Problem with wild mice near my colonies of captive mice

How worried should I be about wild mice being near my colonies of captive mice?

I found a dropping ontop of the wooden frame on one of my mouse cages. At first I thought it might be from one of my mice doing acrobatics on the mesh top, but it was outside the area that my mice could have gotten to.

I really don't like the idea of wild mice being able to contact my captive mice, but I really don't know what to do about it. I suck at catching mice. Maybe its not just me, but the last time we dealt with a wild mouse, two years ago, it took us about 2 weeks to catch it.

Peanut butter + Mouse trap.Put trap along wall.Mice will travel along a wall rather than run across a room. Usually works in a couple of hours!
Good luck.

Urgent action necessary....

I lost my breeding colony to a pathogen that was transmitted to my mice via a wild mouse. I noticed the droppings on top of my rack and even spotted the mouse one night, but was not quick enough to catch it. A few weeks later I noticed diarreah caked aroung the rear end of my fuzzies and hoppers. I culled all of the mice with symptoms in several waves over the next few weeks, however it became apparant that the pathogen was here to stay. I ended up having to destroy all of my mice, wash down the entire rack with a bleach solution and then wait two weeks before restarting my colony. Needless to say this was a monetary loss as well as a huge inconvenience. You must catch that mouse. Conventional traps did not work for me. Use the sticky traps that smell like peanut butter. Once you catch the mouse leave traps out to catch any intruders before they can get to your colonies. I had to learn the hard way, at first i didn't realize what a potential problem this was.

cornsnake00 said:

Peanut butter + Mouse trap.Put trap along wall.Mice will travel along a wall rather than run across a room. Usually works in a couple of hours!
Good luck.

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That's the thing. We knew exactly where the mouse was hiding and we used peanut butter on the trap, yet the mouse licked the trap clean and didn't get caught. We were amazed at how clean the trap was, yet it didn't go off.


I'll try to catch it/them ASAP, but with my bad luck in the past, I don't know how quickly this will occur. The things is, there's no reason for wild mice to even go to the mouse cages, as I feed the mice inside their cages, not from the top of their cages. And the food for my mice is conviently stored on the floor along with the dog's food, so the mice should be staying on the floor, not getting on the table where my mice colonies are at.

Was your trap one of the old style wood ones? I am completely sworn off of those. Around here, at Rural King and other farm supply stores, they have these plastic mouse traps. They're black and yellow and have an odd name I can't remember right off hand.

They're a cinch to set, just put bait in a tiny tiny cup on the lever, and you push down on a thing in the back and it sets. No more snapped fingers. The depth of the cup really makes them work to get that last bit, and thus setting off the trap.

I've got my entire family hooked on them, because they actually work. With the wood ones, I was just feeding mice treats it seemed like. All peanut butter and no mouse. But these are well worth the cost. I think they cost around $2 each.

If you need a couple and can't find any, let me know and I'll pick you up a couple.


Also, this "trick" works wonders too. Get a large trashcan, like the ones you put trash for curbside pickup...big ole Rubbermaid Rough Duty's. Put some dog/cat food in the bottom, leave the lid off and set it right next to your rack. The next time the mouse is up there, he'll smell the food and hop in and eat...but when he's eaten his fill he'll discover he can't jump or climb back out. And he'll be there when you check the next day.

I used this when collecting wild mice for a biology assignment in my pigeon house. Had to catch mice in an area and count the different species, sexes, ages, etc.

One word....

sticky glue style traps. Worked first night.

If the mice are cleaning the peanut butter off your traps, get something different. I use the palstic ones. Never had a mouse clean the bait off of them. And you don't have to use alot of peanut butter on the trap.

glue traps may work but I HATE seeing the mouse stuck to them alive. It will die a slow death if you don't find it and kill it. The plastic ones, with enclosed bait reached by entereing a hole, work well. There are also electric ones now ($20+) - bait the back wall, the mouse touches the contacts and is electrocuted. supposedly quick and humane.

Amanda, That same thing that is happening to you just happend to me. I had to throw out food and bedding the wild mice had gotten in to because I didn't want them to spread anything to my colonies.

Raid makes a new trap, for catching mice. It looks like a black box they crawl in to a metal tab sticks up when a mouse is caught in it. All you have to do is put a little bit of Peanut Butter inside to attract the mice.

I used a couple of those and it worked. After catching 2 mice with the traps I have not seen any evidence of wild mice since.

The stick pads don't work too well once one gets caught in, it they learn to go around the pads.

Good luck

Wild mice infested my mouse house. While I haven't had any worries about diseases, the wild mice had a strange effect on my mice.... They would jump into my open-topped "weaner bin" because of the free food and water, and would jump out at will.... and then I started having the wild mice deciding not to leave, because they preferred the "easy life"... and then I'm sure I had a number of hybrid litters... because after a few months, the weanlings could jump out of the weaner bin, when they couldn't before. Either the wild mice were teaching them tricks, or they were getting wild mouse genes. A LOT of my mice are turning up looking like wild mice now. Silly critters. Worst thing is they chew through my AC cord... killed the first AC completely, (and all my pregnant female mice due to the heat) and started to chew on the cord from my second air conditioner. We have to replace the cords on both AC units and then we're going to put the cords in some rigid PVC piping. plus I'll be renovating my mouse house and closing up the last few holes in the walls... so the wild mice won't have any place to hide. The nice thing is that the feral cats in the neighborhood have discovered that mouse-cleaning day is "open season" on loose mice in my mouse house. They come and sit at the door and watch the floors for loose mice.... if they see them, they nab them.

Personally, I'm a poison man

I don't know the name of it but when had our mouse infestation we got some powerful poison which the mice come and eat and it not only kills them but disintergrates the body into a tiny puff ball indistinguishable from lint!

This is perfect for me... I have the unfortunate tendancy to outrageously fear anything that's dead. Once my first cornsnake nippy wasn't moving and had had a bad shed so I thought she was dead. I had to poke her with the blunt end of a pencil just incite a response before I could bring myself to even pick her up. But once she'd moved all fear was gone... I can't even handle f/t mice without a pair of tongs.

Some people suggest that I am in the wrong hobby, but as severe as it is I seem to do all right. But as you can see clearing dead mice from traps is a bit heart breaking and scary!

My grandpa got these poison peanuts, they worked for him although he had problems finding the dead mice before they started to decay. Nasty smell if you happen to find one. Also, I use the traditional wood ones. We set a few up that aren't set and then the next day or 2 set up a few that are set. The mice go to it as free food and they don't seem as reluctent to dig in the bait. Always get a clean snap right on the neck or middle back. Never had a wiggling mouse yet. I set mouse traps when I had a pet/feeder mouse escape before, He didn't find his way out of my room. He got snapped and killed

Porky look at the date of the last post before yours, it is never a bad thing to cheack out before you post.

It's never a bad thing to use spell check before you post either.

cornsnakekid92 said:

Porky look at the date of the last post before yours, it is never a bad thing to cheack out before you post.

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Woops, thats the second time I did that today. lol I'm being clueless

Roy Munson said:

It's never a bad thing to use spell check before you post either.

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dang it, i am getting a lot better about it but you seem to catch me every time i don't use it.