Even if you have a lazy cat, mice have since learned to avoid the smell of cat pheromones. So just having a fat furball laying around will make it more likely the local mice go bother your neighbor instead.
Comment on master manipulators
ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 weeks agoThey -can- do that yes. Whether or not they will choose to, however, is anyone’s guess.
TheLastHero@hexbear.net 4 weeks ago
huf@hexbear.net 4 weeks ago
eeeeh, it can go the other way. i dont think i would’ve ever had mice in this flat without the cat. but she likes to catch mice, bring them inside totally unharmed and let them go. and then watch them. chase them. sit on top of them. she doesnt eat them because i guess she never had to eat them.
and then i end up catching the mouse since i dont want it loose in the flat at night, and i dont want to find a rotting mouse corpse 2 weeks later (this has happened at least twice).
peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 4 weeks ago
They will have a joyous time with it. And you might find eviscerated mice under your couch one day. But my two dumbass fur balls just thought they were awesome toys.
Never figured out quite when they stopped coming in. The only really humane way to kill em is snap traps. I probably went through a couple dozen of them before they stopped showing up.
I was against using poisoned food traps because the last thing I wanted was my cat consuming a poisoned mouse. But, since our whole neighborhood had a problem with the mice, I wouldn’t be too surprised if a neighbor did it.
AtariDump@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Snap traps in a brown paper bag baited with peanut butter.
When you catch something, curl up the top of the bag and throw it all in the trash.
peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 4 weeks ago
Ooooh that paper bag idea is nifty.
We actually discovered something that worked far better than peanut butter - Reese’s peanut butter cups. You break off a little piece, squish it into a ball, and place it on the bait lever. Not a single trap misfired once we switched to that.
AtariDump@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I’ll have to try it if there’s a next time