Reports from the southern Adirondack region in New York indicate that the rodent legions of the Animal Uprising™ are on the march and heading for the mountains. Unfortunately for local residents, the mice are about to go into winter quarters. In people's homes.
ALBANY, N.Y. – At the general store on Canada Lake in the southern Adirondacks, mice were the talk of the town this summer.
"My husband was buying mousetraps at the store and three people said, 'Do you have mice too?'" said Mary Cannon, secretary of the lake association on the body of water about 50 miles northwest of Albany. "We have over 300 families on the lake and I'll bet every one has been affected sometime this summer from excessive mice."
Now, with winter approaching, residents can expect to continue hearing the scratching of tiny feet as more of the destructive rodents move indoors to stay warm. A large berry and seed crop the mice feed on, a mild winter, and possibly fewer predators have all helped mice and other small critters thrive this year, researchers said.
"It's kind of the perfect storm, if you will, for mice," said biologist Charlotte Demers. "We're not talking plague proportions here or anything, but I think it was enough that we've gotten phone calls from a lot of local people."
At the Adirondack Ecological Center, run by the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry, scientists say a high yield from beech trees, oaks, hickories, maples and conifers has helped propel the mouse population.
Demers said the rodents' high reproductive rates — four to six litters a year — along with a mild winter and dry spring have boosted survival rates.
We here at Blue Crab Boulevard strongly recommend that homeowners immediately form mouse posses and start rounding the critters up, like these guys:
And remember, flamethrowers can be your friend!
Note: Please remember that flamethrowers can be dangerous, so don't try them at home. Go to a friend's house.
A good homemade device for dispatching multitudes of mice.
http://asktrapperjohn.com/topics/bucketmouse.htm
No poison so it’s Green!!!
A variation on that uses anti-freeze (not all that green, therefore). It has the advantage of pickling the mice so they don’t stink.
http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Mouse-Trap
I have a constant problem with mice but refuse to poison or trap them. ( my wife hates me for this ). I catch them humanely and drive them a short distance and let them go. Once after a fresh snow I caught 2 mice that looked awfully familiar ( they don’t all look alike ).
As I set off to release them I discovered tracks in the snow that led back to the point about 1000+ feet from my home were I had dropped them off! I know I’m contributing to the energy crisis but now I go a few miles.
Yes, I can see how having them freeze to death is a better way to go than drowning.
Please don’t tell me you give them a special diet first.
Actually mice do quite well in the cold weather outside.
In NJ we have mice that build nests in bird feeders and even in bushes and looking at the tracks in winter they are quite active. But they would rather sit beside a roaring fire with a crumb or two
I have a lab that kills anything that moves, snakes, frogs,rabbits you name it she’ll kill it. She tried to go through a window at a bear.
One night I observed her lying on her bed watching a mouse running across the floor with a cashew and disappearing under the furniture. I saw this twice and wondered why she didn’t swat the mouse as she is easily fast enough. The next day I found a half dozen cashews beside her bed and the rest stored behind a box. Seems the dog had been paid off.
But if you were to drop your pets off by my house, you might get caught by one of the flamethrower turrets. Unintentionally, of course.
We think that’s why the neighbors moved.
Ok how about I export them to Eastern Zambia?
http://www.bridgewater.edu/~mtembo/mbeba.html
The hunting and eating of mice is very deeply entrenched in the customs and traditions of the Tumbuka people of Eastern rural Zambia. As a delicacy, mice might be offered with the nshima staple traditional meal, which is cooked by boiling plain water and stirring corn meal into it until the mixture is thick. The meal with mice might be served to guests, other respected elders, or eaten by the family as a special treat. A shrewd housewife will know to properly budget and ration the mice.