, mice coming and eating your grain feels like a direct attack! Suddenly you’re stuck defending yourself and your animals against these naughty (but cute) little critters, and sometimes it feels like al oosing battle!
One solution is a barn cat. There are problems with this solution. Barn cats bring their own problems, including their own poop to add to the quantity of poop you’re dealing with on a weekly basis. Hopefully they don’t choose to poop on your hay, because they certainly will be hanging out on your carefully stored hay, while watching for mice!
I have chosen not to keep a cat, because I am allergic to them.
We didn’t have an actual problem for the first three years we had goats. But for some reason, this summer, some mice moved into our goat barn, and some more mice moved into our duck house.
My first move was to remove all mouse-accessible grain from the barns. It went into metal trash cans. Problem solved, right?
Wrong! For some reason, the mice continued to want to live in the goat barn, and in the duck house! Ug!
I guess it’s a little warmer, and it is an easy place to live because it’s protected from the elements. There is hay to chew on, if mice even eat hay. And in the duck barn, we store wood shavings, and the mice had a BLAST ripping those bags apart!
I finally had to buckle down and do what I was trying to not have to do: Engage an all-out battle plan against these (cute) little guys. I went from the person who rescues outside mice in distress, to the person who kills them, to protect the animals she is responsible for. 🙁 Not fun, but definitely necessary.
Since when I do things, I like to do them right, I tried a lot of styles of traps.
  | Victor mouse traps are the well-known classic! I have a bunch of these, and I hate them! Aside from the possibility (no, probability!) of accidentally snapping your fingers when setting them, they don't stay clean. I suppose they would work well as a semi-disposable trap, and they are cheap enough for that! For my purposes, to use near animals risks hurting my animals as well. There is a shelf in the duck house, but there is nowhere the goats can't get their noses to in the doe barn, so I didn't even bother taking my most-despised house mouse traps out to the animals. |
| I did take my easy-set traps outside. I like these traps in the house, and in the barn. They do not hurt (at least not much!) if you accidentally set them off on a finger. This was very important to me, because it means it won't hurt my animals either, if it get set off on them! These traps are also able to be rinsed off, AND you don't ever have to touch the part that touched the mice! Win-win!! Note: The easy-set trap I linked to is not the exact traps I had on hand and is pictured in my photo of desperation above, but they are the same style of trap. |   |
  | On a whim, I bought two of uline's live-catch mouse trap a few years back. I liked the reusability of them, and I also like that you could opt to simply relocate the caught mice, instead of the trap killing them. Well, I have to say, this trap has not worked very well for me. The first few times using it, no mice entered the trap, even though it was bated. Then when I went started my full-blown battle with the mice, I had a massive success: 6 mice caught in one night! I had noticed mice getting into my tin of duck feed, so I removed the tin, and left this trap, baited generously with the duck feed, in the very spot the other tin had been on. One unlucky family entered, and was successfully trapped. Encouraged, I re-baited it, but I didn't catch anything else in that spot. I finally moved it, and left it set for days on a shelf where I knew, from fresh mouse poops nightly, that I had regular mouse activity. Nothing. Finally, I forgot about this trap, until one day I noticed my discarded wet wipes (set on the shelf) had been pulled in through the holes! I must have caught one!! Upon further investigation, yes, I HAD caught one, but this one was too smart for me. He had clawed and pulled and chewed those wipes in through the holes until he managed to jam the door open and escape back out! Ug! I have the trap set again, and again there is an active mouse population. At least two are making merry on the duck-house shelf, wreaking havoc on my wood shavings. All food has been removed, and the trap has been baited, but I have yet to catch anything. I'm not sure why, but the mice seem to know to avoid this trap, most of the time, and I have a much better success with ANYTHING else. Again, the picture is not the exact trap I purchased, but one like it, that I like better because of how it fits in the corner. The link to uline is the exact trap. |
| Like I mentioned earlier, the mouse problem isn't unique to farms. This trap was given to me by someone who lives in the city. They heard of my continuing battle, trying to reclaim by animal barns, and gave me a pack of these. At their house, it manages their entire problem. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of a way to use them (each one is a 2-pack) in the barns. I did put one in the pantry, AND CAUGHT A MOUSE! But before I could take care of it, the mouse had escape, leaving a hairy mess on one corner of the trap. Next, my daughter spilled flour all over the rest of the trap. Now I have the second trap set, and I had the brilliant idea of putting peanut butter on the middle knob, to lure the mice in. I haven't caught any more mice in a few days, but I'm hoping that's because there are NO MORE MICE visiting my pantry. 🙂 I do think these traps work, but as I don't want to find it plastered to one of my goat's faces, it's not a very good trap for the barn. |   |
  | I tried these small glue traps, because they were an excellent value! I did catch mice a few time with them, but I can also leave a (baited) trap set for weeks with nothing, while nearby traps are catching. I LOVE, love, love the price, though I haven't tried them in the barn due to fears of it somehow sticking to an animal. If I were to try it in the barn, I would tack it down, and be sure it is out of reach of any of MY animals. |
| The electric mouse trap has been my favorite. In addition to it being another instant-kill trap (much more humane!), it's just a fun way to tackle a real-world problem. This is the trap I got, because it seemed rated well, while still being a good value for my money. It takes 4 AA batteries, and we use rechargeable batteries to keep costs down. So far the trap has done it's job 3 out of 3 times I have had it set. I did NOT realize there was an inner chamber the first two times, I thought it was just the little doorway that we electrified, so I didn't bait it. (I though curiosity was the "bait".) Well, my husband was emptying it from the inside, and we caught and disposed of two mice this way. 🙂 haha! The third time we communicated, and I now knew to bait the inner chamber. The next morning I had TWO dead mice in the chamber! Woo Hoo! Like I said, this is my favorite trap. |   |
  | This is my second-favorite trap. They are cheap, reusable, humane, cleanable, and, let me tell you they WORK! I have not had a mouse take the bait and not get caught. I have yet to have a mouse get caught and escape. They are easy to set, and would not harm my goats. (They would hurt my duck's feet, but I'm still comfortable using them on the shelf in their house!) So, while I like the electric trap above best, these guys have been my go-to, because of the low cost, their equal effectiveness, and the fact that I can put them EVERYWHERE. |
| Our mouse problem is mostly under control, at this point. (I think!) But I still have my eyes on another trap that sounds like it is highly effective. I plan to purchase it at some point, but thought it was worth a mention at other's raving reviews. It's a little trap-door you place on a 5-gallon bucket. Bonus: It can catch as many mice as there are who take the bait, and it also works on rats. (Shudder!!!) AND it is safer than safe around all of my animals. If you decide to purchase this before I do, let me know how it goes! |   |
I hope this post helps you, if you ever find yourself faced with a war on mice like I suddenly found myself in! The longer you wait in denial, the worse the problem becomes! Buckle down and tackle things as soon as possible.
I am very glad to be back in “maintenance mode”, where I just leave a trap set in both barns, just in case, and watch for telltale mouse poops elsewhere.
Good luck!